Thank you for considering a gift
Your gift will help to research the remaining three out of four genes which Dr Tiffen and her team have identified and may provide a cure for melanoma.
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Melanoma touches us all
Many of you will know someone who has been affected by melanoma, you may even have had a ‘brush’ with it yourself. We have spent years and many millions of dollars on prevention. Now we are moving towards a cure.
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The lucky country?
Melanoma is still our “national cancer” and will kill close to 2000 people this year. At the Centenary Institute, our Centre for Cancer Innovation is working hard on the problem. -
Questions are the beginning of answers
While our researchers work every day to find answers, they also spend a great deal of time on looking for questions. The right questions, the questions that have never been asked before, the questions which may ultimately lead them to the answers – and then the solutions.
One step on the way
In an exciting and crucial step forward in cancer research, we are very excited that Dr Jessamy Tiffen, Centre Head of Cancer Innovations at the Centenary Institute has found such a question:
The right question
Does the fact that women can access some genes from both of their ‘X’ chromosomes explain why men are twice as likely to die from melanoma as women? It is perhaps not that men are more SUSCEPTIBLE to cancer but that women are more RESISTANT to cancer.
Four genes may hold the answer
The Centre for Cancer Innovations at Centenary Institute has identified four specific genes on the X chromosome where women have access to both copies.
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Personalised therapy
Dr Tiffen explains: “This is super exciting to those of us who need questions so that we can move toward solutions. How are these genes working? How are they protecting women? How are they regulated or ‘turned on and off’? If we can discover those answers, we can develop new drug, gene or immunotherapies that could be applied to both men and women to improve outcomes from multiple diseases”. -
It’s in your genes
Men are often exposed to more environmental triggers and are sadly still more reticent about prevention and seeking advice – but this has now been ruled out as the only cause of the increased incidence.
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Women’s super power
Dr Tiffen believes that this is highly suggestive of a genetic link. “I want to know if that is because women have ‘double immunity’ to fight off cancer cells because they can access double the genes.”
Thank you
Thank you for considering a gift today – every one will move us along this exciting path toward a world without cancer. You can learn more about Dr Tiffen’s work and how you can be part of it in our recent webinar below.
We’re always here
If you would like to discuss your gift or other ways in which you can support the Centenary Institute, including by leaving a gift in your will, please contact our Fundraising Manager David M Bond on 0415 776 410 or (02) 9565 6100 or at d.bond@centenary.org.au.M