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A dad-of-two has been cured of his cancer after taking part in a clinical trial.
Peter Williams, from Folkestone, was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) in 2009 while working in Cambodia, South East Asia.
He quickly returned home with his family and was referred to the Kent and Canterbury Hospital.
Mr Williams, 50, said: "Looking back, there were symptoms I didn’t take any notice of, like night sweats and feeling run down.
"But it wasn’t until I was lying on my stomach and I could feel something was enlarged that I actually went to the doctor.
"When I was told it was CML, I had no idea what that was.
"It then took five weeks to get me and my family back to England; I had to sell everything, quit everything, say goodbye, and arrange passports and visas."
Under the care of Dr Christopher Pocock, Mr Williams joined a new drug trial and the treatment proved effective in combatting the disease, but left him with side effects including fluid on the lung which regularly required hospital treatment.
But as researchers elsewhere had seen positive results after taking patients off the drugs, Dr Pocock decided to try the same with Peter.
Dr Pocock, haematology consultant at East Kent Hospitals Trust, said: “Before then, it was thought that patients had to stay on the drugs for life and if they came off then their CML would come back.
“But a study in France demonstrated that 40% of patients were able to stop treatment indefinitely, and we were then able to take part in a UK trial where we halved patients’ dosages and monitored them for changes.
“We found that for people who had responded to the drugs and had no leukaemia cells in their body, 70% were able to stop treatment without it coming back."
"Judging by the results of other trials and our experience we can say he is probably cured of his CML..." - Dr Pocock
Tests revealed no change in Peter’s leukaemia status after cutting his dose in half and, after he was admitted to hospital in August 2016 with more fluid on his lung, the medical team decided to stop the drug treatment altogether.
Peter said: "I wasn’t frightened at any point.
“I consider myself very lucky to have been in the right place at the right time, so everything lined up and it ended up saving my life.
“I can now spend time with my family, I was a founding trustee of a charity and I volunteer as a governor at two primary schools.
“I can enjoy life and I am so grateful to Dr Pocock and the team for making that happen.”
This breakthrough means people will be cured without the need for a bone marrow transplant or life-long drug treatment.
It could also help save the NHS up to £50,000 per patient per year, and means people avoid side-effects associated with some of the anti-cancer drugs they had been taking.
Dr Pocock adds: "This is an example of clinical research allowing patients to be potentially cured of a leukaemia that 20 years ago was only cured by performing a bone marrow transplant, a procedure that in itself carried a 25 per cent risk of death, and risk of long-term debilitating side effects.
“It suggests that we will be able to get a significant number of patients into treatment-free remission through drug therapy alone, and that they will be able to enjoy a totally normal life without the need to take any further medication or treatments.”
East Kent Hospitals is the only district general Trust invited to join the Destiny trial, offering patients the option of stopping treatment.
In total 174 patients took part, with 12 from East Kent Hospitals.
Since then Dr Pocock has been able to take a total of nine people off treatment by following the trial protocol.
Dr Pocock said: “Not all patients want to stop treatment, and it can be a daunting prospect.
“But we monitor them closely and will restart the drug if there is any significant change.
"If someone has got to 18 months off treatment with no sign of the leukaemia cells returning we can be reasonably confident they are not going to undergo molecular relapse.
“Peter has now been treatment-free for three years and judging by the results of other trials and our experience we can say he is probably cured of his CML.”
