Neuro-Oncology: Brain and Spinal Cord

[MUSIC PLAYING]
JACK MARSH: Paula and I both like sports,
and we like to be outside doing things.
One day, I thought Paula asked me a question.
And I stood up, looked around trying to figure out
what she wanted, and fell over.
PAULA MARSH: Well that one moment changed our lives.
The doctors did a CAT scan and found a tumor.
The surgeon came and told us we had glioblastoma multiforme,
and said, there is no cure for this.
You need a clinical trial.
And that's how we found Sutter.
STACY D'ANDRE: Jack was part of a clinical trial that
used vaccine therapy to treat his brain tumor.
And he is one of our long-term survivors
on that clinical trial.
Clinical trials are very important, especially
for cancer patients.
They are really where our breakthroughs in medicine
come from.
Oftentimes, the clinical trials will give the patients
an opportunity to have a treatment that they would not
normally be able to get.
PAULA MARSH: Without the clinical trial, we were told,
you've got two to six weeks.
With radiation and chemo, you might get two years.
With a clinical trial, depending upon the clinical trial,
you could get more.
STACY D'ANDRE: It's really important
to be able to offer clinical trials for our patients
in our own community.
They are really what give us hope in terms of finding
future treatments for patients.
JACK MARSH: Sutter had a great program going.
They knew what they were doing.
PAULA MARSH: The doctors were great.
They were on top of things.
JACK MARSH: It worked out for me very well.
It's six years later, and I'm still here.
My motto I'm living now is, if not now,
when are we going to go play?

We've been doing a lot of traveling, doing my exercises,
trying to play golf.
PAULA MARSH: Our hope for the future
is to see our grandkids grow up.
And it's exciting.
JACK MARSH: It's incredible.