Lowering Cancer Risk With Aspirin
Aspirin has been hailed as a wonder drug for more than
100 years, first for pain relief, then for lowering heart
attack risk, and more recently for reducing the risk of
pancreatic and colon cancers. The latest: daily aspirin
cuts the risk of liver cancer by as much as 49 per cent,
says research published inJAMA Oncologyin October,
- The benefits were seen in people who regularly took
at least 487.5 mg per week for five years. Another study,
published in the same issue, found that low-dose aspirin
use appeared to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer.
HSCT FOR MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
In multiple sclerosis (MS), the immune system, designed to
protect us from outside threats, gets confused and instead
attacks its central nervous system. Until recently the
prognosis for people with severe MS was not promising.
But an experimental treatment called Haematopoietic
tem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) is helping
ome people fight against the disease and
ven to reverse its effects.
RoyPalmer, 50, was diagnosed with MS in
003 and the disease progressed aggressively
ntil in 2008 he was confined to a wheelchair.
n 2016 he learned that HSCT treatment might
elp him walk again. But it was risky – it involved
estroying his immune system. Roy decided
t was worth the chance, and started the
reatment in October 2017.
Doctors first harvested Roy’s own stem cells.
They then used chemotherapy to wipe out his malfunctioning immune system.
Next, they reintroduced his stored stem cells into his body where, if all went well,
the cells would reboot the immune system, building it more or less from scratch.
By Christmas 2017 Roy Palmer was walking with the help of a frame. He kept
improving and today he’s even dancing. “What’s most amazing of all is walking
side by side with my wife, son and daughter,” he says.HSCThas been used to treat
a very small percentage of people with MS in Australia, Malaysia and Singapore
and internationally. It is currently not available in New Zealand.TRUE
STORYPHOTO: COURTESY OF ROY PALMER44 Augus t 2019
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