An accomplished Ironman competitor and triathlete, Hooper, 60, is now living with terminal (stage 4) pancreatic cancer. She has tried four different types of chemotherapy, but they’re no longer stopping the spread of her disease. So Hooper is now trying to find a way to get into a clinical trial in the United States, where that have shown great promise in halting the spread of pancreatic cancer. The new drugs target mutant KRAS-G12D proteins made by an altered KRAS gene.
Hooper has this altered version of the KRAS gene, which drives more than 35 per cent of all pancreatic cancer cases. This past week, she made “Sending lots of emails and phone calls, but it seems like there are so many hurdles. Time is ticking,” she wrote. In an interview, Hooper said it had been an immense challenge to gain admittance to one of the new clinical trials. “They are very difficult to get into. There are a lot of people trying to get in and there are long waiting lists.” Just applying to have her medical file assessed to determine if she would be eligible to join a clinical trial can cost up to $17,000