Advanced Cancer Left Him Few Options. A Phase 1 Clinical Trial Gave Him Hope

When Keith Putman’s kidney cancer spread to his eye 18 years later, he thought he had run out of options.

“They told me to prepare to basically die,” Keith says.

He was referred to Jaime Merchan, M.D., a medical oncologist and director of the Phase 1 Clinical Trials Program at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Health System.

“The Phase 1 Clinical Trials Program at Sylvester is a unique program, and it’s composed of a team of physicians, research staff, nurses whose goal is to bring the newest promising treatments for patients with advanced cancer,” says Dr. Merchan. “We are the only academic phase one program in South Florida.”

Sylvester’s Phase 1 Clinical Trials Program offers patients with advanced cancer hope.

Keith is now on his second clinical trial, and his tumors are barely visible.

“Now I get a chance to live even longer,” Keith says.

“Keith had an option for a standard treatment, but this treatment that we offered him, in my opinion, was better,” says Dr. Merchan.

The program gives patients access to the latest therapies before they’re widely available.

“We collaborate with different institutions and companies to bring treatments to provide to patients before they become available or before they are FDA approved. And with that, we give new opportunities and pathways for patients’ treatment, especially when they are not working anymore,” Dr. Merchan says. “Also, we have what we call investigator-initiated trials, which are clinical studies that are started from Sylvester science into the patients. And those are the trials that we are now focusing on.”

Keith is grateful to be able to spend more time with his family.

“They’re terrific. They’re very supportive,” Keith says.

He’s living proof clinical trials can prolong lives.

“I’m really indebted to him and his team,” says Keith.

Video transcript compiled by Janna Ross for ‘Focusing on You: Innovations in Modern Medicine,’ a series of healthcare-related stories airing regularly on ABC-Miami Channel 18.  For more stories like this one, visit UHealth’s YouTube channel.

Tags: difficult-to-treat cancer, Dr. Jaime Merchan, early-stage cancer research, South Florida cancer research, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center