In November of 2016, Elena Zenchenko, beloved wife and mother of three, was diagnosed with a rare type of brain cancer called Glioblastoma. Devastatingly, it is one of the most dangerous and aggressive cancers - classified as grade 4.  There is no known cure.  You can imagine how hopeful we were when the doctors at Jefferson told us about a clinical trial that she could be in that had been showing amazing results and that Elena was accepted into the trial.  The trial involves taking cancer cells from her brain, putting them in her abdomen for 24 hours to expose them to her immune system, which would hopefully help her body create its own immunity towards the cancerous cells.

On November 29, Elena had surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible.  The tumor encompassed about a quarter of her brain. Parts of the malignant cells were deeply rooted in her brain tissue and could not be removed with invasive surgery, leaving her with about 10% of the tumor.  The next day her abdomen was cut open to place the capsules in, to stimulate her own body’s immune system.  Along with the clinical trial she is currently undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments to give her a fighting chance against this deadly disease.

Unfortunately, even with these treatments this aggressive tumor continues to grow on her frontal lobe, and, in fact has actually doubled in size since January 3rd, 2017.  The doctors are baffled - they have never seen this cancer grow so quickly.  It is affecting her motor functions, speech, memory, along with a variety of other functions that part of the brain is responsible for. With this news, the doctors informed Elena and the family that the only course of action is to go back in for a second surgery and to try to remove as much of the growth as they can again and reinsert the immune treated cells.

As you can imagine, the journey has been a heavy and challenging one for Elena and her family. One of the challenges has been the financial burden from medical expenses and missed work for Peter, Elena's husband. To make matters worse, we just learned that the insurance Elena has will be terminated in 12 weeks.

As difficult as it is for us to do, we are asking you to help support our family with a donation, small or large.  It will lift some of the financial burden and make it easier for us to support Elena through all of this. 

Thank you for your support and God bless.