In a time when genetic tests are as commercially available as Christmas presents, it is more important than ever to cast a critical eye over the true value of their results. Genetic testing is without doubt a valuable tool –…
The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term Biomarker as “a substance used as an indicator of the presence of material of biological origin, of a specific organism, or a physiological condition or process; spec. a diagnostic indicator of (predisposition to) a medical…
We’re grateful to Kat Goodall for sharing her story with us. Kat is a General Surgical Registrar from Queensland, Australia, who was diagnosed with bowel cancer earlier this year. This is Kat’s story. I’m Kat, a 34-year-old woman living in…
This month, The European Cancer Patient Coalition launched “Cracking the Cancer Code” – a new initiative to promote personalised medicine in cancer care. The campaign calls for greater access to molecular testing, to help patients get the right treatment for…
Cancer is a word charged with negative emotion. Hence the “Big C” or “C word”. As though by avoiding saying it out loud we can mitigate the emotional triggers and navigate around the anxiety and sadness the disease can imply.…
Everyone knows that chemotherapy comes with many severe side effects but whether a patient will experience them or not can seem like a lottery. One person is fine but another of similar gender, age, etc. can suffer really badly. Have…
My thoughts turned to topics recently in the news from George Alagiah and Dr. Mark Porter about early screening for bowel cancer. Caught early, bowel cancer is one of the easiest cancers to treat, with cure rates that approach 100…
What is rectal bleeding? Rectal bleeding (bleeding from the bottom) is common. In fact, one in four people will experience rectal bleeding in their lifetime. This could be blood on the toilet paper, blood in the poo or bloody diarrhoea.…
One in two of us will be diagnosed with some form of cancer in our lives. The good news is that more people than ever before are living with and beyond that diagnosis. The timeline of cancer has changed dramatically…