Men diagnosed with prostate cancer should be given all their options for treatment before they make a decision. In Australia today, this isn’t the rule, but the exception.
Some people taking these drugs can see their cancer completely disappear – there’s nothing left to see on their x-rays.
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Imagine being able to offer hope to people with cancers once thought untreatable. Checkpoint immune drugs like Opdivo and Keytruda lead this new era in treatment. But they don’t work for everyone.
Successful policy interventions, especially those in the social realm influenced by the vagaries of human behaviour, don’t seem to travel well.
Therapies on a nano scale rely on engineered nanoparticles designed to package and deliver drugs to exactly where they’re needed.
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Nanoparticles are a form of transport for drugs and can go places drugs wouldn’t be able to go on their own. They make drug delivery more targeted, reducing collateral damage to healthy tissues.
Each person’s unique gut microbiota composition is in continuous communication with the immune system.
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The composition of bacteria in our gut regulates our immune system. Modifying it - through poo transplants for example - can control cancer risk, as well as response to treatment.
Radiotherapy treats cancer by directing beams of high energy x-rays at the tumour.
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Getting the right amount of radiation is a fine balance between therapy and harm. A common way to improve the benefit-to-cure ratio is to fire multiple beams at the tumour from different directions.
DNA holds the secrets of human existence, and studying rare diseases can reveal some of these facts of life.
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In Australia, there is no system in place to support people returning to work after cancer treatment – or to provide advice to their employers on how to help them.
Mice that had only water before receiving chemotherapy, experienced less or no side effects compared to mice fed normally.
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Research in animals and humans shows periods of fasting before and after chemotherapy protects healthy cells while killing cancerous ones more efficiently.
More young Australians face the daunting task of trying to live a ‘normal’ life while dealing with the after-effects of cancer.
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If you’re an Australian teenager or young adult diagnosed with cancer, there’s good news: overall survival rates are good and getting better. But what can you expect from life after cancer treatment?
One in ten cancer patients will face fertility issues after treatment, but less than 50% are given options to preserve fertility. And those who are offered options can face significant cost barriers.
Though commonly associated with food poisoning, the strain of salmonella used is a benign variety.
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Humans can more easily tolerate tumours in large or paired organs than in small, critical ones. This could be why the latter have evolved more cancer-fighting mechanisms.
Infectious diseases have plagued Africa for decades. Now, Africa faces the threat of a cancer pandemic – with a shortage of equipment, doctors and money to treat it.
Some bacteria can to survive inside the oxygen-deprived environment of a tumour.
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Scientists are working on a new method to cure cancer and have shown they can genetically program certain bacteria to invade the tumour cells of cancerous mice.