Speaker Professor Stewart Fleming

Tue, Feb 5th 2019 at 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm


On his return from South Africa President John Spittal gave a brief report on his visit to Zerilda Park Primary School in Lavender Hill, Cape Flats, a deprived township near Cape Town.

The Club has been sponsoring the 1300 pupils with books and other items for some years and is genuinely making a difference to the lives of children in one of the most deprived areas of South Africa - described by some as “apartheid's dumping ground".

Member Iain MacKinnon then introduced the evening’s speaker – his next-door neighbour Professor Stewart Fleming.

Stewart is the recently-retired Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pathology at Dundee University and was also Consultant in Renal Transplant Pathology for NHS Tayside.

His presentation, aided by a number of slides, was on his 25 years carrying out innovative research on renal cancer.

Entitled "Mr Toad, Rowing and Cancer Research", Stewart's talk focused on faulty genes leading to kidney cancers.

The genes could become faulty during a patient's lifetime or there could be an inherited faulty gene. Non-inherited abnormal genetic faults could be caused by smoking, alcohol and diet factors.

The incidence of kidney cancer is doubling every 10 years and there are 12,000 cases in the UK every year. However, in comparison to other countries the UK incidence is much lower than high meat-eating nations such as Germany and in Eastern Europe.

Stewart, in reference to water-loving amphibian the toad, said the kidneys filter waste in body water and filter 200 litres of water per day of which 99% is reabsorbed and only about 2 litres excreted. 

He gave examples of different gene faults such as the VHL gene which plays a key part in oxygen-sensing in the kidney and FH gene affecting the energy-producing pathways.

He talked about erythropoeitin (EPO) which increases the amount of red cells and how dialysis patients develop anaemia.

Stewart, a keen rower, said that aerobic exercise, induces tissue growth, mitochondria (energy) increase and blood flow.

When there is a failure in the kidneys' oxygen and energy cycle pathways there is rapid cell growth leading to tumour formation.

Treatment, he said, included drugs targeted at hitting the two pathways.

There could be diagnostic testing for a patient and if a defective gene is found then screening for the family. Clinical screening by ultrasound can detect tumours and early surgery carried out.

Grace Morris proposed thanks for an excellent informative talk on a serious topic which Stewart delivered also with some amusing anecdotes.

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