Finding Community After a Cancer Diagnosis: A Conversation with Terri Conneran

06/04/20 • 47 min

Struggling in the heat and humidity of the summer of 2016, Terri Conneran believed that her asthma was uncontrolled. In August that year, her physician assistant prescribed her a preventive inhaler.
That autumn brought the excuse of allergies, plus time for the new inhaler to take effect.
By Christmas 2016, nasal congestion, and a heavy feeling chest with shortness of breath it was time to again see her doctor. Hearing fluid in her lungs, an x-ray showed a mass with fluid. Pneumonia was diagnosed, a return appointment was scheduled for two weeks later.
In the first week of 2017, the wheezing and congestion worsened. Already concerned about the mass shown in the x-ray, a CT scan was ordered. Terri scheduled an appointment with a pulmonologist.
Based on the initial CT results, the pulmonologist confidently stated this is unlikely cancer. To be certain, a PET plus biopsy was necessary.
Late in the evening of the following Friday, the pulmonologist called with the results. The diagnosis: non-small cell lung cancer
To think of the call, Terri recalls that it still feels surreal hearing those words of the pulmonologist. She exactly remembers where she sitting as I wrote the words he doctor spoke on the paper in front of her.
The call forever changed her life - It would be the beginning of her journey as a cancer patient and patient advocate.
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Susan Rafte: A 25+ Year Survivor of Metastatic Breast Cancer and Patient Advocate

In this episode The Onco’Zine Brief, recorded during the 42nd San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) held December 10 – 14, 2019 in San Antonio, Texas, Peter Hofland talks with Susan Rafte, a 25+ year survivor of metastatic breast cancer and patient advocate.
In 1994, eight and a half months after birth to her daughter Marika, Susan Rafte, only 30 years old, was diagnosed with stage III ductal carcinoma.
While she was pregnant with her daughter, she first felt a lump in her breast. Her doctors attributed the lump to her pregnancies. However, 18 months later, when Rafte pushed for a biopsy, the lump was diagnosed as a malignant tumor.
Rafte was treated at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, by a multidisciplinary care team with chemotherapy, surgery and radiation therapy.
In 1995, soon after her initial treatment, Susan’s sister Jane Weiner, and three other dancers in New York City co-founded the Pink Ribbons Project®. After her recovery from a stem cell transplant in 1997, Jane and Susan brought the project to Houston.
The Pink Ribbons Project® was the first arts and dance initiative founded solely to promote awareness about breast cancer and help raise funding for breast cancer advocacy and education. And over the Pink Ribbons Project’s lifetime, the organization raised more than US $ 6,000,000 for that cause.
Beyond the Pink Ribbons Project and from the beginning of her diagnosis, Rafte has always been public about her disease. She felt it was important to spread awareness and provide education about breast health and breast cancer, because, as she explains: “I knew from personal experience that this disease has no boundaries.”
As part of her work Rafte became a peer-to-peer support volunteer through MD Anderson Cancer Center. In 2000, Rafte helped start an on-site peer support program at the breast cancer center at MD Anderson Cancer Center. She also serves on many research projects and committees as a patient advocate.
As a volunteer, Rafte’s involvements also includes dividing her volunteer hours with the Baylor College of Medicine, San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Breast Health Collaborative of Texas as well as the affiliations she holds with The Rose Diagnostic Center and Harris County Hospital Clinic – Breast Care Centers.
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Sacituzumab Govitecan, a Novel Treatment for Patients with mTNBC

In this episode of The Onco'Zine Brief, Peter Hofland talks with Thorsten Sperber, Global Head Medical Affairs at Immunomedics. Hofland and Sperber talk about sacituzumab govitecan, a novel antibody-drug conjugate. At the time of the interview, the drug was not yet approved, but in the weeks following the interview, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved sacituzumab govitecan (TrodelvyTM) for the treatment of adult patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC) who have received at least two prior therapies for patients with relapsed or refractory metastatic disease.
Sacituzumab govitecan, previously known as IMMU-132, is Immunomedics’ lead product and the most advanced program in the company’s unique antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) platform. The drug binds the humanized anti-trophoblast cell-surface antigen 2 (Trop-2) monoclonal antibody (mAb) hRS7 IgG1κ through the cleavable CL2A linker to the anti-cancer drug SN-38 to kill cancer cells. Trop-2 is expressed in more than 85% of all cancers, including breast cancer and TNBC.
With the FDA’s decision, sacituzumab govitecan is the eight approved and available ADCs reaching the market, making these targeted drugs a powerful class of therapeutic agents in oncology and hematology.
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