I feel alive again
ALL-CLEAR FOR LEUKAEMIA PATIENT AFTER PIONEERING MEDICAL TREATMENT
A DAD of two says he feels he has been given a second chance at life after receiving groundbreaking treatment for leukaemia.
Scott Davies had a 50 percent chance of survival after being diagnosed with the blood cancer two years ago.
But now he is upbeat after being one of a handful of people in the country to have had pioneering treatment in a clinical trial.
“As far as I’m concerned, there’s no reason why I should not have a normal lifespan, as long as the treatment keeps going,” he said.
Mr Davies, 50, pictured, was injected with modified T cells: immune cells which help his body to fight infection. These were taken from a donor and attack any residual leukaemia cells, which medics say have now been cleared away.
He even felt well enough to go on holiday last week to Weymouth with wife Clare, 50, and son Cam, 23.
“It was lovely – one of our favourite places,” he said, adding: “It felt like being alive.”
The former driving instructor, who hasn’t been able to work in recent years, said he hoped to start working again in the near future after being given his “second chance”.
“I am a positive sort of person anyway; you have to run with whatever chance you get,” he said. “I am hoping to get back to work soon. At the moment, they are not signing me off yet - they are waiting to see how I am doing.”
Mr Davies was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in March 2016. Treated at Nottingham City Hospital, he had chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. But after being in remission for around 18 months, in February he received the devastating news that the leukaemia had returned.
Staff at the hospital referred him to the University College London Hospitals to take part in the trial, called CAR-T therapy.
Mr Davies said: “After having numerous tests to assess my suitability and making me aware of potential risks, I decided to sign up. The treatment is far less invasive than chemotherapy. I was given the cells on July 31. I was closely monitored over two weeks to make sure there were no adverse reactions. I had a biopsy on September 10, which showed I am free of leukaemia at this time.
“The indescribable feeling of elation at having beaten the disease for a second time in two-and-a-half years will stay with me always.”
He added: “The technology of targeted therapy treatments offer a world of new and exciting possibilities in the treatment of cancer. I feel very privileged to have been a very small part of the process.”
Claire Roddie, consultant haematologist at University College London, said it was a “revolutionary” and “gamechanger” of a treatment.
The trial started last year, she said, and only nine patients had taken part so far.
Similar treatments for people under 24 had recently been approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), she said, but the trial was to see whether CAR-T proved effective on adults over the age of 24.
Dr Jenny Byrne, haematology consultant at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Scott had a relapse of his acute lymphoblastic leukaemia following an unrelated stem cell transplant.
“Further treatment options were limited as he previously relapsed before one year, making him ineligible for a second transplant. Further chemotherapy treatment was carried out which improved his bone marrow; this would normally be followed up by a ‘top up of T cells’ from a donor; however this can have limited success.
“At this stage, it became evident that Scott was eligible for the trial at UCL and was therefore referred onwards. The trial takes T cells from the donor and modifies them into donor CAR-T cells to attack any residual leukaemia cells.
“This is different to the other trials of CAR-T cell therapy where the patient’s own T cells are re-modified.
“He was accepted on to the study and so far the results are good, showing that the donor CAR-T cells are surviving in his blood and have cleared away the residual leukaemia.
“Only time will tell whether this response is durable. We continue to follow up with Scott weekly, and UCL follows up fortnightly.”