Kiwi father Kurt Brunton begins radical treatment for cancer in US

A terminally ill New Zealand father has begun his radical treatment for an aggressive cancer after travelling to the United States for what he hopes will be a lifesaving operation.

Kurt Brunton, 41, is getting immunotherapy treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for a rare blood cancer.

Brunton, an accountant from Remuera, decided to travel abroad for the $1.5 million operation after running out of medical options in New Zealand.

Wife Janelle Brunton-Rennie said this morning Kurt had completed the first stage of the treatment, which involved harvesting his immune cells.

The cells, known as T cells, were removed and will be genetically engineered into "killer cells" before being inserted back into his blood.

"I'm not going to lie - it's been a really tough week as he hasn't been able to take any drugs leading up to the apheresis and he's done it very tough," Janelle said on social media this morning.

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Apheresis COMPLETE! Kurts had his T-Cells successfully harvested overnight. He tells me it’s been a really big day in hospital with the apheresis, scans, blood tests and now a treatment to help make him start to feel a bit better and get him through the next 2-4 weeks until his genetically engineered T-Cells are ready to be reintroduced. I’m not going to lie - it’s been a really tough week as he hasn’t been able to take any drugs leading up to the apheresis and he’s done it very tough. It’s so hard not being there to support him - 2 more weeks and I will be though. Stage one complete. Now we wait... and hopefully keep Kurt as stable and comfortable as possible x #wewillbeatthis #cancer #fuckcancer #positivity #hangintherebaby

A post shared by JANELLE BRUNTON-RENNIE (@janellebruntonrennie) on Sep 21, 2018 at 1:56pm PDT

She said it was hard not being there to support her husband, though she planned to join him in two weeks, when the reintroduction of the cells was likely to begin.

"Now we wait ... and hopefully keep Kurt as stable and comfortable as possible," she said.

The operation was expected to take up to six weeks in total.

At last count, $200,000 had been raised through fundraising page Givealittle towards Kurt's treatment.

Immunotherapy is not available in New Zealand, though clinical trials are expected soon.

Some medical experts believe it could save up to 70 lives a year, though others warn that the outcomes of the treatment are uncertain and can take terminally ill people away from their support networks at the end of their lives.