Cancer patient becomes first to receive 'landmark' treatment

A woman with advanced ovarian cancer has become the first patient in the world to receive a pioneering new therapy, in what is being hailed as a "landmark moment".

Tracy Tomlinson, 58, was given the drug at the Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester as part of a clinical trial evaluating a new type of treatment for several types of cancer.

The treatment, known as ZI-MA4-1, will be tested on people with ovarian cancer, lung cancer, sarcomas and head and neck cancer, with many people in the study having few other options for survival.

Mrs Tomlinson, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2020, has previously undergone surgery and several rounds of chemotherapy.

But, despite the treatment, the cancer kept returning.

While she admitted it was "a little bit scary" being the first person in the world to receive the new therapy, Mrs Tomlinson, who learned last year that she was a suitable candidate for the trial, said she decided "almost straight away" that she was going to go through with it.

She said: "If it benefits me, absolutely fantastic. But if it benefits other people in the future, that's important too.

"I don't want to have gone through everything I've gone through for nothing. I want to feel like I have made a difference."

Only around 15% of women survive ovarian cancer for five years or more after they are diagnosed.

Last month, a new ovarian cancer treatment was approved for use on the NHS for the first time in 20 years.

Reflecting on living with the disease, Mrs Tomlinson said she tries "very hard" to remain optimistic, adding: "Every day that I wake up is a positive. You've got to have hope.

"I often think, 'I'm still here', and that's helped me think, 'Why can't I still be here in 10 years?', 'Why can't I still be here in 15 years?'

"And I believe taking all the treatments offered to me is helping me kick that can a bit further down the road.

"I don't want to go anywhere. I've still got a lot of things I want to do and things I want to achieve."

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A 'landmark moment'

The new therapy works by combining two powerful methods of fighting cancer.

Firstly, the treatment harnesses the body's natural killer (NK) cells, which are specialist immune cells that destroy abnormal ones.

The T-cell receptors (TCRs) on those cells are then engineered to recognise and target tumours, producing a protein called Mage-A4, which is found in several types of cancer and experts believe is an ideal target for attacking abnormal cells.

Unlike some personalised treatments, ZI-MA4-1 is designed as an "off-the-shelf" therapy that uses immune cells from donors.

The treatment is manufactured in advance from donor cells rather than being individually tailored to each patient, with hundreds of doses produced from a single manufacturing batch.

Dr Jon Kim, consultant medical oncologist at the Christie, explained that Mrs Tomlinson "is essentially getting somebody else's immune cells that have been engineered to 'see' her cancer".

Experts believe the treatment could mean advanced cell therapies are available to more patients more quickly and at a cheaper cost.

Professor Fiona Thistlethwaite, consultant medical oncologist at the Christie, said that while it is an "early-stage study", it represents an "exciting step forward".

Namir Hassan, CEO of Norwegian company Zelluna, which makes ZI-MA4-1, called Mrs Tomlinson's first dose a "landmark moment" and said the therapy could offer "a new potential treatment option for patients facing advanced cancers with limited alternatives".

(c) Sky News 2026: Cancer patient becomes first to receive 'landmark' treatment