Beyond Expectations
Today, she says, is a good day.
“There are days - like today - I feel like nothing has changed,” she says, explaining how treatment for stage 4 cancer has changed her life.
Like many residents in Coachella Valley, Lopez moved her family to the United States to live where her husband worked in farm labor, specifically vineyard work. It couldn’t have been an easy transition to remake her home from Oaxaca, Mexico, at the age of 42 with four children.
Now, at age 73, the Coachella resident is doing everything she can to give herself more time with the family she brought over many years ago.
Lopez came to Eisenhower Health in June 2022 with right upper abdominal pain. A liver mass that measured about 6 centimeters was suspicious for cancer. After a PET-CT scan, cancer marker testing and biopsy, she was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare cancer that develops in the bile ducts. Bile ducts connect the liver to the gallbladder and small intestine.
Lopez began her treatment in October 2022 under the direction of Constantin Dasanu, MD, PhD, Board Certified Hematologist/Oncologist and Director of Research at Eisenhower Lucy Curci Cancer Center.
“At the time of diagnosis, I checked the genetic and molecular makeup of the tumor,” explains Dr. Dasanu.
Dr. Dasanu’s investigation into the tumor is called tumor profiling. With this information, the physician tailors the patient’s treatment in what is known as personalized medicine.
“I found that she might benefit from immunotherapy, and I added an immune checkpoint inhibitor to the backbone of traditional chemotherapy,” adds Dasanu. “Mrs. Lopez responded, the tumor marker went down, and the CT scan showed a 15 percent reduction of the tumor size by December 2022.”
In May 2023, Lopez traveled to an academic medical center for a surgical opinion. Unfortunately, the surgeon found the cancer had spread to the intestines and under the diaphragm, and was unable to operate. By October 2023, cancer markers started increasing.
“Unfortunately, cholangiocarcinoma is a very serious cancer. In previous years before we had immunotherapy, life expectancy used to be six to nine months,” says Dr. Dasanu.
By December 2023, Lopez had a new mass and the disease started growing significantly around the intestines. In January 2024, Dr. Dasanu ordered another chemotherapy regimen, but after a severe allergic reaction to one of the medications, he had to change the regimen in April 2024. 
Lopez’s commitment to working through the treatment is remarkable.
“We are talking about almost three years of being alive with this disease, almost unheard of,” explains Dr. Dasanu. “This is because of our improved understanding of cancer and the availability of new, effective agents in the oncologist’s toolbox.”
“For any person who has been diagnosed with cancer: do not be afraid to seek medical care,” says Lopez. “Allow the doctors to do what they are trained to do and have confidence in them.”
Lopez and her husband depend on their son, Guillermo Lopez Bautista, to drive to appointments. At age 47, he takes time off from his construction job for the majority of appointments. Lopez continues bi-weekly treatments, with a relatively good tolerance and her disease remaining controlled, says Dr. Dasanu.
“She said, ‘Doctor, my family and I are praying for you. For your knowledge, for everything that you know, to use all of that to help me,’” recalls Dr. Dasanu. “She said, ‘my family and I cannot let one day pass without praying for you. I’’m so grateful to you.’ It gave me goosebumps to hear this from my patient who was not very talkative until that moment. She realized that she was dying and she came out of a deep hole of suffering and pain and progression of the disease.”
Regardless of the language or any cultural differences, Prudencia’s family urges people to push past potential barriers. With Dr. Dasanu, they utilize live interpreter services via a tablet.
“Don’t stop seeking medical care,” Guillermo says in Spanish. “Continue and ask for help in your native language.”
“I’m so happy we can help people speaking all kinds of languages in the world,” says Dr. Dasanu. “They’re so thankful. I see the gratefulness in their eyes, in their gestures, in their movement, in everything that they do when they come in here. It’’s a miracle happening in front of us, and I’’ve seen many, but Prudencia is one of those miracles.”
To learn more about cancer care at Eisenhower, visit EisenhowerHealth.org/Cancer.
