Health
A chance to defuse the cancer timebomb
Jill Neill, 50, who lives in
Melsonby near Richmond,
was diagnosed with ovarian
cancer in December 2006
WHEN you have cancer, you home
in on positive news about the
disease. Your eyes scan the
headlines for anything that indicates
that medical science might be inching towards
the "magic bullet" that will stop
the illness in its tracks.
This month's announcement of a
breakthrough by the boffins at the
Northern Institute for Cancer Research
at Newcastle University, and the news
that this revolutionary new drug is already
being tested on patients, is a beacon
of hope for thousands of us.
I don't pretend to understand the science,
but it seems that the drug, known
as AG014699, works by preventing cancer
cells from repairing.
The current breakthrough looks set to
benefit only the five per cent of breast
cancer and ovarian cancer patients who
have the inherited form of the diseases,
but that is still potentially thousands of
lives saved.
My ovarian cancer is not the inherited
type, but I share the excitement and the
hope of those who do carry the affected
gene, and I eagerly await the outcome of
the 18-month clinical trial. It is impossible
not to consider the chances of the research
leading to a further breakthrough
for those of us with non-inherited
cancers.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect is
that the new drug could offer hope to patients
whose disease has failed to respond
to chemotherapy. I am half way
through my second four-month course of
chemotherapy, having had identical
treatment last year to shrink my tumours
temporarily. My consultant tells
me that my cancer will probably stop responding
eventually, and that scares me
a lot.
There is also the exciting prospect of
the new drug replacing chemotherapy
and its hideous side-effects. Each blast of
chemo sentences me to ten days of sickness
and nausea, severe joint pains, abdominal
cramps, fatigue and a general
feeling of my whole system having been
poisoned - which, of course, it has. And
that's without the weight gain caused by
the accompanying steroids and the hair
loss.
News that the development of
AG014699 was funded by Cancer Research
UK will reassure anyone who has
plodded round fun runs, sold raffle tickets,
bathed in baked beans or otherwise
raised money for the charity.
Headlines about the medical breakthrough
also have a welcome knock-on
effect - that of raising awareness of cancers.
Survival rates for ovarian cancer
are not great - only 20 per cent of the
7,000 women diagnosed each year will
still be around five years later. The rate
has not improved in 20 years, mainly because
the cancer is usually advanced
when detected, as many of us suffer no
symptoms or confuse them with the perfectly
routine signs of the menopause.
My cancer diagnosis was a bolt from
the blue, a complete shock. But those
who live with knowledge of the faulty
gene which predisposes them to an 80 per
cent chance of developing cancer must
feel they have a timebomb ticking away.
The scientists in Newcastle might just
have given us the chance to defuse it.
9:45am Friday 21st March 2008
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