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March 2009

Chicago–area GISTers meet at Wellness Place

Written by Jim Hughes

Chicago Area GIST patients held a regular get-together January 25 at Wellness Place in Palatine, IL. There were 16 attendees including seven patients from Wisconsin and Illinois. New members included Dwight Beery, Bill Buchanan and Salvador Lazaro. At the beginning of the meeting, greetings were read from those who could not attend. Among those unable to be there were Dick and Sue Kinzig whose daughter, Kathy, passed away in December, a victim of fibrosarcoma. All present extended sympathies.

The agenda included an extended roundtable of personal updates and recent experiences. This was followed by refreshments and a short overview of papers from the November 2008 Connective Tissue Oncology Society meeting (CTOS) and the new clinical trial report card now on the LRG website. The next Chicago-area meeting will be May 3, 2009 at Wellness Place. All Chicago Area GIST patients are welcome to join.


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  1. avatar Barb Bollenberg makes this comment

    Monday 23 March, 2009

    My dear friend (retired RN) has been treated for GIST for 3+ years. She had open/close surgery, followed by success with Gleevac and a second surgery. Her tumors returned last year and after she failed on Sutent, she was referred to U of C. Her BP was uncontrollable on their study med, so they encouraged her to wait for another U of C trial. Unfortunately, her tumors caused an obstruction and she had a 3rd surgery in January 09. At present, she is very weak and able to eat only a very small amount at a time. The oncologist we saw last week suggested that we contact Liferaft to see if anyone in the GIST community knows of a local treatment that might help her. She is so weak and debilitated that taking her out of state would be too difficult. Any suggestions for treatment or options to improve her quality of life would be deeply appreciated.

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