Doctors have begun the first global study of why some people with cancer beat the odds and survive so much longer than expected.
Many cancer specialists have anecdotal stories of patients who have overcome even the most aggressive forms of the disease, despite being given only months to live.
The Rosalind study will now bring together large numbers of ‘super survivors’, allowing scientists to look for clues to why they have responded so well to treatment, while others die.
In the past doctors may have put stark differences in survival down to luck.
But Dr Thankamma Ajithkumar, who is leading the UK arm of the study at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, said the hunt was on for a more scientific reason.
“This is the first time anybody has tried to answer this question why there is a select group of people who do exceptionally well after these dreadful cancers,” he told Sky News.
“We will have a much larger database to say more confidently that this is what is making you live longer.”
The study will focus on some of the most aggressive forms of the disease – extensive-stage small cell lung cancer, the brain cancer glioblastoma, and metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
Just 3% to 5% of patients are still alive five years after diagnosis.
‘I never believed I was going to die’
Katherine Webster will be joining the study.
She was found to have a stage four glioblastoma after suffering a seizure on a train. Scans revealed the tumour in her brain was around 8cm across.
Yet after surgery and a course of radiotherapy and chemo all signs of the cancer disappeared.
Her latest scan, in December, showed she only has a small fluid-filled space in the left side of her brain.
“I never believed I was going to die,” she said.
“I just remember coming out of the surgery and saying, ‘I’m going to fight this’.
“Having that positive mental attitude has been really important for me.”
Katherine rows regularly near where she lives in Cambridge. Apart from tiring easily and having an occasional tremor in her hand, she is well.
“The thing that really struck me was the study’s approach,” she said.
“It’s looking at the positive effects, why you survive as opposed to why you get ill, which is the normal default setting for studies these days.
“It synchronised with my approach to the disease.”
Scientists in more than 40 countries – including eight cancer centres in the UK – will take part in the study.
They’ll analyse detailed biological information from more than 1,000 patients and their tumours, comparing genetic mutations, proteins and other factors that may determine their response to treatment.
‘We might find targets for drugs’
Dr Ajithkumar said: “We hope to answer our basic curiosity of why somebody is alive.
“And second, we might find a number of targets for future drugs.”
The study is being run by French biotech startup Cure51, with backing from the venture capital firm Sofinnova.
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Nicolas Wolikow, Cure51’s co-founder, told Sky News that the aim was to “kill cancer” in 20 years.
“The ambition of the project is to eradicate cancer,” he said.
“If we could unlock these biological mechanisms that are possessed by these survivors and replicate that for the majority of patients, I think we could do it.”
Super survivors who are interested in taking part in the UK arm of the study can get more info at https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/news/trust-backs-international-cancer-study-aided-by-super-survivors/