Breastcancer.org Podcast

Dr. Jack Cuzick is director of the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine and head of the Center for Cancer Prevention at the Queen Mary University of London, where he holds the title of John Snow Professor of Epidemiology. He is internationally known for his research showing tamoxifen can be used to treat estrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer, as well as his work to help develop the Tyrer-Cuzick breast cancer risk evaluation tool, which helps women and their doctors estimate a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer. At the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, he presented the latest results from the International Breast Cancer Intervention Study II Prevention Trial, looking at whether 5 years of Arimidex (chemical name: anastrozole) can reduce breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women who have higher-than-average risk of the disease but have not been diagnosed. Listen to the podcast to hear Dr. Cuzick discuss: how much Arimidex reduced risk after about 11 years of follow up why Arimidex is better than tamoxifen at reducing risk in high-risk postmenopausal women the side effects seen in the study and why side effect rates were the same in women who took Arimidex and women who took a placebo why it’s unlikely that Arimidex will be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for this use, but why doctors will be able to prescribe it off-label Running time: 9:25 Thank you for listening to the Breastcancer.org podcast. Please subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To share your thoughts about this or any episode, leave feedback on the podcast episode landing page on our website.

Dr. Luca Gianni, president of the Fondazione Michelangelo in Milan, discusses the results of the NeoTRIP trial, which looked to see if adding the immunotherapy medicine Tecentriq (chemical name: atezolizumab) to chemotherapy before surgery for triple-negative breast cancer with a high risk of recurrence could improve the time women lived without the cancer coming back. Running time: 7:17 Thank you for listening to the Breastcancer.org podcast. Please subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To share your thoughts about this or any episode, leave feedback on the podcast episode landing page on our website.

In September 2019, marathon swimmer Sarah Thomas did something that had never been done before: she swam the English Channel four times, non-stop. And she did this a year after completing treatment for stage II breast cancer. Sarah started swimming lessons at age one and was on a year-round swim team by age 10. She swam on her high school team and in College at the University of Connecticut where she studied political science and journalism. She took a break from swimming while earning a master’s degree at the University of Denver, but joined a masters’ swim team after graduating. In August 2017, Sarah swam 104.6 miles in Lake Champlain, the first current-neutral open water swim of more than 100 miles and the world record for the longest unassisted open water swim. In November 2017, while planning her English Channel swim, she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 35. Listen to the podcast to hear Sarah talk about: how she found the breast lump and what she did after that how she talked to her doctors about treatments while she was planning her English Channel swim what she thought about and how she ate during the 54-hour swim how breast cancer has changed her Running time: 22:12Photo credit: James MusselwhiteThank you for listening to the Breastcancer.org podcast. Please subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To share your thoughts about this or any episode, leave feedback on the podcast episode landing page on our website.

Dr. Kelly Shanahan, metastatic patient advocate, METAvivor board member, and former OB/GYN talks about the Mets, Sex, and Side Effects panel that she comoderated at the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The panel was cosponsored by Breastcancer.org and Sermonix Pharmaceuticals. Running time: 3:40 Thank you for listening to the Breastcancer.org podcast. Please subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To share your thoughts about this or any episode, leave feedback on the podcast episode landing page on our website.

Barbara and Tim Bigelow discuss Barbara’s metastatic breast cancer diagnosis and the side effects she experienced as one of the first people treated with immunotherapy for breast cancer. A board member of METAvivor, Barbara also explains the Beneath the Breast project, the latest initiative of the #ThisIsMBC campaign. Running time: 16:36 Thank you for listening to the Breastcancer.org podcast. Please subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To share your thoughts about this or any episode, leave feedback on the podcast episode landing page on our website.

Felicia Johnson, who is living with metastatic disease, and Sharon Rivera-Sanchez, who was diagnosed in 2015 with triple-negative breast cancer, talk about what they learned during the GRASP (Guiding Researchers & Advocates to Scientific Partnerships) program. Running time: 7:52 Thank you for listening to the Breastcancer.org podcast. Please subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To share your thoughts about this or any episode, leave feedback on the podcast episode landing page on our website.

Dr. Stephanie Graff, director of the Breast Cancer Program at the Sarah Cannon Cancer Institute, talks about why sexual health is so important for people living with metastatic breast disease and offers tips for people who may be uncomfortable bringing up the topic with their oncologist. Running time: 2:20 Thank you for listening to the Breastcancer.org podcast. Please subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To share your thoughts about this or any episode, leave feedback on the podcast episode landing page on our website.

Erica Guardascione is a speech-language pathologist at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in Saddle Brook, New Jersey. She’s also a curriculum developer and faculty member at ReVital Cancer Rehabilitation. After completing her undergraduate degree in speech-language pathology at Hofstra University, Erica went on to pursue graduate studies at Nova Southeastern University. She has practiced for more than a decade as a clinical specialist in the Cognitive Rehabilitation Program at Kessler. The program is designed to help people with brain injuries rebuild cognitive skills, restore physical and emotional strength, and maximize independence. Erica is a clinical lead in the program. Erica has a deep interest in cancer-related cognitive problems and is considered an authority on attention, focus, and memory impairments and rehabilitation strategies. As a faculty member at ReVital Cancer Rehabilitation, she recently co-led a continuing education course for therapists and other clinicians called “Cancer-Related Cognitive Decline.” Listen to the podcast to hear Erica explain: why “cancer-related cognitive decline” is the most up-to-date term for chemo brain the factors that can contribute to cognitive decline after a cancer diagnosis some broad steps that people can take to help manage any thinking and memory problems they may be having Running time: 22:40Thank you for listening to the Breastcancer.org podcast. Please subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To share your thoughts about this or any episode, leave feedback on the podcast episode landing page on our website.

Christine Hodgdon was diagnosed with de novo metastatic breast cancer in April 2015 and became heavily involved in the metastatic community after attending a Metavivor advocacy event on Capitol Hill to push for more research funding for metastatic breast cancer. Christine volunteers with a number of breast cancer organizations, including Living Beyond Breast Cancer, METAvivor, and the Tigerlily Foundation. She also has contributed articles and blogs to organizations to raise awareness of metastatic breast cancer and serves as a peer mentor for the Young Survival Coalition. Before she was diagnosed, Christine loved to travel and was a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala from 2011-2013. When she returned, she worked as a conservation biologist to save habitat for endangered species. Now Christine is using her science background to create an open-access online forum thestormriders.org that provides the most recent and scientifically accurate information about breast cancer and its treatments, including metastatic breast cancer clinical trials and drugs and therapies in the pipeline. She also has created a pilot program, pairing oncology experts with new patient advocates at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, which is what we talk about during this podcast. Listen to the podcast to hear Christine talk about: how the cancer diagnoses changed her how she keeps up with breast cancer research her pilot program to pair oncology experts and patient advocates at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium what she wants people to know about metastatic breast cancer Running time: 28:33Thank you for listening to the Breastcancer.org podcast. Please subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To share your thoughts about this or any episode, leave feedback on the podcast episode landing page on our website.

Ashish Khanna, M.D., is a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation and part of the ReVital Cancer Rehabilitation Program. Dr. Khanna completed his residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Kingsbrook Jewish Rehabilitation Institute in Brooklyn, NY, where he became interested in cancer rehabilitation early on. He completed his fellowship subspecialization in cancer rehabilitation at Medstar Georgetown University and the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, DC. He specializes in the treatment of people who have pain or functional issues as a result of cancer or cancer treatments, including people who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. This includes pain, shoulder issues, fatigue, joint pain from aromatase inhibitors, and other issues. He has lectured at numerous international conferences, has published peer-reviewed research on a variety of related topics, and is the co-author of an upcoming book on cancer rehabilitation. Listen to the podcast to hear Dr. Khanna discuss: what aromatase inhibitors are and how they treat hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer why and how aromatase inhibitors cause joint pain how exercise can reduce aromatase inhibitor-related joint pain other ways to ease this joint pain Running time: 22:56Thank you for listening to the Breastcancer.org podcast. Please subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To share your thoughts about this or any episode, leave feedback on the podcast episode landing page on our website.

Anne White, president of Lilly Oncology, discusses some of the most talked about breast cancer research presented at ESMO 2019. Running time: 10:40

Dr. Jennifer Litton is a board certified medical oncologist and professor of breast medical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where she is chief of the Section of Clinical Research and Drug Development for Breast Cancer. She also is a member of the Breast Immuno-Oncology Task Force of the National Cancer Institute. At the European Society for Medical Oncology 2019 Congress, she presented information on a study she's leading, looking at combining a new type of immunotherapy with a traditional chemotherapy medicine. She joined us to talk about current immunotherapy research for breast cancer in general as well as what is specifically being presented at the congress. Listen to the podcast to hear Dr. Litton discuss: why immunotherapy medicines to treat breast cancer will likely be used with another type of therapy, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy the difference between a "hot" and "cold" tumor and why that is important for immunotherapy other biomarkers besides PD-L1 that may help doctors decided if an immunotherapy medicine will work Running time: 16:50

Dr. Dennis Slamon is professor of medicine and executive vice chair for research for the UCLA Department of Medicine. He also serves as director of clinical/translational research and director of the Revlon/UCLA Women's Cancer Research Program at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA. He is probably best known for doing the laboratory and clinical research that led to the development of Herceptin, the first medicine to specifically treat HER2-positive breast cancer. Dr. Slamon has won numerous awards for his research. Earlier this month, he received the 2019 Lasker Award for clinical medical research for his groundbreaking work on Herceptin. At the European Society for Medical Oncology 2019 Congress, he presented overall survival results from the MONALEESA-3 study, looking at using the CDK4/6 inhibitor Kisqali (chemical name: ribociclib) plus the hormonal therapy Faslodex (chemical name: fulvestrant) to treat advanced-stage, hormone-receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Listen to the podcast to hear Dr. Slamon explain: the background of the MONALEESA-3 study how much adding Kisqali to Faslodex improved overall survival compared to Faslodex alone treatment side effects seen in the study what the results mean for people diagnosed with metastatic hormone-receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer Running time: 9:10

Dr. Leisha Emens is professor of medicine in hematology/oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Hillman Cancer Center. She is also co-leader of the Hillman Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program and director of translational immunotherapy for the Women’s Cancer Research Center. She is internationally recognized for her work in breast cancer immunotherapy. At the European Society for Medical Oncology 2019 Congress, she presented overall survival results from the KATE2 study, which compared using the combination of Tecentriq, also called atezolizumab, and Kadcyla, also called T-DM1, to Kadcyla alone to treat HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer that had grown while being treated with Herceptin and chemotherapy. Listen to the podcast to hear Dr. Emens discuss: the design of the KATE2 study why the study is encouraging, even though it didn't meet its primary endpoint what the results mean for people diagnosed with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer her advice to people diagnosed with breast cancer who are interested in immunotherapy Running time: 10:04

Dr. George Sledge is professor of medicine and head of the Oncology Division at Stanford University. A former president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, he specializes in breast cancer research. He has published extensively on the treatment of metastatic breast cancer and has been honored with numerous awards for his work. At the European Society for Medical Oncology 2019 Congress, he presented overall survival results from the MONARCH 2 study, which used Verzenio (chemical name: abemaciclib) and Faslodex (chemical name: fulvestrant) to treat metastatic hormone-receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer that was previously treated with hormonal therapy and had stopped responding. The women in the study were premenopausal, perimenopausal, or postmenopausal. Listen to the podcast to hear Dr. Sledge explain: the background of the MONARCH 2 study how much overall survival was improved the side effects seen in the study what the results mean for people diagnosed with metastatic hormone-receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer Running time: 6:45