• Question: Personally, Why do YOU want to stop cancer?

    Asked by nucleardisciple to Clare, Mariana, Pedro, Robert, Susanne on 12 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Mariana Campos

      Mariana Campos answered on 12 Nov 2012:

      Personally, very personally, because I know people with cancer. And I would do whatever I could to make their life better. Wouldn’t we all?

    • Photo: Robert Insall

      Robert Insall answered on 12 Nov 2012:

      Me? I just want to understand how the cells work. Cancer Research UK think if I study the way cells work it’ll help us understand why cancer spreads, and then we can work out how to stop it. So far they’ve been right.
      If I had really only wanted to stop cancer I would have become a surgeon and treated the actual patients, and cut their actual tumours out.
      But luckily, I didn’t. I wouldn’t have been a very good surgeon. But I’ve been a good researcher. And you need both good surgeons and good researchers…

    • Photo: Susanne Muekusch

      Susanne Muekusch answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      hi nucleardisciple,

      i don’t do what I do because I want to stop cancer. It would be a nice side effect, if I made any significant contribution to stop brain cancer, but this is not what motivates me.

      Well, a lot of people would be better off, if we can find better therapies. But that is more the answer to: “why should cancer be stopped”. 🙂

    • Photo: Clare Taylor

      Clare Taylor answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      I’m a microbiologist and I’m interested in studying bacteria so when I started my research, it wasn’t with the intention of developing therapies for cancer. That has come as a result of some research findings and the realisation that my work has a potential application to cancer research. I don’t know if it will be successful, but we’ll certainly try. Lots of scientists are working to find ways to prevent and/or treat cancer with new therapies and I’m sure that many people have different motivations. Cancer has had an impact on my life – family members have died of cancer, and a friend of mine that I used to sit next to in the lab died of cancer when he was just 34. All of this makes me very sad, but I couldn’t honestly say it was my prime motivation, but I am glad that my work might help.

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