'Clinical trial saved our son’s life!' Couple thank cancer researchers for their glimmer of hope

Bushra and Yasir Ali Mir vividly recall the day they were taken aside and told that their four-year-old son Abdullah had neuroblastoma – a rare cancer that develops in nerve cells that are still developing.

When two different rounds of chemotherapy drugs failed to work, Abdullah was offered the chance to join the BEACON trial conducted by the Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Birmingham.

“It was our last hope,” said Bushra, who had just qualified as a primary school teacher before her son’s devastating diagnosis in November 2017.

“We were desperate because he’d had two lots of chemotherapy that hadn’t shrunk his tumour at all.

“There were no other options so we signed up thinking that, even if it didn’t benefit Abdullah, it might help someone else.”

The trial was aiming to find out whether adding an anti-tumour drug called Bevacizumab, which blocks tumours from forming blood vessels, to standard chemotherapy drugs led to more tumours shrinking.

The new treatment, which has now become routine across the UK, meant that Abdullah’s tumour shrunk enough for him to be eligible for a life-saving stem cell – or bone marrow – transplant.

The eight-month treatment ordeal is now a distant memory for 10-year-old Abdullah, a keen footballer and Manchester United fan who attends Shirelands Technology Primary School in Smethwick and lives in Edgbaston.

“Abdullah has always been very strong and positive, but he does remember treatment and it was a very difficult time,” said Bushra.

“Due to Covid, Year Three was his first full year at school, but he’s doing really well. He’s crazy about football and he loves school.”

Bushra and husband Yasir have spoken out about their experience as the results of the clinical trial were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.