A MUM diagnosed with cancer on her birthday will become one of the first people in the world to trial a new lung cancer drug being developed in Oxford.

Jean Scurlock, 66, was diagnosed with lung cancer on October 5, 2010.

After undergoing four cycles of chemotherapy, which she did not respond to, her doctor mentioned a new trial taking place at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

It is one of the first to come out of the new Oxford Cancer Research Centre, a partnership between experts at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals trust, the University of Oxford and Cancer Research UK.

Ms Scurlock, from Didcot, who also volunteers at the Cancer Research UK Didcot shop, said she wanted to help others in her position.

She said: “Someone has to do the research as we wouldn’t get anywhere if no-one volunteered.”

She added: “You can feel useless if you have cancer. But I feel more useful now as I am capable of helping.

“When I was accepted on to the trial, it immediately made me more positive as it felt that I was able to help.”

The international early Phase II trial is being led by a team based at the Oxford Cancer Research Centre.

It will trial the experimental drug called LY2181308 with advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients who no longer respond to platinum chemotherapy – the standard initial treatment.

The drug blocks the ability of cancer cells to make a protein called survivin.

Survivin instructs cells to grow, and crucially prevents cell death.

It is this combination of ‘immortal’ cells with uncontrolled growth which leads to cancer.

The trial will be split into two elements. One group of patients will receive Docetaxel, the normal standard of care after chemotherapy, and the other group will receive LY2181308 alongside Docetaxel.

Trial chief investigator, Dr Denis Talbot, Consultant Medical Oncologist at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals and the Cancer Research UK clinician at the University of Oxford, said: “It’s greatly encouraging that we’re able to take this new experimental drug to treat lung cancer into further development.

“We hope that it may increase rates of survival for patients. Survival from this disease still remains low. One reason is that the majority – between 65 and 75 per cent – of lung cancer patients are diagnosed when the cancer has already become aggressive, which makes it more difficult to treat successfully.

“There’s an urgent need to develop new medicines which may provide additional options for these patients.”

The international trial will run until 2012 at six UK centres including Oxford. It will also run at nine US centres, and several centres across Europe.

Ms Scurlock said she was pleased to have the full support of her family including her daughter Emily, 32, who manages Didcot’s Cancer Research UK shop.

Ms Scurlock said: “She has been fantastic and has been to the hospital with me many times. She is very interested to know what’s going on and it has helped her to see exactly where the money she has raised is going.”

Her daughter added: “We are all doing our best to help and support mum and she is doing her bit to help others. We are all immensely proud of her.”

awilliams@oxfordmail.co.uk