The C Word

We are all unfortunately familiar with what cancer is and how dangerous it can be for our health. But we also know that not all cancers are the same and that some are more dangerous than others. But, why is this?
This is caused by a combination of factors including tumor stage at diagnosis and tumor aggressiveness. Moreover, some tumors are silent and do not give any sign of their presence until it’s too late.
In this talk, I will explain how cancer can “corrupt” the immune system and, importantly, what current cancer research is doing to revert this mechanism to effectively kill the tumor.

Nowadays, many childhood cancers have very high rates of survival. As a consequence, it is becoming increasingly important to focus not only on treating the cancer, but also on improving the standard of life for cancer survivors. This involves counteracting the side-effects of treatments, including damaging effects of chemotherapy drugs on fertility. My talk will look at the fertility preservation options currently available, what might be possible in the future, and whether we can stop chemotherapy treatment from leading to infertility in the first place.