Yipee for Chemo & Drugs

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Survival of the fittest

By Cassandra Jardine

 

(Filed: 17/07/2006)

 

 

Is it the drugs, an iron will, or amazing feats of

physical endurance keeping cancer sufferer Jane

Tomlinson alive, asks Cassandra Jardine

 

So Jane Tomlinson is battling on. Now more than two

weeks into her epic 4,200-mile journey across America

- which for a time last week looked like it might be

over - she is continuing with her attempt to cycle

more than 40 miles a day for two months, under

gruelling conditions to raise funds for charity.

 

Jane Tomlinson: 'the exercise just helps me to

feel positive. I enjoy it'

 

Her aim is to arrive in New York on September 1, six

years after doctors told her that she had only six to

12 months to live. But last week, having coped with

dehydration, back pain and foul weather, her husband

Mike said: " Jane sat crying, wondering what she was

doing here in the US and what was the point of cycling

across it. When you have a short time to live, it's a

huge sacrifice to dedicate it to try to improve things

for others. "

 

On the following day, however, Tomlinson managed the

second half of the ascent to 10,600 ft.

 

Despite suffering from breathlessness, she is carrying

on with a ride that is startlingly ambitious even for

a woman who has notched up a remarkable list of

endurance feats - all of them since 2000 when she was

told that her breast cancer had spread to her lungs

and bones and there was no hope of a cure.

 

Tomlinson, 42, is pedalling in temperatures that few

healthy people would contemplate, let alone a woman

who finished another bout of chemotherapy just eight

weeks ago and who suffers excruciating pains in her

spine and pelvis where the cancer has attacked her

bones.

 

Tomlinson, a paediatric radiographer and mother of

three, from Leeds, Yorkshire, is clearly one of a

kind. Before she was diagnosed, she was not even a

sportswoman.

 

No other cancer patient has completed the Iron Man

triathlon yet, in 2003, she managed its one-mile swim,

56-mile bike ride and half-marathon. She has also

completed several other marathons and long bike rides,

all in very creditable times. Her latest challenge -

which she hopes will raise £1.25 million for cancer

and children's charities in the United States and

Britain - is being billed as the greatest endurance

feat undertaken by a cancer sufferer.

 

Unique as Tomlinson is, inevitably others with cancer

- particularly advanced breast cancer - will wonder

whether pushing herself to her physical limits is at

least part of the reason why she has outlived medical

expectations.

 

 

Tomlinson's husband Mike ad son Steven are supporting

her

 

Tomlinson is quick to scotch any ideas that her

exploits account for her survival. " The exercise just

helps me to feel positive, " she says. " I enjoy it.

Others should do whatever they enjoy. "

 

But that answer begs a question about whether her

positive attitude is the key factor. Or is it just, as

she also says, that she is " fortunate " because her

body responded well to chemotherapy?

 

Undoubtedly, drugs deserve most of the credit for her

longevity. Breast cancer sufferers' prospects have

increased substantially since the Seventies, when

there were six drugs available, and women in America

whose breast cancer recurred lived on average for 15

months. By the late Nineties, when 27 drugs were

available, they were living for an average of 58

months. Statistics in Britain are similar.

 

" Herceptin [the new 'wonder' drug that stops cancer

cells multiplying] allows patients to live for up to

one third longer than those receiving chemotherapy

alone, " says Dr Sarah Cant, policy director of the

charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

 

Tomlinson has been taking Herceptin for three years -

except when running or cycling because it impairs

heart function. But the fact that she is still well

enough to attempt this ambitious bike ride is also due

to her overall fitness.

 

" Diet and exercise are not just add-ons, " says

Professor Jane Maher, a consultant oncologist and

chief medical officer of Macmillan Cancer Relief. " The

same things that benefit people with heart disease and

diabetes may also help people with cancer. For

example, there is evidence that overweight patients

who lose weight stand a better chance of surviving

five or 10 years. "

 

In a recent study in America diets high in fibre and

protein and low in processed fats were found to

increase survival rates. Among those whose cancers had

spread beyond the breast and lymph nodes, a diet rich

in milk and protein helped them live longer. Tomlinson

does not fuss about her diet. At just over 50 kilos

she is certainly not overweight and she says she eats

" normally " , taking isotonic drinks on bike rides and

the occasional glass of wine to relax.

 

But the exercise she takes may have an impact on her

survival, according to a study published last year by

Michelle Holmes, an assistant professor at Harvard

Medical School: five-year survival rates increased for

all breast cancer patients from 86 per cent to 92 per

cent if they took from three to five hours exercise

per week at a walking pace of two to three miles per

hour.

 

" Though that effect is not huge, a lot of new

treatments don't make a bigger difference than this, "

says Holmes. It doesn't mean, however, that all cancer

patients should sign up for marathons; gentle exercise

is just as beneficial.

 

Tomlinson's husband Mike, a 45-year-old IT consultant,

says his wife feels better when she takes exercise and

Jane believes this is because it distracts her from

the pain in her bones: " When you learn about pain

control you are told to disturb the pain pathways. "

 

Her determination not to let the disease stand in the

way of things she wants to do appears to be

significant in her survival. " Psychological coping has

been shown to be associated with changes in immune

system activity, " says Mark Petticrew, associate

director at the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences

Unit in Glasgow.

 

Tomlinson says: " My determination to achieve my aims

has meant that I have accepted experimental

treatments. " But even if medical intervention is

largely responsible for keeping her going, it doesn't

account for the iron will that is pushing her to what

may be her breaking point this time. " I have no

medical back-up on this trip and I may have to call a

halt, " she admits.

 

Tomlinson's husband and nine-year-old son, Steven, are

following her every mile to cheer her on if she keeps

going, or cheer her up if she stops. Whether or not

she reaches New York - and however much money she

raises - Jane Tomlinson has done something even more

valuable in the past five years. She has shown that

terminal cancer is a disease you can live with, as

well as die from.

For more information see www.janesappeal.com.

 

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