Wigan cancer patient thanks clinical trial for years lived since terminal diagnosis

Terry Berry spoke to ITV correspondent Rob Smith about how a bout of food poisoning led to a cancer diagnosis.

A cancer patient says he has clinical trials to thank for surviving years since being told he had months to live.

Terry Berry, from Wigan, was diagnosed with terminal bile duct cancer in 2020 and warned he may have just six to 12 months left.

The 61-year-old was in hospital for tests after a bout of food poisoning when scans revealed something far worse.

Terry told ITV News that doctors found a "shadow" on his liver and then broke the news by saying: "'I'm sorry - you've got terminal cancer.'

"My reaction was: 'How long have I got? Six days, six weeks, six months?'

"They told me I had six to twelve months."

Medics offered Terry two different clinical trials, at The Christie in Manchester, including one for a drug targeted at an enzyme alteration in his tumour cells.

He now credits those trials with allowing him to see major milestones over the past four years.

"My daughter's wedding. My fourth grandchild being born. Everything really.

"Just getting up every day."

Asked what it is like to play with the grandson he never expected to meet, he said: "Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant."

The drug treatment Terry now takes every day, Ivosidenib, is not a cure but holds his cancer in-check.

It helps patients where bile duct cancer has spread elsewhere in the body and whose tumours have an alteration to an enzyme called IDH1.

Oncologist Dr Mairead McNamara said: "For years, chemotherapy was the standard option for treatment but Ivosidenib has become available and it's approved now by the NHS.

"They're not available for all because not all patients have these alterations. But for those where it is a possibility, it offers a great additional option."

Terry and his family are not just grateful for the treatment advances that have helped him, but grateful for the dodgy meal which triggered medical tests in the first place.

Without suffering from food poisoning, the cancer would not have been found and he would not have been treated.

He laughed as he said: "Of all things, a fish pie. So, really, it's a bit of luck saying 'thank you' to a fish pie!"

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