Advancing
Cancer Care
More clinical research
could lead to better
outcomes \\ By Matt Pilon
T
here aren't many experiences
more terrifying than receiving a
cancer diagnosis.
Sixty-year-old Simsbury resi-
dent John Hayes has a vivid memory of the
day two years ago when he was diagnosed with
late-stage kidney cancer, a disease that spread
to several nodes in his neck and abdomen,
forced him to undergo chemotherapy and
eventually cost him his kidney.
"Sitting in that room waiting for that scan
alone, it was the scariest and most lonely time
in my life," Hayes recalls.
Stage 4 kidney cancer is a serious diagnosis
that has a five-year survival rate of approxi-
mately 12 percent, according to the American
Cancer Society.
As of his most recent scan last May, howev-
er, Hayes was cancer free, and he may have an
experimental immunotherapy drug to thank.
Every two weeks since Jan. 2016, Hayes has
traveled to Hartford Hospital for an infusion of the
drug, Nivolumab (brand name Opdivo), which a
recent study found had extended survival rates for
certain kidney-cancer patients.
Such drug trials are becoming more available in
Connecticut thanks to partnerships between area
hospitals and major cancer-research institutions.
St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, for
example, has teamed with Yale New Haven Health's
Smilow Cancer Hospital, while Hartford Hospital
recently cemented ties with New York's Memorial
Sloan Kettering (MSK).
e partnerships, still in their infancies, could
allow the Hartford hospitals to access a portfolio
of earlier-stage drug trials, which have long been
Earlier this month, St.
Francis Hospital infusion
nurse Brooke Chaves placed
an IV in Fred Fieldhouse's
chest port to ready him for
a dose of Kyprolis.
Fieldhouse reads during
the treatment and chats
with the nursing staff.
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14 GREATER HARTFORD HEALTH • Spring 2017
