Stanley is finally free of cancer after 35 years
GRANDAD WAS ONE OF FIRST TO RECEIVE CAR T-CELL TREATMENT
AN academic who has lived with cancer for almost 35 years thought his “options had run out”.
But Stanley Oliver, 73, of Wideopen was one of the first people in the UK to receive CAR T-cell therapy in 2021 at the Freeman Hospital – and the revolutionary treatment led to him receiving the all-clear. Stanley has had chemotherapy, steroids, and interferon injections among other – sometimes brutal – treatments for non-hodgkins lymphoma.
But by 2021, chemotherapy wasn’t keeping him healthy, and his tumours had gone from grade one to – the worst – grade four.
Fortunately, Stanley was one of the first patients to receive the radical new treatment which involves medics altering your own cells to help them fight off cancer, as the Freeman’s Northern Centre for Cancer Care was among the first places to offer it.
Now, 100 patients have received this therapy in Newcastle. Stanley, who way back when he was diagnosed was given just five or ten years to live, said: “My other treatment options had run out and doctors said if I met the criteria, I could be offered CAR T.
“My chemotherapy was no longer keeping the tumours at bay and biopsies showed my tumour grade had increased quickly from one to four. Once the decision was made to go ahead with this therapy, the speed was amazing.”
CAR-T involves harvesting a patients own cells – and in Stanley’s case they were sent to Amsterdam, where they were modified so they were better able to fight cancer cells.
Stanley was the first person to have the cell-extraction procedure as an outpatient, and he said: “The ability to be home in the evenings was beneficial to myself and my family.”
Stanley had to undergo chemo before the cells were re-infused into his body. He then spent ten days in hospital once the cells were re-infused.
He said: “The side effects were very harsh, and they treated me for sepsis as a precaution. But they said this was probably a good sign as my body was accepting the modified cells.”
Stanley returned for a scan a month later which was clear of cancer and a further scan in three months which showed he was all clear.
“I rang the bell and felt like superman,” the father and grandfather added. Since his treatment, and though he still requires monthly immune system infusions, Stanley has focused on his fitness and plays golf four times a
week. He continues to work as an academic, too – while doctors said the CAR-T therapy worked perfectly, and saved his life.
In thanks, Stanley raised £4,000 for cancer care at Newcastle’s hospitals with a charity golf day – and he paid tribute to his family and to the staff who had cared for him.
He said: “I think having a supportive family around me and being able to work has helped me immensely, it allowed me to focus and enabled me to be resilient and take a determined approach to see it through.
“There have been times when I really struggled as the treatments were quite harsh and aggressive and it was Joan who got me through on every occasion. It has changed my life, I can’t tell you how well I feel, it’s been like that ever since.
“The dedication of the medical and nursing staff is, and has been, outstanding.”
He has long been involved in clinical trials and research during his cancer journey – and said that he had “nothing but good to say” about how he had been looked after, but that the progress in care over the decades had been astonishing.
However, there were some bittersweet feelings, too.
He said: “Knowing how difficult this is to go through I feel blessed and very lucky that I was able to have this therapy.
“I also feel a sense of guilt as I saw a lot of good people who didn’t get to the end of the treatment, so there’s a sadness there.”
Stanley’s wife Joan added: “Every trial they offered him he went onto. He was prepared to try anything as he always said if it doesn’t work for me; it will work for someone else.”