Shaun Bancroft

In Feb 2004, Shaun was strong 44 yr old male 6ft 3in weighing 195 lbs. Working in a hand glass factory owned by the family. The first sign of trouble was he was waking up with terrible head aches and started loosing his side vision. A trip to eye doctor was followed by MRI which showed two tumors in the brain.

A trip to N.E. Medical Center with brain surgeon advised one tumors could be removed but the second was to deep. Surgery was performed with success but the lab report showed small cell lung cancer that had spread to the brain. The followup with the oncologist told him he was stage 4 small cell :oat: cancer and recommended full brain radiation along with aggressive chemo. Without treatment they told him he would be dead in less than three months, with treatment he may last 7 months.

He started treatment in mid March first with radiation and before that was over he started chemo. 
His head was all burned by radiation and the chemo. It did a real job on him he was sure he was going to die and started making all his plans.

I am his father and was familiar with Dr Burzynski through Dr. Whitaker. I wanted him to see Dr Burzynski but things were moving to fast, after radiation was over and he had a break in the chemo treatment he and I headed for Houston. Everyone one was hoping for some good news but most felt we were grasping for straws.

The first thing we felt at the clinic that these people really cared and made no promises but did offer hope. They first ordered more scans which showed the second tumors in the brain was still there and there was some regrowth around the one that had been removed, the tumor on the lung was still there and had grown a little and his lymph nodes were still enlarged. Dr. Burzynski plan of treatment called on continuing with the chemo back home but starting on PBs and amino care. We were in Houston for two weeks while the treatment was started and brought up to the recommended dose. We can't says enough about all the people in Houston, they took care of everything, while we were there Shaun's with blood count fell to almost zero, they got right on it and had him back to normal in one day. When he arrived in Houston he could hardly hear from an ear infection and they took care of that. He had these problems before going to Houston but the doctors up here said that was expected. We left Texas feeling a lot better than before we arrived.

He returned home for more treatment. After the second chemo. treatment his white blood fell to near zero again and his temp. went up to 103, they didn't do any thing about it, two days later he took himself to the hospital where he was admitted in critical condition. The day we was admitted the clinic had received the latest lab work and had been trying to reach us to tell Shaun to get right to the hospital, they really care.

This was in early June, The doctors up here try to blame all these problems on the treatment from the clinic but shaun wasn't buying that line because he knew how he felt. The chemo ended in Aug. and they took more scans, the tumors in the brain were GONE, the nodes were still enlarged and the tumor in the lung was a little smaller but still there. The important thing was it hadn't spread anywhere else.

The doctors up here wanted to now do full chest radiation, Dr. Burzynski agreed, Shaun wanted to do it because he felt since he had beens on the PBs and amino-care his treatments had been much easier on his body. He has now finished all the chemo and radiation still taking PBs and amino-care. Dec 27th he had all new scans and there is no cancer anywhere in his body.
He is back to 195 lbs and feeling great, and working as hard as ever. It has been a long 12 months but looking back we don't feel Shaun would be here if it wasn't for Dr. Burzynski and all the caring people at the clinic. We will go back for a checkup in early April and hope every thing is as good as it looks today.

Both Shaun and myself would be happy to discuss any of this with anyone.