Surviving Survivorship with Dr. Casey Daniel
The Cancering Show
Dr. J.Y.P. talks with her friend and U.S.A. Health Mitchell Cancer Institute colleague Dr. Casey Daniel. Dr. Daniel's unique perspective from being a cancer survivor, researcher and now a supportive and concerned aunt of a cancer patient makes her the best guest to end the first season of the Cancering Show. Hear her amazing and inspirational personal history and experiences with cancer that led her to work with Dr. J.Y.P. and their research in cancer prevention at the Mitchell Cancer Institute.
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Fear, Anxiety and The Chasing Tiger
The Cancering Show
JYP talks with Dr. Ron Franks, professor and chair of psychiatry at the USA College of Medicine, about dealing with the fear and anxiety that can be a side effect of a cancer diagnosis. Plus, he shares some common tactics patients can use to help get through this phase of their cancer journey. A cancer diagnosis can produce the same effects as PTSD, and if these feelings are not managed, they can have detrimental results in treatment success and quality of life.
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Cancer Patients and Coronavirus
The Cancering Show
Dr. Jennifer Young Pierce and guest Dr. Jennifer Scalici discuss some of the most critical and unique information concerning the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and how it relates explicitly to cancer patients and their cancer treatment.
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Hormone Therapy
The Cancering Show
Dr. JYP talks hormone therapy with Dr. Teja Poosarla, a medical oncologist at USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute. Hormones can aid the growth of cancer cells; so adding, blocking or removing a patient's hormones can help cure or prevent the spread and the recurrence of certain cancers, especially breast and prostate cancers.
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Clinical Trials
The Cancering Show
Dr. JYP and Dr. Rodney Rocconi, interim director of USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute, discuss the process, purpose, benefits and misunderstandings about cancer clinical trials. Dr. Rocconi explains this critical therapeutic and research tool that is essential to understanding and battling cancer on a personal and systemic level.
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Immunotherapy and Targeted Therapy
The Cancering Show
Dr. Pierce talks immunotherapy and targeted therapy with USA Health medical oncologist and hematologist Dr. Moh'd Khushman. Immunotherapy is a class of drugs that can help a patient's immune system to fight cancer cells much smarter than current chemotherapy. Cancer cells can turn off the immune system, and these new drugs can turn on the immune system to fight cancer.
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Radiation
The Cancering Show
Dr. JYP talks with radiation oncologist Dr. Bill Hixson about the most mysterious cancer treatment – radiation -- and the role that a radiation oncologist plays. Dr. Hixson shares his views on patient care and explains how he works with an interdisciplinary team. Plus, they discuss the newest innovations in radiation treatment as well as side effects and how to manage them.
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Chemotherapy
The Cancering Show
Dr. JYP has a candid and enlightening chemotherapy conversation with her friend, colleague, and USA Health University Hospital oncologist Dr. Sachin Pai. Dr. Pai shares what chemotherapy really is, and he addresses some of the myths, misconceptions, and fears associated with this incredibly common and effective treatment. Listeners can learn about the many innovative treatment options that are now available and how oncologists and doctors determine a patient's specific cancer treatment
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Warrior Princess Gina Gregory
The Cancering Show
Dr. JYP talks with Facebook Live celebrity and Cancering Warrior Princess Gina Gregory. Gina is a patient at the Mitchell Cancer Institute and has completed two surgeries, lost her hair, finished chemo and radiation treatment for breast cancer, and rang the bell twice. Her experience makes her an expert to give a detailed blueprint preparing physically and mentally for anyone's cancer surgery and journey.
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The Surgery
The Cancering Show
Cancer surgery is more than likely to be a part of everyone's cancer journey. It's a first step of many on the road to survivorship and is still a patient's best chance of cure. In this episode, Dr. JYP has a candid discussion with Dr. J. Harrison Howard, Surgical Oncologist, at the USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute. Dr. Howard explains his role as a Surgical Oncologist and how he uses his extensive training, medical knowledge, and surgical skills to offer you the best options for beating your cancer.
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When I think about the future of cancer therapy, I tell medical students that somebody in their generation is going to say how silly we were that we gave chemotherapy and radiation therapy to cancer patients -- treatments that we knew harmed their immune system when what we should have been doing this whole time was immunotherapy. - Dr. Jennifer Young Pierce
Immunotherapy is a 180-degree change in the way physicians are looking at cancer. We are not focused just on the cancer but on the immune system that allowed the cancer to happen in the first place. - Dr. Moh'd Khushman
In this episode, Dr. Pierce talks immunotherapy and targeted therapy with USA Health medical oncologist and hematologist Dr. Moh'd Khushman. Immunotherapy is a class of drugs that can help a patient's immune system to fight cancer cells much smarter than current chemotherapy. Cancer cells can turn off the immune system, and these new drugs can turn on the immune system to fight cancer. These drugs are full of hope and promise, and they are spreading in terms of usefulness to more and more cancer types and their treatments.
Key Takeaways
Immunotherapy is a class of drugs that help a patient's immune system to fight cancer.
If your doctor or oncologist did not look at your genetic makeup, you need to discuss this with your doctors.
Sometimes genetic makeup can predict who would respond and who would not respond to therapy for a specific cancer.
Since 2010, we have witnessed an overwhelmingly increasing knowledge about immunotherapy.
Good candidates for immunotherapy have specific DNA mutations that have shown physicians that immunotherapy is going to work.
The biggest challenge and the unmet need of immunology are to figure out why some patients do not respond to immunotherapy.
Targeted therapy takes advantage of the differences between cancer cells and normal cells. It's not 100 percent precision, but for the most part, it's much more precise than chemotherapy.
The Docs Said:
Cancer cells can turn off the immune system. So immunotherapy drugs called immune checkpoint inhibitors modulate the immune system and can turn back on the immune system to fight cancer cells much smarter. - Dr. Moh'd Khushman
Every cancer is so unique -- within the gastrointestinal cancer types and also with other cancers. Within the GI cancer types, we treat every cancer differently. - Dr. Moh'd Khushman
Now I really look at the genetic makeup for every patient that I treat, because if they do have any targeted marker, I try to plan the treatment for that targeted biomarker. - Dr. Moh'd Khushman
Your physician and your cancer doctor should be looking at either a biopsy or a surgery that removes a piece of the tumor and then sends that tumor to be tested with some genetic test. - Dr. Moh'd Khushman
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The Cancering Show is brought to you by USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute at the University of South Alabama. MCI is a cutting-edge cancer research and treatment center built to fight cancer smarter in Mobile and Baldwin counties in Alabama. Our researchers and clinicians focus daily on the struggle against cancer, serving a potential catchment population of more than 4.1 million people, with a singular focus of advancing cancer diagnosis, treatment, and prevention throughout the Gulf Coast and beyond with science, technology and hope.
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