A mum given 50/50 chance of surviving after her daughter noticed "something not quite right" is one of only five in the world to receive "pioneering" cancer treatment.
Beverley Joyce, from St Helens, was losing weight and her daughter, Kimberley, noticed "a bit of a change" in her mum's speech as they prepared for afternoon tea in the Lake District and a trip to a Welsh country house for Beverley's 60th birthday.
She ulcers that wouldn't heal, and there was "something not quite right" about the lack of sharpness in Beverley's voice, like "she had something in her mouth", according to Kimberley. They blamed it on gum disease and moving teeth. Kimberley, 34, said: "There was a reason for everything that was happening, like the ulcers for example. She was eating healthily because she was turning 60, so she was having lots of citrusy fruit which causes sores in your mouth."
READ MORE: Couple 'thought they were seeing things' as sky flashes red, blue and green
She added: "There was a bit of trauma on the side of her tongue, and it was chalked up to the fact that, where her teeth had moved, they were causing pain in the tongue. It wasn't until there was a biopsy done at St Helens Hospital, we knew it was cancer."
Beverley said: "I was floored when I was told it was cancer. I have been healthy all my life and I've never smoked, so when they said it was head and neck cancer, I was really shocked."
The "aggressive", stage four cancer had spread from Beverley's tongue to her throat and lymph nodes, increasing the risk of secondary cancer. She needed surgery to cut it out, removing part of her tongue at Aintree Hospital in October, followed by 30 rounds of radiotherapy at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in Liverpool.
But there was also a new treatment described as "pioneering" by Clatterbridge. The NHS trust is running a clinical research trial for a cancer therapy designed to help the immune system destroy cancer cells and other cells believed to help it grow.
It's hopefully both more targeted and more extensive than alternative cancer treatments like surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. A modified virus - "like a glorified version of a cold virus" - injected into the veins should activate white blood cells known as T-cells to attack just the cancer cells, with this trained response continuing long after the virus has died off.
Beverley said: "When I was told about the trial, I thought it was amazing. They explained it all so simply. Why would you say no? I know it is a new treatment, but it's only helping my own immune system to have a better chance at fighting the cancer."
In September, before surrgery, she became one of the first five people in the world given the therapy as part of the Mode of Action Transgene (MOAT) study. Four are receiving the treatment at Clatterbridge under the care of Professor Christian Ottensmeier, the study's principal investigator.
They know the virus goes where it's supposed to, so the next step is determining whether the treatment actually activates immune cells to fight the cancer. The MOAT study includes patients undergoing the therapy before surgery and radiotherapy, while another trial is with patients for whom other treatments have failed.
Prof Ottensmeier told the ECHO: "We're not very good at making people with cancer better. The treatments are often pretty limited in their ability to kill all the cancer cells, and what you don't kill will eventually grow back. You really need to get to the point where you can get rid of all the cancer cells. You need a strategy that will allow you to target cancers that you can't see on a scan."
The consultant oncologist said the modified virus is "like a Lego set" in the sense if can be given additions to help it achieve its intended purpose - "You just put the right bricks in the right place". The technology to do this has been 20 years in the making, and Prof Ottensmeier finds it "exhilarating" to see "a new class of drugs begin its first baby steps into the clinic, and to see it's clearly not a wash out"
In the long term, he hopes it will lead to more people with cancer being cured with "personalised medicine" or a "personal cancer vaccine". For now, the trial offers "a glimmer of hope" to people like Beverley and Kimberley, who said the staff at Clatterbridge were "fantastic" at walking them through "the unknown".
Kimberley said: "They administered it, they answered every question, they were there the whole time. They were brilliant and so reassuring, I felt like I could go home, get a good rest and come back, and I knew that my mom was okay, she was comfortable, she felt safe. It takes the worry off."
Despite the gloomy prognosis when Beverley was first diagnosed, she got to ring the bell amid cheers and applause from Kimberley and the Clatterbridge staff at the end of her treatment. She still struggles with swallowing and is having speech therapy, but both Beverley and Kimberley feel "special" for having got the treatment she did.
Kimberley said: "She's taken part in something that potentially is going to change a lot of people's lives, and that's something to be proud of. They'll be writing about this, there'll be publications, there'll be so much research, and all her data is going to help that."
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
READ NEXT:
