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piqer for: Global finds Health and Sanity Doing Good
Bangalore-based Rashmi Vasudeva's journalism has appeared in many Indian and international publications over the past decade. A features writer with over nine years of experience heading a health and fitness supplement in a mainstream Indian newspaper, her niche areas include health, wellness, fitness, food, nutrition and Indian classical Arts.
Her articles have appeared in various publications including Mint-Wall Street Journal, The Hindu, Deccan Herald (mainstream South Indian newspaper), Smart Life (Health magazine from the Malayala Manorama Group of publications), YourStory (India's media technology platform for entrepreneurs), Avantika (a noir arts and theatre magazine), ZDF (a German public broadcasting company) and others.
In 2006, she was awarded the British Print-Chevening scholarship to pursue a short-term course in new-age journalism at the University of Westminster, U.K. With a double Masters in Globalisation and Media Studies from Aarhus Universitet (Denmark), University of Amsterdam and Swansea University in Wales, U.K., she has also dabbled in academics, travel writing and socio-cultural studies. Mother to a frisky toddler, she hums 'wheels on the bus' while working and keeps a beady eye on the aforementioned toddler's antics.
Podcast: Interview With The 'Godfather' Of Cancer Immunotherapy
The buzz around immunotherapy in cancer treatment has been building up for a while now and with the Nobel Prize in Medicine being awarded to cancer researchers James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo for their seminal work in the field, it has reached fever pitch.
The two scientists have revolutionized cancer treatment by working on 'unleashing' the immune system. How? By nullifying the immune system's self-imposed ‘brakes’ that prevent it from attacking cancer cells. Their discoveries have resulted in drugs called 'checkpoint inhibitors', which are fast becoming the fourth pillar of cancer treatment along with surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.
But this has been a long, arduous journey not only for the immunologists but also for the therapy itself.
Immunotherapy has had its advocates right from the 1890s but such doctors were often labelled eccentrics and their ideas summarily dismissed. This was largely because, at that time, the immune system itself was poorly understood.
In this podcast, Dr Allison, often called the 'godfather' of immunotherapy, talks a bit more in detail about his research, what he initially set out to do (understand T-cells) and how effective the drugs have been till now.
While admitting that the research still has a long way to go before it can up the percentage of cancer patients who respond to the drugs, he emphasized that the new treatments have been especially beneficial for patients suffering from melanoma, lung and bladder cancers. Unfortunately, the drugs have not been effective till now in treating certain other cancers like pancreatic cancer and glioblastoma. Also, the treatment currently costs the earth and comes with its own set of side-effects.
That said, the doctor believes that science is much closer today to a fundamental breakthrough in curing cancer than it ever was, and immunotherapy in tandem with other cancer treatments might just pave the way.
For those keen, this explainer discusses cancer immunotherapy in greater detail.
