News
New clinical trials the key to beating cancer
The value of clinical trials has been highlighted with the announcement that terminally-ill cancer patients could be “effectively cured” using a new combination of drugs heralded by scientists as a once-in-a-generation breakthrough.
The results of the trial have been described as “spectacular” with nearly 60% of patients with advanced melanoma having their tumours shrunk or brought under control by the use of the immunotherapy, which uses the body’s own immune system to attack cancerous cells.
Professor Roy Herbst of the Yale Cancer Centre in the US said immunotherapy could replace chemotherapy as the standard cancer treatment within the next five years and the potential for long-term survival or “effective cure was definitely there”.
In the international trial, 945 patients with advanced melanoma were given the drugs ipilimumab and nivolumab. The treatments stopped cancer advancing for nearly a year in 58% of cases, with tumours stable or shrinking for an average of over eleven months.
Mary Higgins from Annaghdown is one of 13,000 Irish patients who have taken part in a clinical trial.
In 2013, there were 16 Irish hospital sites participating in 102 clinical trials affiliated with The All-Ireland Cooperative Oncology Research Group (ICORG) – a 30% hike on the previous year.
Clinical trials get access to medicines not yet available in pharmacies but which have in the main been approved by overseas drug authorities.
It is now thirteen years since Mary was diagnosed with breast cancer as she was about to turn 41. She underwent a mastectomy and had her ovaries removed. She had chemotherapy in Galway and radiotherapy in St Luke’s Hospital in Dublin and was given the all-clear.
Eight years later a metastatic tumour was discovered in her hip. She had a pin inserted into the bone to reinforce the hip and underwent radiotherapy.
Last year she woke up with a horrific pain in her ribs overnight.
An x-ray revealed the cancer had returned, this time in her spine and ribs.
“When I say horrific pain, I mean really excruciating, I was barely able to get out of bed. They decided to treat the most severe areas with radiotherapy and that gave me some relief. I had scan after scan, check up after check up and my consultant Prof Maccon Keane who’ve I’ve been under from the beginning, said to me I’d be a great candidate for a clinical trial,” explains Mary.
“He said I’d have a one-to-one nurse, more checkups, very regular assessments and the chemotherapy was less severe.”
The clinical trial involved the chemotherapy drug Capecitabine, which is given orally instead of intravenously every day. After a year Mary and her medical team are extremely happy with the results.
“I have very little symptoms. I’m not sick. I haven’t lost my hair which is a huge factor. I’m able to function. I don’t look sick. I do it at home, I go in every six weeks for a scan and a check up and come home with my bag of tricks, which has the medicine for six weeks. It’s brilliant,” she says.
“I don’t want to count my chickens but it’s certainly working for me. This time last year I felt as if my ribs were broken. Now not a bother. I’m back walking again, I can do all my housework, baking, meet friends for coffee. I couldn’t paint the house now, but right now is Mary time so that’s fine.”
Mary took redundancy a year ago from an office job at O’Connor’s TV and Electronic Repair Services after 34 very happy years. She has the support of a “wonderful” husband Michael, three children, who are now aged between 23 and 17 and her sisters, which she describes as “class acts”.
“It’s been horrific on them. My youngest son was only four when I was diagnosed. They have more questions now, I can’t fob them off, I didn’t want to be using the word cancer, but now I tell them everything. They’re a great help,” she muses.
The main source of complaint from Mary is the financial burden of the disease – up until March she had to pay €144 a month for medication after being continuously refused a medical card but she still has to cough up for consultants (at one stage she was under three different ones) and hospital parking.
“There’s no point in lying down and crying about things. I take every day as it comes. You just get up and go. I had a privileged life except for the illnesses. I had the world travelled. I had wonderful holidays, a wonderful job. I’ve always been a positive person.”
Mary advises anybody going through cancer treatment to enquire about the possibility of a clinical trial.
“I still have a lot to go through myself, but I would encourage anyone who is considering treatment options to ask your doctor about clinical trials to see if they are an option for you. A clinical trial can offer you the best treatment and there is something nice about knowing that you are helping patients who are coming after you.”
Oncologist Dr Ray McDermott, interim head of the Ireland Cooperative Oncology Research Group (ICORG), said significant strides had been made in cancer treatment which is largely as a result of clinical trials.
“Every medicine that is available now is available because of the people who have participated in the trials that preceeded.,” he stated.
“Participating in clinical trials is not something to fear and our research demonstrated that almost 50 per cent of people participated in order to get access to medicines that are not currently available and at the same time contribute to the treatment options that will be made available to other people living with cancer in the future.”
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
