HEALTH: Manhattan cancer survivor Mary Elizabeth Williams helped pave the way for breakthrough immunotherapy treatment

 

She may be a cancer survivor, but Mary Elizabeth Williams does not embrace the inspirational sayings often ascribed to someone with the deadly disease.

“This is not a story of winners and losers,” said Williams, 50. “No one really beats cancer. It comes down to the science and timing and good health insurance.”

 

But Dr. Jedd Wolchok said she is nothing short of a hero.

“Without courageous volunteers like her we would never make progress,” said Wolchok, chief of Melanoma and Immunotherapeutics at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Five years ago, Williams was facing a devastating diagnosis of stage IV melanoma. It came one year after what she thought was a successful surgery to remove skin cancer found on top of her head.

“If you had metastatic melanoma five years ago, you had very few options,” said Williams, a mother of two and a Manhattan-based writer. “The cancer was moving very quickly and very seriously. It was in my lungs.”

She agreed to be part of a landmark clinical trial directed by Wolchok that combined the immunotherapy drugs ipilimumab and nivolumab.

“When most people think of cancer treatment, they think of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy,” said Wolchok. “They have all made a big impact on cancer in the last 50 years.”

Immunotherapy may be more useful in some cases when a disease has spread and removing a tumor will not solve the problem, he said.

“This is a different approach,” Wolchok said. “We are going to see whether the person’s own immune cells, which we know are very good at fighting infections, can fight another dangerous source — cancer.”

Williams focused on her two young daughters to help her deal with the terrifying diagnosis.

“There were times when I was scared and cried and there were times when I just had to walk my kids to school,” she said. “I had to keep going.”

Williams also credits Gilda’s Club, named for comedian Gilda Radner who died from ovarian cancer, with helping her whole family find support.

“It’s important to be around other people facing the same challenges,” she said.

Williams underwent several intravenous drugs treatments while doctors watched for serious side effects, which can include inflammation and rashes.

Her last treatment was in November 2013 and she is now cancer-free.

“This is the kind of success we hope for,” Wolchok said of Williams’ recovery. “We know someone with the diagnosis Mary Elizabeth had in 2011 had a life expectancy of 11 months. And here we are having this conversation five years later.”

He said it’s vital to note the treatment is not a cure-all and will not work with everyone who has the same diagnosis.

“We are still learning,” Wolchok said.

As a result of the clinical trial Williams participated in, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the immunotherapy treatment.

“I’m really grateful now I know that what has worked for me is working for other people,” she said.

Williams is upbeat and enthusiastic about sharing her experiences. The Salon.com staff writer recounted her story in a newly published book, “A Series of Catastrophes& Miracles.”

“I’m very lucky I was there in the room where it happened — I was in the facility where the research was being done,” Williams said. “There are people who don’t even know this is possible.”

And she hopes to help educate other people about the importance of immunotherapy and participating in clinical trials.

“Cancer is part of my identity now,” Williams said. “I feel very privileged I got to live and now I get to help other people.”