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On April 26, 1968, at 1:23 AM, Unit 4 of the RBMK Chernobyl power plant experienced an unexpected power surge. This power surge had arisen during a routine safety test carried out to determine whether in the event of a power failure, the still-spinning turbines within the plant could produce enough electricity to keep coolant pumps running during the brief gap before the emergency generators kicked in.. In fact, the test was deemed so routine that the plant director did not even bother showing up. Operators had started preparing for this test a day earlier, however it was temporarily delayed to meet the region’s power needs. After gaining permission to carry forward the test, it was resumed, although by an inexperienced work staff who had purportedly never received proper instructions on how to perform the test. It was the confluence of a series of crucial missteps including the violation of safety protocols, RBMK reactor design flaws and failed attempts to shut down the reactor that caused the untimely power surge which subsequently triggered the explosion. As air entered the core of the reactor, the graphite blocks in the reactor caught fire, which led to the emanation of harmful quantities of radioactive materials like plutonium, iodine, strontium and cesium into the environment. As a result of exposure to such toxic materials, human health suffered greatly, especially the plant operators, firefighters, workers engaged in clean up operations - known as liquidators - and the 49,360 inhabitants of the nearby city of Pripyat in northern Ukrainian SSR. Though the threat to the inhabitants was less immediate and direct compared to the workers and firefighters, those communities saw a rise in cancer cases. The most recurring cases have been that of thyroid cancer among adults who were children living near the site of the explosion at that time. The scale of the explosion was so massive that the radiation could be detected in the neighboring countries of Belarus, The Russian Federation and some cities of Europe. As of 2015, almost 20,000 cases of thyroid cancer have been detected among those residents. It feels obvious that there will be health concerns as a result of a nuclear explosion. But why cancer? The thyroid gland is particularly radiosensitive, absorbing as much as radiation so that there is less exposure to the rest of the cells within the body. However, when the cells are exposed to large quantities of radiation, tumours can develop near the area causing thyroid cancer. The glands of children are smaller, hence they are more susceptible to the disease. Before the Chernobyl disaster, there were about one or two cases of thyroid cancer detected among children each year. Approximately 38 cases were recorded in Gomel - the most contaminated region - in 1991. Additionally, in six regions of Belarus and the city of Minsk, 131 thyroid cancer cases were detected in younger children, some of whom were still in the womb when the incident occurred. Even the World Health Organisation believes "the experience in Belarus suggests that the consequences to the human thyroid, especially in fetuses and young children, of the carcinogenic effects of radioactive fallout is much greater than previously thought." Though thyroid cancer remains the most common cancer detected due to radiation exposure, other cancer cases such as leukemia (blood cancer) and vitreoretinal lymphoma - a particularly rare type of cancer - have been traced to the Chernobyl disaster. Even today, 35 years after the explosion, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster reminds us of the consequences from human induced catastrophes. The aftermath of the incident impacted not only the nuclear industry, but the lives of neighboring communities. Fortunately, civilian and authoritarian groups continue to advocate for the implementation of additional safety measures for the careful operation of power plants. This incident also had another unintended benefit. Since thyroid cancer is now known to be caused by radiation, the Chernobyl cases have become a special resource for studying the molecular biology of radiation and non-radiation induced thyroid cancer. Sources: https://www.history.com/news/chernobyl-disaster-timeline#&gid=ci02447912a000266d&pid https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/focus/chernobyl/faqs https://academic.oup.com/epirev/article/27/1/56/520833 https://nuclearsafety.gc.ca/eng/resources/health/health-effects-chernobyl-accident.cfm https://www.curetoday.com/view/chernobyl-disaster-may-be-linked-with-rare-cancer-30-years-later https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/03/world/a-cancer-legacy-from-chernobyl.html https://www.britannica.com/event/Chernobyl-disaster https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/chernobyl https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/chernobyl-disaster Poulomi PitalePoulomi Pitale is the current head of our interview team here at Cancer Together. She works on writing informative pieces along with interviewing others to raise awareness about cancer in our community.
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Henrietta Lacks - born August 1, 1920 - was an African American diagnosed with aggressive cervical cancer at 30 and passed within a year due to complications from the disease. And yet, her life didn’t end with cancer; Rather, she became immortal. As contradictory as this sounds, in a sense, Lacks is still alive today. Her story begins in 1951 when she lived with her husband and four children in Baltimore, Maryland. Before her fifth pregnancy, she repeatedly complained about a ‘knot’ in her womb.After bearing her child, she experienced considerable bleeding and discovered a lump in her cervix . John Hopkins Hospital, one of the few hospitals that treated African-American patients, found a cervical tumour in the biopsy Lacks was eventually diagnosed with an aggressive form of cervical cancer. During the same period of Lacks’ diagnosis, Dr. George Gey - the head of tissue culture research at John Hopkins - was one of many scientists looking for a human cell line that would help in the research of the human genome. A human cell line was considered essential in the research of cellular biology, allowing scientists to conduct experiments repeatedly without endangering the lives of patients. Unfortunately, at that time, human cells could not be preserved for more than a few days, incapable of reproducing at the desired rate. This posed a challenge for scientists worldwide, hindering potential developments in their research. However, the year 1951 seemed to present a medical gift to scientists all over the world, especially for Gey. Regrettably, at the expense of Henrietta’s life. During a procedure of localised radiation therapy to treat Henrietta’s tumour, two sample tissues were extracted: the first one was of her cancerous cells and the second of the healthy cells near the cervix lining. These samples were observed by Dr. Gey, who noticed that Henrietta’s cancerous cells possessed an extraordinary trait. Although they were outside her body, the cells multiplied at an incredible rate and resisted apoptosis (programmed cell death in multicellular organisms). When Gey realised he had discovered the very first immortal human cell line, he sent samples to labs all over the world. Though the reason behind this unique trait is still largely unexplained, her cell line - later named HeLa (derived from Henrietta Lacks) - continues to be used for research by millions of scientists and institutions. HeLa cells have played an indispensable role in numerous groundbreaking scientific discoveries, including in the treatment of diseases like measles, mumps, HIV and ebola. It was also the major driving force in the development of the polio vaccine in the 1950’s. And yet, her impact didn’t end there. Discovery of the enzyme telomerase - which helps cancer cells evade death by repairing their DNA - and the discovery of the virus (HPV) as a major cause of cervical cancer draw their roots to Lack’s human cell line. These are just a few of the extraordinary impacts of an irreplaceable immortal cell line - HeLa. However, the creation and development of the HeLa cell line is extremely controversial. Just months after Henrietta passed away, her cells were being grown at a massive scale around the globe. In fact, before her death in 1951, Lacks’ cancer cells had been the subject of more than 74,000 studies. Unfortunately, the cells were taken without the consent of either Henrietta or her family. Though such procedures were common at the time it has raised some serious ethical concerns in recent years, including whether her cell line should continue to be used for research purposes The Lacks family - earlier concerned with the violation of privacy and concern over the global access to their DNA line - settled into an agreement with the National Institute of Health in 2013. This agreement granted approval to the use of the HeLa cell line use for scientific purposes provided that along with other conditions Above all, it is now our responsibility to remember the black woman who - though often forgotten due to her minority identity - changed the world: Henrietta Lacks. Sources: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-immortal-cells-of-henrietta-lacks-robin-bulleri#digdeeper https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/science/after-decades-of-research-henrietta-lacks-family-is-asked-for-consent.html?_r=0&auth=link-dismiss-google1tap https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henrietta-Lacks https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/henriettalacks/immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks.html https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02494-z https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/henrietta-lacks-immortal-cells-6421299/ Poulomi PitalePoulomi Pitale is the current head of our interview team here at Cancer Together. She works on writing informative pieces along with interviewing others to raise awareness about cancer in our community. There are many types of treatments for cancer such as surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. As science continues to evolve, many new treatments are going through clinical trials and becoming more widely available. A great example is hyperthermia. Hyperthermia is when the body has an abnormally high temperature, but it actually can be used as a type of cancer treatment in which the body is exposed to temperatures up to 113 degrees Fahrenheit. Hyperthermia is usually combined with other types of cancer therapy because it makes some cancer cells more sensitive to radiation, attacking cancer cells that radiation cannot damage. The high temperatures of hyperthermia can kill cancer cells, damage proteins, and structures within the cells. There are three main types of hyperthermia treatments: local, regional, and whole-body hyperthermia. Local hyperthermia is when heat is applied to a small area, most likely a tumor, using microwave, radiofrequency, or ultrasound. On the other hand, regional and whole-body hyperthermia is used to heat large areas of the body and treat metastatic cancer that spread throughout the body. While regional and whole-body hyperthermia sound similar they are actually quite different. Regional hyperthermia is used to treat cancers deep within the body such as cervical, liver, and stomach cancer. Within regional hyperthermia there are deep tissue, regional perfusion, and continuous hyperthermic peritoneal perfusion (CHPP), that target specific areas. Each of these techniques are very unique. In deep tissue regional hyperthermia, the external applicators positioned around body cavity or organ and microwave/radiofrequency are focused on the area. In regional perfusion hyperthermia, some of the patient’s blood is removed, heated, and perfused back into the limb or organ. On the other hand, whole-body hyperthermia heats the entire body to a specific degree as it targets cancers that spread throughout the entire body, not just a specific area. Statistics in a 2007 study showed that patients treated with hyperthermia along with another type of cancer treatment saw a 50% reduction in their tumor size compared to a 12% reduction in patients not using hyperthermia. This is just one of many clinical studies that have proven hyperthermia can reduce and ultimately erase cancer. However, as with any treatment in study, there are pros and cons. The pros include that hyperthermia can destroy tumors without surgery and make other forms of cancer treatment work better. Unfortunately, it is hard to accurately measure the temperature inside a tumor and keep areas at constant temperature without affecting nearby tissues. Additionally, there are numerous side effects, depending on the hyperthermia treatment, to keep in mind. With local hyperthermia, side effects can include pain at the site of treatment, infection, bleeding, blood clots, swelling, burns, blisters, damage to skin, muscles, and nerves near the treated area. However, with regional and whole-body hyperthermia, the side effects can vary depending on what part of the body is treated and how high the temperature is. Hyperthermia is still in the clinical trial phase, but is available for certain patients. Once fully ready, it can help the process of curing cancer and change the process of treating cancer. Make sure to listen to our newest episode Hyperthermia and Cancer on our podcast series Talk with Us to learn more about the impact of this technique! Sources https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25144817/ https://celsion.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Rugo-ESMO-2012.pdf https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00826085 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7839459/ https://www.thesimpledollar.com/financial-wellness/paying-for-cancer-treatments-personal-loans/ Christina OliverChristina Oliver is a current member of our interview team here at Cancer Together. She works on writing impactful and informative pieces while also interviewing others about cancer and its impacts. |
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Cancer after the Chernobyl Disaster The Story of Henrietta Lack Heating up with Hyperthermia |