Breast cancer drug trial: Woman given months to live gets all-clear
A woman with cancer who was given less than a year to live has been told she is clear of the disease after taking part in a clinical trial.
Jasmin David, 51, of Manchester, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in 2017.
Two years later it had spread and she started a trial, using an experimental medicine combined with an immunotherapy drug, at The Christie hospital.
She said she felt "reborn" after scans showed no evidence of cancer.
The Christie said Ms David had found a lump above her nipple in November 2017.
She underwent six months of chemotherapy and a mastectomy in April 2018, followed by 15 cycles of
radiotherapy which cleared her body of cancer.
But in October 2019 the cancer returned, and scans showed it had spread to her lung, lymph nodes and chest bone and she was told she had a poor prognosis.
'Horrible side effects'
Two months later, the mother-of-two was offered a two-year trial at The Christie of an experimental medicine combined with Atezolizumab, an immunotherapy drug.
Doctors have told her she is now showing no evidence of the disease.
"When I was offered the trial I didn't know if it would work for me, but I thought at least I could do something to help others and use my body for the next generation," Ms David said.
"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.
"Two and a half years ago I thought it was the end and I now feel like I've been reborn."
Ms David, who lives in Fallowfield, told BBC Radio Manchester: "I am here thanks to The Christie and to medical research."
She said after returning from India to visit her 97-year-old mother in April she decided to take early retirement and "live my life in gratitude to God and to medical science".
Ms David said it was "emotional" returning to India with the "good news" having gone two years before to say her goodbyes.
She said that she she had "so much to look forward to" including her 25th wedding anniversary in September, adding that she relished each day as "everything is a bonus".
Treatment on the clinical trial will continue until December 2023.
Prof Fiona Thistlethwaite, medical oncologist and clinical director at The Christie, who is leading the trial, said: "It is fantastic for everyone when someone responds as well to treatment as Jasmin has."
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