• Question: If a person gets recurring cancer in one area why can't we just cut the body part off and/or transplant them a new part e.g. liver cancer?

    Asked by 246munm24 to Max on 13 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Max Jamilly

      Max Jamilly answered on 13 Mar 2018:

      Cool idea! In theory this would work but organ (or limb) transplants are also very risky and difficult. Sometimes the organ just dies or the body rejects it, and there is a big shortage of donor organs.

      Another issue is that late-stage cancer can spread throughout the whole body (known as metastasis), so that replacing only one organ wouldn’t stop the cancer from coming back.

      Training the immune system to fight cancer could be an awesome strategy because the immune system works throughout the whole body. Have a look at CAR T cells if you’re interested!

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