He Wasn’t Supposed to Survive—But He Did. Could This Quiet London Trial Rewrite the Future of Brain Cancer?
Ben Trotman shouldn’t be alive.
Diagnosed with glioblastoma—a brain cancer so ruthless that most patients don’t survive the year—he was handed what amounts to a countdown. But nearly three years later, his scans are still clear. No recurrence. No surgery. No tumor.
So how did he beat the odds when thousands every year don’t?
The answer lies behind the doors of a quiet hospital in central London, where a little-known trial may be redefining everything we thought we knew about one of medicine’s most merciless diseases.
A Quiet Revolution in an Unlikely Place
At University College London Hospitals (UCLH), a select group of oncologists is testing a bold hypothesis: that the timing—not just the type—of treatment could change everything.
The drug? Ipilimumab (marketed as Yervoy), a powerful immunotherapy agent originally developed to treat melanoma. The twist? Patients in this new trial, called NeAT-GLIO, are given the drug before traditional treatments like radiation and chemotherapy—before their immune systems are ravaged, while their bodies still have strength to fight.
Only one patient has received the full protocol so far.
That patient is Ben.
The Diagnosis That Changed Everything
It was October 2022. Ben had just turned 40. A devoted husband, a father-to-be, and seemingly healthy. But a series of dizzy spells sent him into an MRI machine—and then into a nightmare. The tumor was aggressive. Glioblastoma, doctors told him. Survival rates were bleak.
Emily, his wife, remembers the moment. “It felt like the ground fell out from under us.”
Then came a call from Dr. Paul Mulholland, lead oncologist at UCLH and the architect of the trial. Ben could be the first to try something new. Something unproven. Something experimental.
It was a leap of faith—but the alternative felt like no future at all.
The Results No One Expected
Ben was administered ipilimumab before starting radiation and chemotherapy. He never needed the high-risk brain surgery his team initially planned. Yet somehow, the tumor began to disappear on its own.
Month after month, his scans stayed clean. No regrowth. No complications. Just… life.
Today, Ben and Emily are married, raising their baby daughter Mabel, and walking their rescue dog Jerry through the English countryside—simple joys made miraculous by the fact that he’s still here to enjoy them.
“We know we’re living in borrowed time,” Emily says. “But it’s also hopeful time.”
A Trial That’s Just Getting Started
Now, the trial is expanding—slowly. Just 16 more patients will be enrolled over the next 18 months. Each will receive the same drug that changed Ben’s life.
Why only 16? Because glioblastoma research, long ignored, is underfunded and understudied. For decades, progress has stalled. The disease is too complex, too fast, too fatal. But Ben’s case is a crack in that wall.
British MP Dame Siobhain McDonagh, who lost her sister Margaret to glioblastoma last year, is pushing for more urgency. “Margaret’s dying wish was to force progress,” she said. “This trial could be the breakthrough she never got.”
Not a Cure—But a Beginning
Ben is careful not to call it a cure. He lives with uncertainty. But he also lives. And that’s something glioblastoma patients rarely get to say.
“I don’t know what the future holds,” Ben admits. “But I’m grateful for the now. And I want others to have that same shot.”
🔬 Conclusion:
For years, glioblastoma has been a closed door—a diagnosis with no exits. But in a modest London research unit, one trial is pushing that door open. Ben’s survival may not be a miracle. It may be a blueprint. A signal that with innovation, courage, and just enough time, the impossible might no longer be out of reach.
Because sometimes, hope doesn’t come in waves. It starts with one.