Miracle cancer drug means I’ll see my girl grow up

A nurse who was given only 12 months to live reveals how his melanoma disappeared after taking part in a groundbreaking medical trial, writes LAURA MILNE

WHEN Clint Ridout was diagnosed with malignant melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, four years ago he thought his days were numbered.

After six operations to remove tumours from his chest, armpit, neck, chin and nose, the dad-of-two was told his only option was chemotherapy, which might give him a year to live.

But since taking part in a pioneering trial carried out by Swansea University, 47-year-old Clint, from Cardiff, is now living cancer-free.

“I have no doubt that going on that trial saved my life,” says Clint who is married to Sarah, 49, and has two children Ieuan, 20, and Frankie, nine.

Results of the CheckMate 238 trial, which were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting earlier this month, have shown that a drug called nivolumab, a form of immunotherapy, significantly reduces the risk of the disease returning after two years.

Researchers said nearly two thirds of patients (63 per cent) on the Swansea trial treated with nivolumab saw their cancer disappear, compared to 50 per cent in the group who were given a different treatment.

Nivolumab is currently only available on the NHS to those with advanced skin cancer but experts believe it should now be given to patients at an earlier stage.

About 89 per cent of stage three or four melanoma patients see their cancer return within five years if they only have surgery, the standard NHS treatment for melanoma.

The trial’s lead investigator, Professor John Wagstaff, at Swansea University, said: “The data for nivolumab is a significant advance in how we could help prevent recurrence of this potentially deadly disease.

“Even after successfully removing melanoma through surgery, patients may be at risk of it returning. This study shows that treatment with nivolumab after surgery may reduce this risk by stimulating the body’s own immune system to fight any remaining cancer cells.”

Clint, a nurse who works with people with learning disabilities, said: “I’ve always been fair-skinned and freckly. When I was growing up in the 1970s I was out all the time playing football with no suncream on and I remember getting so burnt that I had blisters on my shoulders.”

FOUR years ago, when he was coming up to his 44th birthday, “I developed a sore on my chest that began to bleed.” A biopsy revealed that the sore was in fact a melanoma, a type of skin cancer that can spread to other organs in the body.

Melanoma is caused by skin cells that begin to develop abnormally.

Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light from the sun, especially episodes of sunburn, is thought to cause most melanomas although there is evidence to suggest some may result from sunbed