Jenny was fit, healthy and swimming every day — until a faint pressure in her chest turned out to be stage four lung cancer.
“It was a remarkable shock,” the 66-year-old grandmother said.
“From being fit and healthy to suddenly having Stage 4 cancer – I couldn’t believe it.”
Now, two years later, her tumours have shrunk by 80 per cent.
Jenny is one of many success stories to come out of Perth’s Linear Clinical Research Trial Centre — which opened a new facility in Nedlands on Friday that is being recognised as “one of the most advanced in the world”.
The Advanced Clinical Trial Centre is housed inside the QEII Medical Centre.
“Our Advanced Clinical Trial Centre is transforming cancer care and changing lives,” Linear’s executive officer Jayden Rogers said.
Jenny is living proof of what’s possible.
Referred to a targeted therapy trial after her initial chemotherapy, she now takes two tablets every 12 hours. Within months, the results were “a miracle”.
“I’ve had an 80 per cent reduction in size. The tumours are hard to measure now. For me, that feels like a miracle,” Jenny said.
“That’s a huge relief. If I hadn’t been on the trial, things would be very different. Every day I feel blessed and grateful.
“I don’t know what the story would have been like without Linear so yes, I’m obviously grateful every day.”
She’s now back swimming — and, more importantly, back to enjoying life with her family.
“I have four children and a young grandchild who bring great joy,” she said.
“I remember going back to join my friends in my swimming and… it was really lovely to go and join that community again.
“There’s never a day goes by that I don’t realise how lucky I am and very thankful, grateful, blessed.”
The ACTC is purpose-built for advanced cancer research, featuring a 12-bed day suite, six private overnight rooms, six consultation rooms, a medication prep space and pre-processing lab.
Mr Rogers hopes the new facility will create room for more patients to access clinical trials.
“Only around 5 per cent of Australian adult cancer patients currently participate in clinical trials,” he said.
“Our whole mission is to ensure that more people can access this,
“Our hope is that we turn the dial so it’s not just 5 per cent, we want to find a future where anyone can get the best option for them, given their disease, given their stage, given what their clinician thinks is best for them.”
More than 75 per cent of patients in Linear’s cancer trials show some kind of response, he revealed — giving fresh hope to people who would have previously been told they had hit a dead end.
Professor of Hematology Chan Cheah, who is a consultant with both Linear, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Hollywood Hospital, said with the assistance of Linear there has been a 400 per cent increase in the number of clinical trials completed each year in Perth.
“There are a significant proportion of patients with advanced cancers for whom standard chemotherapy does not work,” Mr Cheah said.
“When they have no standard options left without a facility like linear, we would have no trials to offer them, and they previously had to travel interstate or overseas.
“It’s tremendously empowering.”
Medical Research Minister Stephen Dawson said these trials are single-handedly “keeping Western Australians alive”.
“The last time I visited here, I met a man who was told he had six months to live. Thankfully, that was eight years ago,” he said.
“I hope that many, many more Western Australians can access clinical trials.”
Credit: Caitlin Vinci,
