A woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer has began treatment in a UK-first trial at the Christie Hospital.
Kim Jones, 44, was referred for urgent scans after noticing some thickening of the skin and painful twinges in her left breast. Her diagnosis was confirmed last February.
She has since undergone chemotherapy, followed by a mastectomy and lymph node removal in a bid to treat the cancer.
READ MORE: Woman who thought she had bad back desperate to get back from Vietnam
Kim has now been accepted to receive proton beam therapy for a trial which has been launched at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester and University College London Hospitals.
There has never been a large trial to investigate the benefits of proton beam therapy for breast cancer patients in the UK. Currently, it's mainly used to treat children with brain tumours.
The PARABLE trial will compare proton beam therapy and standard radiotherapy for patients who are at a greater risk of long-term health problems after treatment.
Kim, of Ely in Cambridgeshire, was selected for the trial as she has a pre-existing issue with her heart. Her treatment began at the Christie in October last year.
"When I was told that I'd been accepted onto the trial, I felt very lucky to have the opportunity to get this treatment," she said.
"Clinical trials are incredibly important as they are the best way to evaluate which treatments work the best. The proton beam therapy centre at The Christie is bright and spacious and feels very relaxing.
"My experience of being treated at The Christie so far has been superb. The staff are wonderful and seem to have thought of everything. Their care is second to none, and I feel completely safe in their hands."
Researchers hope the trial will allow doctors to deliver the required dose of radiotherapy while minimising the dose delivered to the heart. People who are predicted to have at least a two per cent or more potential lifetime risk of heart problems from radiotherapy will be invited to take part.
Around 500 out of every 30,000 people who receive radiotherapy for breast cancer fall into this category. 192 people across a planned 22 sites in the UK will be enrolled on to the trial.
The trial is being led by researchers at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH), the University of Cambridge, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and managed by the Cancer Research UK-funded Clinical Trials and Statistics Unit at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR).
Charlotte Coles, a consultant oncologist at CUH and professor of breast cancer clinical oncology at the University of Cambridge is the chief investigator of the PARABLE trial.
She said: "Although only a very small group of people are affected by a higher risk of heart problems later in life, it can still be a serious issue.
"Most patients treated with radiotherapy have decades of healthy life ahead of them and we need to do everything we can to avoid possible future heart problems related to treatment."
Find out more about the PARABLE clinical trial at ICR.ac.uk/parable
READ NEXT:
-
China diplomats wanted over Manchester assault outside consulate 'not welcome back', says minister
-
'China's Rupert Murdoch' steps down as director of Man City parent company City Football Group
-
“This is a mad dish. Are those black beans?” - The hidden gem Chinese lunch in Greater Manchester
-
Greater Manchester town named in top 20 of Britain's happiest places to live
