Hear from Rachel Gibson

A message from Dr Rachel Gibson.

"As you know our work is focused on side effects caused by chemotherapy, in particular chemotherapy-induced diarrhoea. 

With your support this year we have made much progress into our understanding of this embarrassing and debilitating condition. 

We have recruited 21 patients who unfortunately have been afflicted with diarrhoea as a direct result of their chemotherapy treatment.  These patients have provided us with numerous clinical specimens over the course of their treatment (typically 3-4 weeks) and our research team has found that these patients have an uneven balance of bacteria within their intestines, with many more "bad" bacteria than "good" bacteria.  This indicates that it is likely that the change in balance between "good" and "bad" bacteria plays a key role in the development of chemotherapy-induced diarrhoea. 

We are now working on further characterising these bacterial changes.  We are also analyzing blood samples collected from these patients to see if we can identify markers of this change in bacteria. 

Our recruiting is ongoing and we have new patients enrolling in our study each week.  I am always amazed at how willing cancer patients are to help in research, even though the research will not directly benefit them.  It is a very humbling, but rewarding, experience. 

Can you please pass on our heartfelt thanks to your supporters for raising the money to fund this research."  Rachel Gibson, University of Adelaide.