From Steve Wilson
I had the possibly unique experience of reading your article about drugs that allow the body's immune system to tackle cancer (5 March, p 34) while a cannula fed one of these, nivolumab, into my body. This was about 12 months after being told that I had perhaps a year to live – but there was a drug trial I could qualify for.
There were (from memory) three pages of possible side effects, the risk of which I had to agree to, from mild to death. I didn't hesitate. I had looked up my condition – kidney cancer metastased to adrenal gland and lungs – and had found nothing to suggest that recovery was even possible.
When I first went to see my oncologist after the treatment started he didn't mess about with any introductory remarks or dramatic voice, he just told me: “all your tumours have shrunk”. I won't forget that day in a long time, and I seem to have a long time, since fewer than a third of my tumours remain.
When I was a teenager I would pore over Melody Maker and the New Musical Express looking for mention of any of the strange new “underground” bands I loved. Now I have the same odd satisfaction in seeing ipilimumab and nivolumab in print.
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London, UK
