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00:00I'm creative. I don't see creativity being limited to artistic endeavours.
00:12Actually, it's there to be applied to everything. And applying it to a tricky
00:21scientific question is brilliant.
00:25You've got to think big. You've got to dream the dream.
00:37Cancer is a huge adversary that's trying to hoodwink you.
00:43Well done, Gary. Nice deep breaths for us.
00:46One, two, three.
00:49But now we're at the dawn of a new series of cancer treatments.
00:55We have the opportunity to change medicine forever.
01:00For generations, a cancer diagnosis left almost no hope.
01:05It's a terrifying disease that has stalked us for millennia.
01:09I didn't expect I had cancer because all the tests were coming back negative.
01:14I don't think my body can take any more.
01:17Science has fought hard against it. And now the tide is finally turning.
01:22One of our key goals is to transform this idea of cancer as a death sentence.
01:27A group of trailblazing scientists are making new breakthroughs.
01:34We now need to take those discoveries and make them work for patients.
01:38This is the world's first lung cancer prevention vaccine.
01:43Discovering cures and finding ways to stop cancer before it even starts.
01:48The tumour seems to be shrinking.
01:50Your scan shows no active disease.
01:53Creating a future where cancer doesn't win.
01:57We're getting very close to defeating cancer once and for all.
02:03What's not curable today could be curable tomorrow.
02:07Cancer has been evolving with us throughout the history of humanity.
02:31It's a notorious killer. And very good at growing. But very bad at dying.
02:46Cell division is vital to life. Most of your cells in your body will divide at some point.
02:53A mutation is an error in the code that every cell has within its nucleus, its DNA.
03:02Mutations are happening in your body right now, but your immune system is very good at removing them.
03:08Your body has lots of mechanisms to deal with interlopers and problem cells.
03:15What cancer is very good at is evading those natural mechanisms.
03:19Mutations cause cells to grow when they should have stopped.
03:26And that can cause major problems for your body.
03:37Try not to move your head, Gary.
03:39In the battle against cancer, neurosurgeon and scientist Richard Mayer specialises in fighting one of the disease's deadliest forms.
03:48Glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer.
03:53While there have been advances in treating many cancers,
03:57no one has made real progress against brain cancer for decades.
04:00Richard is determined to change that.
04:03I think there is something brilliant about everyone saying you can't do it and saying,
04:12well, sod you a can.
04:14So there is a little bit of the defiant spirit.
04:17You have to think outside the box.
04:20You are making good progress.
04:22Brain cancer is a very difficult disease to treat.
04:27The treatment at the moment revolves around three distinct steps.
04:31First is surgery.
04:33Second is radiotherapy and then chemotherapy,
04:39which works reasonably well in about a third of patients and in two thirds of patients less well.
04:46And that's been the standard of care now for 30 years.
04:50And we haven't seen any changes in standard of care over that time.
04:54And so, from our perspective, that seems like a long time,
04:59especially when average survival is a little over a year.
05:03You've done really well.
05:05Richard plans to revolutionise brain cancer treatment,
05:10but he's up against a formidable enemy.
05:12Brain cancer is often fast growing and symptoms can appear out of the blue.
05:24What did you have for lunch?
05:25I had a jacket for the same time.
05:27Have they got the good cheese again?
05:29Yeah.
05:30Come on then, give us a hug.
05:35Yeah.
05:37My name's David.
05:40I'm going to sit down and have your drink.
05:43Take them in.
05:44I live with my wife, Laura.
05:49And my daughter, Lucy.
05:54We were on a walk and I suddenly had a dizzy spell,
06:00followed by, at that stage, it was just like a phantom smell.
06:04And I continued to have them sporadically.
06:08So, I started pursuing the doctors and I got diagnosed with everything from inner ear infections,
06:17upper respiratory infection, and then they settled on sinusitis.
06:22And I had all sorts of medications.
06:24And then a month ago, I had a seizure where I actually passed out and collapsed.
06:31At first, I thought maybe he was having a stroke or a heart attack.
06:33He clutched his chest.
06:34His face dropped.
06:35But then his whole body, you know, he just collapsed.
06:38He was shaking all over, struggling for breath.
06:41You know, everything was clenched up.
06:44And then I realised it was a full seizure.
06:46David underwent a scan.
06:49It showed a large tumour on his brain.
06:52Within a week, he's sent to Richard at Attenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.
07:05So, David, not uncommonly for one of my patients, has had a seizure, which means he's had a fit.
07:12And that's likely related to this tumour that we found.
07:16So, obviously, that can generate a lot of anxiety.
07:19And we need to treat those seizures that he's got.
07:22But, obviously, we also need to treat the underlying tumour.
07:24And that's what we're going to talk about today.
07:32Come through.
07:33Nice to meet you.
07:34Nice to meet you.
07:35I'm Richard. Come through.
07:36My name is Richard Mayer, one of the Consultant Neurosurgeons.
07:44So, what we can quite clearly see is asymmetry with an area of abnormality here, okay?
07:52My concern is that this represents some form of tumour, okay?
07:57And that may be a malignant form of tumour, so a type of cancer.
08:00So, there are three options in neurosurgery.
08:03One, we do nothing, we watch it.
08:05But I think if we were to do that with serial MRI scans, say, every couple of months, my worry would be that this would increase in size quite quickly.
08:15Second option would be to do a biopsy, which would tell us what this is, but it wouldn't remove any of it.
08:22And the third option would be to try and do what's called a debulking operation.
08:26We take out as much of the bulk of the tumour as we can, and we send some of that off for analysis.
08:32So, we make a diagnosis, but we also try and remove as much as we can safely, all right?
08:38So, I think of those three options you discussed with my colleague, the plan was for debulking, is that right?
08:44Yes.
08:45Okay.
08:46Any questions about that at all?
08:48We're happy to follow your recommendations.
08:51Okay.
08:52All right.
08:53Fair enough.
08:54So, there seems to be a sort of well-demarcated region on the brain, on the scan, for where this tumour exists.
09:02We will not be able to get out absolutely everything, and it is just debulking.
09:06It's taking out the bulk of it, okay?
09:08So, the results are normally a week, and then after that, we can make plans for anything we need to do subsequently.
09:14Okay.
09:15Good.
09:16All right.
09:17Nice to meet you both.
09:19So, I'll see you tomorrow.
09:20Yes.
09:22Take care.
09:23See you soon.
09:24Bye now.
09:25My concern is that this is some form of malignant brain tumour, the most common being a glioblastoma,
09:28but until we've actually done the operation and got the results back, we try not to, you know, predict too much.
09:37Glialblastoma is Richard's greatest nemesis, as it's almost always fatal.
09:46When you see these patients week in, week out, telling them, I'm very sorry, but there's nothing we can do, right?
09:53Absolutely nothing.
09:54I think if that doesn't motivate you to try and turn the train around, then I don't know what will.
10:02Richard's frustration has inspired him and a colleague to pioneer a revolutionary new approach to treating brain cancer.
10:13A clinical trial using personalised treatment.
10:16I think this could absolutely change medicine for good, because what we're trying to do is understand really the molecular level of what's going on in these tumours.
10:25Richard's plan is to pinpoint the specific genetic mutation causing each patient's cancer from hundreds of possibilities.
10:36Then, as quickly as possible, to match the patient with a drug thought to work against that precise mutation.
10:45The whole process used to take months, months that patients didn't have.
10:50Richard found a way to do it in weeks.
10:52So this is a world first because we're putting together precision therapies and targets that we've identified in real time using whole genome sequencing.
11:04And we think by bringing all of that together, it gives us a much better chance of finding a genuine treatment that's going to work for these patients.
11:11Just a day after his appointment, David is going under the knife.
11:17Obviously, it's very, very real now, but basically I just want to get it over and done with.
11:26Just get this part out of the way, get the first step out of the way.
11:31Just wake up, basically.
11:36And then go from there.
11:38Good morning, David.
11:39Hiya.
11:40How are you getting on?
11:41Yeah.
11:42All right.
11:43Did you get any sleep?
11:45On and off.
11:46On and off.
11:47Okay.
11:48Someone will come and collect you, take you upstairs, and then we'll get on with it.
11:52Yep.
11:53All right.
11:54Keen to get it out of the way.
11:55Yeah, indeed.
11:56Absolutely.
11:57All right.
11:58Well, I'll see you upstairs.
11:59Yes.
12:00Okay.
12:01What's your favourite place in the world?
12:11With my family.
12:12With your family, yeah?
12:13Yeah.
12:16For David, family life came late.
12:23Wait for us.
12:24Playtime.
12:26I was very nervous about becoming a father at 50.
12:31But I was there at the birth.
12:34And when she came out, that's when it changed.
12:40You know, there was instant love there.
12:43And it's just been an enjoyable experience from then to now.
12:52She's always coming up with something new.
12:56And, yeah, it's just a pleasure to be around.
13:00He makes a laugh all the time and their little jokes.
13:03I'm doing this for GCSE.
13:04I did an engineering.
13:08He's a big softie.
13:09He lets her get away with a lot.
13:11Three.
13:12When you get ill, well, it makes life more precious.
13:18But not just your own.
13:21You start thinking about others, especially the ones close to you.
13:27You know, if the worst happens, I want them secure.
13:33I want to know they're not going to struggle.
13:36I don't know what I'd do without it, so.
13:41Sorry.
13:42Sorry.
13:43Thank you, Mme.
13:44I'm sorry.
13:46Hi.
13:47I'm sorry.
13:48You're welcome, Mme.
13:49You're welcome, Mme.
13:50You're welcome.
13:51I'm sorry.
13:53I'm sorry.
13:55I'm sorry.
13:56And you're welcome.
13:57I'm sorry.
13:58This is just some oxygen, nothing else, all right?
14:04Nice big breaths, David.
14:07All right, that's it.
14:10Oh, yeah, of course.
14:12Oh, lovely.
14:13The sun's shining.
14:15Having the best round.
14:25In my childhood,
14:27my parents had a really big bookshelf
14:30that was full of loads of books that were off limits.
14:33And there was a book that looked like
14:36it had been well thumbed through.
14:40And it was called Grey's Anatomy,
14:42an anatomical textbook.
14:46The book showed that there were other worlds
14:48that could be explored that might be interesting.
14:52Probably that's what does drive me,
14:54is that there's something under the hood I don't understand.
14:56And can we get down to the bare bones of what's going on?
15:04Okay, it's a pin.
15:09Right, roll on three.
15:10One, two, three.
15:11And back.
15:12With David anaesthetised, the operation to remove his tumour can start.
15:21If the tumour does turn out to be glioblastoma, David's best hope would be if Richard could match him to a drug on the pioneering trial.
15:30All good.
15:31Okay.
15:32Can we make sure he has a strap, please?
15:33Yeah.
15:35It's very privileged, you know, to be able to look at someone's brain without wanting to sound strange is a great privilege.
15:42And it's one that no-one takes lightly.
15:48Knife back, please.
15:52Brain surgery has the risk of a terrible, disastrous outcome not that far away.
15:59Drill, please.
16:02Yep.
16:03You can inadvertently damage something that leads to the patient's death or significant disability relatively easily.
16:17And so you have to be concentrating throughout the operation to a very high level.
16:28Bone flat.
16:31Right, scope in then, please.
16:36Now, that's tumour, isn't it, there?
16:39Yeah, that's obviously tumour.
16:41Yeah.
16:42A lot of cancers, when you come to operate on them, they look like well-demarcated lumps.
16:49And you can be relatively confident that you've got all the tumour out.
16:55With a primary brain cancer, that's not the case.
16:59Glioblastomas are a group of tumours that are related to certain genetic mutations.
17:05What this leads to is an uncontrolled cell growth.
17:10And the way these cells grow and move is like tendrils leaching out from where they've started.
17:19Meaning that there are these long trails that go into the normal brain.
17:23The cells will infiltrate deep into the brain.
17:26And you can't cut them out, you can't even see the edges.
17:29Because you have cells that are proliferating and cells that can migrate and invade into tissues.
17:33And that's why it's called cancer, because it's the claws of the crab.
17:36What that means is it's essentially like trying to unpick two tins of paint that have mixed together.
17:42You just can't do it.
17:44Because we all would love to be able to take every last cell of the tumour.
17:49But we know that's impossible.
17:51So this is definitely tumour.
17:56A bit more tumour coming out.
17:57The hope is there is a drug on the trial which can treat any tumour left behind.
18:07To pinpoint the right drug, samples of David's tumour are collected for genome sequencing to map its genetic code.
18:15Part of all, thanks David.
18:22Thanks everyone.
18:24Send to the next.
18:25It's alright.
18:27Dave, we're just taking you round to recovery ward, okay?
18:30Hi there, it's Richard, the surgeon here calling from Addenbrookes.
18:39Hiya.
18:40Everything went really well.
18:42He's woken up in recovery.
18:44I was very pleased with how the surgery went.
18:46I managed to get out everything that I wanted to.
18:50I can't get out everything obviously, but I was really pleased with the amount that we managed to remove.
18:53Oh, that's fantastic. Thank you for calling me.
18:57Okay, no problem at all.
18:58That's a really big relief. Thank you very much.
19:00Alright, you take care now.
19:01Okay, thank you.
19:02See you. Bye.
19:03Bye.
19:05With brain cancer, time is of the essence.
19:11So David's tumour is rushed to the lab.
19:14If it is cancer, they then need to find out which specific mutation is the cause,
19:19so they can match it with an existing drug.
19:21That's done through genome sequencing, which once took a very long time.
19:29Whole genome sequencing used to be something that was, you know, otherworldly,
19:35that was, you know, brand new, took forever, was so expensive you had to batch the samples together,
19:41which means you could only run them once every month or two, and that's not the case anymore.
19:46The costs have come down, our pathways have got better,
19:49so actually people can be put in for whole genome sequencing as they get on and have their treatment.
19:55So really getting those results back more quickly is much more possible.
20:00This would have been impossible five years ago.
20:02Just getting the infrastructure, the sequencing, the analysis, the drugs, this is, you know, on point for something that is, is groundbreaking.
20:16It's been a week since David's operation.
20:23Today is results day for David, so we're going to get him into the clinic and we'll talk him through what his tumour has come back as,
20:32what pathological diagnosis this is, and also how much we managed to remove at surgery.
20:36It's a big day for him. Yeah, it's a big day.
20:39One of my first neurosurgical mentors told me that it's important to give people hope and similarly it's important to be realistic.
20:56And we used to always skirt around cancer in terms of mentioning the word and talking about prognosis.
21:06So I think it's important to get a balance of both, and that's what I try and do.
21:09David, if you want to sit there.
21:19All right.
21:21So you're obviously here for results.
21:25So we have been able to make a diagnosis, and it has come back as some form of tumour, okay?
21:32And it's a malignant type of tumour, so a type of cancer, and it's called glioblastoma.
21:37It's a cancer that's treatable, but it's not curable, okay?
21:44Any questions about that diagnosis at all?
21:47No, I think we were pretty much expecting that, because we've always trusted your confidence and your ability.
21:59We have read up on these sort of things.
22:02What's not clear is just what happens next, really.
22:04Sure. Okay, well, let's start with the scan.
22:07So this is the post-operative scan on the left, this is pre-operative on the right.
22:12And so what we can see is there's a good amount of the lump that's been removed.
22:16But as I mentioned prior to surgery, not all the cancer will have gone, because unfortunately we can never remove all of the cancer.
22:26So given that there will still be cancer cells there, the next stage of your treatment is to go for radio and chemotherapy.
22:33Yeah.
22:34All right.
22:35We also sent your tumour off for DNA sequencing, as we mentioned.
22:40The results from that may or may not direct what we do next.
22:44How long will chemo and radiotherapy keep this at bay?
22:47Okay.
22:48So you're talking about prognosis.
22:49Mm-hm.
22:50Is that something you want to talk about today?
22:52Oh, yeah.
22:53We have discussed this.
22:55Yeah.
22:56So prognosis is an average, so it's not a specific figure for you personally.
23:00But on average, survival is in the region of about 14 and a half months.
23:09So traditionally, students don't like coming to our clinic because it's full of bad news.
23:15And it is a very difficult environment to work sometimes.
23:20But I do think if you can do something that's difficult and not very nice in a compassionate and empathetic way,
23:29then you can gain some sort of satisfaction from that.
23:33But it is tough.
23:34It's horrible.
23:35You're telling people the worst news they've ever heard in their whole life.
23:39Just go home.
23:40You know, we've got a young daughter at home.
23:46Sure.
23:47We want to spend any, you know, what time is left is precious.
23:51Sure.
23:52Absolutely.
23:53It's extremely precious.
23:54Absolutely.
23:55Where we want to make the most of it.
23:56It's all I want now.
23:57Mm-hm.
23:58Spend time with you and Lucy.
23:59I was hoping it would be a bit longer.
24:00Okay.
24:01Yes.
24:02How many people have, like, gone on past, you know, 12, 14 months?
24:06Yeah.
24:07And we have a kind of 5% to 7% five-year survival.
24:10Okay.
24:11It's an average.
24:12Mm-hm.
24:13Okay.
24:14So let's hope you're on the other side.
24:15Let's face it, Laura, I've never been average, have I?
24:17Or lucky.
24:19Oh, of course I've been lucky.
24:20You'd better win on that scratch card.
24:21Of course I've been lucky.
24:23Go start.
24:24Do you all right?
24:25No, he doesn't know at the end of the day, you know you've been loved, you know you
24:36will be loved right up to the end.
24:39But they're going to be happy times, what I've got.
24:43Okay?
24:44Take care.
24:45You too.
24:46Okay.
24:47All right.
24:48I'll see you.
24:49What am I going to do without him?
24:55Just try and check it out a bit, please, for me.
24:58I don't like seeing you like he's upset, see you even more.
25:01Oh, no.
25:02It's really tough for them, really tough.
25:06David's got a lot of positives despite this overwhelming negative.
25:11He's had a good operation where we've managed to get a large chunk of this tumour out.
25:16He's well.
25:18And when we get his whole genome data back, we can look and see whether there are mutations
25:23or alterations in his DNA and regions that we can target with drugs that we've got on our clinical trial.
25:29What we want to do is transform this idea of cancer as a death sentence into something that can not only be treated,
25:38but that can be treated to give people a normal quality of life.
25:44Richard's revolutionary trial aims to rewrite the script.
25:50One of the first patients to join the trial was Amanda, a former finance director.
26:01You put half a pack of butter on this, did you?
26:04Yeah.
26:05Not that I'm complaining.
26:06No.
26:07Almost two years ago, Amanda had surgery and post-operative treatment for a glioblastoma.
26:14You've got a dirty face. You've been digging again.
26:17But a few months ago, Amanda's tumour returned.
26:26Patients with brain cancer will unfortunately recur very quickly.
26:32If it takes months to get the results of the DNA analysis you're going to use to plan their treatment,
26:40they may have already died by the time we get those data.
26:44Amanda, pre-cancer, she worked 15 hours a day, 16 hours a day.
26:53She was up London looking after the grandchildren.
26:56She had come back and hit work.
27:02I've looked at these for years, these wedding photographs.
27:06Long time ago, eh, Amanda?
27:09Yeah.
27:10And it seems like yesterday.
27:13Sit down, baby.
27:15I'm with her 24-7.
27:18I love it.
27:19Push.
27:20Push, you know, break your leg.
27:23No, you won't.
27:24Go, push.
27:25Like, I'm going to get her breakfast.
27:26I'll take her, get her tablets first thing in the morning, give it to her.
27:30And it's just that, because she'll forget.
27:34And I go, you ain't took your tablets.
27:36Amanda, just take your tablets.
27:37I look at it.
27:38It's me job.
27:39Ready?
27:40Yeah.
27:41Oh.
27:43Come on, then.
27:44Come on.
27:45Gary's very, very kind.
27:50He worries about me.
27:53And he gives me lots of support, especially now.
27:59Brain cancer robs the person of themselves.
28:04As it grows, it takes away that individual's personality, their ability to function in this
28:10world.
28:11And I really hope that our current approach will get some of that back for the patient to try
28:17and enable a normal life.
28:24To improve Amanda's future, Richard sought to get her onto his trial.
28:29So, he analysed her tumour's DNA to see if it had a mutation that matched one of the trial drugs.
28:36It's vitally important that we have the results back quickly, so that we can plan what treatment
28:42and get them in a clinical trial as soon as possible.
28:45And that's in a period of weeks, not months, and certainly not longer than that.
28:50When Amanda's cancer DNA was examined, a mutation was found that matched a drug on the clinical trial.
29:03I was really surprised to find out that there was still some hope for me.
29:11And my oncologist informed me that Richard would be phoning me to ask me to see if I was interested
29:20in joining this trial.
29:22I was really pleased at that.
29:24I was thrilled, actually.
29:26We both were.
29:30How much hope do you think we get from it?
29:33That's all you have to do, man.
29:37Hope.
29:38Hope, yeah.
29:39That's all you've got.
29:40It's hope.
29:42Yeah.
29:44And if that...
29:45But I want more.
29:46Well, it's going the right way at the moment.
29:49Yeah.
29:52Time is everything.
29:54A bit of new treatment might just give me a little bit more time.
29:57My cups always are full.
30:00So they always give you hope that they'll do something else.
30:04And it's hope.
30:06And that's all you can ask for is hope.
30:09And therefore, if there's a chance of a hope, I'm with Amanda.
30:14You'll be all right.
30:20What we're doing at the moment is trying to help the patients of today.
30:25But that will also help the patients of tomorrow.
30:48It's in there.
30:49Oh, thank goodness.
30:51Amanda's now been on Richard's clinical trial for three months.
30:56I feel so much better than I did when I was on the chemo.
31:00So I'm hoping that these are all good signs.
31:06As part of her routine, Amanda has regular MRIs that take detailed images of her brain.
31:12I have to have them frequently in order to plot any changes to my tumour.
31:22And if there are no changes, yay!
31:26They're not a problem for me at all.
31:30And in fact, it's a reassuring confirmation clarification of your current situation.
31:38So precision therapies are an interesting way of addressing cancer.
31:44We know that in a majority of patients, they have specific mutations that we can target with drugs.
31:53A precision drug has to have a target.
31:57What we need to work out is which of those targets and which of those drugs work in which patient.
32:06A few weeks later, Amanda is back in Cambridge for an appointment with Richard and to collect the drugs she's taking on his trial.
32:19That's how we go out that door.
32:25So the part of the clinical trial that Amanda is on involves taking drugs that work on the kind of mutations we found in her cancer's DNA.
32:32Once these drugs were absorbed into Amanda's body, they travel to the tumour in her brain and into the cancer cells.
32:46The mutations in the cancer cell's DNA are causing too many out of control signals to be produced, telling the cancer cells to keep growing when they shouldn't.
32:56The drugs work by blocking these overactive signals to prevent cancer cells from multiplying and to prevent cancer cells invading Amanda's brain.
33:09In theory, that means the tumour should stop growing or even shrink.
33:14You'll be brave.
33:17I don't know what I'm gonna do.
33:18I don't know what I'm gonna do.
33:26You're a funny lady.
33:27I know.
33:29Come on then.
33:32So back to see Amanda.
33:34It's great to see how she's getting on.
33:38Like most people here, all you do is you just hope that it works.
33:44and that's what you want to do in it yeah we've got we just need to be positive all the time don't
33:55we hi there come and have a seat thank you how are you doing great good to see you both
34:04so i guess we're here to look at your scan so we probably should start with that this is you
34:13at the beginning of february and this is the scan from june and i hope you could sort of appreciate
34:19that that sort of distance there is a little bit smaller oh yes i can see that yeah i think that's
34:26very very encouraging really there's definitely no increase in size in the lump which is good
34:33and perhaps it's actually shrunk a little bit which is really really encouraging given the fact that
34:39you're on this trial and that's something that we are looking for okay yeah i'm amazed i'm amazed
34:48and how are you feeling how are things i feel absolutely fine yeah okay any symptoms at all
34:54no she's getting stronger okay good she's getting more and more back to normal okay although she's got
35:02a long way to go but from where she was yeah she's doing absolutely fantastic well that's fantastic news
35:08and as i say from from our perspective you know we we knew that you had these targets within the
35:15tumor these changes in certain genes yes that made this new type of treatment which sort of specifically
35:21targets those changes rather than the generic chemotherapy right as an appropriate thing for you
35:28yeah um so that's a really you know good thing that we were able to find that and to match that change
35:35to a drug you know through the clinical trial obviously hopefully and certainly at the moment
35:40is going to have some sort of benefit but it's in herself yeah indeed yeah the fact that she's
35:45feeling better as well yeah yeah yeah he just wants me to start cooking again yeah i don't know about that
36:05but i think it's a good thing and i think it does give you a frame of reference okay is dad's home have you had a good day
36:14yes
36:15most of the patients i see had planned for the future and boom
36:21it's gone and i think the thing i take home from that is make sure you enjoy what you're doing you live your life to the full and enjoy it
36:35okay have you been playing on the trampoline oh well done mate that was excellent
36:53excellent
37:00family helps people get through difficult times
37:06i think it's really important and i can see how families strengthen each other
37:13your diet
37:14hello
37:16you have a good day at school yeah
37:32it's been two months since my operation
37:36then i had my chemo and radiotherapy
37:43I'm going to bump a crop this year.
37:50You slowly come to terms with it, I think you have to, or else it's just going to eat
37:55you up.
37:57So now it's just, I just relish my time with my family really.
38:04So many people inquire now, we have to put five rows of benches instead of four.
38:08You're getting too good, you need to be off-key a bit more and that'll drive people away.
38:16Lucy's the biggest focus, so I spend a lot of time with her, try and keep things normal.
38:25Lucy's coping with it very well, I mean she's just, she just keeps reminding me I've got
38:31to get better.
38:35At this time I am waiting to hear from the neuro-oncologist about the trial.
38:42What are you up to Goose, what are you playing?
38:47Well I'm hopeful for myself and hopeful for my long term prognosis, you know, that I will
38:56get on to a clinical trial.
38:58Yeah, where you got to when your hospital came, you've got a radiotherapy department
39:04on your hospital.
39:05That's where daddy goes a lot.
39:07I really hope it works and I hope it works for other people as well.
39:15You know, it's not just about me.
39:16My hopes for David are that we have a target and that with that target we can put him on
39:23a trial and that he has a good outcome from that trial.
39:27You know, every patient I see now, in the back of my mind I'm thinking, do they have a mutation?
39:34Can we put them on a trial and will we see improvement?
39:37Which I think is amazing and that's something that I've never experienced before.
39:47Alright, are you comfortable?
39:48I am.
39:49Are you alright?
39:50Very comfortable.
39:52Five months into the trial and Amanda is still responding well to treatment.
39:59Ta-da!
40:02Look at Gaz's face.
40:09Look at this beautiful evening.
40:11Yeah, we're lucky.
40:12Now we can plan for our future.
40:14It's lovely to look forward to something like that.
40:17Booking holidays and picking places to go to.
40:22How much do I love you?
40:24Answer that.
40:25Do you love me enough to buy me a boat?
40:27I don't know about that.
40:29I think if it weren't for the clinical trial, Amanda may well have progressed and her quality
40:38of life would have been impaired.
40:41Obviously with the trial drug, it's gone the other way.
40:44It's actually shrunk and obviously this is brilliant because she can still, you know,
40:49live her life and that's exactly what we want.
40:51What I want to achieve is a significant difference for patients with brain cancer.
40:59You know, when I started in Cambridge in 2013, there were very few scientists who were doing
41:07work in this field and now I think there are more and that's what I want.
41:11I want us to build a village to try and cure this.
41:18That village includes consultant oncologist Professor Juanita Lopez who worked with Richard
41:23for three years to get the ground breaking trial up and running.
41:29They're now finally starting to see the first patients benefit from their work.
41:35I saw Amanda in clinic recently.
41:38The tumour seems to be shrinking.
41:40So from my perspective, this looks really promising and I'm really excited.
41:45The other thing to say is that if she wasn't on this drug, not only would it not have shrunk,
41:50it would have increased in size.
41:52So actually, you know, seeing it shrink is really quite different to the natural history
41:56of what we'd expect this tumour to do in this scenario.
41:59This is David's scan.
42:00So we've removed all the tumour in his right temporal lobe, which is great.
42:04I think we're still waiting for the sequencing on him, but I've just checked and that should
42:08be back within the next week or so.
42:11So it'd be good to discuss to see whether he has any targets as well.
42:16You must remember, I said, well, this is too big.
42:18This is too hard.
42:19It's challenging.
42:20It was too difficult.
42:22It was too hard to do.
42:24Yeah.
42:25But you know, if someone was brave enough to do it, here it is.
42:28Yeah.
42:29And I think that you had great ambition.
42:31I had ambition.
42:33And I think by putting that together, we were able to be greater than the sum of its parts.
42:38There have been moments along the way where it's been exhausting.
42:44It's been floods of tears and chaos and crisis management.
42:52But if, you know, we're not going to do it, kind of who is?
42:55And they don't have a voice.
42:56And I think that's a really sad, you know, bit of this story that patients, they can't speak for themselves.
43:04So it's really, you know, championing those who, you know, have no force.
43:09Or can't.
43:10Yeah.
43:11Where do we think this will take us?
43:14I think we want to cure brain cancer.
43:18Yep.
43:19It's all there.
43:20We just need to link it together and have the ambition.
43:23The sky's the limit.
43:29The trial structure means that we can add new drugs as they come on board.
43:34And that gives us the opportunity to just keep adding to it, keep adding to it until we find a solution for every patient who has this problem.
43:42This clinical trial will last for as long as it needs to last.
43:48And we hope it's going to last for as long until we cure this cancer.
43:53The ultimate aim is to cure brain cancer.
43:56I think we have to be that ambitious.
43:58Now, we are a long way away from that.
44:00OK, I'm optimistic, but I'm not stupid.
44:02We have a lot that we need to do, but we are on a trajectory.
44:06We are on the first step and the ladder.
44:08But we have to be ambitious.
44:10We have to be positive.
44:11We don't just want to improve how the cancer looks.
44:16We don't want to get people a few months.
44:17We want to change how we manage this cancer for good.
44:21But you have to start somewhere and we're very much at the start of that journey.
44:25Well, you'll find details about support that's available for any of the issues that featured in the program.
44:31At channel 4.com slash support.
44:41Cancer Detectives returns next week at the later time of 10 and you can stream the whole series now and join Davina McCall and Adam Hills when Channel 4 stands up to cancer on Friday the 12th of December.
44:56The I'm.
44:58The I'm.
44:59The I'm.
45:00The I'm.
45:01and you can stream the whole series now and join Davina McCall and Adam Hills
45:05when Channel 4 stands up to cancer on Friday the 12th of December.
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