There were two wings to the trial: One was with OncoVEX and the other was GM-CSF alone, and I didn't know which I would go into. It turned out I was randomly put into the OncoVEX wing. They injected the tumors with OncoVEX, and they started multiplying rather quickly. I went from three to five to seven to nine to over 20.
The very first time they injected the tumors, I had a fever of 104 and chills that night. But after the second time they injected, I had no side effects ever again. It hurt at the time of the injection, but not excruciatingly. By the time I left the doctor’s office, I felt fine. So I was really thinking, “This is not so bad,” but it wasn't preventing the tumors from multiplying. At a certain point, Dr. Saenger said, I think we'll give it one last ditch effort and give the injection to you two weeks in a row, rather than every two weeks. After she did it two consecutive weeks in a row, the tumors started to go away. She too was very hopeful and said, “Let's keep going with it.”
My left lymph nodes had swollen, and I started having some pain. My surgeon told me, “Well, it could be because it's not just attacking the actual tumors themselves, but traveling through your system and going after any cancer cells that are developing in other parts of your body. So let's just hang out and see what happens.” Sure enough, it just went away. I've had no signs of illness ever since. I can basically say that I've been healthy through the treatment and afterwards with no real side effects.