“I was ready for the fight. I knew I was going to beat it. It was just a matter of time, and I was ready to start treatments that day,” said Amy Wells.

In October of 2022, Wells was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer. She went to Ellis Fischel Cancer Center in Columbia. Her team of doctors, including Christos Papageorgiou, MD, worked with Wells to create a treatment plan. That plan included a clinical trial that provided Amy a chance to get rid of her cancer while reducing the harmful side effects of chemotherapy. It is called the de-escalation study, a personalized treatment plan focused on
less chemotoxicity.

“It means taking away both number of cycles that decrease the duration of chemotherapy and also the number of agents,” explained Papageorgiou. “So instead of six cycles, we would offer four, and instead of four agents, we would offer three.”