Win for anti-cancer fighter

Dr Kylie Mason, who survived leukaemia as a teenager, now treats and researches blood cancers. Photo: Justin McManus

MORE than most doctors, Kylie Mason knows the debilitating side effects of cancer treatment.

Diagnosed at 15 with leukaemia, the experience set her on a path that last night saw her awarded the L'Oreal For Women in Science Fellowship.

''I actually wanted to be a coroner,'' she said. ''But my experience at the Royal Children's as a teenager meant all of my role models were doctors and nurses and specialists.''

She now works both treating and researching blood cancers, including leukaemia, at Parkville's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research and the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

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''I feel like I have a unique empathy with my patients,'' she said.

In the laboratory she works with a team developing an anti-cancer drug that has now reached human trials.

With colleagues, Dr Mason was able to establish a link between the drug and a drop in the number of platelets in the blood.

''Working from that we discovered the mechanism behind what makes platelets live and die,'' she said. ''This drug targets [that mechanism] and tells the cancer cell to die.''

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Win for anti-cancer fighter