OVARIAN cancer patient Patricia Whittaker no longer plans far ahead but she put her faith in a potential drug of the future to help overcome her disease.

When cancer returned last year, despite chemotherapy and a hysterectomy, Mrs Whittaker, of Hazel Walk, Caerleon, joined a clinical trial of an unnamed drug that may be part of the next generation of frontline cancer treatments.

Today she tells medical experts and fellow patients at the Welsh Cancer Institute conference in Cardiff - coinciding with ovarian cancer awareness month - of her experiences as a participant, one of 70 worldwide, in that trial.

The treatment is known as DMXAA after the agent that may block blood supplies to tumours by disrupting the small vessels supplying it.

The injections may give new hope to patients suffering recurrent ovarian cancer. Research focuses on discovering if its properties help advanced ovarian cancer respond better to chemotherapy.

"I felt and looked well. To be told the cancer had come back was like a punch in the face," said Mrs Whittaker, a secretary at Caerleon comprehensive.

"I burst into tears, but the clinical trial nurse asked if I would put my name forward. Even if I was accepted, some patients would only get chemotherapy, the others chemotherapy and the trial drug. There would be 70 patients with half having the drug. I thought I'd not have a hope in hell, but was lucky enough to be chosen.

"I know I made the right decision. My husband, daughters and friends wanted the best for me but it was my decision. I agonised, but the side effects did not seem worse than for chemo."

Mrs Whittaker had six courses of both the DMXAA drug, and chemotherapy, the last in January.

"At times it was agony because I have poor veins and the drug was going in at high pressure, but I was determined to go ahead," she said. Recent tests showed the tumour has shrunk, although she hoped her consultant would say it had gone.

"I'm still very scared for the future and don't know how long I have to live but then, nobody does. I am a planner but now I can only look to the end of the week. I cannot plan things like holidays.

"One thing I'm sure about - I couldn't have gone through it without Alan (her husband)."

PATRICIA Whittaker's cancer was diagnosed in March 2004, but she now recognises the symptoms were there several months earlier.

"Despite trying to lose weight, I'd been putting it on. In photos from September 2003, I notice I'd been getting fatter," she said. "I also had back pain, excruciating at one point. I went to my GP early in 2004, but had to wait for a scan.

"I was eventually told at Nevill Hall Hospital in Abergavenny, but my husband wasn't with me. It was awful."

Three cycles of chemotherapy were followed by a hysterectomy, then three more cycles. She had blood transfusions and blood tests. Blood-cancer markers were coming down and Mrs Whittaker returned to work early in 2005, but was told in spring cancer was back.

"This whole episode I would not wish on my worst enemy," she said. "It is very important women and their partners be aware of symptoms." There are 6,900 new diagnoses of ovarian cancer every year in the UK, 400 in Wales. Eighty-five per cent are in women over 50.

Symptoms include: increased abdominal size; increased need for the toilet; unexplained abdominal or back pain; abnormal weight loss or gain; lack of appetite.