Join Kate Arkadieff and Theresa Webb as they delve into non-Hodgkin's lymphoma & acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (leukemia) journeys for patients and families on the Talking Blood Cancer podcast by Leukaemia Foundation.
Blood cancer casts a long shadow over many Australian families, but for Theresa Webb and her family, its shadow has been longer than most. Theresa was first diagnosed with blood cancer in 2002 after discovering a small hard lump near her collarbone. A biopsy revealed the then 30-year-old had a type of blood cancer called non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
For Nerys Welch, “grief sucks” in so many ways. And she says, “it never goes away”.
Sage and Sophie had to quickly make decisions about fertility and whether to start their respective families in the future – all within days of receiving a blood cancer diagnosis.
In this episode, Kate speaks with Ping, whose daughter Zoe was diagnosed with infant pre B-acute lymphoblastic leukaemia at just 5 weeks old. Zoe is now nearly 5 years old and is in remission and at school. Zoe's mother, Ping, shares what it was like to walk the blood cancer journey with a child so young, and how the family travelled around the world to save Zoe's life.
More than 80% of children newly diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) are successfully treated today – an achievement deemed by Dr Michael Osborn as “one of the true success stories of modern medicine”.
When Nikita was born with leukaemia in August 2019 his parents were told he probably wouldn’t survive; his chances being only 4%.
Professor David Curtis has focused his research on searching for new ways to treat early T-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ETP-ALL) which he describes as “a nasty type of leukaemia”.
The ability to use haploidentical donors, or half matched donors, is the most important recent development in stem cell transplantation, says world leader in transplant research, Professor David Curtis.
A clinical trial, due to open in mid-2022, will give young people access to two promising new ALL drugs.
