Coincidences, Cancer, and IceCure

Coincidences It was only a three minute presentation, but after I left the platform where I spoke, and before I got back to my seat in the audience, I met the next speaker in the middle of the aisle, Dr. Kenneth Tomkovich of Freehold.

“I know this man!” I called out unceremoniously in spite of this being a meeting before a panel of the US Food & Drug Administration.

Then the doctor and I hugged each other and he went up to the podium and began his presentation on the huge benefits of IceCure’s Pro Sense cryoablation that cures breast cancer.

That’s when it hit me. This whole scenario of my appearing before the Food and Drug Administration panel to promote IceCure, the benefits of early detection of breast cancer and the simple procedure IceCure created to cure cancer without surgery was absolutely meant to be.

There were too many coincidences over the past eight years to think it was an accident that I was privileged to have my three minutes before the 19 voting members and five FDA representatives, including the Office and Division directors, to tell my story.

The result, hours later, was the positive vote of the members recommending IceCure’s ProSense be approved by the FDA so it can be offered in the United States, covered by insurance, permitted in hospitals and enable untold numbers of women to be free of cancer in a way far easier, less expensive, less invasive, and without any harmful effects than the many ways approved currently.

Of course, cryoablation isn’t for every breast cancer tumor. No procedure or medication is. It is only for small tumors, the ones in specific places and caught through early mammograms or other detection methods. But it is one that offers a lot more comfort and the option that if it doesn’t work, a woman can always go another route, more painful and possibly disfiguring route.

IceCure offers the option that a woman has nothing to lose by going for cryoablation than the cancer itself.

What’s more, I am not a feminist. I have always believed that both sexes have important roles to play in this world, and I’m happy to be equal to any man in so many areas, exceed him in others, yet need him to lead, guide or do for me in still other areas. It’s the partnership of all talents that makes things happen.

But when it comes to cancer cures, I admit to being a little ticked, make that downright annoyed, that it has taken this long for cryoablation for breast cancer to be close to approval. It has been proven highly efficient and approved as a therapeutic option for prostate cancer since 1996.

But back to the coincidences that brought me to Gaithersburg, Maryland November 7 and a three minute talk before the panel that recommended exactly what my testimony told them to recommend.

Cryoablation works to halt breast cancer.

It was almost ten years ago that I had a serious stroke, was hospitalized, and thanks to fast work by the Atlantic Highlands First Aid Squad and staff at Monmouth Medical Center, I emerged from that terrifying day with few side effects from the stroke which affected my right side.

Two years later, I was still undergoing physical therapy at Centra State Hospital in Freehold and picked up their flyer promoting mammograms, something I had not had done for a few years. Coincidence number one.

The flyer noted that women who got a mammogram at Centra State would also get a coupon for $50 off a facial or massage at a nearby spa.  Enough of an incentive for me to make an appointment for a mammogram. Coincidence Number Two.

Living in Freehold at the time, my appointment was at the Women’s Center where a very wise female physician read the mammogram, diagnosed the cancer, even drew me pictures to show me exactly where it was, and introduced me to Dr. Ken Tomkovich.

Dr. Tomkovich happened to be starting a trial for this new procedure to kill small tumors by freezing them called cryoablation. Coincidence Number Three

I fit the category to be considered; I was over 65 years old, the tumor was small enough, located in a place possible for the procedure to work, and if I were agreeable, could have it done. It was no coincidence that I readily agreed. My thinking at that time, as it remains, is, Why not? If it doesn’t work, I could still have surgery, chemo and radiation if I chose.

Nor is it a coincidence that I’m curious, ask a lot of questions, stay busy and talk a lot. So when I was on the table, fully awake since sticking the frozen needle in my breast only required numbing the skin around it, and asked if I could watch, Dr. Tomkovich enabled me to see the screen while he inserted the needle, found the tumor and froze it to death. Fascinating, incredible, unbelievable and exciting. I joked with the attending staff and IceCure representatives who were in the room since it was a trial procedure.

“Don’t mess this up,” I said to the very serious Dr. Tomkovich, “I have to go to a meeting when I leave here, and I’m going to Israel in two weeks. Do everything right.”

Back to coincidences. The meeting, which I made back at St. Agnes Church in Atlantic Highlands and hour or so after the procedure, was with Monsignor Selemi and many friends who , like me, were leaving in two weeks for a parish trip to Israel.  Coincidence Number Four.

So it was that evening that one of the IceCure observers in the room called to ask if I had been serious. Was I really going to Israel? Sure, why, I asked? “Because that’s where this procedure was created,” he told me. And the staff there has not yet seen someone who is part of the trial. Would you consider going to meet them?

Consider it? What a PRIVILEGE. What sheer delight! Meet the people who designed this seemingly so simple, so perfect procedure that would help women forever in the future? Talk about coincidence!

And it happened. Once I was in Israel, and after phone calls, approvals and a generous IceCure driver and car, I left my hotel in Jerusalem one morning and was driven to Caesarea, met an incredibly young, brilliant and primarily female staff, learned more about their work and how the people of Israel pool all their efforts to make even small enterprises capable and successful, had an unforgettable dinner with my new and treasured friends at a restaurant right on the Mediterranean Sea, and was driven back to my hotel to continue my visit to a new country I quickly began to love and appreciate.

I kept up friendships with many of these women since that day, especially Tlalit, brilliant, friendly, and so knowledgeable in so many things. Through e-mails, we laughed over events that occurred in both our lives over the next few years and I mourned her great loss October 7 when I learned her beloved nephew was at that concert when Israel was attacked and he was murdered.

My son, Jim, Tracie, my daughter , and I had done some appearances for IceCure, so thrilled were all about the procedure’s success. I wrote many stories about IceCure while diligently following the procedures asked for in the trial, including oncology visits and mammograms over the next five years.

So when we learned of the Advisory Committee meeting late last month that was a big step towards enabling this procedure to be offered in the United States, we all wanted to be part of it. I willingly signed up to talk, Tracie willingly agreed to drive me the 500 miles for the one day trip back and forth, so I could be present, friends wrote letters endorsing the procedure, and Jim kept Tlalit informed of how privileged we all felt to be a part of medical history in the making.

Tracie and I left Maryland soon after my presentation was over in order to be back home that night, so were not able to stay to hear the vote. It was only after we were on Route 195 not far from Freehold, where it all started eight years ago, that Jim called on the phone to let us know. It was Tlalit who let him know: “Give your mom double hugs for all if us watching from IceCure,” she said, “the panel voted to recommend IceCure’s ProSense.”

More than a coincidence. Call it an answer to a prayer.

More Stories on IceCure HERE

My three minute presentation can be found HERE and starts at time mark 5:39:35

Or, if you would like to read my statement … Here it goes

I’m Muriel Joan. Smith, I’m 16 days short of being 88 years old, and I came here from New Jersey this morning to give you living, joyful proof of the great success and ease of cryoablation for the woman with cancer.

Eight years ago, I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time when I was diagnosed with breast cancer at Centra State Hospital in Freehold. The oncologist introduced me to a radiologist who was participating in the trial phase of this option for curing breast cancer. After some research, I eagerly accepted the opportunity, convinced it was simple and non-invasive. I also reasoned to myself that if it were not successful, I still had the option of other more painful, more invasive, possibly more life threatening surgery and body appearance alterations if I chose to go that terrifying route.

I like to say I participated in cryoablation, because as an inquisitive journalist who has spent her life probing, researching and writing for newspapers I was able to not only watch the entire procedure, but ask questions and have them answered. I was able to watch on the computer screen as the doctor’s needle went into my body, how it found the small tumor that was creating the problem, and how he inserted the needle into the tumor. I watched for seven minutes while the needle, absent any foreign substance being injected into my body, shriveled up this deadly little mass, crumbling it before my eyes into a tiny ball of squished cells. I watched the needle being removed, and I had a few minutes to lie on the table talking to those in the room. The needle was inserted once again just to be sure, I presume, it had done its job the first time. And I was still watching the whole procedure. and was able to the needle removed again, see them put the 4×4 bandage on my breast, thank the doctor and staff, get up, put my blouse back on and get in my car to drive 30 miles to a meeting I did not want to miss.

The only inconvenience in this cure was returning to the hospital regularly for mammograms and oncology visits for five years so medicine could be as proud as I that cryoablation truly works.

Three years ago, I was forced to get a vaccine against Covid. I strongly opposed the dictate; I knew it meant inserting something foreign into my body, something that had not yet been tested, approved, or proven to be safe. Today, the trauma of having to take that risk only makes me angry that three years after a five year trial period for cryoablation, something so simple, so non-invasive, so quick and easy for a breast cancer victim has still not yet been approved by the FDA.

I came here today with the hope and prayer that my testimony, and your seeing a healthy fit, happy, and cancer free octogenarian will help overcome that.

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