Read the exclusive article in The West Australian newspaper, by journalist Rebecca Parish, which outlines that the majority of cancer patients are ‘still in remission’ following a breakthrough Perth trial.
“Eureka’ cancer win
Most cancer patients involved in a landmark Perth clinical trial remain in remission years later after a breakthrough treatment that bypasses the need for chemotherapy.
The remarkable development is the result of a eureka moment for Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital consultant haematologist Professor Chan Cheah, who first thought of the treatment while out running in 2016.
The first of 50 patients with advanced follicular lymphoma were recruited in 2019 and given a combination of three drugs over six months aimed at killing off cancer cells.
“It’s not a quick thing to do, designing your own clinical trials and I have to say it’s not something which is done in WA very often because it requires so much effort and so much work,” Professor Cheah said.
While he could not yet reveal the full results of the study, Professor Cheah said most patients were “still in remission”. The vast majority of patients had what we call a complete response, so in other words, they had another scan at the end of their six months of treatment and the scan showed that all he cancer was gone,” he said. “It certainly looks very encouraging.”
When Girrawheen father-of-five Robert Sutherland was diagnosed with lymphoma after finding a large lump in his groin in 2019, he was adamant he would not accept chemotherapy as part of his treatment. He said he was lucky to be accepted as the first person to be treated in the trial, adding the results were “better than winning the lotto”.
“I went to the wife the next day after the treatment and I said, “I can’t believe this, but I feel like it’s going down already,” and she felt it and said the same thing,” Mr Sutherland said.
“After a few months… I was back to work. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
He has blood tests every three months and said he had “not had a problem in the world” health-wise and no side effects.
Professor Cheah will unveil the results of the trial in December, when he presents them to other experts in the field at the American Society of Haematology’s conference in San Diego.