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Topics: Cancer, Health, California, News, Life
Niamh Shackleton
Warning: This article contains discussion of cancer which some readers may find distressing.
A woman who has been battling cancer for almost 10 years has made the difficult decision to stop chemotherapy.
Jamie Comer was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2016 and has since endured 180 rounds of chemo to treat the illness.
Jamie had no symptoms before her diagnosis and only learnt about her cancer following a routine blood test that found elevated liver enzymes.
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Her cancer was already stage 4 by the time it was discovered and had metastasized to her liver.
Jamie had a total of 57 tumors in her body. With this in mind, she was given just three to six months to live.
But the mom has defied the odds and is still alive today. Jamie says she's still alive because of an infusion pump implanted in her abdomen, which delivers the chemo directly to her liver.
The University of California in San Francisco, where Jamie's been receiving her treatment, is one of several hospitals on the West Coast that offers the life-saving treatment.
"It's an implant pump, and they fill it with a medicine with a very large needle," she explained to ABC 7 in 2023.
ABC 7 have since caught up with Jamie again and she revealed last year that she'd has 180 rounds of chemo and seven surgeries, as well as 'probably about 60 to 70 scans'.
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Now, in a more recent update, Jamie said she's now receiving hospice care from her home and is stopping all treatment.
"It wasn't a difficult decision," she said of forgoing any more chemo.
"There were no treatment options that were working and the chemo was making me sicker so I couldn't recover."
In light of her health problems, Jamie is urging others to make sure they go for colon cancer screenings.
This is a test used when a person doesn't have any symptoms.
As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adults aged between 45 and 75 should be screened for colorectal cancer.
"Most people should begin screening for colorectal cancer soon after turning 45, then continue getting screened at regular intervals," the CDC's website states.
Jamie was 47 when she was diagnosed. At the time, the advised screening age was 50 years old.
You may need to be screened earlier that 45, however. The CDC advises that people with inflammatory bowel disease such as Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, people with a personal or family history of colorectal cancer or colorectal polyps, and those with a genetic syndrome such as familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) or hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (Lynch syndrome) should potentially seek out earlier screening.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the American Cancer Society on 1-800-227-2345 or via their live chat feature, available 24/7 every day of the year.