Posts by author
Rachel Brazil
India’s HPV vaccine: another step towards eradicating cervical cancer
It’s hard to remember that, at the time it was introduced in 2008, many questions were raised about whether the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine would be cost effective. In the…
Ethnic differences in cancer biology: What we are learning, and why it matters
There have been great strides in our understanding of cancer genomics – the mutational events that lead to high cancer risks and those that drive progression in cancer patients. Using…
Supporting mental health helps patients feel better – could it also improve cancer outcomes?
Psychological stress is a known factor in numerous diseases from heart failure to auto-immune conditions. Evidence is now growing that implicates stress as a factor in cancer as well, with…
Harald zur Hausen: the virologist who opened a pathway to eliminating cervical cancer
Harald zur Hausen, virologist and Nobel laureate, passed away on May 28th. His great discovery, that cervical cancer is caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), opened the way for…
A blood test for early detection of any cancer: What’s the ideal? Are we getting there?
Earlier cancer diagnosis could make a huge difference to cancer survival rates – only two in ten of those diagnosed after their cancer has metastasised survive, compared with nine in…
Molecular diagnostics and NGS in the clinic: where are we and where do we need to go?
The development of next generation sequencing (NGS) has been a game changer for our understanding of genetics, and in turn for many aspects of biomedicine. This includes cancer, where it…
Tackling drug resistance: how our commensal bacteria can hinder or help
Response to therapeutics can differ widely from patient to patient, with some gaining highly significant survival benefits from a therapy that in others elicits no response at all. Patients who…
Woman or man? Is precision medicine overlooking key biological differences?
“Something that hit me pretty early during my residency as an oncologist was that sex in most cases is a clear-cut binary, pretty obvious biological variable affecting attitudes as well…
Does the ketogenic diet have a role in treating cancer?
The high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet known as the ketogenic diet has become an established treatment for intractable epilepsy over the last decade, but it has also gained widespread popular attention as…
Innovations in supportive care: cancer treatment side effects
The association between cancer treatments and dramatic side effects such as uncontrolled nausea and vomiting retains a powerful hold over public perceptions and parts of the media. Recent decades have…