Jeanne Ritt

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement.  Jeanne was diagnosed with Stage 4 Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer with a PD-L1 mutation in April 2018. Her cancer is in her left lung, lymph nodes, and multiple bones. Her oncologist said she has likely had this cancer for 1-3 years before she started showing symptoms a few months ago.

Cancers with a large amount of PD-L1 are good at hiding from the body's immune system, however, there is a very targeted immunotherapy that can help the body's own immune system recognize and fight those cancer cells called Keytruda. This treatment will hopefully help shrink her tumors, improve her pain and extend her life.  Jeanne started Keytruda immunotherapy on 5/30/18. This is an IV treatment she will get every 3 weeks indefinitely as long as she tolerates it and if it seems to be helping. There are a lot of potential side effects of this medication so please pray that Jeanne tolerates the medication and her pain improves. At this time, after discussing with her oncologist and family, she is solely doing immunotherapy and not chemotherapy. Her cancer is too advanced for surgery or radiation treatment at this time.

Jeanne has not been back to work since her diagnosis due to her pain level and advanced stage of cancer. If she is able to complete 3 treatments, she will then have another PET scan to determine if the treatment is helping. At this time, we are working on getting her pain under control. She is in a lot of pain, especially where her cancer is in her bones. Her initial PET scan showed that she has cancer to her tissue near her left ribs, on her left ribs, right hip, both her upper legs, lower back, right shoulder blade, right upper arm and sternum.  We want to thank all of our family and friends that have enquired about Jeanne and her journey as she fights this cancer! Please stay tuned for more information. We will keep everyone updated when we plan her benefit. Please keep Jeanne in your prayers!

This website is free, please DO NOT DONATE money to this website, it will not go to Jeanne.