Rosemarie's Giving Page In Support Of Dr. Rahma's Research's Fundraising Page

I met Dr. Rahma in April of 2018, shortly after my diagnosis of stage 4 pancreatic cancer. The diagnosis was a complete shock to me as someone who did not eat red meat or pork, never smoked, rarely ate fried foods and loved vegetables! In short, my diet and lifestyle did not save me from the ravages of cancer which had affected so many members of my family.

I trusted and respected Dr. Rahma from the first meeting. I spent the first year undergoing chemotherapy, none of which worked to control the growth of my cancer. My prognosis was dire.

Given my family’s history of cancer, Dr. Rahma had insisted on continued testing of my germline DNA because his research told him I could be a candidate for immunology. In the spring of 2019, Dr. Rahma excitedly told me I was now able to be treated with an immunology drug which had recently been approved for some patients with pancreatic cancer. His research revealed that indeed I was one of the few lucky pancreatic patients whose cancer might respond to an immunology therapy.

Immunotherapy for cancer is a form of treatment that uses the body’s immune system to combat the disease. Today, immunotherapy is being applied to a wide range of cancers, often in combination with other agents, and clinical trials are exploring ways of improving and expanding its effectiveness.

Although immunotherapy has been approved for the treatment of some cancers, not all patients are eligible for immunotherapy. A variety of factors — the genetic makeup of the tumor cells, how far the cancer has advanced and whether it has responded to previous treatments, for example — determines if and when it may be used as part of standard treatment.

Dr. Rahma is the chair of two investigator-initiated clinical trials using a novel combination of immune checkpoint inhibitor (anti PD-1) and neoadjuvant chemoradiation in pancreatic and rectal cancer. During this exciting time of cancer immunotherapy and in collaboration with other investigators, Dr. Rahma is investigating the combination of a variety of novel immunotherapeutic agents in multiple tumor types and working on identifying biomarkers that could determine clinical response.

Dr. Rahma is also leading three multicenter clinical trials as part of a national effort to improve the efficacy of immunotherapy in advanced pancreatic cancer.

I am a beneficiary of his research. I have been on an immunology treatment program since March 2019 and my cancer continues to respond to the treatment; my cancer is not growing. I am forever grateful to him and his team for the extra time on this earth that he has given me.

Please join me in supporting Dr. Osama Rahma’s groundbreaking and lifesaving research.

With love and gratitude
Rosemarie