In the coming week, up to 150 Irish people will lose their battle against terminal cancer. A further 380 will be given the life-changing news that they are suffering from the disease. Some will be told they have less than six months to live -- but even for them, there is still hope.

Experimental drugs, many of which have only been tested on animals, are now being offered to cancer patients here, giving them a last-chance hope of survival as they face the final months of their lives.

In many cases, these state-of-the-art drugs are still years away from being approved. Some are so fresh from the lab, they do not even have names, but terminally ill patients, with no other chance of recovery, are queuing up to become participants in this radical form of medicine.

This week, the country's only clinical research group for cancer revealed that Irish patients would become the first in the world to gain access to a cutting-edge drug for lung cancer that is so new its name cannot be revealed.

A charity based organisation of Irish doctors, ICORG (the All-Ireland Cooperative Oncology Research Group), whose members include 95pc of the country's cancer specialists, will begin giving the drug to patients of the disease in the coming months as part of the first clinical trials on a specific form of lung cancer in the world.

The drug, known as a HDAC inhibitor, has shown dramatic results in treating a rare type of lymphoma but recent studies have found it is also powerful in attacking lung cancer cells.

Dr Brian Moulton, the CEO of ICORG, has been at the forefront of cancer research in Ireland for 12 years endeavouring to bring state-of-the-art drugs to patients here.

"All we can say about this new lung cancer drug is that we have been approached by one of the top ten pharmaceutical companies in the world, who asked us to work with them in the development of the drug in Ireland.

"The drug's effect to date has been remarkable in combating certain cancers and Irish lung cancer sufferers will be the first in the world to have access to it. We hope to offer it to about 30-40 patients with lung cancer." This week, Britain went a step further in the field of experimental medicine when the NHS approved the creation of 19 so-called Experimental Cancer Medicine units.

At these centres, untested drugs will be administered to patients who have failed to respond to existing medicines and have no hope of recovery.

But the decision has raised questions about the ethics of using seriously ill patients as "human guinea pigs".

While the prospect of opening specialist experimental centres is not on the HSE's radar yet, scientists working in the field of untested medicine here are very aware of the ethical dilemmas at play.

"Those questions are always there when you are dealing with very new drugs, but every trial we do must gain approval from a statutory ethics committee and the Irish Medicines Board," says Dr Moulton, whose ICORG agency is funded mainly by the Health Research Board and Irish Cancer Society.

"There is always an element of risk involved in research but you have to weigh that up against the potential benefits. If a patient takes part in a Phase 1 study, which is what all of these studies are, they will be the first humans to take the drug, but we find patients with cancer are usually interested in exploring a research option.

"We very explicitly go through all of the risks that are known at that time but as in all new research, it's very possible that a new risk will be identified."

Currently, between 5 and 10pc of Irish people with cancer are given an opportunity to be considered for drug trials by ICORG, which has found that Irish patients are often willing participants.

The 'take up' of untested drug trials is higher per capita in Ireland than many other Western countries, including the US. Since its creation in 1996, ICORG has made a research option available to more than 3,000 people. This year the target is 800 patients. The question is how many of them can expect to survive.

"Are we saving lives?" asks Dr Moulton. "It's very hard for me to say, but we are certainly endeavouring to do so. We are aware of hundreds of patients who have benefited from participating in our studies who in time may prove to have been cured."

Among the more radical treatments coming on stream at ICORG is a sophisticated new genetic marker which is being tested for its ability to predict whether certain forms of cancer will return. "If this test proves to be effective, says Dr Moulton, "it means that when people have early breast cancer and a sample of the tumour is tested, a likelihood of recurrence will be given, and that will very much affect the treatment the patient gets. If they are deemed low risk for a recurrence, they may be able to forget the cancer and get on with their lives."

Currently, ICORG is dependent on the goodwill of doctors, who work on a voluntary basis for the agency, which is financially under-resourced. "These are people who are working for no extra pay trying to make more treatments available for Irish people. Sometimes I ask our doctors who are incredibly overworked 'why do you do it?'

"The answer they give is that the research offers them hope when they walk through the doors of the hospital on a Monday morning and are bombarded with hundreds of patients on standard treatments.

"In the last few years, totally new ways of attacking cancer have been proven to be effective. There is a huge amount of research going on into these drugs around the world and we want Ireland and Irish patients to be at the forefront of that.

"The average time it takes to develop a drug is 11 years. It is widely agreed that is too long.

"But this is not about cutting corners. It's not in anyone's interests to do that.

’Experimental drug that saved my life’

Marie Loughney was getting ready for a night out when she discovered a lump the size of a pea on her left breast. A 38-year-old beauty consultant from Tallaght with no history of breast cancer in her family, she instantly feared the worst and arranged to have it examined.

To her relief, the lump was benign and she was given the all-clear. But just over a year later, her world was shattered when she noticed an unusual discharge seeping from her other breast. A biopsy confirmed the news she had been dreading. “My doctor took me into a room and gave me a cup of tea. I knew that was a bad sign.

The walls started spinning around when I heard the word cancer. You automatically think you are going to die.” But after a year of intensive chemotherapy and radiotherapy, Marie was alive and well. She had beaten the cancer and there had been no spread.

After two years of good health, this single woman, who lives with her father, was enjoying being back at work and living life to the full when a sharp pain struck her lower back. At the time, she didn’t associate it with her previous health problems but decided to mention it during a routine check-up some weeks later. Her doctor seemed concerned and sent her for an immediate scan. “It turned out to be the one that got away,” Marie says. “A rogue cancer cell that was lying dormant in my back and had got into my bones.

This time, I just asked the doctor straight out “am I going to die?” He said “not at all, we’re going to manage it.” Marie was put on another course of chemotherapy, and shortly afterwards, was asked if she would like to participate in drug trials run by ICORG.

She became one of the first Irish women to be put on the groundbreaking drug, Herceptin, a so-called targeted therapy that treats aggressive tumours and works by interfering with breast cancer cells before they divide and grow.

Herceptin targets the HER2 protein, which can fuel the growth of breast tumours, and has proven results in prolonging some patients’ survival. Targeted therapies are generally better tolerated by patients than traditional chemotherapy, but only one in four women with breast cancer is suitable for treatment with Herceptin, and it has associated side effects, including a possible link with heart disease.

Shortly afterwards, Marie was put on another investigative drug, Lapatinib, which can be effective in some women with advanced breast cancer. While neither drug is a cure, they appear to be able to extend life. It is almost two years since Marie was diagnosed with a tumour in her back that had started to damage her bones. Her progress has astonished doctors. She is full of optimism for the future.

“If the opportunity to go on these trials had not come up, I don’t know if I would be here today. “I still have cancer but the drugs seem to be keeping it under control. Every six weeks, I go for a scan and so far I have got the all-clear. It is absolutely terrifying waiting for the results each time, but I’m still here, I’m able to get up for work every day and I feel healthy. That’s all that matters.”

- Gemma O'Doherty