• Question: Do you think there will ever be a cure for Lukemia?

    Asked by 256drud48 to Anne, Florence, Mark, Neil, Sinead on 17 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: Sinead Balgobin

      Sinead Balgobin answered on 17 Nov 2015:

      While there may not be a cure, we are certainly on the way to making amazing treatments that will see recovery and survival rates increase massively. One of my friends works on a project to take immune cells from healthy people and engineer them to fight a patient’s cancer cells (while trying to not harm the patient). It is a long way from completion (years before clinical trials) but the work being done could really help people.

    • Photo: Mark Collins

      Mark Collins answered on 17 Nov 2015:

      Hi, Leukemia is a very difficult disease to fight as it is blood-borne and so does not create a tumour (or a lump) like other cancerous cells do. As Sinead has said there are many exciting discoveries happening right this moment in inhibiting the cells in the blood stream and destroying the cancerous cells, not only getting rid of the leukaemia but preventing a re-occurence. I do believe we will be able to control this horrible disease but also cure it.

    • Photo: Florence McCarthy

      Florence McCarthy answered on 18 Nov 2015:

      I’m not sure there will be a cure as with most cancers it will likely become a disease that we need to live through – it is similar to asking will we ever get rid of bacteria. There have been some amazing developments in leukaemia and in childhood leukaemia the response rate is high. It is usually the area where new drugs for cancer start as it is easier to treat by chemotherapy than solid tumours (though solid tumours can be removed surgically) so I would have hope for this.

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