In Britain, doctors have taken a radical new approach to fighting cancer -- using unproven and unapproved drugs on terminally ill patients in experimental cancer centres.
For Jill Bracey-Cowley, the project has been a success. She was told her form of bone marrow cancer should have killed her over four years ago.
But by agreeing to be a human guinea pig for experimental drugs and treatments, she's lived to see the birth of her two grandchildren.
"I wouldn't have known them and I love them dearly," Bracey-Cowley told CTV's London bureau chief Tom Kennedy from her hospital bed. "I'm very happy that I can come here, have this treatment and then go and see them. Wonderful."
The UK's Department of Health approved the project this week. It will see 19 hospital units open for patients who have no hope of a treatment using currently approved drugs. These new units will allow patients access to drugs that may be years away from being approved.
The first Centre for Experimental Cancer Medicine has already opened at Bart's Hospital in London.
"We no longer have to just wait, complete the study and see what happens to the underlying cancer," Dr. John Gribben, the lead scientist for the project said. "We will be able to have some clue to if this doing what we want it to do and if not, get that patient off the study."
Only patients who have nothing to lose, like Bracey-Cowley, will be treated.
"It's only because of the (human) trials that they do these studies here," she said. "They'll progress with it, find cures for different diseases. It's very good work they do."
It can take up to 10 years for cancer drugs to be approved for general use. The health department hopes that this project can half that time. Each centre has been given a $4-million budget per year towards that goal.
As for patients, it is hoped that every one of them will progress the science of cancer. For those whose disease defies the experimental treatments, lessons will be learned. And for those like Bracey-Cowley, their continued survival will offer hope to cancer sufferers everywhere.
With a report from CTV's Tom Kennedy
