• Question: Is chemotherapy effective in aggressive blood cancers?

    Asked by McClementine to Amy on 19 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: Amy Grayson

      Amy Grayson answered on 19 Jun 2017:

      Hi McClementine,

      Yes, there are many different chemotherapy drugs which are used for blood cancers. As I work with a specific subset of blood cancers, the chemotherapy agent used for these cancers is called Hydroxyurea and is effective at controlling the division of cancer cells and destroying them. Unfortunately, chemotherapy agents may also affect healthy cells which is why it is really important to us cancer researchers to look at drugs which will target ONLY the cancer cells and not the healthy cells. To do this, we must understand the differences in cell components in cancer cells compared to healthy cells which is the main aim of my studies 🙂

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