HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. — Every three weeks, Ken Faulkenberry can be found sitting in one of the recliners at Carolina BioOncology Institute, often chatting it up with staff members. The 74-year-old grandfather told WCNC Charlotte's Jane Monreal he is thankful for finding the research clinic in Huntersville.
"They treat us like family. When you come here, you feel like you're going to family," Faulkenberry said.
The Lancaster resident said a routine test at CT scan in 2017 revealed a large mass in his abdomen. He was diagnosed with colon cancer, had surgery, and received chemotherapy.
Then in 2019, he said a lymph node showed up behind his liver in a delicate location leading his family to seek treatment outside of Charlotte.
He started with the doctors at Duke University.
"He walks in the room and looks at me and says, 'Mr. Faulkenberry, I'm sure you understand the type of cancer you have. It's neuroendocrine carcinoma,'" Faulkenberry remembered. I said, 'I understand that.' He said, 'Well you done live longer than you should have.' He said, 'You got six months to a year.' That was in '19."
After that appointment, he said his family moved into action yet again.
"My kids told me, 'Daddy we're going to go to MD Anderson in Houston. You can go willingly or hogtied drug, whichever you prefer,'" he said.
The hours-long surgery went well but he was to continue to visit MD Anderson every three months and resumed six cycles of chemotherapy.
"But the type of cancer I had, they always knew was coming back," Faulkenberry said.
At one of his follow-up visits, he said one of the Houston oncologists discussed hospice as one of his options.
Faulkenberry returned home in May of 2022, only to encounter even darker days ahead.
"When I get back home my wife passed away in her sleep, and I knew I wasn't going back to Houston."
Weeks after the passing of his wife of 53 years, doctors at Carolina BioOncology called. Faulkenberry was eligible for a clinical trial.
Dr. Neel Gandhi, oncologist at Carolina BioOncology Institute, explained cancer as a moving target.
He said, "Every year, new treatments get developed, but it can take years to become available and covered by insurance."
Physician assistant, Sherene Banawan, said the trials are an important step for FDA approval.
"As we go through phases for FDA approval for drugs, we have to start with the pre-clinical models, and then phase 1. The drugs are just being starting to be tested in human beings."
About Faulkenberry's progress, Banawan added, "Thankfully, he's been on the same treatment and getting some good response. Shrinkage, tumor shrinkage, and stability of the tumor."
Dr. Gandhi explained, "Our immune system has the ability to ward off foreign invaders in the body, including infection and cancer, specifically. What immunotherapy does is, it essentially finds ways to teach or waken our immune system up to fight cancer. A lot of cancers tend to grow because our immune system is not awake."
Faulkenberry said, "I think you have to have a purpose in life. I think, you know, you have to have a reason to live."
Six years after that first diagnosis, Faulkenberry, with the help of his grandkids and daughter, started Grand's Hope Cancer Ministry.
For those who have cancer, the group will add them to a list of their prayer warriors.