Start strong with MUSC Health

[Music]

>> (Description): The MUSC Hollings Cancer Center logo appears. 

>> (Rachel Dellinger) : Hi, my name is Rachel Dellinger.

>> (Matthew Delinger) : And I'm Matthew Dellinger.

>> (Description): A couple is seated on patio chairs on the lawn. Behind them, oaks bend over a Lowcountry creek. 

>> (Rachel) : And he has Stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer with metastases to the brain, liver and lymph nodes.

>> (Description): Words appear: In 2024, Matt began taking the drug CLN 081, also known as Zipalertinib, as part of a clinical trial. 

>> (Matthew) : I started a clinical trial last year, last October. And the reason I started it, the cancer went to my liver and to my brain. And the chemotherapy just didn't penetrate those barriers of your brain and liver.
 
>> (Rachel): So they told us about this trial, that this drug is made up of smaller molecules that penetrate the brain and liver barriers. So, we didn't really have any other options. This was it.
 
>> (Matthew):  Being on this clinical trial now is probably, I mean, it's a life changer. You don't have none of the side effects of chemotherapy. You know?

>> (Description): Matt captaining a pontoon boat on a sunny day, with marsh extending toward the horizon. 

>> (Rachel:) It's not as harsh on his body, and his mind. This clinical trial was not what we thought it was going to be like in the beginning, which had us so afraid, because we really didn't know anything about it. But, Doctor Alexander and Jessica sat us down and literally explained it to us, described it to us. You could get a visual of what they were, how they were describing it to us,
 
>> (Matthew): There was so much communication, when we went into the rooms to talk to the doctors, it wasn’t like we were rushed in and rushed out.
 
>> (Rachel): This is probably been the best experience out of this experience,
 
>> (Matthew): We felt comfortable. And when we left their offices we didn’t have any more questions, just like, it's not like we forgot to ask him 20 questions. Like, everything was answered without us even having to ask the questions.
 
>> (Rachel): We knew before, we knew as soon as they walked out of the room and gave us a minute by ourselves, we knew right then that we were coming to MUSC.
 
>> (Matthew): We used to plan things after my scans. You know, since being in a clinical trial, we can plan stuff for three and four months out now. That's a game changer. Before it was like, 'Man, you got to wait, give me two weeks, let me see what my scans are, and possibly we'll be able to make plans.'

>> (Description): Matt mimes holding a phone up to his ear. A breeze ruffles the feathers of an egret perched on a dock. Matt in his boat navigates past a series of docks. 

>> (Matthew): But, you know, now I've got plans now. I'm going to, Louisiana in April, going fishing.

For three years, I didn't care about a boat. I didn't care about going out on the boat at all.
 
>> (Rachel): But that boat is his peace. In all of the chaos that's going on inside of him, that's where he finds his peace.
 
>> (Matthew): Thank goodness for the clinical trial.

I just wish would have known earlier. I know. (overlapping talk) Hopefully this interview educates just a couple people out there that, you know, don't be scared of the clinical trial.
 
>> (Rachel)" He's still here, and I firmly believe it's because of this trial. Wholeheartedly.

This trial has given us.
 
>> (Matthew): It has been a game changer.

>> (Rachel): Yes, it has given us an opportunity to look at life again instead of literally watching it go by and waiting. And it's been, it's been an absolute blessing.
 
>> (Matthew): Sure has.
 
>> (Rachel): It saved his life.
 
>>(Matthew): Definitely.

>>(Description): The MUSC Hollings Cancer Center logo. 

[Music over the MUSC Hollings Cancer Center logo]

[A woman sits in a client chair in a hair salon. Behind her, a garland of the word ‘warrior’ in pink letters is hung across a mirror]

(Danielle Lee): I’m Danielle Lee and I'm a two-time cancer survivor of APL leukemia and triple- negative breast cancer.

So the first time, when I got diagnosed with leukemia, I had been in the hair industry almost a year.

I had really built my clientele up. I had started doing a booth rental, which is huge in the hair industry. It means you've come from commission, that you're able to do stuff on your own. And got smacked in the face with cancer and lost all my clientele.

[Danielle walks along a park path lined with trees covered in Spanish moss]

So it has been a journey of building it back up. I worked at a salon for six years. Built my clientele back up, opened my business, was so excited, and, bam, got hit with cancer again.

[Danielle works on a woman’s hair in her salon]

But just continued to stay strong and steadfast.

And then my daughter, she was actually had just turned nine whenever I got diagnosed. And it was hard you know, my son being 27, he was older. He kind of understood. We had been through it one time, but my daughter just did not understand.

[Snapshots of Danielle with all of her family and with her young daughter]

And I think really reality set in too, whenever we had come in to the salon here and all the girls in the salon shaved my head with me and she broke down. She was like, ‘This is not okay. I don't want this. Why do we - Why do we have to do this?’

And it was a very trying time for her with momma not being there.

My one wish was to just get to the end of the battle. And, I feel like I'm closer than I've ever been.

Definitely still not 100%. But I've learned that this is my new normal, so I just have to learn how to live with the new normal.

So I've been at Outer Glow, this is my location, for eight years.

[Business sign says “Outer Glow Salon & Spa. You have the inner beauty, we provide the Outer Glow.”]

The beauty industry is very sentimental to me it, means a lot. I feel like I get the pleasure of making someone feel beautiful.

I feel like we know we're beautiful inside, but sometimes we need that little extra help on the outside to feel like that. And I get the pleasure of turning somebody around in the chair and seeing them cry over a haircut or a color, and being on the other side of not feeling that beauty, like especially going through cancer, that's how Outer Glow come to be. I knew I had that inner beauty. But I felt like I didn't have the outer glow. And so I just wanted to be able to provide the outer glow for everybody. And it's just a humbling experience.

[Danielle sits on a large fallen log and gazes at a flowing creek]

Everybody thinks after treatment, cancer is over. But I say cancer's never over. I want to be back to, you know, where it was and I think I've come to terms that, OK, I might not never be there, but I would rather be where I'm at right now than not be here at all.

The one thing that I said is, ‘God, let me just watch both my children get married.’

So that's my, that's my goal, you know? To get to see them get married. Yeah, life is good. It’s definitely precious is what I say, being a two-time cancer survivor.

[Danielle in her salon]

Actually I just celebrated my 40th birthday and I said, you know, most people would dread 40, but I'm just thankful that God let me live past 40.

[MUSC Hollings Cancer Center logo]

[Music plays over MUSC Hollings Cancer Center logo]

[A man sits in an exam room and speaks to the camera]

(Jack Smith): About a year and a half ago, I had to visit, a surgeon, and the surgeon came out and said, ‘Well, here's the MRI, and it doesn't look good.

[A CT scan on a monitor]

(Jack Smith): You have one kidney that's hardly functioning, and the other one is sort of damaged. And you have this cancerous tumor connected.’ And then Doctor Lally came in and we discussed possibilities.

[Jack and Dr. Lally sit together in an exam room; Dr. Lally in his office looking at scans on multiple computer screens]

(Jack Smith): So then I met him and his associates, and his associates looked at it and said, ‘You know, we think we might be able to do something here.’

(Dr. Brian Lally, radiation oncologist): He had a small lesion consistent with a cancer on his kidney. However, he has some challenges where he only has one good kidney. And some parts of that kidney were also nonfunctional or at risk. And so what we did was we used radiation to ablate that area because it was close to the center.

Got a CT scan and we contoured out all the anatomy on that CT scan. And we then plan to deliver a high dose of radiation to just the area that was the tumor.

And that's the goal of treatment. It gives him his quality of life that way.

[Jack serves the ball on a pickleball court]

And avoids him being on dialysis immediately. He may have to at some point.

(Jack Smith): Yeah.

(Brian Lally): But I'm kind of optimistic that, you know, we'll be able to spare him that for many years, if not longer.

(Jack Smith): You know, I'm 82 years old.

[Family photos of Jack as a young man and middle-aged man, with his dog and with his family]

You know, a lot of guys don't hit 82. And I'm still not only 82, but I’m athletic and functioning and running around and doing all the things I want to do.

There's not many people my age playing pickleball. Let me put it that way.

Everything I read said, ‘If you want to live a long life, I play pickleball.’ That's what I do. And I want to live a long life.

The doctors at MUSC have all been excellent. So I think I went through four treatments.

[Jack in the exam room]

After months and months of this, not knowing exactly what was happening, because he wouldn't come out and say, ‘Well, everything's OK - We just got to check it. We got to check it.’

He said, after about a year, ‘It's under remission.’ And I figure – remission – that's the best thing I've heard in a long time.