Melissa's Cancer Treatment Fund

In January, 2018 I was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer after an x-ray revealed a large tumor on my femur. Since I had earlier, I believed, conquered a stage 1b cancer after a year of chemotherapy, lumpectomy, and radiation, and a clinical trial (Penelope-B), the roaring back of the cancer shocked me and my family, and made it clear that unusual, experimental treatments may well be necessary if I am to survive. I'm told I could live eight months, but, if I am lucky and a treatment is found, many years. Crucial to my survival is, in my view, a genomic test that would help physicians narrow down the therapeutic possibilities to one that really works for me. As a physician-researcher friend at a large American cancer institute wrote, 

"the genetics does provide good ideas of what might work. For example, FGFR mutations suggest certain treatments are indicated, as do PI3K mutations, etc. In addition, if there is a "high mutation lead" (which sounds bad), that suggests that immunotherapy approaches like PD1 inhibitors are more likely to work. So it lets your doctor and you figure things out with as much knowledge as possible."

I am a wife and mother who wants to be around for my thirteen-year-old daughter, my fifteen-year-old son, my nineteen-year-old son, and my husband, himself suffering from a serious lung disease.  I teach American literature at a large university and love my work--I am a writer as well, in the midst of a number of projects I am hoping to finish.

The cost of the test I need is five thousand euros, and I am in the midst of trying to convince my insurance company to pay for it.  In the unlikely event that the company will pay, I would still need the five thousand euros for future consultations for which I would apply at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, for transportation there and treatment.

I will be very grateful for any funding offered.