An experimental therapy has given one pancreatic cancer patient hope for new life.

Thanks to a one-and-done treatment, the 71-year-old womans metastatic cancer was reduced by 50% in just one month, according to her doctors. After six month, her tumors has shrunk by nearly three-quarters.

A case study about her remarkable cancer journey was published on Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Kathy Wilkes, of Ormond Beach, Florida, was diagnosed with aggressive pancreatic cancer in 2018. She underwent eight rounds of chemotherapy and an operation to remove part of her pancreas, but her cancer continued to spread into her lungs within a year.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of the disease, with only about11% of patients expected to survive five years after diagnosis, according to the American Cancer Society.

Desperate to find a cure, Wilkes began looking into new treatments when she came across a 2016 case study in a prestigious research journal, also published in theNEJM, that seemed promising.

The research was undertaken by a team of more than a dozens experts, including from the National Institutes of Health following a treatment that had already helped one 50-year-old woman with colon cancer become disease-free.

Wilkes discovered that her cancer had the same KRAS G12D mutation that was investigated in the study and didnt hesitate to contact the studys lead doctor, Eric Tran, now at the Providence Cancer Institute in Portland, Oregon.

When I talked to my hometown oncologist and asked him what to do, he only had one answer, and that was chemotherapy. And I said, Thats not my answer, Wilkes told NBC News in a report published Wednesday.

After discussing with the doctors, Wilkes was also offered the highlighted gene-editing treatment, which modifies her DNA so that it will produce immune cells that recognize and attack tumor cells. Only about 4% of pancreatic cancer patients have the mutation that responds to this treatment, though the same mutation has also been found in other cancers.

Within one month of the experimental therapy, Wilkes tumors had shrunk in half. After six months, the tumors had been reduced by 72%. And while shes not yet cancer-free, her cancer has not grown since she began treatment.

I thought, That is the trial I want. I knew that that was the trial that was going to save me, save my life. I just had that feeling, Wilkes said.

The Providence Cancer Institutes Dr. Rom Leidner, co-author of the new report on Wilkes cancer treatment, called it a one-and-done measure, in NBC News report, that modified her cancer-fighting immune cells to grow and multiply over time.

Wilkes response has been encouraging, but more research is needed. Another patient with pancreatic cancer who received the same treatment at the Providence Cancer Institute did not survive.

It was an encouraging result, but its certainly far from a cure, Dr. Eric Rubin, the New England Journal of Medicines editor-in-chief, said in a statement to NBC News.

Doctors are now recruiting patients for aPhase 1 clinical trialto continue the research.

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Deadly cancer quickly shrinks by 50% with 'one-and-done' therapy: study - New York Post

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