For many, the first thing that comes to mind for cancer treatment is chemotherapy. But Saint Luke's offers an innovative, alternative treatment for cancer patients that can add years to their lives.

KCTV talked to Dr. Addison Tolentino, an oncologist at Saint Luke's Cancer Institute, about immunotherapy which helped give one patient a second chance at life.

Willie Woods was first diagnosed with liver cancer at another hospital five years ago. After battling the cancer for years, doctors there told him there was nothing else they could do. Willie was preparing to go on hospice. But everything changed when he came to Saint Luke's by coincidence where he met Dr. Tolentino who refused to give up on him.

“There’s an explosion of new medicines,” Dr. Tolentino said. “I think we should take away the stigma that cancer equals dying. It’s not true anymore."

In the two years Willie has been on immunotherapy his scans show the tumor in his liver has drastically shrunk. Today, his cancer is officially under control.

Watch the story below.  

 

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