OPEN EVENT - LIMITED CAPACITY- RSVP here or to bmorello@liferaftgroup.org

Long-time LRG member Chuck Korte is hosting a get-together for GIST patients and caregivers. Come enjoy light refreshments and meet others with GIST.

Read Chuck’s story: Read on the LRG website.
Watch a video of Chuck telling his story (YouTube) (LRG website).

Here’s a snippet from Chuck’s story:

Chuck Korte knows a little something about long-term survival. Originally misdiagnosed in 1996 at age 53 with leiomyosarcoma (LMS), Chuck has lived with GIST for over 29 years. Treated with two rounds of traditional chemotherapy, his tumor was not responsive. The tumors continued to grow. There seemed to be no clear answers.

“When I first found out I had cancer, it was terrible, just devastating. It was like being in a pit for three days. We were distraught, frightened and depressed. However, I’m a very optimistic person so it was just a few days of being really very down. People always commented on me being in such a good mood because, you know, cancer, but I was always hopeful,” said Chuck sharing about his initial feelings about being diagnosed with cancer, “but I always felt I would survive.”

Chuck kept searching for answers and learned about a new clinical trial for STI-571 (imatinib) through fellow LMS patients on the LMS Listserv. Chuck commented that he thought that it was a good thing he didn’t actually have LMS because he’d learned about this powerful new drug. “The question at that point was, did I have the mutation that this drug could treat? So, I wanted to have that variation because then I could be on the clinical trial.”