168: Kevin Donaghy twice survived skin cancer | immunotherapy | pembroluzimab | metastatic melanoma

About this episode

Kevin Donaghy shares his journey of surviving skin cancer twice and the role of immunotherapy in his treatment.

What began as a harmless looking spot on Kevin Donaghy's forearm turned into a pair of diagnoses of skin cancer. The first was Stage II in 2018, but 18 months later, it returned and was diagnosed Stage IV metastatic melanoma BRAF+. The urologist said Kevin, an IT specialist from Melrose, Scotland, may have six months to live unless he underwent a newly-approved immunotherapy known as pembroluzimab. That was in 2020, and Kevin is still with us. The immunotherapy triggered a bout of ulcerative colitis, which left him bedridden for six months, but Kevin says his health is no different than it was before his diagnosis. In late 2017, Kevin didn't give much thought to a spot he saw on his forearm. He thought he might have cut himself and didn't know it. When the spot didn't go away, he sought medical attention. His doctor said the spot did not look cancerous, prescribed some cream for Kevin to rub on it, and said if the spot changes in size, shape or color, to come back. The spot made none of those changes, but it also didn't go away. Kevin was referred to a dermatologist, who called for a biopsy. He was away on a business trip when he received an urgent phone call stating that Kevin…

People in this episode

Host: Jim Foster

Guest: Kevin Donaghy

Topics covered

• skin cancer
• immunotherapy
• pembroluzimab
• metastatic melanoma
• health
• personal story

Keywords

• skin cancer
• immunotherapy
• pembroluzimab
• metastatic melanoma
• ulcerative colitis
• biopsy
• health

Mentioned in this episode

Products: pembroluzimab

Places: Scotland

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