The New Frontier in Treating Cancer
Treating Cancer: Dr Kylie Mason comments on the new approaches to treating cancers such as leukaemia and non-hodgkins lymphoma ahead of National Science Week 2015
This article appeared in the The Age, August 16, 2015
Author: Science Writer, Bridie Smith
Ask a medical researcher if we will ever find a cure for cancer and the answer will likely come cushioned with a gentle smile and shake of the tilted head before it's verbalised - no.
"It's an infinite number of diseases, it's not just one disease," says leukaemia researcher and scientist at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Melbourne University Kylie Mason. "The more we know the more we realise what we don't know."
Progress, helped by advances in everything from supercomputing to immunotherapy and genomics, is nevertheless being made.
In Dr Mason's field alone, researchers have gone from believing that there were just two kinds of non-Hodgkin lymphoma to having identified more than 60 types. And that's not including the subtypes that have been documented.
According to the Cancer Council, the five-year survival rate for all cancers has improved from 47 per cent between 1982-87 to 67 per cent in 2007-11.
And there is more improvement to come, thanks to the advent of what is called personalised medicine which tailors treatment to the individual's profile, not the cancer.
"Every patient is an individual," said Dr Mason, who herself survived leukaemia as a teenager. "They are going to respond differently to somebody else with the same named diagnosis. We're not treating a cancer, we're treating a patient."
Read the full article: The Age
The New Frontier in Treating Cancer,16 August 2015
Dr Kylie Mason, MBBS PhD FRACP FRCPA is also a Clinical and Laboratory Haematologist at Melbourne Haematology.
Qantas first airline in the world to introduce exercise video to help prevent DVT
Qantas has become the first airline in the world to launch an exercise video on all its international flights to help prevent deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
The four-minute exercise video was developed by academics at the University of Melbourne in a partnership with Physitrack, a global health-tech provider, and Sports Medicine Australia's official exercise technology partner. Sports Medicine Australia has endorsed the exercise video.
Whilst the risk of DVT is extremely low, it is always important to take preventive measures as the threat is always there. Through simple, regular stretching, mobility exercises, and walking around the cabin mid-flight your risk of DVT is dramatically reduced.
Leukaemia: When Blood Goes Bad
Resources from the Web: Nature
Originally thought to be an infection, leukaemia is the malignant malfunction in the production of blood cells. Nature Video looks inside the broken machinery to see what goes awry in the main forms of this cancer -- a disease that is becoming less lethal thanks to the development of precisely targeted drugs.
Recent changes in PBS availability for haematology treatments
- 21 December 2012
Multiple myeloma
Initial treatment options for patients with multiple myeloma in Australia have significantly expanded with the recent PBS listing of Velcade (bortezomib) for both transplant-eligible and transplant-ineligible patients, in combination with chemotherapy.
Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid lukaemia (Ph+ CML)
Australian patients can now access Tasigna (nilotinib) on the PBS, for the treatment of newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid lukaemia (Ph+ CML) in chronic phase. Tasigna is a 2nd generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) and is a potent selective inhibitor of Bcr-Abl. Data comparing Tasigna with the 1st generation Glivec (imatinib) shows a more rapid and deeper molecular response and a decreased rate of progression to accelerated or blast phase CML.
New Online Resource for Patients affected by Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura
- 20 December 2012
An ITP online resource and support web site has recently been developed to assist with information and support for patients with Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura in Australia.
Idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura (ITP) is a condition that causes low platelets. The Platelets are small cells that circulate in the blood that are responsible for preventing bleeding and bruising. Patients with low platelets are at risk of bruising and rarely, serious bleeding.
See www.itpsupport.com.au for further information.