Claudia Garcia, a 42-year-old mother and pediatric nurse, has joined the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center PALLAS clinical trial as a survivor. The trial is testing the benefit of a new targeted therapy along with standard endocrine therapy to prevent cancer recurrence.
About a year ago, Garcia received the devastating news that she had stage III breast cancer.
It was the day before Thanksgiving 2016, when she was diagnosed. As a pediatric nurse she already had a heightened awareness of what this diagnosis could mean for her and her family. The first thought was of her 10-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter.
Garcia knew only an academic cancer center would offer cutting-edge treatments and innovative solutions, leading her to receive treatment at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“They were my first choice,” she said.
Less than one year later, with no evidence of cancer, Garcia knows she made the right decision. In addition to the emotional support that she and her family received, she also received the latest radiation therapy, with reduced side effects and more accurate cancer targeting.
“Claudia received intensity modulated radiation therapy,” said Anesa Ahamad, MD, her radiation oncologist at Sylvester. “However, we used a new version of this technique, which allows more accurate and uniform doses of radiation to the target area.
“This radiation has a finer resolution of delivery, specifically targeting the cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed. Sylvester is one of the few cancer centers using this technique for breast cancer,”Dr. Ahamad added.
“The radiation was great,” said Garcia, who received her radiation treatments at The Lennar Foundation Medical Center in Coral Gables.
“I had no side effects except for a little flaking of skin.”
Nine months after Claudia was diagnosed, she completed her chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. She now is back to carpooling kids, attending sports events and living a healthy life.
However, there is one more step at Sylvester — the survivorship program.
“After chemo and radiation, endocrine therapy is used to keep the cancer away,” said Joyce Slingerland, MD, PhD, director of the Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Health System.
“I was very pleased that Claudia joined the PALLAS clinical trial, which is testing the benefit of a new targeted therapy along with standard endocrine therapy to prevent cancer recurrence.
“In this clinical trial, Claudia is receiving pembrolizumab together with the standard anti-estrogen letrozole therapy. Pembrolizumab is a very promising new drug that significantly improved letrozole responses in other clinical trials for advanced breast cancer,” Dr. Slingerland said.
“Sylvester has become a second home,” Garcia said. “I couldn’t have done this without my Sylvester team. Now I get to look forward to survivorship and learning my next steps at Sylvester as a breast cancer survivor.”
