It all starts in June 2019: Robert Glynn, a man who lives in the suburbs of Manchester (in England), learns that he is suffering from bile duct cancer. Also called cholangiocarcinoma, this cancer affects around 2,000 people each year in France, mainly men.
Unfortunately, this cancer, whose symptoms are not very specific, is often discovered late, which affects the chances of survival for patients. This is precisely what happened to Robert Glynn: at the time of diagnosis, the disease had already reached stage 4, with damage to the liver and adrenal glands.
Immunotherapy coupled with chemotherapy to cure cancer
The blow is harsh:I asked my doctor to be honest with me, and tell me how much time I had left if I continued in this state. She told me 12 months“says the Briton to our colleagues from Guardian.
But despite this terrible prognosis, Robert Glynn’s doctors do not give up and the man is redirected to the Christie Foundation, one of the largest cancer treatment centers in Europe. There, the man begins immunotherapy: this treatment, already validated to fight lung or kidney cancer, is only at the clinical trial stage for cancer of the bile ducts.
Immunotherapy (coupled with chemotherapy) allowed a significant reduction of tumors in Robert Glynn: that on his liver went from 12 cm to 2.6 cm, and that on his adrenal glands from 7 cm to 4.1 cm. Which authorized the use of surgery: in April 2022, the Briton was operated on and the surgeons found no active cancer cells. In July 2022, after a CT scan, Robert Glynn was declared cured. A nice story !
