Our Beautiful Monica ❤️

On 20th April this year, our beautiful Monica, mum of 2, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer that requires new treatment not available in Australia. Monica is only 39 years old and has Stage IV Uterine Leiomyosarcoma.

Monica has had a benign uterine fibroid prior to her diagnosis and had two gorgeous children (Misha, 7 and Tobias, 5) with her fabulous husband Sean, without any complications. Since January this year this ‘benign’ fibroid started increasing in size which was causing her significant pain. Despite multiple attempts to fast track surgery to have these removed, Monica finally underwent what was meant to be a straight forward hysterectomy on 17th April. The outcome was a huge shock when her diagnosis was made shortly after the surgery and has devastated all of us who love her.

Currently, her cancer has spread to both her lungs and is actively growing back in her pelvis. This has caused some blockage to her right ureter for which she recently had a procedure to allow her kidney to function to commence treatment.

Here are some scary facts about Monica’s cancer:

- 70-80% of women will have benign uterine fibroids in their lifetime

- 1 in 1000 of these will become cancerous and this is called Uterine Leiomyosarcoma. Current practice is that known benign fibroids are left alone unless there are significant symptoms

- Soft tissue sarcomas account for less than 1% of all malignancies, and Leiomyosarcomas account for roughly 5-10% of these soft tissue sarcomas.

Monica’s cancer is rare with an unmet medical need.

The current treatment options for this type of cancer are not promising and due to its rare status there is still much to be learnt.

Monica is having to fund her own treatment with a chemotherapy drug called Lartruvo. Lartruvo is still undergoing research but has shown more promising results for her type of cancer so much so that is has been fast tracked in the US and Europe as a combination first line therapy. Australia is behind. In the studies completed, Lartruvo was added to the chemotherapy Doxorubicin that is currently approved as first line therapy in Australia. Lartruvo is not yet subsidised in Australia.

Due to the urgency of her cancer, her first cycle cost was $13,928 AUD which was sourced from a company that was able to provide it immediately, shipped in from Europe. All her future cycles will be sourced directly from the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly for $8,360 USD per cycle.

Monica will need up to 8 cycles of Lartruvo with a maximum cost of $89,168 AUD.

For her treatments, Monica is attending Lifehouse at Camperdown, NSW, Australia and she is currently under the care of one of the top sarcoma specialists in Australia.

With her cancer, it is likely that she will need to receive further alternative treatment down the line. We are hoping that there will be options for her to have access to immunotherapy which is also still in very early research. This may potentially be at another huge cost so any support we can receive now will be a great help for Monica and her family.

Let’s all get behind Monica with our army of love, prayers and support in what will be the biggest fight of her life. We all have you on this one Monica.

“And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the lord, and I will be her glory in the midst.” - Zechariah 2:5

Any amount of donation you can offer will make a difference.

xx