| Subscribe Free via itunes,yahoo or google |
< Previous Show | Next Show > |
20th Feb 2005
Cancer and Complementary Therapies
|
|
In this week's show, Professor Fran Balkwill from the Cancer Institute at St. Bartholomew's and The Royal London, and Professor Andrew Wyllie, Head of the Department of Pathology at Cambridge University, discuss cancer, how cancer spreads and how the body responds, Dr Toby Murcott, a science writer and broadcaster, talks about complementary medicines and how they might be tested, and Dr Chris Smith flies through a host of discoveries from the other side of the pond, where he reports live from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
News
A new version of the humble potato may protect thousands of people each year by giving people a dose of the hepatitis B vaccine. Hepatitis B is a virus that infects millions of people annually, and nearly one million people die worldwide from liver problems caused by...
Scientists in Hong Kong are considering introducing ant eaters to control a recent outbreak in alien ants. The ants, called red fire ants, are thought to have arrived from South America in imported pot plants. Ant hills were first spotted in fields and are now poppin...
Anyone ever been on stage or in a band? Well, you may know that sinking feeling when the last rehearsal just goes horribly wrong, which changes to elation when it's all alright the following night. Now scientists in New York have found scientific evidence that not on...
Questions

Why does cancer tend to be more common in older people?
It's a very good question and a very astute observation. It really has to do with the fact that many different genes need to be altered by their contact with whatever it is in the environment that causes cancer in the first place. It's seldom that any single gene defect is involved in cancer. People think that it takes at least six to eight genes, but it is probably many more. They must all be altered together in the same cell before you get the change in behaviour that we would call cancer. The chance of getting all these changes at the same time in one cell is actually very low, but it increases with age.
|
|
|
|