helppppppp!!!

[sarah255]

We need your help! Jemma Peacock is a mother to two young daughters, she has a rare form of cancer (GIST). There is currently no cure for inoperable GIST, but targeted drugs enable a patient to live for considerably longer, providing both time with their families and for research into other solutions to continue. One of these vital "last resort" life-extending drugs is Regorafenib, however this drug is now no longer available following its removal from the Cancer Drugs Fund. The #100000Voices campaign is reaching out and asking for 100,000 signatures for an online petition to reinstate the drug. For more information please visit: www.jemmapeacock.org

Do you know or have any ideas of how to spread this message to as many people on mumsnet as possible? Many Thanks!

Probably a silly question, but do you need to be living in England to sign this.

Sorry - but there is no evidence it helps people to live longer NHS summary

Good question! I should have mentioned before that in order to sign the petition you must be a British citizen OR a UK resident.
Thanks for your support.

The drug Regorafenib (Stivarga®) was approved last year as 3rd line treatment for patients with advanced Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumour (GIST - a rare type of cancer found in the digestive system). Regorafenib is used to treat GIST cancer that is unresponsive existing drugs Imatinib and Sunitinib. It has proved very successful in this situation; stopping disease growth or causing significant shrinkage, and is better tolerated in many patients. Younger patients with a rare form of “Wildtype” GIST respond very well to Regorafenib where other treatments have not been effective.
The withdrawal of this drug from the fund means patients whose GIST cancer is inoperable or has spread widely and is not contained by 1st and 2nd line treatments will have no other treatment options available and will die sooner than might have been the case with this drug when their cancer grows out of control. Regorafenib enables patients to live for considerably longer, providing invaluable time with families, whilst research for further treatments continues.

Sarah please read my link. The drug does reduce growth, but does not extend life - I am very sorry, but that is the evidence

Jemma is suffering from an extremely rare form of "wild-type" GIST. She knows that Regorafenib is her last hope drug, this is why she is using all her precious time and energy to raise awareness and signatures for her petition.

Please read below a quote from recent test trials:

“GIST is a highly aggressive cancer that can go undetected for years and, at the point of diagnosis, most patients have already progressed to advanced stages of disease. Survival rates are low and treatments are limited after imatinib and sunitinib,” said Jean Yves-Blay, GRID investigator, Professor of Medicine in Medical Oncology and Head of the Medical Oncology Department, Centre Leon Berard at Université Claude Bernard in Lyon, France. “The Phase III GRID trial demonstrated that progression-free survival with Regorafenib is more than five times than with placebo, a significant improvement for those who have progressive disease.”