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Mahanoy City resident Terry Raisner’s lymphoma just wouldn’t go away. He’d been diagnosed in 2014, when a small growth appeared inside his left elbow. Doctors in New Jersey – closer to where he then lived – removed the cancerous lesion. But it returned within weeks.
When a second excision also didn’t work, Raisner received radiation. “I was all right for a couple of years,” Raisner says. But cancer returned again. A quiet period of recurrence soon gave way to explosive spread. “I came back after being away for several days, and he was not good,” says Raisner’s wife, Janet. New to Schuylkill County, they sought help at LVHN Cancer Center–Schuylkill.
‘Really bad shape’
“He had masses in his extremities that were so large you could see and feel them,” says physician assistant Abby Zimmerman, PA-C, with LVPG Hematology Oncology. Lymphoma invaded Raisner’s legs, buttocks, muscles and gastrointestinal tract, causing severe swelling and pain. He wasn’t eating and could barely walk.
He has a rare type of blood cancer called anaplastic large T-cell lymphoma. It was stage 4 with extensive involvement to many parts of his body. “He was in really bad shape,” Zimmerman says.
Amazing response
LVHN Cancer Center–Schuylkill’s oncology team saw an opportunity. The Food and Drug Administration had just approved a first-line infusion treatment called Adcetris® (brentuximab vedotin). Given in combination with chemotherapy, it links a cancer-killing toxin with an antibody that latches onto diseased cells. “It’s like a Trojan horse,” Zimmerman says. Raisner became one of the first patients in Pennsylvania to receive it.
“He had an amazing response,” Zimmerman says. A single treatment improved Raisner’s swelling, pain, appetite and mobility. Two rounds made the cancer almost fully disappear. “He’s a completely different man,” Zimmerman says.
At the recently opened cancer center, Raisner became first to ring a bell marking the end of his treatment. “We had tears in our eyes,” Zimmerman says. “I’m a Schuylkill County native,
so having the opportunity to deliver advanced treatment to local people means a lot to me.”
Raisner looks forward to being with family, working with his contractor son, shooting at the gun range, fixing cars and spending time outdoors. “My treatment was the best,” he says.
