Tracie Sloan, a resident of Pine Level,Alabama, is seeking specialized medical intervention in Germany for her 28-year-old son, Cody. After Cody's Stage 4 colorectal cancer progressed despite aggressive treatment at major US facilities, his family is turning to international chemo-embolization to fight the disease.
The ceiling of the US six-step treatment protocol
Cody’s medical journey has been defined by a series of aggressive interventions that ultimately hit a domestic wall. According to the report, Cody began intensive chemotherapy and immunotherapy at an MD Anderson clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, which successfully shrank his liver tumors by over 50 percent. This progress allowed surgeons to remove more than half of his right liver in September 2024.
However, the medical battle shifted when scans in January 2025 revealed new lung nodules, confirming metastasis. Despite further treatment that reduced lung tumors by half, the cancer eventually rebounded. As the source details, Cody’s care eventually moved to the Montgomery Cancer Center and later to Emory in Atlanta, where doctors concluded on September 9 that no further clinical options remained within the United States. Sloan contends that the American medical system follows a rigid six-step protocol that effectively deems patients ineligible for further trials once those steps are exhausted.
Dr. Thomas Vogel’s chemo-embolization approach in Germany
The search for alternative care led the Sloan family to Dr. Thomas Vogel, a specialist located in Germany. Dr. Vogel offers targeted chemo-embolization procedures, specifically trans-arterial and trans-pulmonary methods, which differ from the standard regimens Cody received in the US. This specialized approach involves delivering high doses of chemotherapy directly into the vessels feeding the tumors.
The procedure is designed to be highly localized and aggressive. After the chemotherapy is delivered , tiny beads are used to block the vessels, effectively starving the cancer cells of nutrients while trapping the medication inside the tumor site. This method represents a significant departure from the systemic treatments Cody underwent at Emory and MD Anderson.
The $9,000-per-session price tag for international hope
Accessing this German medical expertise comes with a heavy financial burden that extends beyond the cost of the procedure itself. The report notes that each session with Dr. Vogel costs between $6,000 and $9,000, a figure that does not account for the necessary travel and lodging expenses for the family.
The Sloan family has already spent tens of thousands of dollars over the last two years attempting to manage Cody's diagnosis. To fund this next phase of treatment, Tracie Sloan has launched a GoFundMe campaign. She has expressed a fierce, singular devotion to her son's survival, stating she would be willing to sell all her possessions to facilitate his care.
Can specialized German care overcome the Emory diagnosis?
While Cody is currently asymptomatic and returned to full-time work in April 2025, significant medical uncertainties remain. The central question is whether the targeted chemo-embolization in Germany can provide a long-term solution or if the cancer will once again outpace the treatment , as it did following his lung metastasis in early 2025.
There are also unanswered questions regarding the long-term sustainability of this international medical path. Specifically, it remains unverified how many sessions will be required to achieve stability and whether the family's current fundraising efforts will cover the total cost of a complete treatment cycle. The efficacy of this specific German protocol in cases of advanced colorectal metastasis remains a critical unknown for the Sloan family.
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