{"id":2653,"date":"2019-05-16T10:18:16","date_gmt":"2019-05-16T10:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/?p=2653"},"modified":"2020-02-18T15:56:20","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T15:56:20","slug":"how-cancer-drug-trial-changed-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/oncology\/how-cancer-drug-trial-changed-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"How a cancer drug trial changed my life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"background-color:#f2f2f2;color:#32373c\" class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-profile-box round ab-has-avatar ab-font-size-14 ab-block-profile ab-profile-columns\"><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-avatar-wrap\"><div class=\"ab-profile-image-wrap\"><figure class=\"ab-profile-image-square\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" class=\"ab-profile-avatar wp-image-2654\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/05\/07211409\/P6-Col-Ann-Baker-headshot.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/05\/07211409\/P6-Col-Ann-Baker-headshot.jpg 200w, https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/05\/07211409\/P6-Col-Ann-Baker-headshot-125x125.jpg 125w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/figure><\/div><\/div><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-content-wrap\"><h2 class=\"ab-profile-name\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Ann Baker<\/h2><p class=\"ab-profile-title\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Cancer patient<\/p><div class=\"ab-profile-text\"><\/div><ul class=\"ab-social-links\"><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Lung cancer patient, Ann Baker, was told that conventional chemotherapy would not be suitable treatment for her disease. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hse.ie\/eng\/services\/list\/5\/cancer\/patient\/treat\/drugs\/trials.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Thankfully, a drug trial yielded positive results. (opens in a new tab)\">Thankfully, a drug trial yielded positive results.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p>One night in 2016, 70-year-old Ann\nBaker developed severe pain in her shoulder. \u201cI went to my GP who sent me for a\nchest X-ray,\u201d remembers Ann. \u201cThat&#8217;s when it was discovered that I had a tumour\non my right lung.\u201d It was devastating news and a complete shock, because\nLimerick-based Ann \u2014 a regular at the gym \u2014 wasn&#8217;t displaying the symptoms of\nbreathlessness or coughing usually associated with the disease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Worse was to come. Unfortunately, after\nhaving part of her lung removed, it was discovered that the cancer had spread\nto the pleura (the thin membranes covering the outside of the lungs), which\nmeant the disease was stage four and unsuitable for conventional chemotherapy.\n\u201cMy brother and sister had survived cancer,\u201d says Ann. \u201cSo I assumed I would\nsail through it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Experience of a cancer drug trial<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Her oncologist suggested the possibility of\nreceiving treatment from a trial drug; but more worry followed when Ann began\ndeveloping double vision. At first she put this down to macular degeneration,\nbut an MRI showed it was due to a small tumour on her brain. \u201cBefore I could\nreceive the trial drug, I was told I needed radiotherapy to shrink the brain\ntumour,\u201d she says. \u201cWhich it did, thankfully.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ann admits that she didn&#8217;t know much about\ncancer trial drugs, but had read about the experience of former US President\nJimmy Carter, who had seen huge improvement in his cancer after going on a\ntrial for a new immunotherapy drug. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She agreed it was the way forward and received her first treatment with a trial drug in January 2017. \u201cIt meant going to University Hospital Limerick every three weeks, which I was supposed to do for three years,\u201d she says. \u201cBut after 13 months, I started experiencing side-effects including nausea and dehydration so I stopped receiving the treatment in March 2018.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/oncology\/time-to-get-intelligent-about-ai-and-cancer-care\">A way to help future generations<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Even so, Ann considers the trial to have\nbeen a complete success and \u201cwouldn&#8217;t hesitate\u201d to do it again if necessary.\n\u201cI&#8217;m stable and have been since the trial began,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I feel great! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m monitored with a CT scan every 12\nweeks and a chest X-ray every six weeks. I&#8217;m 73 now and doing everything I did\nbefore. I don&#8217;t have children myself, but I do have nieces and nephews and\ncancer is so prevalent these days. That was another reason I decided to go on a\ncancer trial: apart from saving my own life, I saw it as a way to help future\ngenerations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lung cancer patient, Ann Baker, was told that conventional chemotherapy would not be suitable treatment for her disease. Thankfully, a drug trial yielded positive results. One night in 2016, 70-year-old Ann Baker developed severe pain in her shoulder. \u201cI went to my GP who sent me for a chest X-ray,\u201d remembers Ann. \u201cThat&#8217;s when it &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/oncology\/how-cancer-drug-trial-changed-my-life\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":2655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2856],"tags":[2859],"class_list":["post-2653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oncology","tag-innovation-in-oncology-2019"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/05\/07211409\/GettyImages-502474951-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/05\/07211409\/GettyImages-502474951-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Your Future Career","author_link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/author\/harveyodonnell\/"},"vicky_index_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2653"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4108,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2653\/revisions\/4108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}