Chastity’s primary care doctor originally thought the abdominal pain may be a
gallbladder issue, but blood work confirmed that this would be the beginning of her journey as she was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer. She started treatment with 13 rounds of chemotherapy, but the cancer was continuously deemed inoperable, and that she’d have to continue this treatment for life. She realized that she wouldn’t be able to see her boys, Brady and Connor, grow up, so she sought out a second opinion from two other doctors. They informed Chastity that she’d be a great candidate for ALPPS, an advanced surgery that could remove her liver tumors.

After completing both parts of the surgery, she needed to deal with complications
before receiving further chemotherapy. She was declared NED, or “no evidence of disease,” until a nodule was spotted on her lung that was a potential cause for concern. , The tumor was eventually removed and declared as metastatic colon cancer. Chastity is now NED once again and is approaching 1 year of being disease free. Realizing this classification can change at any moment, Chastity feels confident in her oncologist, Dr. Rubinson, and her care team to catch anything new right away and take care of it.

Douglas Rubinson, MD, PhD, is a medical oncologist and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His clinical interests are gastrointestinal (GI cancers). Dr. Rubinson and his team study patient blood and tumor samples to examine molecular and genetic alterations that may signal a “driver” event for their cancer. This research helps them understand how normal cells transform into cancer cells and how to develop better drugs to treat them.