Orland Park, IL – An Illinois woman who survived one of the world’s rarest cancers is celebrating a second remission after overcoming a disease diagnosed in only about one person per million Americans each year.
According to Northwestern Medicine, 83-year-old Regina Henneman of Mokena is once again cancer-free after receiving a personalized treatment plan for recurrent angiosarcoma, an exceptionally rare and aggressive cancer that forms in the lining of blood and lymph vessels.
Henneman was first diagnosed in 2009 after what appeared to be a bruise near her temple turned out to be angiosarcoma. At the time, she was working as a registered nurse and said even many healthcare professionals had never encountered the disease.
Over the next several years, she underwent six surgeries, radiation therapy and chemotherapy that successfully controlled the cancer. She remained in remission for more than a decade before the disease returned in 2025, this time in her right lung after she began coughing up blood.
Because previous chemotherapy treatments had caused significant side effects, physicians at Northwestern Medicine St. George Cancer Institute in Orland Park pursued a different strategy using the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab, marketed as Keytruda, along with radiation therapy.
Medical oncologist Dr. Yazan Numan said specialized cancer centers are particularly important for patients with rare cancers because they bring together experts from multiple disciplines to evaluate treatment options tailored to each individual.
Today, Henneman’s scans show no evidence of disease, and she continues immunotherapy while undergoing routine monitoring.
She hopes her experience will encourage others facing rare cancer diagnoses not to lose hope.
“I would like to help anyone through this because many patients are told angiosarcoma is deadly and it doesn’t have to be,” Henneman said. “If I can help one person in the world, I want to do this.”
