Mar 09,2024
A man who was given a few months to live has experienced a remarkable recovery from his aggressive brain cancer, leaving doctors astonished, reports The Sun.
Ben Trotman, a 41-year-old from West Sussex, received the devastating diagnosis of glioblastoma in October 2022, prompting him to move up his wedding to January. Doctors informed Ben and his now-wife Emily that most patients only survive for nine months.
The sudden change from good health to a terminal prognosis was a lot for the couple to process. However, Ben had the opportunity to participate in a groundbreaking clinical trial that utilizes the patient’s own immune system to combat the tumor.
Following the completion of the treatment, Ben is now nearly free of the disease, with the tumor shrinking in a way that was previously unheard of.In recent years, several notable individuals, including TV presenter Annabel Giles, campaigner Laura Nuttall, and former Labour cabinet minister Tessa Jowell, lost their lives to stage four glioblastoma.
In response to this devastating disease, Labour MP Dame Siobhain McDonagh, sister of Baroness McDonagh, is advocating for more patients to participate in clinical trials each year in order to find a cure.
The current standard treatment for glioblastoma involves six weeks of radiotherapy followed by six months of chemotherapy, which Dame Siobhain McDonagh believes falls short of being a true gold standard. In contrast, the new immunotherapy treatment, which was tested in a clinical trial, proved to be highly effective for Ben. Although he experienced a headache after taking the drug, doctors explained that it was a positive sign indicating the activation of his immune system.
While the trial ended for Ben due to a lack of eligible referrals from the NHS, Dr. Mullholland, the lead researcher, believes that this approach can be used in future trials. In fact, he has established a Glioblastoma Research Group and laboratory at UCL Cancer Institute, where he aims to combine cutting-edge drugs from the pharmaceutical industry with the latest advancements in scientific research to ultimately find a cure for this devastating disease.
Source: Healthworld