A 22-year-old college student Stephanie Lipscomb kept experiencing bad headaches.
When she could not take it anymore, even with all the painkillers she’s been taking, Stephanie visited the hospital.
At first, doctors told her that she had chronic migraines, then recommended caffeine pills.
The second time she went, doctors said that she had a sinus infection and gave her antibiotics.
However, neither of these treatments would work. In fact, her migraines were so bad that Stephanie could not eat anything without throwing it back up.
She could not even dress herself.
Later, she was taken to the emergency room and had CT brain scans.
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That’s when she heard the devastating news – that she had a brain tumor that was as big as a lime. And it was a glioblastoma, which is one of the most aggressive kind of brain tumor.
She was told that she would live for five more years – and that was the maximum. Doctors went on to explain that typical glioblastoma patient has about 14 to 18 months to live.
That was five years ago. Fast forward to now: Stephanie is completely cancer-free.
After she was injected with the unthinkable, the cancer actually shrank by itself, even though she did not go through any chemotherapy or radiation.
The unthinkable method tried by doctors at Duke University Medical Center is injecting the modified polio virus into her tumor.
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In just one year, this injection caused the tumor to shrink without damaging surrounding healthy brain cells.
Initially, though, Stephanie’s parents did not like the idea at all.
“She was like, ‘What? They’re going to put polio in my daughter? What the heck are they thinking?'” said Stephanie in the interview with ABC News.
But after some explanation, both Stephanie and her parents knew that this might be her only option at defeating the tumor.
The injection procedure lasted six and a half hours, and the tumor actually didn’t start to shrink right away. She had to wait for several months to see if it had worked.
Of the eight patients who participated in this clinical trial, two have not responded well. For Stephanie, however, it worked. Researchers said that they do not know why the tumors didn’t shrink for some, and why it did for the others.
With this result, doctors are planning to continue their research to make this bizarre treatment work for every brain cancer patient.
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What an incredible way to treat cancer. Have you heard about this method?