The Good News About Cancer

Today, people are living much longer after a cancer diagnosis and treatment than in the past. In this episode, Chuck and Alicia talk with Dr. Anne Blaes, a medical oncologist and leader in cancer survivorship at the University of Minnesota, about what it means to live well with cancer. They look at how survivorship has changed over time, the importance of multidisciplinary care, and how precision medicine could help prevent long-term complications.

Today, patients often live a long time after receiving treatment for cancer. For many people, this means they are also living with the after-effects of those treatments, which can impact essential organs like the heart. Dr. Javid Moslehi, a cardiologist, specializes in treating the hearts of cancer survivors. Chuck and Alicia talk with him about the intersection of cancer and cardiology, and how interdisciplinary approaches can better serve all patients.

This summer, a new targeted treatment for pancreatic cancer was approved by the FDA. The treatment, Rasonque (daraxonrasib), is giving new hope to people with a disease that had been seen as almost untreatable. In this episode, Chuck and Alicia unpack this new development with Dr. Brian Wolpin, director of the Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who led the drug trial.

Vaccines have long been used to treat many diseases, but cancer has not historically been one of them. At the Olayan Center for Cancer Vaccines at Memorial Sloan Kettering, Dr. Vinod Balachandran and others are working to change that. In this episode, Chuck talks with Dr. Balachandran about his work on a vaccine to treat pancreatic cancer.

In the past few decades, we have made huge strides when it comes to reducing mortality from lung cancer. Gone are the days when cigarettes were allowed in restaurants – improvements in prevention, screening, and treatment for lung cancer have completely changed the narrative. In this episode, Alicia and Chuck talk through the good news about lung cancer with Dr. Christine Lovly, Division Chief of Thoracic Medical Oncology at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center.