A man who was given a year to live after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer is now disease-free thanks to a UK trial.
Robert Glynn, a welder from Greater Manchester, said he wouldn't be here if it weren't for the results of the immunotherapy trial.
He was diagnosed with bile duct cancer a day before his 49th birthday in June 2020, after experiencing severe pain in his shoulder, which made him unable to sleep.
The cells lining the bile ducts grow more than they should due to this aggressive condition. There are tubes in the bile ducts that carry bile. They help to digest fat by releasing bile after they eat.
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By the time of his diagnosis, the cancer had spread to his organs and was too large to be operated on. It was classified as stage 4 with a bad outlook.
He asked his consultant to tell him how long it would take if he continued as he was.
A lot of people in the UK are diagnosed with bile duct cancer. Only 2% of people who were diagnosed with cancer lived for at least five years.
He was referred to the Christie because he was a good candidate to participate in a clinical trial of an immunotherapy drug. The immune system is able to fight cancer.
He could have a good response to treatment if the pre-treatment analysis of his tumours was correct.
The treatment, which is given by a drip, helps a person's own immune system fight cancer.
Due to the nature of the trial, the drug cannot be called.
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His tumours in his body shrunk from 12 cm to 2.6 cm and from 7 cm to 4.1 cm. He was able to have his tumours removed in April.
The treatment had killed off all the cancer cells. There were no active cancer cells found. They had to test the tumours because they couldn't believe it.
The nurse said it was a miracle. I don't like that term, but it's remarkable. He said that without the trial he wouldn't be here.
Since his operation in April, he has not needed any more treatment and his scans show he is cancer free.
More patients are being studied with the hope of changing the treatment of cancer.
After learning of the link between cancer and being overweight, Glynn changed his diet completely and lost five stone. He said that he needed to change his life.
Prof Juan Valle, a consultant oncologist at the Christie and a world-leading expert in biliary tract cancer, said: "Robert has done very well on this combination due to his tumours having a high burden of genetic defects."
Most patients with this diagnosis don't have as many mutations in their cancer cells so the treatment won't be as effective.
It could lead to a change in how we treat patients like Robert in the future if the results of this research and another larger study are anything to go by.
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