Cancer research news

Not sure if you’ve heard/read the exciting breast cancer research breakthrough announced this week: not only do some cancers stop their own spread, we’ve now watched the cells through this process and think we understand how they stop metastasising and turn off the primary tumour. 

We’re on the the brink of customising this breakthrough to each invidual’s own unique immune system, to boost survival.

https://www.garvan.org.au/news-events/news/breast-cancer-breakthrough-some-tumours-can-stop-their-own-spread

And the MOL link? Dr Christine Chaffer, recently of Boston’s Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research and now Rebecca Wilson research scholar at the Garland Institute in Sydney, is my niece. 


In other cancer research news, PLOS Medicine has published this Australian study looking at the effectiveness of a free, regular, national screening program for colorectal cancer. It’s offered as population-health evidence for other nations to consider for their own health programs. 

https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002630#abstract2

(That line break is weird) It’s generally surmised that the main reason people aren’t taking up the offer of screening is embarrassment about ‘poo testing’ - putting it bluntly, no-one really wants to think about how you catch your fresh poo, poke a stick in it, then mail it to a lab... But I have to tell you that once you’ve done it it’s really not as bad as it sounds, and getting the results makes it worthwhile. Getting the reminder a couple of years later is even better! 

This testing, and the gastroscopies, endoscopies, colonoscopies, biopsies etc are unsung heroes’ work. I am in awe of these dedicated people, and the care and compassion they bring to work each day. 



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