December 2006 podcast transcript

Kat: Coming up later, find out how you can help to improve services for cancer patients of the future, and we’ll be announcing the winner of last month’s rubber duck competition so stay tuned.

First, it’s time for a roundup of the latest news stories from Henry Scowcroft.

Henry: We begin this month with the news that the UK drugs watchdog, NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) has approved the use of a new class of drug for hormone-sensitive breast cancer. This brings the UK in line with the rest of Europe.

The drugs, known as ‘aromatase inhibitors’, stop the body from producing oestrogen, the female sex hormone, which encourages four in five breast cancers to grow.

Trials have shown that the drugs can significantly prolong breast cancer survival and prevent the cancer from coming back. Here’s Cancer Research UK’s information nurse manager, Martin Ledwick.

Comment – Martin Ledwick

Also in the news this week was the announcement from television regulator OFCOM that junk food adverts are to be banned from children’s television.

The move was designed to counter Britain’s growing obesity epidemic.

Being overweight or obese is linked to an increase in risk of several cancers, including bowel cancer, and breast cancer in post-menopausal women.

However, the ban stopped short of the more stringent restrictions that many campaigners, including Cancer Research UK, had been calling for. Here’s Richard Davidson, Director of Policy and Public Affairs at Cancer Research UK.

Comment – Richard Davidson

And finally, a cancer treatment developed from discoveries made by Cancer Research UK scientists is entering the final stages of clinical trials for an aggressive form of kidney cancer called renal cell carcinoma.

The treatment, called Trovax, exploits the fact that a protein, known as 5T4, is found on the surface of the cells of a number of tumours - including on approximately 90 per cent of renal cell carcinomas. But it isn’t present on healthy cells.

By injecting the gene for 5T4 into a patient's muscle tissue, TroVax encourages the immune system to attack any cells with 5T4 on their surface.

The presence of 5T4 on the surface of cancer cells was discovered by Cancer Research UK-funded scientists at the Paterson Institute in Manchester. So far, Trovax has been tested in early stage clinical trials with promising results.

Kat: You can get the latest cancer news direct from our News & Resources website.

It’s the festive season, which means families, friends and fun. So if you feel like throwing a dinner party, what better excuse do you need than raising money for Cancer Research UK?

Feature: Dine@mine Kirsty Jones (Cancer Research UK), Frances Rowlands (supporter) and Lara Lewington (TV presenter) explain more about Dine@mine, a new fundraising initiative from Cancer Research UK. You can find out more and sign up to host a Dine@mine party by visiting www.cancerresearch.org.uk/dine

Kat: And if you’re a really reluctant chef, you can always support Cancer Research UK in another way, either by donating directly or by taking part in a fundraising event. 

Kat: Last month’s podcast included a special feature on breast cancer, a disease that affects more than 40,000 women in the UK every year. But what about cancers that affect men? More than 30,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year in the UK . However, until recently there was relatively little investment in research into the disease, and services for men with prostate cancer were in urgent need of attention. The Prostate Cancer Charter for Action was set up in 2003 to bring prostate cancer research and services into the spotlight. I went along to a recent meeting held by the Charter group at the Houses of Parliament. This was a great chance find out more about the way things are changing for prostate cancer in the UK.

Interview: Mike Birtwhistle, Prostate Cancer Charter for Action Mike explains more about the Prostate Cancer Charter for Action (PCCA), which is working to highlight the disease in the UK and push for improved services for men with prostate cancer.

Kat: Since then, the amount of money put into prostate cancer research has increased significantly, and good progress has been made. I’m joined by two scientists supported by Cancer Research UK. Professor David Neal is a urological surgeon and researcher at the University of Cambridge, and leads PROMPT , one of two collaboratives set up to co-ordinate prostate cancer research in the UK . So how do you feel about the way that prostate cancer research is now progressing in the UK?

Interview: Professor David Neal Professor Neal explains that PROMPT is a series of UK universities doing major programmes of research into prostate cancer. This includes research into the molecular pathology of prostate cancer (the genes and molecules involved), studying the epidemiology of the disease (what causes it), and how it can spread to the bones. Researchers are also investigating prostate cancer stem cells, and developing new drugs to treat the disease. And they are building a biorepository to collect samples of prostate cancer from around the country.

Kat: That’s David Neal from Cambridge University. Although researchers are developing urgently needed treatments for aggressively growing prostate cancer, the disease is rather unusual in that sometimes it’s better not to treat prostate cancer at all as it won’t grow quickly enough to cause problems. But how do you tell the difference between the two? Here’s Professor Colin Cooper from the Institute of Cancer Research http://www.icr.ac.uk in Surrey to explain more.

Interview: Professor Colin Cooper Professor Cooper explains that around half of all early prostate cancers may not need treatment, while other will become life-threatening. These “tigers” cannot be distinguished from the “pussycats” that will not become dangerous. This is important because treatment for prostate cancer with serious surgery or radiotherapy can leave men impotent or incontinent, so it’s important to avoid treating those who might not need it. So we need to find “biomarkers” that can tell the difference between the tigers and the pussycats.

Kat: So far Professor Cooper and his team have found a few potential “tiger-pussycat” markers, including a protein called E2F3. Prostate cancers that have low levels of E2F3 are likely to be less aggressive than those with high levels. 

There’s still a lot to be done, and Cancer Research UK is developing other new tests and treatments for prostate cancer. If you want to find out more about prostate cancer, including the latest research advances from around the world, then have a look at our patient information website CancerHelp UK www.cancerhelp.org.uk

Kat: As we’ve just heard, things are changing positively for prostate cancer in the UK. And thanks to the Government’s Cancer Plans for England and Scotland, we’ve seen important progress in services for many other types of cancer. But there’s much more that has to happen, and we need your help to make sure the government listens to the needs of cancer patients and their carers. Jon Spiers, Cancer Campaigns officer at Cancer Research UK, explains more.

Interview: Jon Spiers, Cancer Campaigns www.cancercampaigns.org.uk
Jon describes the Cancer 2020 campaign, asking politicians to plan now for the future of cancer services in the UK. More than 250,000 supporters signed the Cancer 2020 petition, which was recently handed in to 10 Downing Street. We still need signatures, especially from the UK nations other than England, so find out more and sign up now at www.cancer2020.org

Kat: We’ve reached the end of the show so we hope you’ve enjoyed the podcast. We’ll be back next month with news of a pioneering new treatment for pancreatic cancer, and finding out whether computers will ever replace doctors. We want to know what you think of the show, so please leave your feedback about the podcast by filling in the survey on our webpage. And don’t forget that you can sign up to our RSS feed to get the latest Cancer Research UK podcast delivered straight to your computer every month. And if you’d like to get involved in our podcast, or simply let us know what you think, then email podcast@cancer.org.uk

Finally, Jen Stockwell was the winner of last month’s competition to win a pink bath-time duck signed by our celebrity guest Sarah Cawood. We’ll be giving away some more great prizes next time, so do join us again.

That’s all for now, goodbye!