Gilles Koffi was diagnosed with stage 4 terminal colon cancer when he was 42 years old. His cancer had spread in his body so much, that he was told by his oncologist that there was basically no chance that he could live. But he didn’t like that prognosis, so he did something about it. “I decided just to continue, it was difficult, it was tough,” Gilles says. “I went through all kinds of chemotherapy. It was full-time treatment, and the side effects of treatment were very difficult. But I was having fun, I was smiling, cracking jokes, and my positive attitude was making other patients smile, and have hope.”
Gilles says that because his cancer was terminal, his doctor was trying everything he could to save his life. But then he met with another doctor, Dr. Allyson Ocean of Weill Cornell, and was introduced to the idea of using immunotherapy. And it worked – after just a few months of immunotherapy treatments, Gilles’ tumors began to shrink. “Dr. Ocean gave me my life back,” Gilles says.
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