A dad-of-two always believed he was healthy - until doctors told him he only had a handful of years to live.
Dave Kinsey, 68, enjoyed keeping fit as a keen cyclist. Life changed for him when blood tests revealed his PSA levels, an indicator of whether a man has prostate cancer, was found to be nine times over the healthy figure.
The beloved dad and granddad from Wigan was given three to five years to live as he was diagnosed with the most difficult to treat form of the disease. But after two experimental clinical trials, over the course of eight years, he miraculously has no signs of active cancer.
In February 2016, after going to his GP with some concerning symptoms, Dave recorded 36 on his PSA levels, when 4.0 and lower is considered to be normal. The tumours had spread to his lymph nodes and spine and he immediately went on his first clinical trial at Greater Manchester's world leading cancer centre, The Christie, which brought his PSA level back to normal.
Dave, from Winstanley, then went on his first clinical trial to combat the prostate cancer. But then the worst happened as his PSA levels started rising again in March 2019.
Doctors searched for another option for Dave and came up with an experimental treatment, signing him up to a recently opened study. It was aimed at helping men where the cancer has spread to other parts of their body and the tumours keep growing even when the testosterone in the body is reduced to very low levels.
Following that clinical trial, Dave has no signs of active cancer. The trial he participated in, which opened at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and Manchester Clinical Research Facility (CRF) at The Christie, is now being hailed a major global development in the treatment of patients with Dave's type of aggressive prostate cancer - buying those with the disease a 'significant amount of time'.
As part of the trial, Dave, husband to Jill, was given a testosterone blocking drug named abiratone, combined with olaparib, a targeted cancer drug which blocks a DNA repair enzyme in the cancer cells called PARP. This drug combination reduced his PSA level to less than 0.1 in under five months, leaving Dave with no signs of active cancer.
Although the trial, named PROpel, closed in October 2022, Dave has continued taking this drug combination. PROpel was a phase three trial, which compare new treatments with the best currently available treatments, used as standard for cancer patients.
Results from the phase three trial show that abiratone, given in tablet form, combined with olaparib, could extend the life of patients with stage four prostate cancer by an average of 7.4 months compared to standard therapy using abiraterone alone.
Abiraterone is currently being used for patients with advanced prostate cancer which has spread to other parts of the body. It is also given to people who have stopped responding to standard hormone treatment.
It works by stopping the production of testosterone, which helps keep the disease under control. Introducing olaparib to the treatment means chemotherapy may not be needed, thereby avoiding possible unpleasant side-effects which could have an impact on their quality of life.
The combination of abiratone with olaparib has now been approved by the European medicines regulatory authority and it is soon to be considered by NICE (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence). It is hoped that this effective treatment will be made available more widely on the NHS, with further important results recently presented at one of the world’s leading prostate cancer conferences in San Francisco.
Professor Noel Clarke, urological surgeon at The Christie and professor of urological oncology at The University of Manchester, is the joint global lead for the PROpel trial. He said: “Patients with advanced prostate cancer have an average of three years to live, so this drug combination buys them a significant amount of extra time to enjoy life.
"This is a genuine advance in the treatment of this type of aggressive prostate cancer (metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer) and its effect will have an influence on prostate cancer treatment around the world."
Dave added: “Initially I was told I had three to five years to live so I’m very pleased with the trial as it has stopped my cancer from spreading. Although the hormone therapy makes me a little tired, I can enjoy looking after my granddaughters, long walks with the dog and getting out on my bike.
"I’d recommend going on a clinical trial to anyone who needs it. You are very well looked after and regularly monitored so you have nothing to worry about.”
Almost 800 men globally participated in the PROpel study which was funded and supported by Astrazeneca and Merck pharmaceutical companies. Professor Noel Clarke was joint global chief investigator of PROpel together with Professor Fred Saad from the University of Montreal.
“The Christie prostate cancer team has made a substantial contribution to the development and success of this new therapeutic approach, illustrating the importance of combining laboratory science with clinical work involving patients," said Professor Clarke. "This new drug combination showed a significant benefit to prostate cancer patients, and it will help extend the lives of men unfortunate enough to develop this common and unpleasant disease.
"We recommend that this treatment should be considered as an alternative to chemotherapy when a patient’s metastatic prostate cancer progresses after their initial treatment following diagnosis and, ultimately, we believe that this type of therapy will become the “go-to” treatment for most patients in this specific group.”
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