Episode 113: Early Onset Colorectal Cancer (EOCRC)

Early onset colorectal cancer is bowel cancer diagnosed before the age of 50. It makes up about 10 to 15% of colorectal cancers, and incidence is rising by about 2% a year according to colorectal surgeon Dr Scott Mackenzie. In Episode 113, a patient, a colorectal surgeon and a GI pathologist look a…

Episode 112: Pleomorphic Adenoma | Mixed Tumours

Pleomorphic adenoma is the most common parotid gland tumour. It is benign, usually presents as a painless, slow-growing lump near the jaw, and was first described by surgeon Theodor Billroth in 1859. In Episode 112, ENT surgeon Dr Rowan Valentine explains how it is assessed and managed. Meet the m…

Episode 111: 2026 Early Prostate Cancer Detection | PSA And mpMRI

New guidelines are here. The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing have released the 2026 Guidelines for the Early Detection of Prostate Cancer. One in seven Australian men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. The aim is…

Episode 110: Narcolepsy | Fighting The Sleep Demon

In 1880, a French physician described a patient having up to 200 sleep attacks a day, some triggered by nothing more than a good hand of cards or the sight of his own wine barrels. That case, and an earlier 1877 description from German psychiatrist Carl Westphal, gave the condition its name and its…

Episode 109: Sexual Harassment In Medicine | Dr Louise Stone

Sexual harassment in medicine is almost universally perpetrated by men, and in over half of doctor-on-doctor cases, it happens in the workplace itself, not at a conference or a staff event. That is one of the findings from a decade of research by Dr Louise Stone, who began this work in 2014 after a…

Episode 108: Alzheimer’s Disease | Auguste Deter’s Decline

One doctor’s case from 1901 changed how we understand memory loss. Auguste Deter was 51 when her husband Carl brought her to see Dr Alois Alzheimer in Frankfurt, worried by memory lapses that had turned into paranoia and confusion. When Auguste died five years later, Alzheimer examined her brain an…

Episode 107: Bone Sarcomas Part 2 | Ewing And Coley’s Legacy

Two teenage patients, thirty years apart, changed how bone sarcomas are treated. In 1890, seventeen-year-old Bessie Dashiell saw New York surgeon William Coley with a painful hand. Despite an amputation, she died of metastatic cancer ten weeks later. Coley’s search for a better answer led him to Co…

Episode 106: Bone Sarcoma Part 1 | Osteosarcoma, Chondrosaroma & Ewing Sarcoma

Bone sarcomas are rare, accounting for 0.2% of all cancer diagnoses, with around 200 cases diagnosed in Australia each year. The three main types differ by age and site: osteosarcoma (around 30 to 35% of cases, often in the arms, legs and pelvis, with peaks in adolescence and again in the seventies…

Episode 105: Soft Tissue Sarcoma Part 2 | Adjuvant Therapies

The treatment of soft tissue sarcomas is a highly specialised area. The first effective chemotherapy agent against sarcomas was only identified in the 1960s and benefits of adjuvant radiotherapy treatment began in the 1970s. We continue to learn as new agents become available and tailor treatments …

Episode 104: Soft Tissue Sarcoma Part 1 | Avoiding The Whoops Lesion

Soft tissue sarcomas are tumours that arise from connective tissue, fat, muscle, and blood vessels. They are distinct from epithelial malignancies (carcinomas) in both morphology and behaviour. Unfortunately, due to their rare occurrence, these tumours can be mistaken clinically and pathologically …