April 2007 podcast transcript

In the July podcast we're celebrating as England joins the rest of the UK in going smoke-free, a move that will save thousands of lives in the future. And we get our trainers on to join Relay for Life.

Kat: In this month's podcast we're celebrating as England joins the rest of the UK in going smoke-free, a move that will save thousands of lives in the future. And we get our trainers on to join Relay for Life.

Coming up later, we find out how clues in our chromosomes could explain why cancers become resistant to chemotherapy.

But first, there's cause for celebration as the whole of the UK went smoke-free on the 1st of July, as England became the last country in the UK to enforce smoke-free workplaces. Smoking is the leading preventable cause of cancer in the world, and causes a quarter of all cancer deaths in the UK.

Passive smoking is also thought to kill around 10,000 people in the UK every year. Smoke-free legislation will save thousands of lives in the future, by protecting workers from unwanted smoke, and by encouraging smokers to quit.

I spoke to Professor Robert West, Director of Tobacco Studies at the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour centre, to discover why smoke-free legislation is so important.

Professor Robert West

The most important thing is for non-smokers, which is why the legislation is coming in - to protect non smokers from breathing in carcinogens. It will save lives - it will probably save literally thousands of non-smokers lives. And it will certainly encourage a lot of smokers to try to quit.

It's very hard to give up. Many people try and many people fail, but to capitalise on it, we want people to use effective treatments to help them stop. The best way to quit for good is to tackle both sides of the problem ñ one is psychological and the other is pharmacological.

You can tackle the pharmacological side of it quite well now. There are nicotine patches and gum that you can buy from the supermarket or chemist. And there is now a drug called Champix, which is probably the most effective treatment we have to help people quit, but you have to get it on prescription from your doctor.

What these drugs do it reduce the nicotine "hunger". Taking nicotine over a long time changes the brain so you develop a hunger in your brain when your nicotine levels go down (cravings), or you get the urge to smoke, or you get withdrawal symptoms such as irritability. These drugs can help to tackle that.

But the will to give up is also essential ñ none of these drugs will have any effect unless you have the determination to stop. You eventually have to become a non-smoker in your head. You're going to have fond memories of smoking, you're going to feel that you really fancy a cigarette, so you need something to tackle that.

And that's where the NHS Stop Smoking services come in, because they can provide that support and advice . It's a one stop shop, and it's all free ñ you simply go to your GP, and they will refer you to the Stop Smoking service. They'll help you deal with the pharmacological side and the psychological side.

Kat: But how is going smoke free making a difference? The Spitz bistro in East London has been smoke free for several months already. I went along to find out how it's going.

Smoke-free package

Andrea Cabrera is a waitress at the Spitz. Since the Spitz went smoke-free she thinks it's good, because she spends a lot of time at work there. It's better not to smell the smoke of cigarettes she doesnít smoke.

Kat also caught up with Max, a smoker we featured in our January podcast. Max has now given up smoking. He found it pretty tough at first, and it's still quite hard but it's getting easier. It's been two and a half months since he quit.

He gave up because he was concerned about the health effects, and has been thinking about the future. He thinks it will be easier now England is smoke-free, so he can go out without the temptation of people smoking around him.

But just because we have smoke-free workplaces, this doesn't mean that there will be no smoking any more. Elspeth Lee, Cancer Research UK's tobacco control manager, thinks there's still a lot to do. At this stage it's important to keep politicians onboard, and make sure that whichever party we have in power in a few years time will still support tobacco control.

It's certainly not a done deal, and thereís a lot more we need to be doing. We need to help current smokers by making cigarettes less acceptable, less affordable and less available, and at the same time making stop smoking products much more available, appealing and acceptable. So that might mean, for example, having products available in many more shops than they are at the moment.

Kat: And now it's time for our news roundup, with Josephine Querido.

Josephine:

Scientists at the Cancer Research UK London Research Institute have found some clues in our genes that may explain why some cancers are resistant to chemotherapy.

The researchers used a technique called RNA interference to switch off hundreds of genes in cancer cells, one at a time. By switching off each gene in turn, they were able to see what effect it had on the cells' resistance to the common cancer drug, Taxol.

The team found that most of the genes that were involved in drug resistance are known to play a part in helping cells to maintain the correct number of chromosomes. If these genes don't work properly, then cells can end up with too many or too few chromosomes.

This is interesting because a number of cancers that do not respond to certain chemotherapy drugs also have the incorrect number of chromosomes.

Doctors at Cancer Research UK and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation trust are now setting up a clinical trial to see if these findings can be used to predict which cancer patients will respond to Taxol.

If the results are positive, this could lead to a test to help doctors ensure that people with cancer get the most effective treatment for their disease. Dr Charlie Swanton is one of the leading scientists working on the project.

Dr Charlie Swanton

What we hope to do now is extend this screen to the whole genome. The ultimate goal is to try and recognise in advance those patients that are likely to benefit from treatment with Taxol, and those that aren't. What we're trying to do now is carry out functional genomics studies like this, where we can knock out each gene one at a time, across the whole genome. We hope to find the genes involved in taxane response, to see if we can predict which patients will and will not benefit from Taxol treatment.

The introduction of smoke-free legislation across the UK will lead to many smokers thinking about quitting their habit. And there's good news for them from Professor Robert West and his team at the Cancer Research UK Health Behaviour Centre.

A survey of more than 850 ex-smokers has shown that the majority of those who quit are happier now they've kicked the habit. Here's Professor West to explain more.

Professor Robert West

Smokers who are worried that when they stop smoking their life is going to become a bleak, barren wasteland of misery can take heart from the finding that about 70% of ex-smokers say that they're definitely happier now than when they were smoking, and most of the rest are about the same. Only a tiny minority say they are less happy, and these are often people who are in the throes of withdrawal. You speak to ex-smokers and they are so pleased they've stopped smoking ñ and you can be one of them.

And finally, a Cancer Research UK survey has found that people from poorer backgrounds are least likely to know about the symptoms of cancer.

The researchers found that people from least privileged backgrounds are consistently around 20 per cent less likely to recognise cancer symptoms than those from more affluent backgrounds. And men were generally worse than women at spotting the signs of cancer.

To improve awareness, Cancer Research UK has produced two versions of a leaflet describing some common signs and symptoms of cancer, called "Wish you knew the signs of cancer?". There's one for men, and one for women. You can download these from the charity's Our Publications website.

Kat: And if you want find out more about these stories, or get the latest from the charity's scientists, and researchers around the world, then have a look at our News & Resources website.

Kat: Summer brings long evenings and lovely days, and what better way to spend them than by raising money for Cancer Research UK? Relay for Life is a fun new way for the whole community to get involved, coming together to have fun and raise vital funds for our life-saving research.

Volunteers raise money throughout the year, culminating in a twenty-four hour walk around a track. One of the most moving parts of every Relay is the candle of hope ceremony, lighting candles in celebration of people who have survived cancer, and in memory of those we have lost.

Kim Jones, Relay for Life Development manager, explains more about the event.

Kim Jones

Cancer Research UK's Relay for life is an inspirational, overnight event that happens annually in communities across the UK. Relay is organised entirely by our wonderful, hardworking volunteers, bringing together teams of friends, family and work colleagues to celebrate their achievements in raising money for Cancer Research UK.

There are many ways that people can become involved. They can enter a team, take part as a survivor, dedicate a candle of hope, go along as a visitor or even organise a Relay for Life in their own community.

Relay for Life is a celebration of cancer survivors ñ and it's survivors who show the progress and success of research, and are the reason why communities keep on raising money for our work. As our guests of honour, cancer survivors start every relay by walking the first lap, and are cheered on by all present. It's the best event ever ñ it's one day, one night, one reason. It's certainly 24 hours you'll never forget.

Kat: Relay for Life first started in the United States, and now raises money for cancer research all over the world. Here's Daniel Smith, from the American Cancer Society, to tell us where it all started.

Daniel Smith

Relay first got started in the United States in 1985, and it started with a single person ñ a doctor in Tacoma, Washington. He decided to try and run for 24 hours to raise money for the American Cancer Society, as he had a cancer connection. He got sponsored by his friends to see if he could do it. Relay grew out of that single event.

The next year, people decided to do it in teams, rather than him running the whole thing by himself. It's now an international phenomenon, with Relays taking place all over the world. It's the power of a single person and a single idea triumphing ñ it raises a lot of money for cancer research, raises a lot of awareness, and it also raises a lot of hope.

Kat: So what's it like to be at a Relay for Life? I went along to a rather windy Relay in Ruislip, West London, to find out more.

Relay for Life package

Kat meets Steve and Clare, who are doing the Relay dressed as superheroes. They've raised £1,800, and have done loads of laps through the night ñ though they're tired now. They found the candle ceremony very emotional, as they know people who have survived cancer, and have also lost someone to the disease. But it was really good to have everyone uniting together and the candles looked lovely.

Dave Dalton is responsible for organising the 24 teams at the Relay. Before the event started, they had raised about £28,000. There will probably be another £7,000 in Gift Aid, and more money has been raised today at the event. At the moment he's exhausted as he worked the night shift, but it's been an absolutely brilliant experience.

Kat:

So if youíre interested in getting involved in Relay for Life, or want to find out more about all the other ways that you can support Cancer Research UK, have a look at our Support Us website.

We've reached the end once more so we hope youve enjoyed the podcast. Don't forget that your feedback is vital in helping us improve the show, so please send us your comments and suggestions by email to podcast@cancer.org.uk. And you can sign up to our RSS feed to get the latest Cancer Research UK podcast delivered straight to your computer every month.

Weíll be back next month with news of our new cancer campaign ñ find out how you can get involved to help push forward cancer screening in the UK. Until then, good bye!!

• Credits:
• Presented and produced by Kat Arney
• News by Josephine Querido and Kat Arney
• Post-production by Henry Sowcroft
• Original music written and performed by Kat Arney and Henry Scowcroft
• With special thanks to all the participants