Prof. Jeff Dunn, AO, Australia

As a cancer care expert, my fears over my own diagnosis run deeper than just curing the disease

My treatment for aggressive lymphoma has been successful but severely weakened my immune system. Like many others, antimicrobial resistance could kill me, even if the cancer itself is survivable

My entire professional career, spanning nearly four decades, has been in cancer care. On 12 August 2022, at the age of 64, I was myself diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma, a rare and aggressive type of cancer that affects the immune system and has a very poor prognosis – I was told that survival without treatment would be only eight weeks.

I was fortunate to have access to Australia’s world-class care. I received chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, and by World Cancer Day in February 2024, I was in remission.

As for so many cancer patients, daily medications and monthly infusions are now a necessary part of life, and the side effects of treatment are considerable: fatigue; brain fog; loss or changes to taste, smell and other senses; oedema of the eye lining; temperature regulation issues (cold sensitivity due to neuropathy); and loss of appetite.

Among the more serious, however, is a severely weakened immune system, which makes it harder to fight off infections. Last summer I caught an infection caused by a strain of bacteria that has proved resistant to multiple antibiotics.

Read the full story in The Guardian.

Prof. Jeff Dunn, AO, is Past President of UICC (2022-2024), and Chief of Mission and Head of Research at the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.