Help Matthew Diamond fight against Cancer

Hey Everyone. My name is Paul Diamond, I am starting this fundraiser to help support my brother Matthew Diamond on his journey with Stage 4 Lung cancer.

On May 5th, after suffering a seizure, on the way home from work, Matthew was taken to the Emergency Room. He lost his peripheral vision and was slurring his speech. Scared for a stroke or a complex migraine, a CT scan was ordered of his brain. Sadly, a large lesion was revealed to be compressing the blood flow and shifting his brain. Matt is only 38. Still in disbelief, still in his work clothes, additional scans and MRI revealed many more metastatic lesions on his brain and a large lesion in his right lung. Over the next two weeks doctors struggled to control his symptoms and confirm his diagnosis. Matthew’s mom flew in from Michigan to support her son in what is every mother’s worst nightmare. Doctors struggled to biopsy the lung lesion due to its challenging anatomical location. Finally after 15 days, the biopsy confirmed Matt had inoperable metastatic Stage 4 non small cell lung carcinoma.

After being discharged from the ER, Matthew sought opinions at the cancer centers at both Hackensack and Rutgers in NJ. Because the cancer had already spread so aggressively, both centers recommended a clinical study with an experimental therapy.

Matthew received multiple treatments of whole brain radiation. He lost his hair and will have difficulty with brain fog but the radiation was able to temporarily control the seizures and swelling.

Matthew was then enrolled in a cohort to receive Carboplatin, Datopotamab deruxtecan and Durvalumab every three weeks initially.

Carboplatin is a nasty alkylating agent that works to destroy DNA as a feature not a bug. All the extra cells made by tumor get destroyed when the drug binds the tumor cells DNA making it a brutal chemotheraputic. It also kills all of Matt’s good DNA in his cells that have quick turnover like your red blood cells, hair and it increases his risk of infection.

Dato-DXd (Datopotamab deruxtecan) is a TROP2-directed antibody drug conjugate that binds to the TROP2 protein that is highly expressed in most lung cancers. This is helpful for Matt’s tumor because his cancer didn’t have a genomic alteration like EGFR or ALK which would make targeting with a different drug possible. Unfortunately, chronic lung disease is a side effect of this new antibody battle bot.

Durvalumab is an important immunotherapy or monoclonal antibody that binds to PD-L1 on the tumor cells. It directly blocks the pathway that the tumor uses to evade the body’s immune system. This drug helps to boost Matt’s immune system fighting capabilities but can make you feel like you have the flu all the time.

The money earned from this fundraiser will directly go to the cost of treatment that is not covered by insurance, as well as helping with day to day costs. Even with a really great treatment response Matt needs long term care for the side effects of treatment and his lost productivity at work. Unfortunately, due to the treatment, Matthew is unable to continue his work and so any amount shared is greatly appreciated.

Matthew is the fun Uncle to 4 wonderful nieces and in his free time can be found reading or playing a video game, the newest Final Fantasy being his current choice. He is the person in the room that is always causing others to laugh and the person you’d pick to bring to an event in which you do not know anyone for he makes friends wherever he goes. He is a kind person who needs all the help and hope people can find in their hearts to share.