Interviews with Academics

David Vaux: (Apoptosis)

Cancer starts with 1 cell and it is caused to damage to a DNA cell. Radiation such as UV and X-rays can cause cancer also smoking and some chemicals will cause it. A damaged cancer cell will not die and then it keeps reproducing a damaged cell which causes cancerous tumours.

Leukaemia is a cancer of the white blood cells, cells keep reproducing this causes a lack of red blood cells so not enough oxygen is carried around the body making people sick and find breathing hard. When someone has Leukaemia they may bruise easily and will be tired and look quite pale. Most childhood Leukaemia's have cures but they are also worse than adult Leukaemia's which there as many cures aren’t for.

Some of the side effects of the treatment are vomiting, the immune system may collapse, hair falls out, diarrhea and the lining of the intestines turn to mush. Some types of Leukaemia can be mistaken for cancer in the lymphnode. Without treatment some people can live for only months but others can live for 5 years or longer. There is not one cure for Leukaemia because there are many different kinds so they all have a different cure. You are not born with Leukaemia but you get it as you get older if there is damage to a DNA cell.

1/3 of people die of cancer each year. The main cause of cancer is just bad luck it is not always inherited you just get it. When you die of leukaemia, it means that the white blood cells have clogged up the bone marrow, which means you won’t have enough red blood cells, so you won’t have enough energy.


Maureen Long: (Social Worker)

When a child in a family has Leukaemia one of the parents will need to take time off work to look after them this is hard on a family because they might not have any income or if they do it might not be much. Especially now with the economic crisis it can be very hard and stressful on families.

If a parent in a family has Leukaemia it is very hard they might need help from extended family and friends. It is also hard on children if they have them and their partners. Sometimes stress can cause families to breakup because they can’t handle it anymore.

When children have it there education can be affected some keep doing schooling at the hospital or others do long distance learning. It can be very hard on kids to learn when they are sick because they don’t get to see friends and they just don’t feel well.

For some families life will go back to normal but for others it is very hard because they still have worries it could come back, or that people might not like them because they were sick. When people living alone get Leukaemia they need a lot of support from friends, family and counsellors will help them. It is hard on them emotionally, physiology and physically. When families have more than one child when one is sick it is hard for everyone with the parents trying to find the balance between the sick and not sick children, and on the children trying to understand.


Nick Hooganraad: (Biochemistry)

All cancers are caused by a mutation in the DNA. In our DNA we have about 30.000 genes, 99% of our DNA doesn’t code for anything, alcohol and drugs can cause mutations which can cause cancer. Even anything natural in food could cause mutations. We have no defence against cancer because people get it at old age, and people get it after reproductive life.

The medicines are tested in things called Clinical trials they take 2 groups of people and give one a drug, and give the other one a plesibo which doesn’t do anything they then see if the drug works or not. Some trials, after being trailed on mice or monkeys, but it could make people die straight away. Some trials are done in prisons because people there volunteer, because they could get out of jail quicker or they could die from the test. Your body, after being treated with magic bullets, can go back to normal. But people treated with chemotherapy, can increase the chances of getting mutated again, which means the cancer could come back, or they could get another type of cancer.

Methatrexade was the first medicine for cancer, it couldn’t cure them, but it would prolong their life. Now have chemotherapy with effects the whole body but it does kill the cancer cells, but also other cells in the body making people sick. We will find the cure to cancer eventually but maybe not in our lifetime but we will find one eventually. Leukaemia is not a cancer that is genetic anyone can get it. The reason cancer in children is cured more easily is because kids cells are much more reproduce more.


Christian Hawkins: (Cancer Specialist)

The cures for childhood Leukaemia has come a very long way in the last 30 years, back then the rate of children who had Leukaemia that died was about 90% now only around 15% will die from it. This is not the case for all types of Leukaemia; other types of Leukaemia haven’t changed very much as they still haven’t found the right treatment for them. The drugs they are now making for Leukaemia are much better than they used to be because they understand better what they are trying to treat much better.

Even though the drugs are better some of the cells in the body are resistant to some drugs making it hard to treat the cancer because the cells won’t die. Some people with the same type of Leukaemia can react very differently to the same treatment, because of this doctors have to be very careful about how much and what type of treatment they give each patient. Just because it worked on one person it doesn’t mean it will work on everyone.

They will one day find the cure to most types Leukaemia but it is a slow process and it takes lots of tests and failing and succeeding to get there. People are working very hard on finding the cure to Leukaemia and over the last few years it is one of the cancers that they now understand very well, so we WILL find the cure someday, but no one knows when yet.