UK man, given a year to live, defeats stage-4 Cancer

A man from England's Greater Manchester who was given a year to live after being diagnosed with an invasive form of cancer is now disease-free. The development occurs after a personalised drug regime that the 51-year-old patient was put on in the United Kingdom.

Robert Glynn, 51, is a welder by profession and was diagnosed with intrahepatic bile duct cancer in June 2020 right before he was about to turn 49.

Bile ducts are small tubes that connect the liver, gall bladder and small intestine. They release bile into the human alimentary canal, helping to digest fat. When Glynn was diagnosed with cancer after experiencing severe pain in his shoulder, the cancer spread to his liver and adrenal gland. Glynn's Cancer classed as stage 4, left him with the least prospect to survive for more than a year.

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"I asked my consultant to be honest and tell me how long I’d got if I carried on as I was, and she said 12 months," he was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

According to Liver Cancer UK, only one in 50 people live for at least five years after being diagnosed with bile duct cancer.

Immunotherapy helped Glenn defeat Cancer

Glynn was reportedly deemed a good candidate to participate in a clinical trial of an immunotherapy drug that is already approved for use in lung, kidney and oesophageal cancer.

Immunotherapy actsby helping the human immune system recognise and attack cancer cells.

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The treatment, which is given by a drip and helps a person’s own immune system fight cancer, was combined with standard chemotherapy.

The tumour in his liver shrank from 12cm to 2.6cm, while his adrenal gland tumour shrank from 7cm to 4.1cm. Following this,Glynn was able to undergo surgery in April to remove his tumours.

Surgeons reportedly found only dead tissue, which meant the treatment had killed off all the cancer cells. "They didn’t find any active cancer cells at all. They tested the tumours twice because they couldn’t quite believe it,"said Glynn.

Since his operation in April this year, Glynn has not needed any more treatment and his three-monthly scans show he is clear of cancer.

Other studies are now being carried out with more patients in the UK, with the hope of changing the course of treatment of biliary tract cancer and improving the related survival rate.

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