Auction to benefit Hoffman

There will be a cookie jar and western memorabilia auction for Connie Hoffman on Friday, May 10 at the Thermopolis VFW. A dinner of pulled pork and fixings will be served from 5:30-6:30 p.m., with the auction immediately following.

Hoffman was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in February of 2012 and in the first round of chemotherapy — from March until June the same year — put her into remission but since this is an incurable, aggressive disease the recommended next step is always a stem cell transplant, which she underwent in 2012.

The cancer came back about 15 months after the stem cell treatment and Hoffman said “it’s been a battle of trying to stabilize it with chemo.” She added she’s been fortunate to be on newly FDA-approved chemotherapies as advancements in multiple myeloma have developed. In the past couple years she’s had to be on a chemotherapy treatment constantly, which has taken a toll on her immune system.

She’s had a lot of her chemotherapy in Thermopolis, but it’s been overseen by the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and the doctors there helped her get into a trial involving use of her own T cells.

Hoffman has been approved as a patient in the National Institute of Health Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell trial in Bethesda, Md. She explained she doesn’t have many cells that fight disease, but in this trial T-cells are taken from her body and grown through a complicated process that takes a few weeks and used. The cells are manipulated so they have special receptors to fight the cancer.

“I’ll be using my own immunity,” she said, “to fight the myeloma.” This is a “dose escalation” trial, in which the doctors are trying to figure out what is the perfect amount of T cells to put back into the body. The trial began in July of 2018, Hoffman said, and there are 42 total patients so she’s fairly early in it.

Hoffman said T-cell therapy is very similar to what she’s doing and has already been approved for childhood leukemia and there has been a lot a research into CAR T cells, but it’s relatively new for multiple myeloma. Since the myeloma is a blood cancer like leukemia, there are a lot of similarities so a lot of success is expected but the amount of time a person will stay in remission is unknown.

She will undergo chemotherapy treatment right before she begins the process of getting the CAR T cells back. The chemo won’t be as harsh as it was for the stem cell treatment, she said, but she will be hospitalized for nine days after she receives the T cells and there will be daily follow up for two weeks. There are some side effects, she said, “but to me the promise outweighs the risks by a lot.”

Though the medical procedures are paid for by research dollars, the expenses she and her husband, Greg, are facing are the travel and his being off work. There will be monthly repeat visits for six months and then continued follow ups that are not as frequent.

Born and raised in Thermopolis, Hoffman returned to town in 1996 with her husband, Greg, to raise their children Kyle, Cody and Haylee. Both her sons work for Black Hills Energy in South Dakota, and her daughter is in the nursing program at the University of Wyoming, but they all grew up here and Greg graduated high school here.

Donations of cookie jars and western memorabilia can be made at the VFW prior to the event or the day of starting at noon. Contributions can also be made at Pinnacle Bank. For more information, call Keri Ferree at 921-1229 or Dolly Daniels at 921-9244.