Support Francia's Fight Against Aggressive Cancer

Francia Geller wife of Chef Andrew Geller

On May 19th, 2021, Francia was first diagnosed with Stage 3B Colorectal cancer. A large obstructing tumor in the colon was found through colonoscopy. Immediately following the colonoscopy, surgery was done on July 27th, 2021. Twelve inches of the colon was removed, followed with adjuvant chemotherapy. During the chemo treatments, there were a few setbacks due to side effects of the chemo affecting the heart. The cardiovascular and oncology teams decided to stop the chemo early. She was on surveillance PET scans every 6 months.

On April 26th, 2023, during her routine scan, cancer was found in her lymph nodes, and she was put into treatment with another round of chemo and the addition of 28 rounds of radiation. Due to her heart issues arising once again from the chemotherapy treatments, the chemo was stopped and only the radiation portion was completed. The surveillance scans and blood work continue again every 6 months. After her first scan following her treatments, the radiation was successful to shrink and reduce the targeted tumors. A positive sign from a lot of hard work.

Unfortunately, news again this year, for the third time on May 21st, 2024, during her routine PET scan shows that more cancerous tumors have been found on her lymph nodes and has spread to the pelvic area. Surgery was not an option due to the locations being very risky to operate, so she was again put on chemo and 28 days of radiation for the 3rd time.

On October 24th, 2024, this year, Francia was admitted to the Emergency Department in DH due to severe pain in the right side just below the rib cage. A CT was performed, and the CT showed that there were extensive metastatic tumors in the lungs and liver. This is now metastatic stage 4 Colorectal cancer. This time the cancer is an aggressive form, and her oncologist acted immediately to put her into two new chemo drug therapies, hoping that it will at least slow the growth or hopefully shrink the tumors.

Francia began a new combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatment on October 30th 2024. The treatment is scheduled for every 2 weeks. The last 5 treatments have proven to be very powerful, the loss of hair and rashes are side effects of the treatments. The specifics of the duration of how long she will be on chemo treatments will depend on whether the cancer is responding to this new chemo combo treatment or not.

Earlier treatments have already depleted the family’s savings, and the financial implications of this situation will be challenging even just covering the basic expenses for the future treatments. $60,000 would help support Francia on her journey of healing. Help cover the loss of income, plus out-of-pocket insurance and co pays, and an additional for travel expenses that will arise over the next several months for traveling to Mayo Clinic in MN and to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas in January 2025 to seek available targeted therapy specific to this aggressive type of cancer.