• Question: is cancer preventable and is there any new research relating to a cancer vaccine?

    Asked by Louis-Jordan to Max, Francis, Ben on 6 Mar 2018.
    • Photo: Francis Man

      Francis Man answered on 6 Mar 2018:

      Some cancers are definitely preventable. Most cases of cervical cancer are caused by viruses (called HPV), and there are vaccines available that prevent infection by HPV, meaning they protect against this type of cancer (although they don’t provide 100% protection).

      I don’t think we will ever be able to prevent all forms of cancer. That’s because cancer happens when something goes wrong in your cells and they continue growing when they should normally stop. There are so many things that can go wrong in cell that we can’t possibly cover them all.

    • Photo: Max Jamilly

      Max Jamilly answered on 6 Mar 2018:

      Yes! Some cancers are preventable – like Francis said, especially those caused by viruses which we can vaccinate against. But other kinds of cancer come from inside us so it’s unlikely that we’ll ever have a perfect vaccine. That said, people in my research group are working on a technology called CAR T cells where you train the body’s own immune system to detect cancer cells and kill them. Really cool stuff!

    • Photo: Ben Mulhearn

      Ben Mulhearn answered on 7 Mar 2018:

      I work in rheumatoid arthritis, and people who have this disease have lots of uncontrolled inflammation in their bodies. Those with the highest levels of inflammation can develop a type of blood cell cancer called lymphoma. If we control their inflammation then we can reduce their chances of getting lymphoma. So yes, there are many ways we can control cancer! I would certainly be interested in hearing more about Max’s work on CAR T cells, which is using the bodies own amazing system of fighting infections against the cancer cells themselves.

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