Cancer Breakthrough: 88-Year-Old’s Story & New Drug Hope

Mr. Mario has 88 years old and three tumors. In 2018 he went to the emergency room at the San Bonifacio hospital, in the province of Verona: he didn’t feel well. The symptoms are those of difficult digestion after a heavy dinner, but the tests highlight something else. There is a blood tumor, a Hodgkin’s lymphoma a rare disease (there are only around 1,200 new cases every year in Italy) but fortunately today it is treated well, with good prospects of coping. The then 81-year-old did not lose heart and began treatment: chemo and immunotherapy, interspersed with check-ups. And it is precisely during a visit that the doctors discover a suspicious mole, remove it: it is a melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer. Unfortunately, the bad news does not end here and Mario must first face a recurrence of the lymphoma and, practically at the same time, the discovery of a colon cancer. «When in 2024 he had a recurrence of the lymphoma, when we went to look for the positive lymph nodes in the tests to do a biopsy we realized that there was also a carcinoma of the colon, we operated on it, but it became metastatic – says the oncologist who treats him, Michele Milella, director of the Department of Engineering for Innovation Medicine at the University of Verona -. Not a small challenge, but looking at it a year later, it is a success: there was a brand new therapy and after having weighed the possible pros and cons for a long time we started it.”

It was October 2024, at what point in the story we are explained by the person directly involved inlast episode of the podcast «Before, during, after. Prevent, face and overcome cancer” (a series of Corriere della Sera in collaboration with Aiom, the Italian Association of Medical Oncology):
«I do a bit of everything I did beforeio I live independentlyI get something to eat, I go to the bar to watch a football match. I also do some assistance: I go to visit a blind person who I have known for many years and who is now in a retirement home. Then I also have other interests, what I feel like doing, I do.”

The normality found of Mr. Mario, 40 years as a butcher in the Verona area, and his everyday life regained they are tangible proof of how much oncological therapies have improved, in effectiveness and also in a reduction in toxicity, so much so as to allow an almost 90-year-old to be treated for three different cancers and, despite everything, continue to lead his life.
«Since October 2024 the patient has been treated with a new agnostic drugwithout significant side effects and with the disappearance of all localizations of disease visible on PET… – specifies Milella -. Given Mario’s advanced age, we questioned ourselves for a long time, also considering his need to take various medicines for other illnesses he suffers from. A lot of caution was also needed due to the risk of side effects. Instead the therapy proved to be more than just that extremely effectivebut also a success for the quality of life».

Agnostic drugs are one of the most recent innovations in cancer treatment. They owe their name to a Greek term meaning “without knowing”, which is also an indication of how these medicines work: they do not target a single type of tumor, as most current medicines do, but target a group of mutated genespotentially responsible for the development of the disease. These are “ubiquitous” genes, that is, they are common to various tumors, regardless of the organ in which they originate.
To what extent are these treatments already a reality in Italy today?
«Many new drugs can only be used if the presence of specific biomarkers is detected in the tumor cells (or, sometimes, in the blood or other biological samples taken from the patient) – replies the oncologist -. Over 30% of patients with cancer can receive a treatment based on DNA alterations and it is a percentage destined to grow, given that precision medicines are the majority of innovative treatments arriving in the near future.”

In short, check if and which ones Genetic mutations are present in every patient’s tumor today it is a fundamental step and more and more research proves it. The attention of specialists, in fact, is shifting from the organ affected by the neoplasm (colon, lung, breast or other) to DNA alterations, which are increasingly crucial for choosing the most suitable therapy with the highest probability of success.
Mario’s story demonstrates this: «His colon cancer turned out to have the so-called “microsatellite instability”, a molecular alteration which generally leads to a high efficacy of immunotherapy – says the oncologist -. In his case, however, the immunotherapy proved to be ineffective and the disease worsened in a few months… At this point the colleagues at the San Bonifacio hospital, who were following the patient, were very good at going for a new biopsy which allowed them to identify a rare alteration (NTRK gene fusion) for which there is an agnostic drug, already available in our country.”
If good oncologists and scientific research are needed for therapies, on the psychological front Mario has his own very pragmatic recipe: «It may be the wisdom of age, I don’t know. But it should be approached in a positive mannerkeep busy when you can, when you feel good. There’s no point in getting depressed and isolating yourself, you have to take life and even the illness as best you can.”