Groundbreaking cancer treatment arrives in the Midwest
Good afternoon, Chicago. ✶
Alla Pinzour has lived with skin cancer for 15 years.
She’s tried every possible treatment: injections, surgeries, radiation, chemotherapy. Nothing has managed to keep the disease at bay — until this year.
A new therapy offered at University of Chicago Medical Center used Pinzour's own cells to fight the cancer and shrink her tumors. Doctors are pleased with the results.
In today's newsletter, we'll meet Pinzour and learn more about this groundbreaking treatment.
Plus, we've got reporting on a rare mother-daughter art show, four must-see Chicago theater productions this season and more community news you need to know below. ????
⏱️: A 7-minute read
TODAY’S TOP STORY
Northwest suburban woman is first in the Midwest to receive groundbreaking skin cancer treatment
Reporting by Kaitlin Washburn
Alla's story: After more than a decade of treatments, last year, Alla Pinzour's melanoma spread further. Tumors were found in her stomach, lungs and liver. But her longtime oncologist learned about a new cancer treatment that would become available at University of Chicago Medical Center.
TIL: Called tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy, the treatment was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in February. Weeks later, Pinzour, of northwest suburban Hawthorn Woods, became the first patient in the Midwest and one of the first in the country to receive it.
Narrow target: Not everyone with advanced melanoma is eligible for TIL. It’s a laborious therapy that can only be used when other treatments have failed. Pinzour, 50, said the treatment was brutal. She often felt weak and struggled to get out of bed. At one point, she logged a fever of 105.1 degrees.
Good news at last: During a scan two months after the therapy, Pinzour learned that her tumors had shrunk by half. The success of the treatment meant Pinzour got to have a normal summer for the first time in years. She spent time with her husband and her two kids, visited with friends and focused on her catering business, Alla’s Yummy Food.
Key quote: "I can’t even describe the emotions. I was yelling, I was screaming. My husband was stunned," Pinzour said of the moment she learned of the treatment's apparent progress.
The road continues: Pinzour goes back for a second scan in November. "I have hope that I will be cancer-free," she said. "I’m a believer."
WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?
- Airtight contract?: When Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez rejected Mayor Brandon Johnson’s request that he resign, he did so knowing his contract would make it difficult to quickly oust him.
- Liftoff: Twenty-seven bridges in Chicago will be raised twice a week throughout the fall to allow boats to return to winter storage from Lake Michigan, the Chicago Department of Transportation announced.
- Data center push continues: A Georgia-based company broke ground on a 250,000-square-foot data center in Northlake Tuesday, underscoring Chicago’s growing prominence as one of the fastest-growing markets for such facilities.
- 1.5 star for ‘Megalopolis’: Adam Driver may star as an architect mapping out a better world, but Francis Ford Coppola's latest is bombastic, overwrought, tedious and campy gibberish, writes Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper.
NOW PLAYING ????
The must-see productions of Chicago’s fall theater season
Reporting by Steven Oxman | For the Sun-Times
Theater in the Chicago area is chugging along — and presents some must-see productions to add to your list this season.
Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812
What: This critical darling is a sung-through musical based on a sliver of "War and Peace."
When: Through Oct. 27
Where: Writers Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe
Never Better
What: A new musical from composer Preston Max Allen, this raw production is billed as a work in progress. It centers on a young woman battling loneliness and illness, infusing humor along the way.
When: Through Oct. 13
Where: Theo Ubique Cabaret Theatre, 721 Howard St., Evanston
Happy Days Are Here (Again)
What: A world premiere by Omer Abbas Salem, this production from the Steep Theater is billed as an examination of "man-made 'divine' power, who wields it and if they should be trusted."
When: Through Oct. 27
Where?: Steppenwolf 1700, 1700 N. Halsted St.
Primary Trust
What: A 38-year-old man loses his longtime job in a bookstore and seeks a new one at the Primary Trust Bank in this play that won this year’s Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
When: Oct. 5–Nov. 3
Where: Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn St.
BRIGHT ONE ✨
A Chicago gallery opens something rare for the art world: a mother-daughter show
Reporting by Elly Fishman | WBEZ
Thérèse Mulgrew and her mother, Wendy S. Rolfe, talk by phone every day. They chat about politics, summarize the documentaries they’ve watched and trace the emotional highs and lows of their lives. What they rarely discuss, however, is their work.
Both Mulgrew, 33, and Rolfe, 65, paint. Rolfe, who lives in Iowa and has worked as a painter for decades, constructs surreal, haunting images that reflect her interest in human psychology and dreams.
Mulgrew, who started painting only a few years ago after a brief career in the New York fashion world, creates cinematic canvases that conjure moody interiors and quiet conversations unfolding just out of earshot. While the two take different approaches to their craft, there remains an artistic connection between mother and daughter.
That’s what they were interested in exploring in their new show, "Breaking Bread," which hangs at Povos Gallery in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood through Saturday.
Together, the 24 paintings in "Breaking Bread" weave a tapestry of stories, and the most unexpected one for Mulgrew and Rolfe resonates across every canvas.
"We never expected to be artists together," says Mulgrew. "I never thought we’d have this experience and adventure. That’s been the biggest surprise."
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Written by: Matt Moore
Editor: Esther Bergdahl
Copy editor: Angie Myers