Cancer Patient Looks Beyond Own Plight To Champion Outcome For Others
Published
From the Duke Cancer Institute archives. Content may be out of date.
UPDATE (JULY 2023): Trish Mackey, a triage nurse at Duke for 30 years, passed away from lung cancer in October 2019. She and her husband Michael had started a Feed Your Face dinner to benefit DCI lung cancer research in 2017. Her husband Michael has carried on the tradition of hosting the “Feed Your Face” dinner. Now in its 5th year, Feed Your Face dinners have raised over $33,000 to support Duke lung cancer research. Michael and the Duke Development team are extending an invitation for an afternoon of good food and good times with the Mackey family and friends in support of a worthy cause. We look forward to seeing everyone.
Patricia “Trish” Mackey and her husband, Michael, love nothing more than to rally friends and family around their dining room table for an evening of lively conversation and fabulous food. For a period of time, they hosted an annual gathering in which they whipped up huge spreads fit for royalty, asking only that their guests leave a small donation for the local food bank the couple supported. After several years, the annual dinner party fell to the wayside, having outgrown the venue and exhausted bandwidth.
However, after Trish, a triage nurse at Duke, was unexpectedly diagnosed last year with stage 4 adenocarcinoma in her lung, the onetime family feast made a resurgence, taking on magnified significance and new direction.
“Trish’s diagnosis was a shock,” said Michael, a schoolteacher who for some years also operated a deli at Duke University School of Law. “When we got past the momentary disbelief we began to think hard about how we could make a difference.”
Since their marriage 41 years ago, bonding time for the couple has always revolved around cooking. Michael, also known to the family as the “sous chef,” and Trish find some of their most meaningful moments together in the kitchen. Throughout the years, they've used their hosting and culinary talents to give back to their community. In the throes of chemotherapy treatment to keep her cancer at bay, Trish hatched a plan to bring back the annual dinner party—this time to raise funds to defeat cancer.
“I’m so very grateful for the wonderful care I’ve received at Duke, and I want everyone to have access to this level of care,” shared Trish. “Michael and I wanted to do something that would express our gratitude and also help to keep lung cancer research moving forward.”
One hundred guests attended the May 19 benefit crawfish boil held in the Mackey's backyard. Although there were significant downpours, the rain didn't dampen spirits.
The couple went all out—devising a menu for a Louisiana crawfish boil, renting a huge tent for their backyard and sending out a multitude of invitations to friends and family. This meal would be like no other.
While Trish and Michael were busy organizing the dinner, their son Michael Jr., 40, was putting together his own plan in which he hoped to add to the funds raised through his parents’ efforts. He created an online giving page, “Cancer Can Bite The Big One”. There, he poured out his heart, sharing what he had observed about what it means to live with cancer.
“It means putting your life in the hands of those around you,” he wrote. “It means scans, blood tests, doctor’s appointments, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, medications and side effects. It means not being able to hold your one-year-old grandson because it may cause a bone to fracture.”
Trish Mackey presents a check for more than $10,755 to Jeffrey Crawford, MD. Also pictured: Aviva Emmons, RN; Michael Mackey; and Susan Blackwell, PA.
Michael Mackey Jr. reveals to his parents the funds raised through an online fundraising page set up by the Mackey children and their families. Together, the Mackeys raised more than $10,000 to benefit the Thoracic Oncology at Duke.
On his fundraising page Michael Jr. hailed his mother’s clinicians and went on to urge anyone reading his page to give to help “kick cancer to the curb.” His wife Kim, his sister Lisa, and his brother Matthew and his wife Jane helped to spread word, emailing the link to everyone they know. They hoped those visiting online would be moved and engaged to give generously.
In spite a blustery downpour, on Saturday, May 19, the couple and 100 of their favorite guests chowed down on Cajun-style crawfish, jumbo shrimp and fresh corn, enjoying an evening filled with not only great food, but also laughter and good fun. To their amazement, family and friends stepped up to give Trish and Michael almost $5,000 for the cause. Michael Jr., through his online fundraiser, surprised his parents with a symbolic check for $5,755. In early June, the family visited Duke Cancer Center to present a check for more than $11,000—the combined proceeds—to Trish’s medical oncologist Jeffrey Crawford, MD, and his team.
“It is very motivating to see a cancer patient in the midst of treatment, with its many effects and unexpected complications, look beyond her own situation to focus on raising funds to make a difference for others,” shared Crawford, who hopes Trish will be eligible in the near future for a clinical trial of a new agent. “We are grateful for Trish and Michael and thank them for their support.”
To create a cancer fundraising event or to create an online fundraiser to honor or memorialize a loved one, visit MyDukeCancerFund.org or contact Erin Tait at 919.385.3126.
The Lung Cancer Initiative of North Carolina will host its 12th annual LUNGe Forward 5K and Family Fun Walk on Sunday, Sept. 23, at Midtown Park at North Hills in Raleigh, North Carolina. Funds raised support lung cancer research at Duke and beyond. Trish and her team, Trish's Krewe, will be participating.
For many people with lung cancer, the disease doesn’t stay confined to the lungs. Up to half of patients with non-small cell lung cancer, and as many as 80 percent of patients with small cell lung cancer, develop brain metastases throughout the course of their illness. These diagnoses can significantly affect quality of life, treatment options, and long-term outcomes.At Duke Cancer Institute (DCI), Laura Alder, MD, deputy director of medical oncology for the Duke Center for Brain and Spine Metastasis, is working to change how patients with brain metastases are represented in clinical research and, ultimately, how they are treated.Alder’s clinical and research career centers on two closely related priorities: lung cancer and brain metastases. After completing her fellowship at Duke, she joined the faculty and became deeply involved in multidisciplinary efforts to improve care for patients whose cancer has spread to the brain or spine.“Brain metastases have a huge impact on a patient’s trajectory,” Alder said. “They affect quality of life, treatment decisions, and outcomes in very meaningful ways.”Clinical trials often represent the most promising treatment option for patients with advanced cancer, offering access to therapies that are not yet widely available. However, Alder notes that trial eligibility criteria have traditionally been narrow.“There’s been a longstanding concern that patients with brain metastases wouldn’t do well on clinical trials or could confound the results,” Alder said. “As a result, many trials exclude these patients entirely.”To address this gap, Alder collaborated with a multidisciplinary group of researchers on a publication focused on improving clinical trial inclusion for patients with lung cancer and brain metastases. The work, published recently in Lung Cancer, builds on decades of research led by Paul Sperduto, MD, PhD, adjunct professor in the Duke Department of Radiation Oncology, who developed the Graded Prognostic Assessment (GPA).The GPA is a validated tool used to estimate survival in patients with brain metastases by accounting for factors such as age, performance status, disease burden, and tumor biology. For non-small cell lung cancer, the tool incorporates modern biomarkers, including genetic driver mutations, which can influence response to targeted immunotherapies.Paired with the eligibility quotient (EQ), which helps estimate conditional survival, these tools paint a more accurate and individualized picture of prognosis, one that challenges outdated assumptions.“What we see is that many of these patients actually have very good overall survival,” Alder said. “Our therapies are better, more precise, and more effective than ever before.”Alder said advances in imaging, MRI surveillance, and radiation techniques, such as stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), also make it possible to closely monitor and manage brain metastases during treatment. These innovations further support the safe inclusion of these patients in trials.At Duke, efforts to improve clinical trial inclusivity extend beyond a single publication. Through the Duke Center for Brain and Spine Metastasis, clinicians and researchers regularly collaborate with pharmaceutical partners, advocate at national conferences, and engage in ongoing dialogue with industry leaders.“This has been a mission for many of us for years,” Alder said. “At every meeting, every podium, we’re making the case that these patients need to be included because that’s where the unmet need is.”Encouragingly, progress is being made. National organizations such as the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), along with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), have increasingly emphasized the importance of broader eligibility criteria in cancer trials.Alder hopes the framework outlined in the publication will be used prospectively in future trials, helping demonstrate that inclusion of patients with brain metastases is both safe and beneficial.“Our patients are living longer than ever before,” she says. “They deserve clinical trials that reflect the reality of their disease and give us the data we need to keep making progress.”
For many people with lung cancer, the disease doesn’t stay confined to the lungs. Up to half of patients with non-small cell lung cancer, and as many as 80 percent of patients with small cell lung cancer, develop brain metastases throughout the course of their illness. These diagnoses can significantly affect quality of life, treatment options, and long-term outcomes.At Duke Cancer Institute (DCI), Laura Alder, MD, deputy director of medical oncology for the Duke Center for Brain and Spine Metastasis, is working to change how patients with brain metastases are represented in clinical research and, ultimately, how they are treated.Alder’s clinical and research career centers on two closely related priorities: lung cancer and brain metastases. After completing her fellowship at Duke, she joined the faculty and became deeply involved in multidisciplinary efforts to improve care for patients whose cancer has spread to the brain or spine.“Brain metastases have a huge impact on a patient’s trajectory,” Alder said. “They affect quality of life, treatment decisions, and outcomes in very meaningful ways.”Clinical trials often represent the most promising treatment option for patients with advanced cancer, offering access to therapies that are not yet widely available. However, Alder notes that trial eligibility criteria have traditionally been narrow.“There’s been a longstanding concern that patients with brain metastases wouldn’t do well on clinical trials or could confound the results,” Alder said. “As a result, many trials exclude these patients entirely.”To address this gap, Alder collaborated with a multidisciplinary group of researchers on a publication focused on improving clinical trial inclusion for patients with lung cancer and brain metastases. The work, published recently in Lung Cancer, builds on decades of research led by Paul Sperduto, MD, PhD, adjunct professor in the Duke Department of Radiation Oncology, who developed the Graded Prognostic Assessment (GPA).The GPA is a validated tool used to estimate survival in patients with brain metastases by accounting for factors such as age, performance status, disease burden, and tumor biology. For non-small cell lung cancer, the tool incorporates modern biomarkers, including genetic driver mutations, which can influence response to targeted immunotherapies.Paired with the eligibility quotient (EQ), which helps estimate conditional survival, these tools paint a more accurate and individualized picture of prognosis, one that challenges outdated assumptions.“What we see is that many of these patients actually have very good overall survival,” Alder said. “Our therapies are better, more precise, and more effective than ever before.”Alder said advances in imaging, MRI surveillance, and radiation techniques, such as stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), also make it possible to closely monitor and manage brain metastases during treatment. These innovations further support the safe inclusion of these patients in trials.At Duke, efforts to improve clinical trial inclusivity extend beyond a single publication. Through the Duke Center for Brain and Spine Metastasis, clinicians and researchers regularly collaborate with pharmaceutical partners, advocate at national conferences, and engage in ongoing dialogue with industry leaders.“This has been a mission for many of us for years,” Alder said. “At every meeting, every podium, we’re making the case that these patients need to be included because that’s where the unmet need is.”Encouragingly, progress is being made. National organizations such as the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), along with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), have increasingly emphasized the importance of broader eligibility criteria in cancer trials.Alder hopes the framework outlined in the publication will be used prospectively in future trials, helping demonstrate that inclusion of patients with brain metastases is both safe and beneficial.“Our patients are living longer than ever before,” she says. “They deserve clinical trials that reflect the reality of their disease and give us the data we need to keep making progress.”
