Following a successful experimental drug trial, a woman given just months to live a few years ago is now celebrating after receiving a doctor’s report saying there’s no more evidence of breast cancer in her body.
The mother of two, Jasmin David, 51, from Fallowfield in Manchester, first discovered a lump in her breast in November 2017. She eventually learned that it was due to an aggressive triple-negative form of breast cancer.
She underwent six months of chemotherapy and a mastectomy in April 2018, followed by 15 cycles of radiotherapy that cleared cancer from her body. Unfortunately, her cancer returned in October 2019, with scans showing multiple lesions throughout her body, which meant she had a poor prognosis.
With cancer cells already spreading to her lungs, lymph nodes, and chest bone, the doctors gave her the devastating news that she only had months to live. Two months later, David was offered to be part of the Phase 1 clinical trial at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Manchester Clinical Research Facility (CRF) at Christie NHS Foundation Trust. As part of the trial, she started taking Atezolizumab, an immunotherapy drug, combined with an experimental drug, Pembrolizumab.
“I was 15 months down the line after my initial cancer treatment and had almost forgotten about it, but then the cancer returned,” David recalled.
“When I was offered the trial, I didn’t know if it would work for me, but I thought that at least I could do something to help others and use my body for the next generation. At first, I had many horrible side effects, including headaches and spiking temperatures, so I was in hospital over Christmas and quite poorly. Then thankfully, I started to respond well to the treatment,” added David, who continues to take the immunotherapy drug intravenously every three weeks.
By June 2021, scans showed no measurable cancer cells in her body, suggesting that she’s cancer-free
“We are really pleased that Jasmin has had such a good outcome. At The Christie we are continually testing new drugs and therapies to see if they can benefit more people,” said Professor Fiona Thistlethwaite, a medical oncologist and clinical director of Manchester CRF at The Christie.
There’s no available information if Phase 1 of the trial has ended.