Matthew Schreindorfer, the Laval man who raised almost $1 million for experimental cancer treatment in New York in 2014, now needs $700,000 for treatment in Seattle.
READ MORE: Matthew Schreindorfer sees silver lining after unsuccessful CAR-T cancer treatment
“As I sit here in Matthew’s ICU room, watching him recover from the terrible and frightening week he’s just experienced, I can’t help but be filled with all sorts of emotions: anger, sadness, fear, love but most importantly hope,” wrote Katia Luciani, his wife, on the Help Save Matthew Facebook page.
“Hope that we can get him to the next treatment option, hope that we will raise enough money again to do so and hope that we will one day have a normal life together again.”
“This is our next and only treatment option. We are not giving up on him.”
READ MORE: Matthew Schreindorfer heads back to Maryland after cancer diagnosis
Doctors told the couple that the only way to improve Schreindorfer’s odds of survival is for him to be admitted to an improved CART-19 clinical trial at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
READ MORE: ‘It’s been tough this third time around’: Matthew Schreindorfer on return of cancer
“They have provided us with costs for the treatment of $650,000 — $700,000 CAD, which is not covered under any Canadian Medicare program,” wrote Luciani.
“This is our very last option, as Matthew’s body is becoming weaker with time.”
The couple is now once again crowdfunding to pay for Schreindorfer’s treatment.
WATCH BELOW: Help save Matthew
Schreindorfer was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) just two months after marrying Luciani, his high school sweetheart.
READ MORE: Immunotherapy: cancer treatment that helped Matthew Schreindorfer comes to Montreal
“For the last two and a half years, Matthew has been fighting the toughest fight of all. He has gone through all possible treatments in Canada (three aggressive chemotherapy treatments and two clinical trials) in addition to other treatments, all of which have failed to bring him into a sustained remission,” wrote Luciani.
“Since then, it has been a roller coaster of battles and emotions, but he refuses to give up.”
Unlike last year, there are no plans for him to receive a bone marrow transplant following the improved CAR-T treatment in Seattle.
READ MORE: ‘We had been waiting for so long’: Matthew Schreindorfer talks cancer, crowdfunding and his future
The National Institute of Health (NIH), where Schreindorfer most recently received treatment, discovered that his DNA has a rare genetic mutation, explaining why the leukemia has been non-responsive to standard therapies and why he keeps relapsing after reaching remission.
READ MORE: Immunotherapy: cancer treatment that helped Matthew Schreindorfer comes to Montreal
Given that Schreindorfer’s eligibility for the trial is not compromised in the next few weeks, the couple expects to arrive in Seattle by mid-December.
rachel.lau@globalnews.ca
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