Fall
1998
The Culprit is Cancer
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On
July 31, 1996, Rinde entered the Phase III trial and was randomized
to the group of women who received Herceptin only. (Other groups
received Herceptin and conventional chemotherapy or conventional
chemotherapy alone.)
A CT
scan in March 1997 showed possible spots on her liver; her bone
cancer was progressing, too. For a while everyone worried. But since
then Rinde's liver has been clear, and her bone cancer has regressed
considerably. "I had great expectations from the beginning," she
says.
Rinde
is sitting outside on a bench now, in the pretty courtyard behind
the clinic. A huge spray of red begonias is in bloom. It's a beautiful
Los Angeles spring day. The sky is deep blue, the air is bracing,
clear. As his mother watches him, Corey toddles along a low wall,
babbling in a strange language.
When
the child gets near the fountain, Rinde reaches into her wallet
and pulls out some coins. Then she reaches her palm out to her third
child, the one she unself-consciously calls "God's gift."
"Make
a wish," Lori Rinde says.
Last
year, on the day before Thanksgiving, Slamon was at home when
he got an unexpected phone call. It was Dr. Steve Shak, the study
coordinator at Genentech. He wanted, he said rather mysteriously,
to meet with Slamon right away.
"Would
you mind telling me what this is about?" Slamon asked.
"I'd
prefer to tell you in person," Shak said.
"It's
already late afternoon today and tomorrow's Thanksgiving," said
Slamon. "How
about Monday?"
The
caller insisted that he must see Slamon sooner.
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