Catching Cancer - Screening on ABC1 on Thursday 22nd October at 8.30pm

Can you catch cancer? The answer is yes, and no. Award winning film maker Sonya Pemberton’s fast paced documentary investigates this provocative and paradigm shifting idea, combining intimate personal stories and intriguing science, interviews with world experts, Nobel Laureates and virus hunters on the front line, to reveal how finding a hidden trigger such as a virus is not a reason to panic; it’s a reason to celebrate.

One in three of us will get cancer at one stage in our lives. From the moment of diagnosis, the common cry is, ‘why me?’ We blame our genes, our environment and our lifestyle, but could we be overlooking another crucial cause of cancer? At least 20% of all cancers worldwide are caused by infections. It is a little known fact. And it seems we may have overlooked many more – some scientists say “bugs” may start 50-95% of cancers. Across the planet, startling new evidence is emerging that links viruses and bacteria to an increasing number of cancers. And two Nobel prizes in the last five years mean the story of infections causing cancer cannot be ignored. So, should we be worried?

Did you know that a mouse gets breast cancer from a virus? And that same virus is being found in some human breast cancers? But in mice there is a vaccine that prevents breast cancer – the implications for millions of people are obvious.

We follow Dr Glenn Francis as he commences a new investigation into the mysterious cancer cluster in Brisbane where sixteen women working in one workplace developed breast cancer; we travel to the United States where researchers hunt the virus that triggers breast cancer in mice; we visit Germany where Professor Harald zur Hausen won the Nobel Prize for finding the cause of a mysterious ‘cancer a deux’; and we journey to the beautiful islands of Vanuatu, where Australia’s Professor Ian Frazer leads the roll-out of the world’s first vaccine specifically engineered to stop a cancer.

Stomach cancer, cervical cancer, head and neck cancers, liver cancer, some lymphomas and leukaemias, are clearly linked to bugs (the viral & bacterial kind). Now some skin, brain, prostate, colon, lung and breast cancers are under suspicion. With a proven link, we can develop new tools to stop these cancers in their tracks. We have done it before.

Sonya Pemberton is one of Australia’s leading science documentary writers, directors and executive producers but there was a personal motivation for her in making this film. ‘My mother had cancer during 2001. Her cancer was a rare form of leukaemia and she had spent a decade working with leukaemia patients. As I stroked her face, I wondered if there was a link, if there was any way she might have ‘caught’ this cancer…Every cancer is the story of life, love and, sometimes, loss. Communicating both the intimate heart of cancer and the thought-provoking science, in a way that could be uplifting, inspiring even, has been the dream.’

Sonya Pemberton’s films have won over 30 awards and she has been three times honoured with the prestigious Eureka Prize for Science Journalism (2003, 2004, 2008). Her recent credits include Andrew Denton’s Angels & Demons, and Crude: the incredible journey of oil. For Catching Cancer she has teamed up with the producing skills of Tony Wright (producer of the award winning series Captain Cook: Obsession & Betrayal).

2009 Scientific Seminars

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