Jennifer Matthews: Rhonda Waite and her best friend Robin enjoy life's simple pleasures. They rely on each other for humor and support as they both face cancer. Rhonda has been fighting slow-growing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma for 15 years.
Rhonda Waite: It's a big difference, really, I mean to have somebody there for you.
Jennifer Matthews: When she grew resistant to the drug Rituximab, the gold standard for her cancer, she needed another option. So Rhonda joined a clinical trial with Dr. Jonathan Friedberg, on a needed new drug for non-Hodgkin's.
Jonathan Friedberg: Over the last 30 years, the incidence of this disease has nearly doubled, and it's one of only two or three cancers where the incidence is going up.
Jennifer Matthews: A recent study of the drug Bendamustine shows it gives patients with advanced lymphoma an option when other treatments fail.
Jonathan Friedberg: More than 70% of them had good responses to the treatment.
Jennifer Matthews: And 35-percent even went into remission. Here is a cluster of cancer cells before Bendamustine. 2 months later, the cluster is gone. Rhonda hopes the drug is the answer for her.
Rhonda Waite: I'm just not ready to give up, and I'm not going to, Robin won't let me now.
Jennifer Matthews: And that's the kind of support Rhonda says she needs to keep fighting. This is Jennifer Matthews reporting.
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