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Tessa Jowell, still a champion of good causes and dead last May, has been campaigning hard for patients to have better access to new treatments.
His last campaign is already bearing fruit. Patients with the same deadly brain tumor as she begins to receive immunotherapy on the NHS for the first time.
Under the impetus of Tessa's efforts, a historic trial was opened for people with glioblastoma at the National Neurology and Neurosurgery Hospital in central London. She had her brain operation there.
The trial, described as the most important brain cancer in 15 years, recruited the first of 120 patients in January. The funding for this study is a model of collaboration.
Drug company Bristol-Myers Squibb has donated ipilimumab for £ 6 million, while the National Brain Appeal is midway through the £ 250,000 collection for trial administration costs .
Eighty patients will receive ipilimumab in addition to standard surgery treatment followed by radiation therapy and chemotherapy.
Forty will be in the "control group" and will undergo surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.
Dr. Paul Mulholland, head of the trial, said, "As clinicians, we have no new treatment option for glioblastoma patients for more than a decade.
"There is an urgent need for new treatments to improve clinical outcomes and survival.
"In the past use of ipilimumab in patients with brain cancer, we have found in some patients spectacular and exciting reactions.
"The purpose of this clinical trial is to see if these answers lead to an improvement in life expectancy."
Bernice McCabe, 65, co-director of the Prince Charles Institute of Education, stepped down as the director of North London Collegiate School at Edgware after 20 years in 2017, after being diagnosed with glioblastoma.
She said, "I feel very lucky to have been able to receive this treatment through private health insurance.
"It was important for me to support the fundraising of the National Brain Appeal in order to work
available for patients with glioblastoma in the NHS.
Glioblastoma is the most common type of brain tumor.
About 2,200 cases a year are diagnosed in England. Average survival is less than one year.
Six other NHS hospitals will participate in the trial, which is open to residents of the United Kingdom. Treatment consists of four infusions over 12 weeks.
Each injection, if administered privately, would cost between £ 25,000 and £ 35,000.
The drug stimulates the immune system to become more active, allowing it to destroy cancer cells.
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Main reports of Mirror Online
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