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Published: 2024-08-23 09:10:00
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Olena Andrusenko and Allan Peters at the university’s Centre for Cancer Immunology, immediately after Allan received his ’all clear’
When former royalty protection officer Allan Peters was diagnosed with terminal stage 4b cancer, he set to work putting his affairs in order and arranging his own funeral. He even received a letter of condolence from his former employer, the newly crowned King Charles.
Two years later and now totally cancer free, Allan was one of the first patients to receive a revolutionary therapy, called CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T cell therapy, at University Hospital Southampton.
His story is featured in a new three-part documentary filmed with the late Dr Michael Mosley shortly before the television doctor’s untimely death in June. Wonders of the Human Body was shown on Channel 5 at 8pm on Thursday 22 August.
CAR T cell therapy uses a patient’s own modified immune cells to kill off their cancer. University Hospital Southampton was the first hospital in the South East to offer the therapy.
Allan, 76, from Sturminster Newton in Dorset, was diagnosed with stage 4b diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph glands, in 2022. It was advanced and had spread to form lesions on his bones, and he was told there was no cure.
A royal letter
Shortly after his diagnosis, Allan received a letter from King Charles, who had been informed by a mutual friend. Allan was one of the then Prince of Wales’ Personal Protection Officers (PPOs) from 1979 to 1981, when he became Princess Diana’s PPO for the next nine years.
Allan Peters with Princess Diana
In his letter, the King expressed his concern and sent his best wishes. “It shows you the kind of thoughtful and caring man our King is, to have taken the time to write to me,” said Allan.
Following the news that King Charles also has cancer, Allan wrote to him and received acknowledgement from Buckingham Palace that the King received his letter.
“The King was really kind and sent me such a lovely letter when he heard I was ill, so it was really good to be able to send him the before and after scan images of my condition,” said Allan. “It looked like the end of the story for me, but now I am in complete remission.
Cancer treatment
Allan’s initial symptoms were nausea, weight loss, tiredness, and an abdominal mass. A scan showed this to be widespread lymphoma in his abdomen. He immediately began chemotherapy, with partial success.
He was then accepted as the fifth patient to undergo a revolutionary new treatment at University Hospital Southampton called CAR T cell therapy, which he underwent in 2023. It is proven to be effective in killing some blood cancers. However, not all patients are suitable.
Sean Lim , Professor of Haematology at the University of Southampton’s Centre for Cancer Immunology , works on developing new immunotherapies such as this. She said: “CAR T cell therapy enables T cells, a type of white blood cell, to recognise cancer cells and attack them. This involves collecting a patient’s T cells, and modifying them so that they can recognise the cancer cells. The modified T cells are then reinfused into the patient so that they can kill the cancer cells.”
After Allan received his modified T cells, he stayed in hospital for five weeks.
Allan Peters having his modified T cells reinfused
“Patients can initially be very poorly afterwards with complicated side-effects,” explained Dr Ali Roghanian, Associate Professor at the University of Southampton who specialises in cancer immunotherapy. “One of the side effects of the particular type of CAR T cell therapy received by Allan is that it also kills healthy protective B cells, making patients susceptible to infection.”
At the end of the five weeks, a PET scan showed Allan was completely cancer free. Follow-up scans at three and six months post-treatment showed Allan remains free of cancer and in long-term remission.
Allan added: “I was under no illusions at any stage what the treatment would be like. I was exceptionally tired and felt very ill, but only for a matter of weeks. I am so grateful to the medical teams that made this happen – it really is like a miracle cure.”
Unexpected support
Allan received his initial cancer diagnosis just three weeks after welcoming Ukrainian refugees Olena Andrusenko and her children, Liliia, 17 (then 16), and nine-year-old Markiian (then seven), into his home after they fled Kyiv. He immediately offered to find them alternative accommodation, but Olena insisted on staying to help look after Allan and his two black Labradors, Caro and Zulu.
Olena explained: “My mum Valentina had passed away from bowel cancer just after the war started, so my first thought was ‘I am here by fate to help Allan – I couldn’t help my mum in her last months, but maybe I can help Allan’.”
Olena, Liliia and Markiian lived with Allan for 18 months throughout his treatment before finding their own home in Sherborne, Dorset, where Olena now works as a shop assistant. “We were lucky to have each other as friends in what were very tough times for both of us,” she added.
Allan’s own father was a Second World War Polish soldier and refugee, and his late wife Caroline’s half-sister Vera was adopted into the family after she arrived as a young Jewish refugee from Czechoslovakia.
“I think this demonstrates that, if you give, you get back,” added Allan.