Matthew Schreindorfer, who was instrumental in bringing the CAR-T immunotherapy cancer treatment to Quebec, has announced he has cancer again.
READ MORE: Matthew Schreindorfer lobbies for better cancer treatment in Quebec
“Good news my friends! I have cancer!” he wrote on the Help Save Matthew Facebook page.
“Let me explain my excitement because I’m pretty sure it’s not every day you hear someone thrillingly shout out those words.”
Schreindorfer explained the results from his most recent bone marrow biopsy showed he has about 0.01-0.1 per cent of cancer in his body.
READ MORE: Immunotherapy: cancer treatment that helped Matthew Schreindorfer comes to Montreal
“This is without a doubt the best news I could have gotten,” he continued, explaining that he, and wife Katia Luciani, will return to the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Maryland to take part in the CAR-T treatment.
Schreindorfer was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) in the summer of 2014.
READ MORE: Crowdfunding completely pays off Matthew Schreindorfer’s hospital bills
He and Luciani crowdfunded over $800,000 to seek experimental treatment in New York.
He came back cancer-free but relapsed several times.
WATCH BELOW: Fighting for his life
Schreindorfer said he’s confident immunotherapy, a developing form of cancer treatment that uses the patient’s immune system to combat the cancer, will save his life one more time.
READ MORE: ‘We had been waiting for so long’: Matthew Schreindorfer talks cancer, crowdfunding and his future
“This is basically the ideal situation I’ve been waiting for,” Schreindorfer said.
“I was going back and forth between having too much disease burden and not being able to get into the trial because of numerous obstacles and delays, to having no cancer at all and not being eligible for the trial.”
“They only treat people that are sick; makes sense.”
The plan now is for Schreindorfer to stay healthy until the couple leaves for the U.S., during the week of Aug. 8, where he will go through the pre-trial testing.
READ MORE: ‘It’s been tough this third time around’: Matthew Schreindorfer on return of cancer
“If all goes well, they will extract my white T-cells the following week, that of Aug. 15,” he said.
The cells will then have a couple of weeks to multiply and expand until the planned re-infusion of the genetically modified T-cells at the end of August or early September.
“I couldn’t be happier that things are finally falling into place,” he said.
“This is my chance for a knockout and I’m not going to miss. No more living day-by-day thinking about an inevitable relapse.”
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