Retired Ballyconnell GP to return home after treatment

Retired Ballyconnell GP Dr Susan Cosnett is set to return home to Cavan this week after receiving cancer treatment in Holland.

Dr Cosnett has been in the Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek Hospital in Amsterdam since October, where she has been receiving tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy.

The mum of three has a rare form of Acral Malignant Melanoma, a cancer that started as a small pink line under the nail of her left big toe but grew.

A massive fundraising effort took place prior to her departure for Holland. A GoFundMe set up in July currently sits at just over €170,000, with a goal of raising €172,000 for the treatment.

In an update on her page, Dr Cosnett reported that the final hospital bill costs €172,796, which she said was “a lot of money” paid with “no help from the HSE or LAYA insurance”.

Initially the target was set at €150,000 but needed to be revised upwards after it emerged that the family’s health insurance policy did not cover any aspect of the care.

The treatment is not available in Ireland as it has not yet been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). It was this lack of EMA approval, which saw the insurance company refuse to cover any aspect of the treatment.

Dr Cosnett said she will be having scans every 12 weeks during the year to see how the treatment is working.

“I will not know until then but I am feeling better and my immune system is repairing,” she shared, adding that “TIL therapy was very tough but so worth it all”.

Speaking to The Anglo-Celt from the hospital, Susan said hospital staff informed her that she is the first person from Ireland to receive TIL therapy there.

She was referred in July of last year when her scan results were “worsening”. After tests and scans at the hospital in Amsterdam, she was “very glad” when she was accepted for TIL.

“I had to wait until I was able to pay the costs without help from the HSE or LAYA and in late October it all became possible,” she said.

On November 11, Dr Cosnett had surgery to remove a lung tumour to have the TIL cells from the tumour grown in the special cell laboratory.

“Then the process could begin,” she explained.

‘An amazing gift’

“I had a course of intensive Chemotherapy to knock back my own immunity and make room for the army of TIL cells. I was given these back in mid-December before Christmas.”

She described the procedure as “an amazing gift”.

“It has been a tough procedure but I went through it one day at a time and I am so grateful to have such new hope.”

“Now I will try live each day at a time and hope for the best outcome,” she shared.

The doctor “truly” hopes the EMA in Europe will “fully approve” TIL soon to the benefit of other patients.

“So that other people with Grade 4 cancer here in Ireland can have access to this chance of survival on their medical insurance or with help from the HSE Travel abroad EU scheme,” she reasoned.

Previously LAYA told this newspaper that without approval from the EMA (European Medicines Agency), ESMO (European Society for Medical Oncology) or NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence), TIL therapy is “not recognised as a standard treatment and as such this treatment is deemed to be experimental and clinically unproven”.

The HSE had stated: “Under European and Irish legislation, medicines must be authorised before being marketed,” they said, adding that “the EMA approval process is in place to ensure safety and efficacy of medicines and continuously monitors and supervises the safety of medicines which have been authorised in the EU”.