FINALLY MADE ONE PAPER! Milford resident, Franklin native receive alternative cancer treatments Lindsay Corcoran/Daily News staff 07/15/2013 11:45 PM Scott Ellmore’s doctor looked him in the eye and told him he was going to die. The Milford resident was given six months to live without treatment and just a bit longer with chemotherapy by his doctors at Dana Farber Cancer Center in Boston when he was first diagnosed with Stage 4 esophageal cancer in September 2012. Ten months later, Ellmore says he now owes his life to the alternative treatments he and his family are continuing to raise money to pay for out of pocket. “If I’d gone the traditional route, I would have been dead two months ago,” Ellmore said. “This is treatment I needed to survive. They didn’t give me a choice. They said they’ll kill me and I just wanted to live.” Ellmore traveled to Germany to find the treatment he said is saving his life: insulin potentiation therapy. The treatment uses insulin to reduce sugar levels and targeted chemotherapy to battle the cancer. After undergoing six weeks of successful treatment there, Ellmore knew he needed to find a place to continue the treatment in the United States. He now goes to the Linchitz Medical Wellness Clinic in Glen Cove, N.Y., making the four-hour drive once a week. Ellmore’s story inspired Franklin native Paul DeGrazia, who has the same type of cancer and was diagnosed the same week, to seek out alternative treatments. “We tried the traditional treatment, but they said it was inoperable and incurable and basically said they had a 10 percent chance of healing him,” Lynn DeGrazia said of her husband’s treatments. For eight months, Paul received treatment at Dana Farber, but when the chemotherapy and radiation actually grew his tumor, closing up his esophagus and causing him to need a feeding tube, the family looked for other options. DeGrazia, who currently lives in Merrimack, N.H., has also been going to the Linchitz clinic twice a week for treatments for three months. “It’s absolutely working,” DeGrazia said. “His numbers are down. On July 4, he ate (without the feeding tube) for the first time since March.” With the treatments, Ellmore’s primary tumor is gone, the size of other tumors has been significantly reduced and his tumor markers are down 90 percent. However, Ellmore knows he needs to buy time for treatments at least through next January and may need treatment for the rest of his life – which is why his battle for insurance coverage is so important. Since the beginning, Ellmore has been fighting with his insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield, to get the treatments covered. However, they are considered experimental and not approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA). “Money is a constant worry,” Ellmore said. “I have enough in the coffers for the next two to three, maybe four months. After that we’ll have to look for other sources of funding, home equity, credit cards.” U.S. Rep. James McGovern, D-Worcester, has even joined the fight and talked with Ellmore’s insurance company on his behalf last week. The DeGrazias are also funding these treatments out of their own pocket since their insurance company won’t pay. “He wanted to go the traditional route,” DeGrazia said. “We have three young children, he didn’t want to leave us broke. But I told him, you can’t really put a price on your life.” Ellmore and DeGrazia said after seeing the success of their treatments, they can’t believe more doctors aren’t offering alternative treatments. “When you see this you think, why aren’t they doing this?” Ellmore said. “It’s frustrating that it’s not available to everyone. But no one should lay down and let them dictate your fate. I wasn’t going to let them do it to me. There are plenty of options, just look around.” “This targeted chemo is legal in Germany and Japan and everyone’s getting it and it’s working, so what is taking so long here?” DeGrazia said. Until it does get approved by the FDA, patients like Ellmore and DeGrazia will continue to pay out of pocket for their life-saving medicine. Both families have Web sites for online donations and have had fundraisers, including a February fundraiser for Ellmore and a wiffle ball tournament coming this summer for DeGrazia. Donations can be made online for Ellmore at GoFundMe/34gfb8 and for DeGrazia at youcaring/medical-fundraiser/team-paul/52898. Contact Lindsay Corcoran at 508-634-7582 or lcorcoran@wickedlocal. Follow her on Twitter @LacorcMDN.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 09:44:42 +0000
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