by A woman who beat tonsil cancer twice is celebrating after seeing her tumor shrink in half.
Jeanette Joyce, 64, from Northwich in Cheshire, was diagnosed with cancer in her right tonsil and soft palate (roof of the mouth) during the pandemic in May 2021.
She endured 33 doses of radiotherapy and two cycles of chemotherapy and was finally given the all clear in July.
But, tragically, just three days after a 12-month check-up to make sure all was well, she was diagnosed with a second, completely unrelated tumor in her left tonsil.
Mrs Joyce’s initial symptoms of cancer were a persistent runny nose and sore throat.
She told the PA news agency: “I thought I had a fever, but it was during the lockdown and I couldn’t get an appointment at the doctors’.
“When I saw the doctor, he thought it was rhinitis and prescribed some nasal sprays.
“I had two of those but, when they didn’t clear, they sent me to my local hospital.
“Then, I had a biopsy and it came back as cancer in my right tonsil. It was really shocking, I was completely stunned.”
Mrs Joyce, who is married to Dave, 67, underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy and was delighted to ring the bell to signal the end of treatment.
But during a 12-month check-up, a doctor at the Christie Foundation Trust cancer hospital in Manchester noticed a thickening on one side of his throat.
He wrote a report to her local hospital, where she was to have a check-up, and the team did a biopsy.
Mrs Joyce was then given the terrible news that the cancer was now in the other tonsil and was incurable.
The disease was also found in three other places in her palate and Mrs Joyce was told that palliative care (end of life) was the only option.
She said: “I was so shocked, stunned and in disbelief. It felt like an out of body experience when I was told there was nothing else they could do for me.
“It felt like I was staring into my own coffin. I even started planning the music for my funeral.”
However, unwilling to accept her fate, Mrs Joyce asked to be referred to Christie where doctors said she was eligible for a phase II clinical trial.
She agreed to take part in research at the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s Manchester Clinical Research Facility at Christie and began her first treatment on 7 December 2022.
This treatment involves having an immunotherapy drug every six weeks, along with injecting a protein into her leg every three weeks.
Immunotherapy is a type of treatment that helps the immune system recognize and kill cancer. The clinical trial is testing this new immunotherapy combination for head and neck cancer.
Mrs Joyce is delighted after scans showed the tumor had halved its size in eight months.
She said: “Everything is going in the right direction at the moment.
“When I was told it was incurable, I was completely floored. But I’ve always been very positive, and the test means the tumor is shrinking.”
On a daily basis, Mrs Joyce loves spending time with her husband and goes for daily walks with her neighbour, who has dementia.
“My husband and I like cooking and stuff like that,” she said. “We also like to read.”
As for whether she would recommend trying a new treatment combination, she said: “The clinical trial was the only thing I had left, so I thought, why not give it a try? I had nothing to lose.
“This has been a 100% positive experience for me. I have experienced no side effects and am able to live a full life. I can even eat anything I like, and that includes tucking into a nice juicy steak.
“I would encourage anyone to fully pursue it if you are offered an opportunity to take part in research. Since I was on the trial, I haven’t looked back.”
Dr Robert Metcalf, consultant oncologist at the Christie, said: “Jeanette is doing very well in this clinical trial and has had no side effects, which is fantastic for her.
“Her tumor has shrunk to half its size in eight months. We are on the right track so something is working, so we are going to stick with this treatment and see where we get to.”
He continued: “This trial has shown promising results with half of the patients responding well.
“It is still early days, but we are optimistic that this drug combination could become a standard treatment for some head and neck cancer patients in the future.
“We are definitely seeing immunotherapy drugs being used more regularly for head and neck cancer, which is good news for patients because they are better tolerated and have less long-term side effects .”
In total, 154 patients with a type of head and neck cancer (squamous cell carcinoma) that has returned, or spread to other parts of the body, are being recruited for the clinical trial.
Head and neck cancer is a relatively rare type of cancer, with only 12,400 new cases diagnosed in the UK each year.
