You're listening to the Weekend Collective podcast from News Talk SEDB.
And welcome back to the show. This is the Weekend Collective and I'm Tim Beverage and this is the Health Hub. We want your we'd love to have your cause on this on ten eighteen text. But this health Hub is a sort of bit of a special health hub because August is well known as the Cancer Society's big fundraising month. Again it's once again it's supported by A and Z and Daffodil Day is well, it's it's not too far away. It's Friday, the thirtieth of August. But you don't have
to wait till then. If you're in a position to help the one in three Kiwis who are affected by cancer, you can actually donate now. You can text the word donate two two double four to two. Okay, so the number is two double four to two. You text the word donate and then what happens is you'll get a link and you can select your donation amount and the donations from Kiwi's help with research into all sorts of cancers. And it's a Daffodil Day soon, so good time to
find a bit more about that research. So joining us in the studio is a very special guest. He's a past director of the Auckland Cancer Society Research Center. I'm going to read a bit of his CV out. Then we're going to dig into a bit more about Professor Sibil Denny. But his interests include the design and evaluation of small molecule drugs. He's been involved in the development of fourteen drugs to clinical trial. He'll be embarrassed if I read out as awards, but he's got a few.
He's serve build Any. For a start, he's received the Rutherford Medal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, the Adrian Albert Meda of the UK Royal Society of Chemistry, in the twenty fourteen Medicinal Chemistry Award of the American Chemical Society. Anyway, I think the gist is if you've got some questions, or you're interested in the science and the development of cancer cures and technology and research, then
this is the hour for you. So joining me in the studios, Professor to bild Any, I'm just going to call you Bill, good Bill, how are you.
I'm fine, that's the best way to do it.
Excellent. Firstly, just to find out a bit about you. I mean, I did read out the awards because I thought we should we should start by polishing your apple a little bit. But how did you you have you've recently retired and you've had a lengthy career. But how did you get started in science full stop?
Well?
I got started in science because I was always interested in chemistry for some particular reason, even when I was a child, and I remember I collected my own group of chemicals and I had to shed out the back which I made explosions and various dangerous things. My parents were very accepting of that, and I followed that right through into into school and then into university and ended up at the University of Oxford, where I spent three years.
And at that particular, at the end of that time, we started to look around for jobs for me in the UK, and I was expecting to go maybe into a pharmaceutical company there, and then I got a call from someone, and it was a letter in those days from Bruce Kane, who was then director of the Auckland Kancer Society Research Center, wanted to know if I would like to come back and join the center.
So how did you go from sort of it sounds like you're blowing things up in your shed, a little bit like Sir Peter Beck, except you didn't go into rockets. You went into into sort of medicinal chemistry. When when did you When did your interest refine from you know, your initial undergraduate studies of doing I'm guessing you did chemistry. When did that refine into something that became useful for medical research?
Well?
I thought I was interested in chemistry because of what you can do with it and how you can develop new molecules, and that was what I was doing in Oxford. And when I got the I hadn't really thought about cancer research until I got the letter from Bruce Kane asking me would I like to join the Cancer Research Center because they were developing new drugs therapy. How long ago was that, Oh, nineteen sixty, I'm nineteen seventy something.
Like that, criky.
Yeah, it's been a long journey, but a very very rewarding one.
And what was the state of cancer research and treatment back when you started.
Well, it was a lot less effective than it is now because in the last twenty thirty years, a lot of work going on into developing drugs which are not simply sell killing agents, but more or less this is designed to select and treat specific cancers, so there's a much more specificity now in the therapy.
What's the most It might be difficult to answer them these questions because you've had such a lengthy career, but is there anything that stands out to you through the course of your career as being the most exciting sort of development or the most a real moment where you've got got where you've thought this is, this is this is a real game changer when it comes to treating cancer.
It is a difficult question to answer, probably whenever we succeed in getting a new drugs through into clinical trial, probably because we've spent ten fifteen years working on refining that to the stage where it has been accepted by the authorities and can be used in Man. And for example, we have now a drug and trial in Auckland Hospital Tarlocksotten which has been developed by a couple of people in the lab and that's taken them ten years to
get it to this point. So getting a drug over the line the authority is accepted into even the first stage trials is a big moment for everybody.
Uh, and what's that drug particularly, what's this, what's what's that one about? What's the named treating.
We're still working that out. But the drugs drug is one of a particular type which we call a it's it's a pro drug in the sense that when you give it cancer drug to people, the drug distributes everywhere in the body and you end up with the side effects that are inevitable from drug treatment because it doesn't
all it doesn't just go to the cancer. So with this with tarsott is a pro drug which is circulates all the around than the body, but it's relatively non toxic and it's only when it gets into the low oxygen regions of tumors that it turns itself on.
To be toxic. Okay, So in other words, from the from the layperson's point of view, I've always under does it still come under the headline of chemotherapy? Oh, it is certainly that because chema. Well, actually, let's just so people know, because chemotherapy in a way has a stigma because you think you're up for chemotherapy. Therefore saygabidy, you'rre here, sagabidy your health and hopefully the drug will just kill your disease rather than you would be. Some people's fear
about chemotherapy, and is this one where it's more targeted? Well, what is chemotherapy, I'll interrupt myself.
Human therapy is simply the treatment of cancer with small molecular drugs. Okay, So, and as you say, those drugs generally distribute everywhere in the body, and they do damage to normal cells as well. I mean, perhaps still lesser extent, but in the general course of events, you do get side effects because the drug is distributed everywhere. It's killing cancer cells, but there's also a concombatant cell kill in various other areas in the body, especially where cells are turning over rapidly.
That in a way would that be I'm going to ask some dumb questions, by the way, because I'm not a scientist, But to me, over the last few years, I've got the impression that the treatments that are available are more and more about just the drugs being smarter and being able to what you're saying is a pro what did you say pro so? In other words, so it's not that's not just we're going to carpet bomb everything.
Now it's a bit more precision sort of targeting, and is that maybe the biggest advance, one of the bigger advances in chemotherapy.
There's two sorts of advances along the lines that you say is we're developing molecules that are much more specific for particular cancer types, and so that means we can develop drugs to target cancer A or cancer B. And it's a different drug. It's not simply we've got six drugs and we give it to every patient. But the other thing is, as we've said before, drugs, once they get into the body distribute everywhere, and so the idea of a pro drug is to have it inactive until
it enters the tumor cells. And we managed to do that by recognizing that in tumors there is very low oxygen levels. So if you can design a drug which is not active in high oxygen levels but active in low oxygen levels, then you will target cancer specifically. And this is one of the major areas of interest in our laboratory.
When so you talked about the colleagues who have developed this, it's going to clinical trials. So clinical trials means it's going to go into people. Is that right, that's correct.
There are three sorts of clinical trials. The first stage one where you're simply evaluating the drug in people to be concerned about toxicity efforts and things like that.
Yep. And what's stage two?
Stage two really is when you give the drug to a larger number of people, but all with one specific cancer type, so you can see whether this has general effects beneficial effects in the cancer itself.
And stage three is three is what when it's basically a larger proportion of people.
Or Stage three as rall is that it's a larger proportion of people, usually around one thousand people, So you want a broad spectrum of people with this particular disease to see whether the drug is consistently effected.
And is that usually the stage where you're you're pretty confident that it's a safe drug. You just want to see how effective it is or is it still considering issues of safety.
You've always been You've always got to consider issues of safety because cancer drugs are generally designed to kill cells. Yeah, and so with that, your safety has always got to be a major concern.
Okay, So in the journey of from ten years from developing a drug to going on clinical trials, what what is the first year or two of that sort of research look like, is it again dumb questions? But is it sort of Petri dish sort of stuff?
Yeah, absolutely it is.
It's okay.
The chemist are in their lab devising all these interesting new molecules that are new and they look exciting and they're interesting to make. Then we test them all in cells, just in cells and a petri dish, and most of them fall over at that point, and.
Now they basically don't do what they've got. Do you have some tumors or something you introduce a drug to correct and you go, let's see what happens, and you know, oh, that didn't work.
Yeah, that's right. I mean that's an awful lot of what goes on in the lab. No, this didn't work. Let's do something.
Else if you But just another dumb question. I'm going to specialize in dumb questions. So when you are say, you talk about having drugs that can thrive in a low oxygen environment and that's those are the ones that are going to target the cells. Does that mean what sort of if you're doing it in a petri dish? That sounds like it'd be quite a challenge because you don't want to introduce oxygen at that stage either do you you want it to have a low oxygen environment
in that peatra dish? So does that mean that the equipment you've what does that mean in terms of equipment?
Or you can simply put the peachradish in a low oxygen environment?
Yeah? What's a low oxygen environment?
Or oxygen levels below about one or two percent?
No?
I mean that is that just so? Is that in a specific chamber or something stripped out of there?
We have the equipment to do that.
Yeah, okay, okay, before my brain needs a rest and a cup of teaen to lie down, one more question and we'll take your cause. By the way, if you've got any questions around the science or if for professor Sir Bill Denny, then this is your chance. Because we a lot of the time when we do we talk about health and cancer treatments and all sorts of things on talkback. We don't have an expert in the room. So we've got one and now so you can give him a call. He's not a doctor, by the way,
in terms of a medical doctor. It's about the science of developing molecules to treat cancers. If you've got any questions, we'd love to hear from you. On eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. By the way, I'm going to mention it a few times probably, But if you want to donate to for Daffodil Day, and it's thirtieth of August, but rarely from now on, it's open. It's supported by A and Z. All you need to do is text the word donate to two four four two and there'll
be link you'll get and you can select your donation amount. Actually, I'll come back with my interesting question about where we're at in terms of New Zealand research in just a moment. But this is the health up on the Weekend Collective. It's twenty past four. News Talk said, b give us a caller, you can text your question.
Don't show over, don't colder, don't stuck caring.
He mean welcome, you're not and welcome back to the health Hub. I'm Tim Beverage and this is this is a health hub looking forward to Daffodil Day on the thirtieth of August. And my guess is Professor of Bill Denny. He's former director of the Auckland Cancer Society Research Center and we're just chatting basically about the scientific advancements when
it comes to treating cancers. But of course if you want to support the work that has done to address the challenge that cancer presents to right around New Zealand, then you can text two four four two in the word donate tense text donate to two four four two. You'll get a link and you can select your donation amount. Bill. How good are we in New Zealand at cancer research?
Well, I think we're very good, and I'm not speaking just about our own research center, but there are groups the Madigan Institute, there are groups in the University of Otago which are carrying out a large number of which are covering a large number of areas in cancer research, which is a very broad area. So we've got in most of the universities, we've got groups that are very important and hooked up with groups overseas as well.
Has there been a big change in terms of science ific research in our capabilities in New Zealand. So for instance, I mean the analogy i'd use as everyone assumes that everything a lot of the big advancements happen in Europe or America. But of course now we've got on the rocket science thing we've got. I mean, that's an obvious thing. But does that reflect generally the science community in New Zealand that actually, you know what, we are punching well above our weight.
I think it's fair to say that very hard to it's very hard to evaluate. We can't evaluate ourselves easily against the United States, for example, because we're very small and they're very big, but we have a presence there certainly.
Yeah, are there what are the things that I mean, I don't know if you can talk about the research that you're most excited about now, because I know a lot of it's technical. But are there particular developments going on now which you think, Wow, this is really pretty amazing or is it just every time a drug comes to trial you go, there's another victory that's exciting.
I think the research is much more targeted now because we know so much more about the myriad enzymes that are present in cells which sometimes go crazy, and we can target them much more specifically. For example, there are about one hundred different kinase enzymes and there are people developing drugs specifically for each one of those. So I think in future the drugs will even will be even better targeted than they are. Now we've made a big advance in that already are there.
While you're becoming more targeted with the drugs that you're creating, does that mean that each drug you're creating treats fewer cancers though they're more specific to each type of cancer. So if you're a cancer suffering, you've got to again dumb questions. So chemotherapy seemed to me, in my lay understanding, to be something that was more broadly. You might have
one chemotherapy that would targets several different cancers. I don't know, But now you've got this particular chemotherapy which is targeted for this particular cancer. That's your drug.
We're going down that line. I mean, that is exactly the area in which is being developed most vigously at the moment. There's a large number of new drugs are coming out. They're very specific for particular cell types, they're very specific for particular enzymes, and so speaking, now it's much easier to rapidly determine which enzymes in a particular cancer has gone haywire and select the drugs that can
treat that. So treatment is much more selective much more patient selective than it than it was before.
Okay, how do you how do you fund your research? How do you get the money for it? Is it things like Daffidilt Day? Where does the money come from?
Certainly the Cancer Society Auckland Cancer Society has set up the center in the first place and has always been a significant funder of it. But we also raise our own funding through writing, writing grants for applications, and in particular we've also had close relationships with several big pharmaceutical companies who've been interested in the particular compounds we're developing, and we've had a good support from them as well. So we have a range of support from different areas.
What role does do What role does the charitable side play when it comes to initiatives like Daffodil Day? How important is the biggest thing about the money you raise or is it more the awareness or is it a package of the whole lot? In terms of this, what daffodil Daffodil Day means well, deafit to.
Day is critical for the cancer societies because they do lots of things other than just support our center. They also run the main lodge here in Auckland where patients who are receiving treatment can get free board, and they support a fleet of nurses who go around to treat people at home with follow up therapy. So there's a lot of things that they do in a part apart from partially funding the center.
Does the treatment of cancers mean that also that cancers can more cancers can be treated. I mean, I don't know. We still do we still have the four stage model of cancer one stage one, two, three, and four, And does it are we able to treat cancers later effectively?
That's getting a little bit outside my expertise, but my sense is that that is certainly true. The drugs with it, there are more drugs, they're more specific to particular targets, and so you could if you can combine a number of drugs to best target a particular cancer in a patience, then that is that is an advance.
Yeah. I've got a few texts here which may or maybe either in or outside of your area of expertise, because when people hear doctor sud BUILDINGI, they think that they think that maybe you're going to give them a diagnosis on And I'll point out to anyone who's texting that we I'll read some of the texts and if we can answer them, sure, then then maybe some threat of conversation will come out of them. So brace yourself. Okay, Oh, this one's just an observation. Relates to my previous comment.
I have a friend who has stage four cancer. I believe that used to be pretty much that much a death sentence. But how times have changed and medicine has improved that you can survive that level of cancer. And that's sort of what we're saying. Isn't it even a stage four cancer?
I would agree with that. Yeah, I think across the spectrum there are more and better drugs that are more selective. Although there's a limit to how many drugs can be funded obviously, but looking at the field as a whole, we're better off now than we've ever been in terms of a bib ability to treat the disease.
Do you think what you get to a stage? Again? I know you probably won't like guesswork because you're a scientist. Actually, okay, I'm going to ask a dumb question. How much when it comes to establishing a clinical trial is a scientist going I see this works here, this has worked, This has been an installary research, and it's pretty much you just switch on that creative part of your brain. I wonder if that drug might work here. In other words, in the early stages, how much guesswork is there as
opposed to just evidence, evidence, evidence evidence. Therefore, we're going to do this next. Do you know what I mean?
I think there's a lot of guesswork. Oh, I think you have to have you have to have guesswork inspired guess work is the basis of science.
Well, well, it's because let's try this that doesn't work, and therefore that doesn't work. Okay, so oh good, because I was relieved. That was one of my dumb questions.
Again, No, it's that's that's the essence of science.
Well, because this is a slightly broader question. But where I was chatting with we're talking about career choices with kids, and and there was a comment made I think it was I'm not going to get involved in politics, don't worry that. There was a comment made about from our prime minister that the arts might need to take a bit of a back seat, and I was thinking, well, hang on a minute. Even some of our greatest scientific
minds have a creative bent. Because you have to have those creative moments where you think were you're thinking outside the box. In fact, science has to be thinking outside the box all the time, isn't it right?
Absolutely, that's where the great changes come from.
Oh god, that's a relief to Okay, this is a specific one. I'm not sure if you've able to help, but I'll read it anyway. Hi, thank you for your time. What further research are you aware of any research that's been done with pre existing vulva liken slerosis and high time risk of vulver cancer with this autoimmune disease? How common is that cancer and is there any research going into it that you know about.
I don't know of that cancer, which seems to me to be relatively rare. Therefore, I really don't know what research is going into that specific area. I'm sorry, I can't.
No, that's all right. What about prostate cancer? Do you know much about what's going on with because that because there's the big debate that you people say, oh, well, you're better you die with prostate cancer than treat it, and is the care you are better? Are there any anything particular in prostate cancer that's going on right now?
Look? I don't specifically know of unique treatments for prostate cancer. I mean, I can't really answer that question.
Yeah, okay, here's one about just thought of a good question, specific drugs coming out, Will we see them or will they be out of reach of New Zealanders because of pricing? And I guess that's in asure around farmac. But any comment on that, well.
The only comment is that the more drugs that are collectively developed wherever they're developed, that are more and more specific, the better it is for everybody. The question of whether we can afford it is really a completely different question, and we would I mean, obviously we prefer to have a vigorous research area. Yeah, that is exploring everything. Yeah, but price then becomes a problem.
I know, Well you mentioned that, so you get funding from a variety of resources. And as you say, you mentioned that Daffodil Days about doing so much more for the cancer Society, supporting people when their need accommodation and to visit centers for cancer treatment and that holistic sort of support I guess for cancer suffers in their families.
By the way, I'm going to keep plugging this if you want to text two four four two text the word donate and you can click a link and select your donation for Daffodil Day, which may be on Friday, the thirtieth of August. But you can get stuck into it right now. And I've completely forgotten the question I was going to ask there. Maybe that's a that's a moment for me to take a break and I'll come and work out what i was going to ask, because
I've got a truck load of questions. If you have any questions for Professor Sir Bill Denny, he's former director of the Auckland Cancer Society Research Center, you can call or text now eight hundred eighty ten eighty or text nine two niney two and back in a moment. It's twenty four minutes to five News talks 'b Yes, and did you know that one in six New Zealanders experience hearing loss and choosing the right hearing solution for your
individual needs is important. Your local Triton Hearing team will work with you to find the best hearing solution for your listening needs, lifestyle and budget. So if you or someone close to you as considering hearing aids, The twenty twenty four Consumers Guide to Hearing Aids is out now and available exclusively from Triton Hearing. It's the only truly independent guide in New Zealand, so you know you're getting the best advice. Find out about the latest hearing aids
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Helping you get on top of your busy life. Tim Beveridge on the Weekend Collector News.
Talk said, be yes and welcome back to the show. This is the Health Hub and my guest is a special guest, professor Sir Bill Denny. He's former director of the Auckland Cancer Society Research Center. And the reason that Bill's with me is to have a chat about the science and just to help us get a bit more of an understanding of their amazing work that our New
Zealand scientists are doing. And also that the Cancer Society does, and that to that end, with Daffodil Day approaching on the Friday the thirtieth, I'm going to keep pushing this that you text the word donate to two four four two. You can click the link and select your donation now.
And as Bill was saying earlier on that the work of the Cancer Society is so important and funding from Daffodil Day because it's not just we're not just about supporting science, it's about supporting the holistic needs of families and the cancer sufferers who have to travel or whatever around people who do with that what is still a very challenging illness despite the scientific advances. So Bill, a quick question for you is such a thing as a
quick question? I don't know you mentioned that the funding, so you know, the funding from that you apply for from government and for different funds, but sometimes you get funded by pharmaceutical companies. What makes does it? What does it mean once a pharmaceutical company funds something, does that mean that they take complete ownership of the results of
that as well? Or how does that all work in Because most people's concern is, oh, those pharmaceutical companies are going to put the price up in we're never going to be afford our treatment. But of course we need their money to fund the research too, don't we.
We do, And it's only the companies that have the funding to take drugs through the necessary government mandated processes before it can become available to the public. And that, you know, for doing the stage three trials for a new drug is one hundred million US dollars and so that can't be funded by well, the scientific groups.
Goodness, we get.
We have had in the past very productive collaborations with pharmaceutical companies who've come in to us and said, we're interested in the sort of work that we see you've been doing from your publications. We have things in the same area. Could we do some work together, and then we get funded to do that, We build our relationships with those companies and it's all positive all round.
Man.
That's a lot of money, isn't it.
But yes, well, I mean we can get a drug to phase one perhaps, but phase two, phase three, the companies have to do that.
How much just okay, one hundred million for stage three trials, what's it cost for stage four?
Well? Really, then you're stage three is really the major last stage that's required before a drug will get registered. Okay, So there are stage four trials when there are really their retrospective trials of drugs that.
Are already okay, right, so stage three is the important one.
Yes.
If New Zealand scientists are developing a drug which is effective in treating cancer and it's been funded by a big pharmaceutical company, does the fact that it's been invented or developed by New Zealand technology, does that mean that it's more it's ease more easily accessible by New Zealand patients or does that have nothing to do with it.
I don't think it's possible to do that because often we will only get involved with a pharmaceutical company and at the stages where we can't do any more work, we can't the sort of work that's required to do. We can't fund one hundred million dollars for a stage three trial, so it has to be taken over by the companies to do that.
Is there and what recent technology is there that's allowed researchers to be more effective with their research? Is there sort of hardware that's made your job easier?
Yes, The hardware gets better and better each time. There's also a much better availability of being able to find out what other people are doing through the Internet, and so we can collaborate much more easily than we used to do. I mean, in my early days, I spent hundreds of hours flying to different parts of the world to talk with other people, and now it can all be done at home, which is much of an advantage.
Of the Magic Zoom meeting. So you guys could consider. Actually, I was just wondering how things would have been interrupted during the whole isolation phase of COVID. I guess how did what happened in the science community around that time, I.
Think slowed down quite a bit. You still have to work together at some point, side by side. You couldn't do that.
Okay, let's take let's take a call Liz.
Hello you Hi Dea, Hello dear. Something that I heard was that Massy University had was working on some enzymes, as I understand it, that will stop cancer metastasizing. Do you know?
Okay, yep, yeah, Sorry, your lines a bit dodgy there, Liz, But I think Liz was saying, she said that Massive is doing something about stopping research that's on something that stops cancers from metastasizing. You've got any inside running on that.
No, I'm afraid I haven't. I haven't heard of that. I don't know of the specific work that you're talking about. Sorry.
No, hey, the other thing you mentioned when we were chatting in the break A couple of things. But you guys using the same sort of technology using for cancer, you're doing something on tuberculosis. Is that right?
Yes?
It is. I mean that was I had a chance meeting with the director of the Global Fund for Tuberculosis in New York a few years back, two thousand and eight, and we got together and he and just decided we would Although we were focused and funded to do cancer, we have the same technologies we have can apply to other diseases. And provided that we got that totally funded by them and no one else other cancerciety was happy with us doing that.
So is this a treatment? Is not a prevention, it's a treatment.
This is a treatment. Yeah, I mean the cancer I mean tuberculosis has kills normally one hundred, I mean between one to two million people of the year every around the world. And the treatment for late stage disease, which is which is often what it is when it's when
people present has been very very difficult. Or recently we've been working with the Global Alliance for TV it developed a drug TBJ eight seven six it's got no better name yet, which is now and we're now in clinical trials worldwide and it's clearly effective.
Wow.
And the cure rates have gone from thirty five percent when this is drug is used up to about ninety five percent.
God, that must be I mean, that must be quite a thrill when you.
So that for us, although it's off our major them, for the scientists involved, it's a major it's a major thing. We are very very proud of it.
I guess the other thing we were chatting out the break is that it's you know, the New Zealanders tend to be pretty modest and obviously you're not going to talk about your own successes. But now that you've retired, you can talk about the people who are still involved in cancer research in New Zealand. I mean, what would you how? Our scientists are pretty awesome, aren't they.
It's almost impossible to judge when you're judging yourself. Yeah, but I would say the answer that is absolutely correct.
Yeah.
I mean we're a very small group. We've delivered seventeen new drugs to clinical trials.
That's pretty I think that's a big deal. Is it fair? You might not look like this comparison, but for instance, apparently in per capita we're the best Olympic nation in the world. Are we sort of pretty awesome when it came in that similar respect when it comes to science and cancer development treatments.
I think that's a very hard call to make.
Well, of course, it's not comparing apples with oranges or something apples with apples. I guess quick question here before
we go to the break again. Somebody's suggested that's suspicious that if a study that you're working on gets funded by a pharmaceutical company and it doesn't pan out, do those results still get published or this person says, if the results don't fall in favor of the pharmaceutical company funding the study, they don't have to make it available to the public, which is implying that some of the failures get covered up, or what do we know about that?
I don't think that's I mean, as far as we're concerned, our collaborations with pharmaceutical companies in the later stages of the development of a drug have never stopped us from being able to publish the results scientifically, which is what we need for.
Our careers exactly. Okay, so that's yes. I think that's a good response to our text. Right. We're going to be back in just a moment. It's ten to five News Talks there be but before we go to the break, just before we go to the break, that's a note to my producer not to hit the button so quickly. You can text the word donate to two four four two and you'll get it. You'll get taken to a link and you can select your donation because it is
Daffodil Day on Friday, the thirtieth of August. But the donation drive is underway right now in support of the Cancer Society, So get into it right now and we'll be back in just mo It's ten to five News Talks d B. We welcome back to the Weekend Collective. This has been a special health hub with Professor Sibil Denny. He's a former director of the Auckland Cancer Society Research Center. Just chatting about the developments and science and everything. But
it's all in support of Daffodil Day. So you can text donate to two four four two and click a link and select your donation amount. A quick text from someone saying I have stage four cancel cancer and on trial drugs. Unfortunately, I've just tuned and can I re listen to this program somewhere? I'd love to be able to listen to the full program. And that's a perfect
question for me, because yes you can. We get the pop podcast up and running not long after the show, and you just look for the Weekend Collective and this will be online. You can also go to the news Talk ZB website and hear the fascinating conversation with Bill. But there's not much time left Bill, So I'm just going to say I think that while it says retired, you are technically retired, but what's what are you up to? What's retired?
Look Black, I seem to occupy most of my mornings with scientific work. I'm an editor of two major journals, and the requests to review papers and make decisions flooded each morning, and that really keeps me occupied till lunchtime. Then if the weather is decent, I can get out in the garden or go for a long walk or something.
Okay, so you do have a bit more time at your dispose. I do, and I appreciate it's because it doesn't sound like it's complete. It's partial retirement, really, isn't it. If you're you know, you're editing journals and things.
Yeah, this is true. I mean the still keeps me linked and that that's for me is important to do.
That is it?
Also? Is it quite fun editing journals and looking at papers and the research that's coming out. Is it sort of a bit intimidating as well, because you probably have to say yes to some and no to others.
I have to say yes. I have to say yes or no depending on what the reviewers think and depending on what I think. And yeah, it and sometimes you get calls from frustrated authors who have been turned down. Okay, but no, it's it's exciting you keep abreast of what's going on in the scientific world in your area.
Yeah, and so you're and you from what you from what you've seen and from your career and everything, you're excited about where science is heading at the moment with cancer.
Yes, yes, absolutely, I mean we have a wider range of more useful drugs to choose from than we ever had before. Of course, there are issues like funding and cost of those drugs which have to be balanced down. But the science is going very well.
Excellent, Hey Bill, thanks so much for your time. Time flies, isn't it it?
It really does.
Yeah, we were thinking it's an hour. It's a long time, but it's over in a flash when you're.
On talking quicker than even in the borough.
Indeed, Okay, by the way, as I say, I've mentioned it, but text four four two the text weird. Donate and go from there. Thanks Bill, and we'll be back shortly with smart money. Andrew Besquin from harber Asset Management will be joining.
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