GTA woman credits targeted chemo treatment with saving her life
Posted September 26, 2016 11:58 pm.
Last Updated September 27, 2016 12:10 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Svetlana Shribman says she is a living testament to the success of a specialized alternative treatment of breast cancer.
On Monday, a special tribute dinner to honour an award-winning surgical oncologist was held at the Four Seasons Hotel, where Shribman, a breast cancer survivor who was given only months to live, said she owes her life to a cancer specialist and his revolutionary chemotherapy treatment.
“I was diagnosed with the late stage cancer, Stage 4 with metastasis to spine, lungs, lymph nodes, liver … and I didn’t have any hope,” Shribman said.
More than four years ago, the GTA woman was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer — a diagnosis that changed her life.
After being told by doctors in Canada there was nothing more that could be done, her brother Michael knew they needed a miracle. So, they travelled to Europe in search of that miracle and were eventually referred to Dr. Karl Aigner’s clinic in Germany.
“We [went] over there to the very beautiful, small village and we saw Dr. Aigner,” Michael said.
“Dr. Aigner said, ‘Hmm… 50/50. It is very serious.’
“Then after three hours … she woke up and said, ‘Michael, I want to eat.” I said, ‘What do you want?’ She said, ‘I want to eat.’ She didn’t eat for one and a half to two weeks. And in four days, she started to walk. And in five days, she said, ‘Michael, I want to go shopping.’ Then I said, ‘This is it. She’s good.’”
Dr. Aigner says his breakthrough chemotherapy treatment uses the same drugs as regular chemo but he has figured out how to isolate the parts of the body the drug is actually working on.
“We make it only in segments like the chest or the belly or the pelvis or the liver in an isolated way, and after the therapy we filter the drug out of the system,” he said.
“So when the patients wake up, they don’t vomit. They feel OK. They are not knocked down. They don’t have reduced quality of life.”
Dr. Aigner says his specialized targeted techniques have been developed over 30 years and show significantly improved survival rates with minimum side effects.
