One of the greatest threats to modern health is cancer. It is far-reaching as it can impact both sick and healthy people. It is one of the toughest diseases to treat and most if not all of us know someone who has passed away from cancer. At times it can feel like an incredibly cruel disease and it is frustrating to see it rampage on year after year. However, the fact is that there are many forms of cancer and scientists and doctors are making progress with solving many of them. Recently an advanced solution was found to combat one of the most common forms of cancer.
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is the most common form of blood cancer today. In Australia, nearly 3,000 people are diagnosed with the disease every year while in America 70,000 people were diagnosed in a single year with almost 20,000 of them dying from it. These incredible numbers show that is a devastating disease.
One of the key issues with treating this disease is that is often diagnosed too late. The most common sign of having this disease is an established tumor in the body. Yet often if the tumor is there and has developed, it has progressed too far to properly treat. A new study has shown that the immune system actually suppresses B Cell lymphoma. This information can now be used to develop a diagnostic and identify and treat the disease sooner.
The study was conducted on mice and it was found that disabling T cells led to lymphomas growing within weeks instead of the years they normally take to develop. The study took place in Australia and was funded by many organizations seeking to solve this terrible cancer. A similar study has also shown that by encouraging aging in cells with tumors it may help to treat lymphoma as well. This could be used to stop tumor cells dividing, lowering the chance of it spreading in the body.
These groundbreaking discoveries will mean non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma will become a more treatable form of cancer soon. It will no longer have such a high percentage of terminal patients and is another step towards ridding the world of this horrible disease. While cancer devastates so many lives and is often seen as unstoppable, when you look at the detail it is clear that amazing work is being done on many fronts. The battle against cancer is being waged today and we are winning, slowly.
