Update on Steve: January 14, 2024

Immunotherapy Infusion

Hi everyone,

All of us are welcoming 2024, and there’s no one hoping for a better year than the Zoradi family. Steve, Janice, Ryan, and Abby drove to UCLA on December 19 to meet with the top sarcoma expert, Dr. Arun Singh. After consulting with him we opted not to enroll in a clinical trial because it would entail commuting to UCLA every three weeks for two years. We decided instead to start treatment with an immunotherapy drug, Keytruda, which is used to treat numerous cancers and shows promise for sarcoma patients. Steve can receive the infusion in San Luis Obispo. Dr. Singh arranged for the first treatment on December 21. Two days later, Steve needed two units of blood for continued anemia. And then it was Christmas.

We learned immunotherapy drugs work differently than chemotherapy: cancer cells create a version of Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak to hide from the immune system. Immunotherapy can remove the cloak, expose the malignant cells, then the immune system can get to work destroying them. We hope and pray the medication is doing just that!

On January 11 we met with Steve’s local oncologist, Dr. Brian DiCarlo. He recommended adding radiation of Steve’s lung to work in tandem with the immunotherapy regimen. Radiation causes cancer cells to release an antigen that tells the body there are foreign cells present. Then the immunotherapy can go after those destructive cells and shrink the tumors. Steve had his second immunotherapy treatment on Friday, January 12. He doesn’t experience side effects. 

Looking ahead…

Dr. DiCarlo told Steve he has two main jobs: to eat and to walk. Steve struggles with both those tasks on a daily basis. His fatigue is substantial, and he will receive another blood transfusion in the coming days to hopefully give him more energy. Radiation treatment could begin as early as next week and the immunotherapy rhythm is every 3 weeks. I will write another update in a few weeks after the next immunotherapy therapy treatment. 

Friends have been so generous in bringing meals to us, which is healing for both body and soul. We couldn’t make it without you! 

Thank you for standing with us in prayer. 

Please be praying for Steve’s weakened body to be made stronger, for added motivation to eat and to walk. In addition, he continues to have fevers which set him back and contribute to his fatigue. Pray that the treatments will be successful and not too harsh on his system.

We believe healing is possible and ask that you join us in asking god for a miracle. 

A word I’m holding on to for 2024 g o o d n e s s

“I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the lord in the land of the living.”

Psalm 27.13