The lump on Mark's neck was about the size of a walnut, but Mark put it down to the toothache he had been experiencing. A week or two later, the lump hadn’t reduced or gone away so he made an appointment with his GP to get it checked. Mark was referred to a local specialist and then quickly on to the ENT department at Poole Hospital, who arranged for a biopsy to be taken. The results revealed it was a squamous cell carcinoma in the lymph node, a type of neck cancer.
Mark remembers the shock. He could barely bring himself to utter the word to begin with. His mind was racing, it was a worrying time. He was very reassured by the medical team and told it was treatable, curable, and that he shouldn’t panic.
He found it very difficult to break the news to his grown-up children. Due to Covid restrictions at the time, he couldn’t meet with them face-to-face as they both lived a way away from home. This did help him plan how to break the news. His son worked in a hospital lab and Andy thought he would take it more in his stride. Since she was little, Andy's daughter had been afraid of her parents dying. Andy felt that being totally up front would be a bit brutal, to minimise the shock he drip-fed them info over the telephone and by text over a period of a week or two as he found out more about his prognosis. Both his children coped well with the news and were incredibly supportive throughout the whole experience.
Mark, who is a former primary school headteacher, was referred for a CT scan and then an MRI which found a mass on his tonsil, which was probably where the lump in his neck originated. Thankfully, the cancer hadn’t spread beyond the lymph node, and it was classified as a t1, n1, m0 tumour, caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). Mark was reassured that this type of cancer was very treatable.
Mark had surgery to remove the lymph nodes in his neck along with the tonsil a few weeks later, which was then followed by a course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy to ensure that all the cancer cells were gone. All went well and Mark’s recovery, although prolonged, was relatively straight forward.
Mark was under the care of Emma King, Professor of Head and Neck Surgical Oncology at the University of Southampton and one of the co-investigators for the HARE-40 trial. The trial was testing a new vaccine to prevent reoccurrence of cancer and Mark was asked if he wanted to take part. The trial was testing a new vaccine designed to help the immune system recognise and destroy these strains of the virus to help fight the cancer.
Dr King explained that head and neck cancers, like the type Mark had, are one of several cancers that are caused by HPV. HPV is extremely common, and in many cases the body will deal with the infection with no lasting effects. But some strains of HPV can lead to cancer.
The trial was run by the Southampton Clinical Trials Unit, based at the University’s Centre for Cancer Immunology, the expert team at the NIHR Clinical Research Facility (CRF) at University Hospital Southampton, and the Cancer Research UK research nursing team who administer the first-in-human vaccine to participants.
Mark acknowledged that the possibility of reoccurrence was on his mind. He felt that anyone who has had cancer will worry about it coming back. But this trial was an opportunity to increase the chances of it not returning and he was pleased to be able to help the medics who had looked after him so well.
Starting in the autumn of 2022 and going into the new year, Mark received eight doses of the vaccine overall, four weekly vaccinations and then four fortnightly vaccinations with each dose stronger than the last. He is now going for regular follow up appointments so our researchers can assess whether the vaccine leads to an increase in immune cells and any change in the participants’ cancer.
Mark had a few reactions to the vaccine, some shivering and low blood pressure, but the team were fantastic. They watched him like hawks and changed the dosage accordingly. Being part of the trial was an interesting and positive experience. He knows that he is still alive because of people who have taken part in clinical trials in the past, so he wanted to take part and do his bit.
He hopes people read this and are inspired to take part in clinical trials to aid progress in treatment – they’re just so important.
