KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Alexis Ellington walked into the cancer center with a smile Monday morning at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City.
I just keep on keeping on,” Ellington, 61, said. “Just keep doing it, and we’ll go from there.”
Doctors diagnosed Ellington with stage 4 small cell lung cancer in 2024. Her initial prognosis was a life expectancy of two to three months after chemo, and immunotherapy was unsuccessful in targeting her cancer.
Ellington found St. Luke’s Director of Precision and Thoracic Oncology, Dr. Dhruv Bansal, in September of 2024 and has been smiling ever since.
“I became the first patient to be put on this wonderful, unbelievable, new lease on life medicine,” she said.
Ellington underwent a new FDA-approved treatment in the fall called Bispecific T-cell Engagers therapy or BiTE.
The drug attaches to the cancer and the cells that fight infection.
“When you bring the two together, your body’s own immunity fights the cancer, and the responses are very dramatic when they happen,” Dr. Bansal said.
Bansal said he expects multiple BiTE therapies to gain Food and Drug Administration approval in the next few years.
Ellington reacted well to the new therapy.
Her cancer decreased about 5%, a statistic she hadn’t heard until speaking with us Monday afternoon.
“Holy moly," she said. "I could use other words. Really? Oh my. You bring out my dimples.”
The treatment will not cure Ellington’s cancer, but she hopes to be part of clinical trials that could lead to a cure.
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