We treat the tumor directly, through a needle, with immune drugs chosen for your type. A physician reviews your records first, free. For uterine cancer that has returned or spread, when drugs stop working.
Complete a short, three-step form to begin your admissions process. One of our patient consultants will contact you to explain the process and guide you through the next steps.
Uterine cancers come in two kinds. In one, the tumor cannot repair its DNA, and it often responds to immunotherapy; your report may call it dMMR or MSI-high. In the other, DNA repair still works and the tumor stays quiet to the immune system; your report may call it pMMR. For both, a needle breaks the tumor up, usually with electrical pulses, and injects immune drugs into it. It works alongside your current treatment, not in place of it.
The immune drugs placed in the tumor teach the immune system to recognize this cancer, the way a vaccine does. You teach the immune system in one spot, and it goes after the same cancer in the rest of the body.
The treated tumor is the source of the vaccine, and it keeps supplying it. It is not one exposure and done. Every round of tumor cells the immune system destroys exposes new antigens, and those restart the cycle, so the response keeps spreading: broader, throughout the body, and with memory. It turns a “cold” tumor, one the immune system ignores, “hot”.
Card 06 leads back to card 02. Doctors call the widening response epitope spreading.
Pelvic tumors sit against the bladder, the rectum and the tubes from the kidneys. Heat-based treatment risks them. Electrical pulses break up tumor cells without cooking the tissue around them. About an hour; most people go home the same day.
If your tumor answered Jemperli (dostarlimab) and stopped, one idea being studied is that the immune cells have worn out; injected drugs are meant to bring in fresh ones. If it never answered, breaking it open exposes its markers.
About an hour under image guidance, and most people go home the same day, about two hours later.
Once the immune system has been alerted at one tumor and kept re-primed by the cycle above, it acts on spread elsewhere in the body that was never treated, and it remembers it.
Standard care. Early disease: hysterectomy, with or without adjuvant therapy. Locally advanced disease: chemoradiation, with dostarlimab in selected cases. Recurrent or metastatic disease is treated by mismatch-repair status. Mismatch-repair-deficient tumors (dMMR, also written MSI-high: the tumor's DNA-repair system is broken, so it often responds to immunotherapy): chemotherapy with dostarlimab (Jemperli; the RUBY trial) or with pembrolizumab (NRG-GY018). Mismatch-repair-proficient tumors (pMMR: the repair system is intact and the tumor is immunologically quiet): chemotherapy with immunotherapy, or lenvatinib with pembrolizumab after platinum. HER2-positive serous carcinoma: trastuzumab-based regimens. Options narrow after progression on these lines.
Ablation alone. Thermal ablation is limited in the pelvis by the bladder, the rectum and the ureters.
This approach. Image-guided ablation of one tumor, often by non-thermal pulsed electric field (PEF) ablation because of the pelvic anatomy, followed by intratumoral immunotherapy injected into the ablation bed through the same access. The two mismatch-repair groups call for different tactics. For dMMR disease that has progressed on dostarlimab, WCI's injected immunotherapy aims at fresh effector-cell responses, on the hypothesis that the problem after checkpoint progression is T-cell exhaustion rather than a lack of antigen. For pMMR disease, which is immune-cold, the injected immunotherapy is aimed at converting the tumor locally. This combination is offered under physician review. In our clinical observations, a systemic (abscopal) effect occurs at untreated sites. Results vary.
The procedure, step by step
Agents. The injected immunotherapy is a multi-agent combination. The agents and doses are set per patient by the treating physician.
The immune conversion cycle, in clinical terms. Ablation disrupts the tumor and exposes its full antigen repertoire, not a pre-selected subset. The injected immunotherapy then remodels the tumor microenvironment, priming, recruiting and activating immune cells and releasing the brakes on them. Immune-mediated lysis exposes further antigens, which re-prime the response (epitope spreading), producing a broader, polyclonal, systemic response with memory, converting a cold tumor hot. This is WCI’s stated rationale, in Dr. Goodyear’s framing, borne out in our clinical observations.
Evidence. The published basis for intratumoral delivery is preclinical: in mice with colorectal tumors and no ablation, anti-CTLA-4 injected into a tumor reached about 14 times the day-7 level of intravenous dosing in that tumor; the untreated tumor received no more than with intravenous dosing, and half the dose reached the blood within an hour [1]. That is mouse data in colorectal cancer, not endometrial cancer; it does not test ablation and does not support a distant-site effect. WCI's own material also refers to a study of intraperitoneal checkpoint delivery in recurrent ovarian, endometrial and cervical cancer after first- and second-line treatment, on which the online candidacy check's uterine criteria are built; the route described on this page is intratumoral. No randomized trial of ablation plus intratumoral immunotherapy in endometrial cancer exists.
No uterine case with scans and a written record is on file yet. The patient accounts on this page are patients' own words, not medical records. Sources
Your tumor's type, and what has already been tried, decide where we fit. Pick the card that sounds like your diagnosis. Whether this is right for you is decided case by case, by a physician reading your pathology and scans, so none of these lists is a verdict. If you are unsure which card is yours, send the records.
Any of these describes you:
Each case is individually evaluated by the Williams Cancer Institute team.
After completing our admissions form, one of our Patient Consultants will contact you to explain the process and guide you through the next steps. Our admissions process is free of charge, including the review of your medical information and, if our medical team determines that you are a candidate, a video consultation. Treatments are generally not covered by health insurance, and WCI does not bill insurance companies.
One of our Patient Consultants will contact you to explain the admissions process, answer your general questions, and guide you through the next steps.
Your Patient Consultant will guide you on the required medical records and imaging studies, as well as how to submit them so our medical team can evaluate your case.
Once the necessary information has been received, our medical team will review your case to determine whether you may be a candidate for our treatments. If necessary, the medical team may request additional studies or information before making a decision.
If our medical team determines that you are a candidate, we will coordinate a complimentary Zoom consultation with one of our physicians. During this consultation, you will be able to discuss your case, address your medical questions, and learn about the treatment approach indicated for you.
Following your medical consultation, you will receive a personalized treatment plan that includes the corresponding costs. If you decide to proceed, the next steps will be coordinated to schedule your treatment.
Most treatments take place in Los Cabos, Mexico; in some cases our medical team may schedule a procedure in Mexico City. Rebyota is given only at our Beverly Hills, California location.
Your physician confirms the details for your case.
Your physician goes through the risks for your case before anything is decided.
Dr. Jason Williams is a board-certified radiologist who has spent his career putting needles into tumors under imaging. His first patent, in 2003, covered ablation combined with immunotherapy injected into the tumor. A physician since 2000, he opened his first ablation center in 2004 and completed his residency in 2007. He also co-founded Syncromune, whose separate investigational drug SV-102 holds FDA Fast Track status. His tumor board reviews every case.
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Most of our treatments are performed in Los Cabos, Mexico, in a private hospital setting.
Other treatment locations. In some cases our medical team may schedule a procedure in Mexico City. Rebyota is given only at our Beverly Hills, California location.
Accounts Williams Cancer Institute publishes, shared with each patient's permission. They span different cancers. Individual results vary and are not guaranteed.
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Read the full account →Complete our admissions form to get started. One of our Patient Consultants will contact you to explain the process and guide you through the next steps, including the medical information and imaging studies required for our medical team to evaluate your case.
