• Question: How are you developing medical science, especially in the cancer department?

    Asked by kphoskin to Charlotte, Dhvanil, Frank, Jim, Leila on 12 Mar 2013. This question was also asked by jek13, georgiacraig1, bethlofty, leahx, clostrimmers, alexstringer, dand, pnefoster42, jfearn37, thebear.
    • Photo: Dhvanil Karia

      Dhvanil Karia answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      In the cancer department I work in we are trying to make programs which automatically calculate the best treatment action for a given patient. Through this we aim to improve efficiency of treatments and also increase the efficacy of the treatment.

    • Photo: Jim O Doherty

      Jim O Doherty answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      At my department we develop new radioactive drugs which we inject into patients. These drugs stick to peoples cancer and we can make pictures of it on a special scanner. The radiation can kill the cancer cells but doesn’t damage normal cells, so the patient can be cured. Because cancer is always evolving, we make newer and better drugs all the time.

    • Photo: Leila Nichol

      Leila Nichol answered on 12 Mar 2013:

      Radiotherapy is improving all the time! Making the delivery better, but also seeing exactly where the tumour is are major areas of development. This can involve more scans on-treatment, measuring the breathing pattern, implanting markers. Other important areas are finding optimum radiation doses, and avoiding treating any healthy tissue you don’t need to. Radiotherapy hasn’t been around relatively long and has come on leaps and bounds, and it will continue like this for a while to come yet!

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