Wednesday 9 October 2024
A mum of two from Altrincham in Greater Manchester with breast cancer has seen her tumours decrease by 65% thanks to research at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester.
Elaine Sleigh, (42), first discovered a lump in her armpit in August 2021, shortly after she’d finished breast-feeding her second child. It then disappeared, and thinking it was related to breast feeding, she forgot about it until it came back in December 2021 when she felt it while showering.
In January 2022, having been referred to The Christie from her local hospital, Elaine was given the shocking news she had triple negative breast cancer, which is a more aggressive form of the disease, which tends to grow and spread faster, has fewer treatment options, and has a poorer prognosis than other types of breast cancer. At that time Stanley, her baby boy, was only 15 months old and her eldest son, Alfie was just five.
With the support of her husband, Alastair, Elaine underwent gruelling chemotherapy before a mastectomy of her right breast and then radiotherapy.
“It was a really tough time,” Elaine recalls. “In some ways it was worse for Alastair as I was able to do something about it by getting the treatment, but he felt helpless as he couldn’t fix it. The kids pulled us both through though. The children were hilarious and made us laugh most days.”
Elaine then heard about a research study which was running at The Christie. It involved trialling a new blood test designed to see if cancer cells were in the blood stream and therefore spot a recurrence at an earlier stage, enabling patients to get treated sooner and improve outcomes. Triple negative breast cancer has a high recurrence rate, so Elaine signed up for the trial. Her first two blood tests came back negative, but unfortunately the third was positive and cancer cell DNA was found in her blood, so in July 2023 she started on another course of chemotherapy.
She was also given targeted immunotherapy which she was able to have at home, meaning she could go and pick Alfie up from school straight afterwards.
For nearly a year the cancer was kept at bay, then in March 2024 Elaine felt a lump in her sternum (breastbone) and a scan confirmed that the cancer was back and had spread to her lymph nodes, and her lungs were full of fluid, which needed to be drained.
Elaine was told about a new clinical trial starting at The Christie called PETRA which she could be eligible for as she had a HER2-low type of breast cancer. She agreed to take part in this research at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Manchester Clinical Research Facility (CRF) at The Christie and started her first treatment in April 2024, which is a combination of two drugs, a chemotherapy targeted specifically to the cancer cell given intravenously via a drip in the arm, and the trial drug given in tablet form.
Elaine, who had been too weak to walk and very short of breath, gradually found she was able to breathe normally again. She even managed to return part-time at the solicitor’s firm where she works as a litigation executive. However, she still suffers from the side effects of the treatment, which include sickness, nausea, joint pain and hair loss.
Talking about being on the PETRA trial, Elaine said: “My oncologists hoped the new treatment would keep me stable, but I told them I’m not here for stable. I’m here to get rid of it! I’m convinced being positive helps and I’m hopeful for the future, but I’m not going to lie, the side effects have been pretty brutal some days. I’ve now had six cycles and with each one I get stronger and closer to my normal self. I can’t feel the lump on my breastbone or in my lymph nodes anymore, and it can only be seen on the six-weekly scans.
“Alastair and I will have been together for 20 years in December and I’m looking forward to celebrating that. I finished my first lot of chemo four days after my 40th birthday so wasn’t up for a party, and I was having the chemo and immunotherapy last year when we had our 10th wedding anniversary, so we didn’t really mark that either. We have a lot of catching up to do!
“It might sound cheesy, but I feel the way things turned out was always meant to be, and I’m so grateful to the breast cancer research team at The Christie for everything they have done. Without the first trial I wouldn’t have found the second. You are so well cared for on a clinical trial, so there really isn’t anything to fear.”
Dr Anne Armstrong, consultant oncologist at The Christie, who is leading on the PETRA trial at The Christie said:
“We’re really pleased with how Elaine has responded so far to her treatment which is a combination of two different drugs. The first is an experimental targeted treatment known as AZD5305 which is a type of PARP inhibitor. PARP is a protein found in cells which helps damaged cells repair themselves. PARP inhibitors are a way of treating cancer by stopping the PARP protein from doing its repair work, which results in the cancer cells being killed off. This trial drug is different from other PARP inhibitors as it has been shown to more selective in targeting certain PARP proteins.
“The second drug Elaine is receiving is Trastuzumab Deruxtecan (T-Dxd) which is a combination of trastuzumab (Herceptin) and deruxtecan (Dxd), a chemotherapy drug which targets the HER2 protein on breast cancer cells. This study’s main purpose is to determine the safe and tolerable dose of AZD5305 for advanced solid tumours not only in breast, but also ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancer and to see how well AZD5305 works in combination with other cancer treatments.”
- Follow Elaine Sleigh’s cancer journey on Instagram @wedonttalkabouttripleneg
The PETRA study is currently open to recruitment. It’s a commercial clinical trial sponsored by AstraZeneca, investigating a PARP inhibitor, known as AZD5305 on its own and in combination with other cancer treatments in certain types of advanced solid cancers. PARP inhibitors prevent cancer cells from repairing themselves, leading to cell death. The UK Chief Investigator is Dr Adam Sharp at The Institute of Cancer Research, London and Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.
Any patients interested in taking part in clinical trials should discuss this option with their consultant or GP. Not all patients will fit the criteria for a specific trial. While clinical trials can be successful for some patients, outcomes can vary from case to case. More information about taking part in clinical trials can be found here.