For patient Laura Thomas, the first sign of health troubles was experiencing a romantic crush with the intensity of a smitten middle-school student, followed by hitting a parked car near her home – and having no recollection of the accident. 

The elation and memory issues were due to cancer. 

Thomas' experiences were detailed in an article by UW Health. “She had multiple lesions in her brain and disease on both lungs, and she was delirious for sure,” said her oncologist Anne Traynor, MD (pictured), associate professor (CHS), Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care. 

After receiving whole-brain radiation to treat the brain metastases, Dr. Traynor referred Thomas for a clinical trial that led to complete remission. 

"The fact that she had such high PD-L1 protein expression in her lung cancer cells, I thought it would be a favorable factor for her responding, but I never imagined this. This is the best I’ve ever seen," said Dr. Traynor. 

Resources:

• "Trust and Teamwork: A Lung Cancer Clinical Trial," UW Health, April 4, 2018

Image (top): An example of an X-ray of the chest, courtesy of National Institutes of Health-National Cancer Institute. (public domain)