Woman declared cancer-free in clinical trial after being given months to live: “I’ve been reborn”

A cancer patient who was given less than a year to live has been informed she is cancer-free after participating in a clinical trial. 

Jasmin David, 51, of Manchester, was diagnosed with a kind of breast cancer that is aggressive, in 2017. Two years later, it had spread, and she began a study at The Christie Hospital, combining an untested treatment with an immunotherapy agent, per BBC.

When David detected a lump above the nipple in November 2017, the previously healthy mother of two grown-up children, who worked as a clinical lead at an elderly care home, realized that she had an aggressive triple-negative type of breast cancer, per The Christie. In April 2018, she endured six months of chemotherapy and a mastectomy, followed by 15 rounds of radiotherapy, which eradicated the cancer. However, the cancer reappeared in October 2019 and scans revealed that it had spread to her lung, lymph nodes, and chest bone, and she was given a terrible prognosis.

Two months later, the mother-of-two was offered a two-year study of an investigational pharmaceutical paired with Atezolizumab, an immunotherapy treatment, at The Christie. She is now disease-free and enjoying life with her husband David Lazar and grown-up children, Ryan and Riona. 

David said, "When I was offered the trial I didn't know if it would work for me, but I thought at least I could do something to help others and use my body for the next generation." She added, "At first I had many horrible side effects including headaches and spiking temperatures, so I was in hospital over Christmas and quite poorly. Then thankfully I started to respond well to the treatment."

"Two and a half years ago I thought it was the end and I now feel like I've been reborn," she said. 

"I am here thanks to The Christie and to medical research," she told BBC Radio Manchester. She stated that after returning from India in April to see her 97-year-old mother, she chose to retire early and spend her life in appreciation of God and medical technology. David described her return to India with the wonderful news as "emotional," having gone two years previously to say her goodbyes.

She claimed she had "so much to look forward to," including her 25th wedding anniversary in September, and that she enjoyed every day since "everything is a bonus." The clinical trial's treatment will go on until December 2023.

Prof Fiona Thistlethwaite, medical oncologist and clinical director at The Christie, is leading the trial. She said, "It is fantastic for everyone when someone responds as well to treatment as Jasmin has."