Hepatitis B is a devastating virus that infects around 250 million people worldwide and is endemic proportions in parts of Africa. Left untreated, it can cause cirrhosis, liver cancer and early death. Tackling the spread of this virus is essential and vaccination programmes have been started in many countries since 1990 including the Gambia, with […]
A diagnosis of cancer is really scary. It can seem as if there are only two options, neither very appealing. Conventional treatment which promises a lot but is likely to be toxic and gruelling or the complementary route, seen to lack the punch needed to beat cancer. It’s also likely to be dismissed by your […]
I never expected I would be diagnosed with prostate cancer when I agreed to be part of a trial at the Royal Marsden looking into why prostate cancer runs in families. My father, who was a military policeman and didn’t like to see a doctor, died of prostate cancer when he was 59, two years […]
There are over 330,000 men in the UK living with or after prostate cancer. Over 47,000 are diagnosed every year and over 11,000 die from the disease – the equivalent of one man every hour. It’s the most common cancer in men but there is still no national screening programme for the disease and the […]
‘Many of the people who call our helpline are distressed and anxious. We welcome anyone affected by pancreatic cancer and lots of callers are relatives who are quite protective of family members who have just been diagnosed and will try to shield them from some of the statistics that may be discovered on websites. They […]
Mouth cancer kills nearly 2000 people in the UK each year. The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) of which there are over 100 different types, is more commonly associated with cervical cancer and genital warts, but it can also cause oral cancer, particularly of the back of the tongue and tonsils. The virus incorporates itself into the […]
The holy grail in oncology is ‘how do you cure cancer that as spread?’ At the moment, all types of cancer, except a few rare malignancies, cannot be cured after they have spread beyond the original site. Chemotherapy can wipes out vast swathes of cancer cells and keep them at bay, but is usually used […]
The PSA test has long been considered the first line of defence against prostate cancer. A simple blood test, it measures the level of PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) in the blood. All men have some PSA in their blood, which is made by the prostate gland. High levels can indicate prostate cancer. This week, the […]
A study led by myself and my colleague Dr Sandrine Willaime-Morawek, lecturer in Stem Cells and Brain Repair at the University and published in Molecular Neurobiology, analysed how enzymes called ADAMs affect the movement and function of the human tumour cells which cause brain cancer. We discovered a potential way of stopping one of the most […]
Leukaemia is a cancer of the blood with a high mortality rate, partly due to the fact that leukaemia cells show a remarkable ability to survive initial chemotherapy treatments. These surviving cells are often resistant to treatment, allowing the cancer to spread and become fatal. It has always been thought that the leukaemia cells saved […]