Lori Lawlor is amazed that her treatment for ovarian cancer at HonorHealth Research Institute is working so well.
“It’s working, and that’s what I’m most grateful for,” said Lawlor, 67, a lifelong resident of Mesa. “Everything has really improved. My energy levels are slowly coming back up. It’s been good. It’s been working.”
And she couldn’t be happier with M. Rizwan Khawaja, M.D., MPH, an Associate Clinical Investigator at the Research Institute’s Oncology Research Division. Dr. Khawaja is the Principal Investigator of her LOXO-FRA-24001 clinical trial, which is testing the safety and effectiveness of an antibody drug conjugate known as LY4170156, produced by Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Company.
“He (Dr. Khawaja) was very hopeful that this would work,” Lawlor said of the drug, which gave her a rapid response. “It was immediate.”
Dr. Khawaja said that Lawlor has an incurable cancer, but that she has responded to the LY4170156 treatment.
Lawlor, a hairdresser in Mesa for decades until her retirement, had a severely bloated abdomen in November 2022: “I was sleeping a lot, and I had no energy.”
At the urging of her family, Lawlor was admitted for three days of scans and other tests, which confirmed that she had late-stage ovarian cancer, which annually kills nearly 13,000 women in the U.S.
Her initial treatments at another cancer treatment center started well and within six months she was in remission, but the positive effects of the drugs she received soon stopped working. Her oncologist tried three different treatment protocols, but they didn't work.
Running out of standard treatment options, Lawlor then was referred to HonorHealth Research Institute to look for clinical trial treatment. She began her clinical trial treatment in January.
Overall, she describes her treatment and care at the Research Institute as “excellent.”
“I love ‘em,” she said of all the doctors, nurses and staff.