Page 18 - Inspire Magazine
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Take a second look:
The importance of rebiopsying
As we know, lung cancer is tricky.
Treatment can be working well, but then the tumour
may develop ways to resist the current therapy and start
to grow again. This can be very discouraging for
patients and their loved ones. However, with
advances in treatment coming thick and fast,
that ‘turning point’ could open the door
to a new approach.
Inspire spoke to two experts – our senior “I was told there was no alternative but more chemo.
research fellow at the University of Liverpool, That was when I decided to speak out and start
Dr Mike Davies, and consultant respiratory asking questions. My husband always said talking is
physician with Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals one of my favourite things, so it was about time I put
NHS Trust, Dr Simon Doe – to understand this it into practice!
process and its implications.
“I had to take charge of the situation...
“As a cancer grows, it adapts to its surroundings, I had no quality of life and so I
evolves and spreads,” explains Dr Davies.
refused to take it anymore.”
“This means, when we treat cancers with drugs or
radiotherapy, some of them can develop so that the I asked if there were any clinical trials and found out
therapy stops working and, rather than shrinking, the there were. I had a lung biopsy to see if I was eligible.
tumour starts to re-grow. The biopsy revealed two mutations – PDL1 and
EGFR. You may not know what they mean but they
When this happens, we may rebiopsy the tumour were my golden treatment ticket. I didn’t need to go
to try to determine how the cancer has evolved, by on the trial - I could have a targeted therapy called
looking for new mutations in the tumour’s DNA. erlotinib (Tarceva®) which I was on for 20 months.
Results from the rebiopsy may give us the Once again, however, a scan showed progression in
opportunity to offer a more effective therapy, one my spine and pelvis. It sounds bad, and while it
that might not have been suitable originally.” certainly wasn’t good, I still had options. I was given a
different targeted therapy, rocilitinib. I called it ‘Rocky’
This is exactly what happened to Kathy Beattie, from and it was tough like the boxer – but on me rather
Halesowen near Birmingham, who was diagnosed than the cancer. My blood sugar levels were through
with lung cancer in June 2013. An initial biopsy the roof; I had to take metformin to bring them
confirmed Kathy had stage 4 lung cancer, and she was down. It was also really hard on my tummy; I didn’t
given chemotherapy. It seemed to be working; scans leave the house for six weeks.
showed the tumour had shrunk.
I had to take charge of the situation. I rang my
However, a few months on, Kathy received the oncologist, Professor Dean Fennell, and told him the
devastating news that the cancer had started to grow effect the treatment was having on me. I had no
again. quality of life and so I refused to take it anymore.
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