By Emily Stearn, Health Reporter For Mailonline
15:32 08 Mar 2024, updated 15:38 08 Mar 2024
A cancer-stricken man given months to live has stunned doctors after his deadly brain tumour effectively vanished.
Ben Trotman, 41, from West Sussex, signed up for a world-first treatment trial after his shock glioblastoma diagnosis in October 2022.
Told he had likely had just nine months left, he and fiancée Emily brought forward their wedding to last January.
But Mr Trotman, an investment banker at JP Morgan, is now living a normal life, all because of the ‘lucky break’ therapy he received. Doctors claimed his remarkable recovery was ‘previously unheard of’.
Typical treatment plans for glioblastoma see patients have surgery before chemo and radiotherapy. This is still the same way it was treated in the early 2000s.
Dr Paul Mulholland, a brain cancer specialist based at University College Hospital, London and head of the new trial, told The Times, that the end result is ‘the same story every time’.
The disease — which strikes around 3,000 Brits and 12,000 Americans each year —usually returns before ultimately killing patients, Dr Mulholland said.
Under his trial, patients were supposed to get a course of immunotherapy before undergoing the usual course of treatments.
Immunotherapy revs up the body’s internal weaponry to hunt and destroy cancer cells.
The Times reported that the trial had to close with Mr Trotman as its only patient.
Yet Dr Mulholland said the results were so promising that a cure might finally be on the horizon.
He said: ‘I believe we have the tools to cure it.
‘We need to intervene early to give patients the best chance for longer-term survival.
‘It is important not just for brain cancer patients but for all the other left-behind cancers with poor survival, like pancreatic cancer.’
Average survival time for glioblastoma is between 12 and 18 months, according to the Brain Tumour Charity. Only 5 per cent of patients survive five years, it says.
The disease killed the Labour politician Dame Tessa Jowell in 2018.
Last March, The Wanted singer Tom Parker also died following an 18-month battle with stage four glioblastoma.
He said after his diagnosis that he was ‘shocked’ at the limited treatment options for GBM and ‘massive improvements’ were needed.
Diagnosed patients usually undergo surgery to remove as much of the tumour as possible.
This is followed by daily radiation and chemo drugs for around six weeks, after which the drugs are scaled back.
Radiation can be then used to destroy additional tumour cells and treat those who are not well enough for surgery.
But the cancer can double in size in just seven weeks.
For comparison, the fastest-growing lung cancers take 14 weeks to double.
Under the trial, funded by The Jon Moulton Charity Trust, Mr Trotman first underwent one course of immunotherapy before following standard treatments.
The unnamed drug used, which is not yet widely available, saw him suffer a severe headache.
Doctors said this was a good sign because it showed his immune system had ‘woken up’ and was attacking the tumour.
Dr Mulholland has now urged for the same approach to be taken in future trials.
It comes as Labour MP Dame Siobhan McDonagh last month introduced a bill to parliament calling on an increase in the number of brain tumour clinical trials.
The MP for Mitcham and Morden lost her sister Baroness Margaret McDonagh, a Labour peer, to a glioblastoma in June last year.
Under the bills recommendations include, compulsory training for NHS cancer doctors on brain tumours and at least 200 patients a year to join clinical trials.
Sarah Carter is a health and wellness expert residing in the UK. With a background in healthcare, she offers evidence-based advice on fitness, nutrition, and mental well-being, promoting healthier living for readers.
