Heather’s journey
Heather is on the ATARI trial, led by Dr Susana Banerjee at The Royal Marsden and The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR). The trial is part-funded by The Lady Garden Foundation, alongside pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, and endorsed by Cancer Research UK.
The ICR’s lab research suggested the ATR inhibitor ceralasertib could be a potential treatment for cancers with the ARID1A gene mutation. The partnership between The Royal Marsden and the ICR meant Dr Banerjee could quickly launch the ATARI clinical trial to find out if this treatment could help women with certain gynaecological cancers.
“I was diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer called clear cell carcinoma in February 2018. I began chemotherapy in Edinburgh, where I live, but in July 2019 I was told it had come back and I had only a few months to live. My cancer responds very poorly to existing treatments. My only options at that point were more chemotherapy which was unlikely to have much effect, or no active treatment and just receive palliative care.
I had heard about the ATARI drug trial, the first trial of a targeted therapy for rare gynecological cancers. I knew it was available at The Royal Marsden, so I spoke with my consultant and in March 2020 travelled down to London to meet with Dr Susana Banerjee and her team to be assessed for it.
The team at The Royal Marsden are just fabulous. I was so poorly when I first met them, but they showed me such care and didn’t just treat me like a patient, but a person too. They discovered I have the gene mutation that may make me more sensitive to the drug, a type of ‘ATR inhibitor’ used in the trial.
I started the trial in April this year. It is made up of four weekly cycles of treatment. Two weeks of taking tablets, and two weeks off.
I had my first scan recently. My previous results had never been good, and I was ready to hear the cancer had progressed. I was shocked when results showed the cancer is stable. They have also seen a small amount of response to the medication and the cancer marker measured in the blood has fallen substantially. It has more than halved. This is positive news, but I am trying to stay realistic. I really hope it works but I try to look no more than one scan ahead. I go for scans every eight weeks, and blood tests every fortnight. I will keep taking the drugs until they stop being effective, but I am very happy to be on this trial. It is a positive step, no matter what.
It is amazing that The Lady Garden Foundation are part-funding this trial. Rare cancers like mine are hard to get funding for but to know there are people who believe there are better treatments out there and there is a need for more research, well that’s huge for people like me. I was 48 when I was diagnosed, but I have met many women in their 30s and 40s, many of whom have children. They just don’t know how to treat us. But trials like this can change that. They give hope and an opportunity to try something different.
I want this trial to work for me, but I also don’t want women going through this in years to come. I don’t want more women to be told, ‘there is nothing more we can do for you.’ We must do the research to help stop it happening in future.”