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Poland Native survives terminal lung cancer, uses his second chance as champion against cancer
By Bruce Walton
YOUNGSTOWN
Poland native Matthew Hiznay recently celebrated his 30th birthday, a milestone he once thought he’d never reach just five years ago.
After surviving stage-four lung cancer, Hiznay is using his second chance at life as a champion for people afflicted with his form of cancer, taking on the role of a spokesman for the Go Boldly campaign.
Go Boldly is dedicated to finding life-saving medicines with the help of 140,000 researchers backed by Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
In March, Hiznay spoke to state legislators to explain how he overcame his illness and voice his support for biopharmaceutical innovation and clinical trials. He serves as both a product of that medical innovation and as a symbol of hope.
“It’s thrilling, and terrifying, to be at the tip of the razor’s edge here. I just have to hope that I always stay just behind that line of therapies coming out versus diseases returning,” he said.
In August 2011, Hiznay was diagnosed with an aggressive and rare form of cancer – anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive nonsmall-cell lung cancer – and was given less than a year to live.
Dr. Nathan Pennell, medical oncologist from the Cleveland Clinic, has known Hiznay for nearly six years. Dr. Pennell was assigned as his physician as a cancer specialist. His first reaction to a 24-year-old nonsmoker with stage-four lung cancer was more than surprise, but also confusion, since most people in his condition are in their 70s.
“If all of his treatment options had been standard chemotherapy, he would have died in the intensive-care unit,” Dr. Pennell said.
Fluid in the sac around his heart and in his lungs was caused by a rare form of lung cancer, and swollen lymph nodes constricted his airway.
Cancer is caused by a genetic mutation in which a chromosome breaks in half and flips on itself. The fusion protein that results from the new gene, which is incorrectly made and is “on” all the time, causes cancer, doctors said.
On the same week as his diagnosis, a new biopharmaceutical drug developed by Pfizer was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The drug, Xalkori, changed a unique and rare form of lung cancer from terminal to manageable.
Instead of chemotherapy, which washes over the body affecting every cell, Xalkori targets the out-of-control fusion protein directly, Dr. Pennell said.
Hiznay said he had a lot of doubts about the drug therapy’s effectiveness.
“I thought that I’ve been extremely unlucky with getting stage-four lung cancer as a nonsmoker at 24 years old,” he said. “So why would I have the luck of having this mutation and the drug working?”
Despite his doubts, the drug put Hiznay’s cancer into remission almost overnight. Dr. Pennell said he had never seen such a fast-acting therapy put cancer into remission.
Although the therapy put his cancer into remission quickly, it didn’t act as a cure. The therapy only lasted about 10 months until the illness mutated further and found a way around it.
Since then, Hiznay, now living with his wife, Ally, in Lakewood, has been constantly using new treatments as fast as they can be developed to stay alive.
Dr. Pennell said Hiznay’s existence is a testament to modern medical science.
“The progression of treatments that he’s had over the last five and a half years that have continued to put his cancer back in remission every time it comes back really makes him one of the most wonderful illustrations of the promise of treatment of cancer today,” he said.
For the few who suffer from his illness, Hiznay said he wants to do anything he can to help. Hiznay understands the weight of what’s keeping him alive more than most patients would: He is a doctoral medical student in the Cleveland Clinic’s molecular medicine program.
“The fact that we’re finally understanding and beginning to control cancer at a molecular level, it’s exhilarating,” Hiznay said. “I look forward to this being applied to even more diseases one day.”
For more information: https://goboldly.com