It’s all about growth — World Cancer Day

With a view to World Cancer Day being observed on Tuesday 4 February, a Record journalist approached local medical students on Tuesday 28 January to comment on a TED-Ed video about cancer and how it affects the body.

According to its website TED’s founders believe that ideas have the power to change attitudes, lives, and ultimately, the world. Their slogan is “Lessons worth sharing”. TED-Ed is an initiative of TED, and sees its educational videos as an extension of TED’s mission of spreading great ideas.

“It’s all about growth,” is one of the comments in the video.

The video, published on YouTube on 5 December 2012, is a creative animation short film that attempts to explain how cells work, and the relationship between all body cells and cancer treatments.

The Record asked a few University of the Witwatersrand medical students whether they thought the video was an accurate representation of the facts. They also were asked whether the video was informative, appropriate and beneficial to patients, their family and friends or for general interest. These are the opinions of four of the students:

“This is a great video. It’s good in the sense that it uses explanations rather than medical terms (malignant, benign etcetera) so that everyone can understand it.” — Salman Idrees (20), third year medical student.

“I watched the video and thought it was very well done. It is simple and easy to understand and I would definitely recommend it to someone who would want a better understanding of the basic concepts of cancer and cell growth.” — Brendan Orsmond (21), third year medical student.

“I thought the video was accurate if you view it knowing that it is simplified. I would recommend the video to school pupils and relatives of patients but not to patients currently dealing with cancer. For my patients, I would want more detail and more definitions because they find themselves in situations where medical terms such as sarcoma, adenoma, leukemia and lymphoma will define the next months or years of their lives. Having said that, the clip is a good overview and an excellent starting point to build your knowledge of cancer on.” — Cherith Herold (21), third year medical student.

“I think this video gives a brilliant basic idea of the impact of cell growth in both cancerous and normal cells. It helps to emphasise the importance of early diagnosis and regular check-ups for people who have cancer in their genes, who previously have been affected by it or are exposed to any risk factors. It contributes to the awareness of cancer.” — Anest Myburgh (20), second year medical student.

See the video for yourself and let the Record team know what you think either by posting a comment or tweeting @kritiek_aster.