Health
Just say node
by Linley Boniface
Lymphoma is the sixth most common cancer in New Zealand, so why don’t we know more about it?
Phil Kerslake loves his job, cherishes his friends and family, and makes time for the fun stuff – music, relaxation and laughter. It’s an enviable life, but one that has its roots in the most nightmarish of circumstances.
At 15, Kerslake was told the painless lumps under his arms were a symptom of glandular fever. Four years later, after complaining of blurred vision, he discovered his initial symptoms had been misdiagnosed. He was suffering from lymphoma – cancer of the lymphatic system – and was likely to have fewer than 10 years to live.
“I rejected that diagnosis and just got on with my life,” says Kerslake, who, at 49, has had lymphoma six times.
“For me, cancer has been a catalyst to do things I might not have done other-wise. I don’t look on it as a blessing, but I have tried to make the best out of a bad situation.”
There are more than 35 types of lymphoma, with the most common being Hodgkin’s lymphoma and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. It’s the sixth most common cancer in New Zealand – it kills more people than melanoma, and is about four times as common as cervical cancer – yet the disease is not widely known.
About 750 New Zealanders are diagnosed with lymphoma each year. The number of cases has risen 29% over the past five years, an increase only partially explained by the ageing and growing population. Although the reasons for the rise are unclear, Dr Peter Browett, Professor of Pathology at University of Auckland’s Department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology, says researchers suspect -that exposure to environmental toxins may be one risk factor.
The most exciting development in decades for lymphoma sufferers is a therapy called MabThera, which Browett says improves remission rates by 15% as well as lifting overall -survival rates.
Pharmac funds the drug for aggressive types of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and for people suffering a relapse of slow-growing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. For the past two years, it has also been considering an application to fund the drug as an initial treatment for patients with slow-growing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Although Pharmac’s clinical advisory committee has recommended that the drug be given high priority, Pharmac has not yet set itself any time frame for making the decision.
As a result, some lymphoma patients are paying up to $50,000 to have the drug administered privately.
Browett says it is “incredibly frustrating” for doctors to be unable to give lymphoma patients a treatment that is now the norm in most Western countries.
“All we’re asking is that Pharmac has a policy for reviewing applications for new drugs in a timely, fair and transparent manner – and in a way that is hopefully to the benefit of patients. That has not happened in this case,” he says.
During the past 30 years, Kerslake’s treatments for both -Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma have included a brief course of MabThera, as well as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, a stem cell transplant, eight operations and the removal of his spleen.
His most recent health crisis, in 2004, sparked a major life change. In remission after six months in hospital, Kerslake returned to his job as general manager of a corporate property services company to find a colleague searching for a pen that had been taken from her desk.
“Lots of cancer patients find it difficult to cope with the office politics and the trivia that goes on in the workplace. For me, watching this woman on the warpath for her missing pen made me realise it was time to quit.”
Kerslake wrote the book he had always wanted to write (Life, Happiness … & Cancer, published by Steele Roberts, $29.99); became a leadership and life coach, mainly to businesses; and began supporting people newly diagnosed with cancer.
Although chemotherapy had left him infertile, but donor sperm enabled Kerslake and his wife, Gillian, to have a son, Rhys, now 14 months old. Their second son is due on Christmas Eve.
“I always said I wouldn’t let cancer define my life,” says Kerslake, who is now in full remission. “Realistically, I suppose it has defined my life, but it has not limited my life.
“You can die of cancer no matter how much you want to live, but you have to give yourself every chance. My attitude is that I am never going to give up.”
* For more information on lymphoma, visit www.knowyournodes.org.nz.
