The Bigger Picture

Did you ever wonder whether different types of radioactivity might be better at treating different types of cancer? In this episode, Maggie talks to Dr Sam Terry who is working on radiation biology and she explains what the radioactivity is doing in the cell and why some types of radioactivity might be better than others. First thought, Maggie spoke to the father of a friend of hers; Vincent was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. We talk about his diagnosis and treatment, including his FDG scan and how that went. 

This podcast series was produced in 2021 by Maggie Cooper from the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences at King's College London. 

In this episode Maggie talks to Rachel about her Sentinel Lymph Node Imaging and with Dr Julia Blower about research into new methods for Sentinel Lymph Node Imaging which we are researching using iron oxide particles.

This podcast series was produced in 2021 by Maggie Cooper from the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences at King's College London.  

In this episode Maggie talks to Clive about his experience with prostate cancer. She also talks to two scientists in the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences about a new Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Radiopharmaceutical. Prof Gary Cook has been involved in a trial on the new radiopharmaceutical and Dr Jennifer Young was involved in the development of a kit to make it easy to make this new radiopharmaceutical.

This podcast series was produced in 2021 by Maggie Cooper from the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences at King's College London. 

This podcast series was produced in 2021 by Maggie Cooper from the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences at King's College London. 

This episode gives an introduction to the podcast and what it is about. Future episodes look at specific types of cancer, Maggie talks to people who have experience of that cancer as well as researchers within the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences who are doing research related to cancer. It brings together both patient experience and cutting edge research.

Phil Blower is Professor of Imaging Chemistry in the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences at King's College London. He's a chemist at heart, with an interest in 'molecular imaging' using radioactive drugs.  He has more than 180 peer reviewed papers and has supervised more than 30 PhD students. However, in the first weeks of his first academic post, Phil was diagnosed with testicular cancer.

Maggie talked to Phil about his work to develop new radioactive drugs for imaging and treating cancer, his thoughts on future developments in the Nuclear Medicine field and, of course, about his experience of having cancer himself.

We'd like to thank the Public Engagement team in the Centre for Medical Engineering at King's College London for their support of this podcast.

You can follow the Bigger Picture Podcast on Twitter @BigPicPod

As a pharmacist, I've tried to steer clear of stoma care but for people living with a stoma following bowel surgery, it's an important topic which affects their everyday lives. I had the opportunity to speak to Luis about his experience of being diagnosed with colorectal cancer and how he has coped with living with a stoma in the years since his successful operation to remove cancerous polyps from his rectum.

This is a really interesting episode in our podcast series with lots of useful tips to help both medical professionals and those with experience of cancer.

Thanks for the Public Engagement team at the Centre for Medical Engineering at King's College London for their support of this podcast. Follow us on Twitter @BigPicPod

Have you ever had an FDG PET scan? Did you wonder where the FDG came from or even how the radioactive part, the Fluorine-18, was made? It probably isn't something that you have thought about but for researchers in the School of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Sciences at King's College London, a good supply of radioisotopes is crucial for our research so that we can make new radioactive drugs to diagnose and treat cancer.

In this episode Maggie spoke to Karin Nielsen who makes radioisotopes using the cyclotron based in the PET centre at St Thomas' Hospital. We find out what is involved, whether it is dangerous and what's happening with nuclear reactions going on underground close to the Houses of Parliament!

Thanks to the Public Engagement team at the Centre for Medical Engineering for funding this podcast. Please subscribe or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. You can find us on Twitter @BigPicPod or on Facebook /biggerpicturepodcast. Thank you for listening. 

Allen is a running friend or our podcast presenter, Maggie. She caught up with him after he'd completed a 10km running race in the snow last month and talked to him about how he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and about the treatment that followed.

In the podcast, Allen and Maggie talk about some of the practical and emotional problems Allen faced from getting a biopsy done, through deciding on treatment options, other health issues impacting treatment and the practicalities of the treatment itself. They also discussed a little bit about running and its benefits.

My interviewee this week is a scientist from the School of Biomedical Engineering at King's College London but his work isn't specifically about cancer, in fact, he mainly looks at the heart. However, Dr Rick Southworth has been looking at using an old radiopharmaceutical for a new purpose, to see if we can tell whether certain types of chemotherapy are causing damage to the heart.

It is well known that some chemotherapy is harmful to the heart but it doesn't affect everybody and the effects on the heart are not immediate and may only cause problems later on in life. Rick is seeking to find out if we can detect that damage early. We talk about why that is significant, what improvements that might mean to therapy and how we are working hand in hand across different disciplines to help patients with cancer.

Rick is a friend of our interviewee from the last episode, Tim Jones, and we talked about Tim's YouTube channel on the podcast. If you'd like to find that channel then the link to Surf Insight is here.

Thanks for the Public Engagement team at the Centre for Medical Engineering for funding this podcast. Please subscribe, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. You can find us on Twitter @BigPicPod or on Facebook /biggerpicturepodcast . Thanks for listening and Happy Christmas.

Tim Jones is a surfing instructor; when we heard his story we just knew we had to speak to him. Tim talked to Maggie about his diagnosis and treatment for rectal cancer and how he has coped with living with the consequences of the treatment.  In an honest and thought provoking interview, Tim shares some of the difficulties he faces as a surfing instructor who has survived rectal cancer but is still living with the affects of the treatment. He also provides useful advice about how we might better support people after cancer treatment. Tim's positivity shines through and is an inspiration. If you want to see the video that we talked about in the interview it can be found on YouTube here.

If you fancy learning to surf with Tim then here's link to his surf school in Lanzarote. 

Thanks to the Public Engagement Team in the Centre for Medical Engineering for supporting this podcast. 

Find us on Twitter @BigPicPod or Facebook /BiggerPicturePodcast. Please like and subscribe and leave a glowing review on iTunes. Thanks!