Dr Eimear Mylod's Cancer Researcher Story
“I was already studying science when my dad passed away but losing him really pushed me down the path of cancer research. I think he’d be delighted with the work I’m doing now.”
Eimear Mylod, 29, from Clontarf, Dublin is an Irish Cancer Society-funded researcher who is currently working on a project to potentially develop a new treatment path for children with a type of aggressive brain cancer called glioblastoma.
Titled ‘Enhancing Immunotherapy Efficacy with Electric Field Therapy for Paediatric Glioblastoma’, the project looks at combining two treatments for glioblastoma to see if it can result in more positive outcomes for paediatric patients.
“What we’re trying to do is to see if we can combine two different types of therapy for glioblastoma,” says Eimear, who is a research fellow at Trinity College Dublin. “One is natural killer cell therapy, which as the name suggests is really good at killing cancer cells, and the other is electric field therapy.
“Both have been shown to be effective in treating glioblastoma, and we want to see if using both of them together could lead to more positive outcomes. The very long-term dream is that we can support a clinical trial in the future for paediatric patients with glioblastoma, but we’re very much at the early stages right now.”
The project is focusing on paediatric patients specifically, as Eimear says research in childhood cancer is limited compared to research for the same cancers in adulthood.
“Paediatric brain tumours have very devastating consequences and poor outcomes. In research, we focus a lot on treatment for adults and then applying that to paediatrics as well."
“There isn’t as much research into paediatric cancer, and I wanted to do research specifically in paediatric glioblastoma as children have different immune responses and can respond differently to treatment compared to adults, so I wanted to be able to work with that cohort.”
Eimear’s interest in glioblastoma was sparked after she lost her dad, Fachtna, to the disease ten years ago. He had a keen interest in scientific developments and was always interested in the work that Eimear was doing.
“My dad had glioblastoma and passed away from it ten years ago. He loved science, and he had studied engineering. He always liked to hear about what I was studying, and he used to read a lot about medical science. He kept up with scientific developments. But unfortunately, he wasn’t around long enough to see some of those developments come into practice.”
One of the most enjoyable parts of Eimear’s work is the variety, as she enjoys carrying out experiments in the lab, reading about other developments in scientific research, teaching in Trinity College, and doing outreach work in schools. She’s also proud to be contributing to the ongoing developments in the cancer research space.
“The work we’re doing is a small piece of the puzzle that’s part of the much bigger picture,” says Eimear. “We’re very focused on one specific topic because of our expertise in it. This is important, because what works in treating one cancer type won’t necessarily work for treating another.”
