Your Stories: Behind the Breakthroughs

As a girl, Priscilla Brastianos’s mother told her stories of the grandmother she never knew: a medical student who diagnosed her own fatal breast cancer. The legend of her grandmother, who practiced medicine even in her final days, inspired Brastianos to become an oncologist and physician scientist. The death of Brastianos’s mother from the same disease – and the promise the young doctor made to her in her final days – drives her unwavering commitment to conquer it. The 2012 Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award (YIA) recipient talks to mentor Evanthia Galanis about the personal and professional journey that honors her family and patients at every turn.

When grief is an occupational hazard, it’s hard not to bring work home. Lidia Schapira teaches doctors how to help patients approach the end of their lives. What kind of lessons did her children learn from a parent who regularly cares for and loses seriously ill patients? Lauren Goldstein talks to Dr. Schapira, her mother, the current Editor in Chief of Cancer.Net, and a Conquer Cancer donor about growing up in the shadows of cancer.

Matt and Dave Wiemer are identical twins, but the shared experience in losing their beloved father to brain cancer is starkly different. One brother became a caretaker. Miles away and unable to help, the other struggled with guilt. Five years after their father’s death, the brothers discuss the impact it had on their relationship. With humor and candor, they detail the resentment and frustration that cancer forces many families to face and share how they remain inspired by their dad. Matt and his family are passionate supporters of Conquer Cancer, and Dave is a member of the Conquer Cancer staff as well as a donor.

Decades ago, when Deb Mayer began her career as an oncology nurse, a cancer diagnosis was discussed in a whisper. Few treatments existed to extend a patient’s life, and survivors were not a patient population the oncology community considered. Fast forward 40 years. The hard conversations about life and death no longer elude us. Mayer learned first-hand what it feels like for a patient with cancer to consider the worst – she too is a survivor. As the only nurse appointed to former Vice President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative, Mayer shares with friend and colleague, Kathy Knafl, why she lends her voice to the ever-growing group of conquerors in need of information and guidance on life after cancer. We hear from Deb first.

Life doesn’t stop when devastating things happen. Six-time cancer survivor Brittany Sullivan and her husband, John, know this all too well. Brittany’s first diagnosis came at age 3 and her most recent when she was 15 weeks pregnant. How do a husband and wife keep going when cancer lies in the shadows of their most joyous moments?The Sullivans rest in their faith, the miracles uncovered by modern medicine, and the divine direction of a pink Post-It note to conquer the fears of cancer without losing the hope that sustains their family.

Dr. Arti Hurria, ASCO board member, talks to her patient and friend, Margaret Sedenquist, about her career and what inspired her along the way.  

“Just let me die.” That’s what Linda said after receiving her leukemia diagnosis. Not all patients believe they can conquer cancer.  Linda and her daughter, Marissa, relive the first day in the hospital and the year of medical house arrest that was part of Linda’s life-saving treatment.

A new house in the suburbs. A thriving business. A growing family. It was a charmed life for college sweethearts Robin and Dave Dubin until Dave was diagnosed with colon cancer at age 29. Cancer is part of Dave’s family history. Will it be part of his family’s future? The Dubins talk candidly about the decision to explore genetic testing for their sons and the anxiety that comes with having answers.

When given a 50-50 chance of surviving blood cancer as a teen in the 1970s, Sophia believed she was going to survive. And Sophia was right. Fast forward to an eerie dream that nudges the then-30 something mom to seek a second opinion after a doctor dismisses her worries when she finds a lump in her breast. She was right again. Sophia candidly shares her experiences with her daughter, Kalli, who listens to the details of her mother’s diagnoses for the first time.

Stuart Spigel wanted to be a forest ranger. His mother…well, she had other plans. Dr. Stuart Spigel would become Nashville’s first oncologist. Though not the rustic wilderness he’d dreamed of exploring, cancer in the 1970’s was an uncharted field. In a conversation with son and fellow oncologist, David Spigel, you’ll hear candid insight into the ever-changing landscape of cancer care and how becoming a patient himself forever changed Stuart’s relationship with those he treated.

On a Saturday morning, a wife wakes to telling signs that her husband is not well. Before Sunday comes, a devastating diagnosis:  A young father has a one percent chance of surviving.

College. Senior Year. A cancer diagnosis. Before graduation, a crash course: Cancer 101. The student and patient, Addison, quizzes her doctor, Jason Luke, on the life-saving thesis he drafted on using immunotherapy as part of her cancer treatment.

It’s January. Are you among the many people resolved to change your diet in the new year? Dr. Neil Iyengar and Dr. Nadja Pinnavaia commit to promoting healthy lifestyles every day in their work to prevent cancer and keep it from returning in patients who have already conquered it. In this episode of Your Stories, they prescribe lifestyle changes influenced by their expertise in disease intervention and share details about their partnership to simplify healthy living for breast cancer survivors.

A clinical trial prolonged Jane Coulbourne’s life, allowing her to work tirelessly for others before she died of cancer. Jane was a fierce patient advocate and a champion of research whose legacy is still impacting the quality of care patients receive. In this episode of Your Stories, Jane’s husband, Bill, talks to Jane’s friend, Susan Braun, about how Jane used her illness to help others. He recalls the joys and heartbreaks of loving and caring for his wife…in sickness and in health.

Cancer, a love story? Dr. Enrique Soto “fell in love” with geriatric patients and married it with his other passion: oncology. He speaks to his wife and colleague Yanin Chavarri about how patients (and the research partner he would eventually wed) inspire his work. Dr. Soto is the recipient of three Conquer Cancer grants and is a generous donor.

To help manage the stress of treating people with life-threatening diseases, doctors are trained to limit the emotions they invest in patients. As young oncologists, Dr. Rachna Shroff and Dr. Nina Shah followed professional protocol by the book. They kept patients at an arm’s length, in fear of blurring what they felt was an important line between doctor and friend. That all changed when each of their roles were reversed; the doctors became daughters to a parent with cancer. In this episode of Your Stories, the friends and colleagues discuss how their experiences on the other side of the bench inspired changes in the relationships they allow themselves to develop with patients.

When Dr. Nizar Tannir ran out of treatment options for patients with Renal Medullary Carcinoma (RMC), a rare kidney cancer, he left his private practice to research a cure. To take on this uncommon disease, he would need the brightest young researchers and a community of supporters whose commitment to new discoveries is as relentless as his. He found an ally in Conquer Cancer researcher Dr. Pavlos Msaouel. In this episode of Your Stories, the friends and colleagues share the stories of patients who inspire their work and the breakthroughs they've discovered by leaving no stone unturned. I would like to ask you, Nizar, you went into private practice for many years. What made you come back into academia? I was in practice many years in rural Kentucky and had a very thriving practice and were seeing patients, young and old, blood disorders, as well as cancers of different types. In ‘92, I diagnosed my father with prostate cancer. I treated him in my practice and he did well for eight years from ‘92 till 2000. And then unfortunately the cancer came back, and he deteriorated. At that moment, I decided that I needed to get back to academia. I needed to be involved in discovery. Then you started focusing on Renal Medullary Carcinoma, otherwise known as RMC, which is a rare but highly aggressive kidney cancer. What made you focus on this disease? I started getting referrals of young people with kidney cancer with these rare and aggressive types of kidney cancer. I visited this 39-year-old patient with aggressive Renal Medullary Carcinoma, and unfortunately, he was on his last few days of his life. I was trying to tell him that unfortunately, despite all our efforts, I didn't have any more treatments to offer him. He surprised me with his answer. I remember those words ringing in my ears. He said, ‘What do you mean you have no more to offer me? … I have a six-year-old daughter.’ I left defeated. Felt that RMC had won again, and snatched the life of this young man. I realized that if anybody is going to do something, it's us. We will have to do it. And that's really when I decided that we have to honor the legacy. So tell us a little bit how activism has accelerated research into Renal Medullary Carcinoma. There was another patient of mine that I had the privilege of taking care of in 2012. We treated him with chemotherapy. Fortunately, he had a good response and he's alive today, seven years later, and he's been the start of hope for patients with RMC. People have contributed to the research project that we started together and we owe it to that dedication – unwavering dedication – to make a difference in the lives of future patients with RMC. Then I joined your clinic and I became infected with your obvious enthusiasm and dedication for helping patients with rare and aggressive kidney cancers. What made you push me to the direction of RMC? I remember my mentor, who said: ‘If you want to succeed, make a difference, and advance the field... bring in young, smart people to work with you.’ And it was my good fortune that you came to my clinic as a first-year fellow. You said ‘I would like to join your clinic. I'm interested in kidney cancer. Prostate cancer.’ I remember how impressed I was? You had fantastic training. You had energy. I could see it in your eyes. Your commitment. And I said, wow. This young man is going to help us correct the mystery of RMC. What are the challenges that you are experiencing and obstacles in your research on RMC? One of the challenges, of course, is patient awareness. And this is where having patient advocates and active social media efforts and awareness about our clinical trials and our research is very important. We opened our clinical trial in August 2018. And in just nine months, we enrolled 14 patients out of 30 projected. This is fast for such a rare cancer. And this is in large part thanks to the community efforts to raise awareness. Do you believe that we will make really good progress in the next few years? I believe so. Progress will be step by step. We do research in the laboratory trying to find more therapies, trying to design the next steps, the next clinical trials for Renal Medullary Carcinoma and other rare kidney cancers. Rare cancers can essentially serve as the Rosetta Stone that can inform more common cancers. We gain fundamental insights by studying rare cancers. So, one of the things that I see next is that we will be using those insights that we're gaining step by step, not only to help patients with this rare and aggressive cancers that desperately need it, but also many other people. What is still missing for us to go to the next step? One thing that will be crucial in this effort to find therapies and understand these rare kidney cancers will be national and international scientific collaborations. This is absolutely key. This is one of the many things that you taught me. It takes a village. This is why we are forming an organization that will be bringing together all stakeholders that are so important. The patients, the caregivers, physicians, researchers, academic thought leaders to accelerate discoveries for both RMC and other cancers that are similar to this disease. And this is what makes me optimistic about the future. What would you say now to all the patients you and I are seeing? I would say that if there is one thing that I can promise with 100 percent certainty is that we will leave no stone unturned. We will not stop working to find treatments and ultimately find a cure for this cancer. That is our commitment to the patients and their loved ones, that we will continue our march onward to find a cure. You can be part of Dr. Tannir and Dr. Msaouel’s village by supporting research for rare cancers. Learn about breakthroughs for all types of cancer made possible by Conquer Cancer donors at CONQUER.ORG. Hearing the experiences of others can help people cope with the challenges cancer brings. Help others find these inspiring stories by leaving a review of the podcast, and subscribe today on iTunes or Google Play to hear every new episode. Thanks for listening to Your Stories: Conquering Cancer. The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience and conclusions. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.

Lawrence Einhorn wanted to practice general medicine alongside the father he revered. Life interfered with that dream, but along the way, he discovered the cure for testicular cancer. In 1974, patients facing a disease with a then five-percent cure rate followed the lead of an ambitious but humble young scientist who had unwittingly concocted a miracle mix of chemotherapy. Dr. Einhorn, a Conquer Cancer board member and generous donor, speaks with friend and colleague Patrick Loehrer about his “walk on the moon” that outsmarted what was once the deadliest form of male cancer.

When Sue Paxman, a young mother of four, was in treatment decades ago, she was especially bothered when her hair fell out. Claire Paxman tells her brother Rich about the moment she stood in the bathroom with their late mother, holding the scissors to help her cut her long, curly hair. Their mother’s experience inspired the family’s work in scalp cooling technology, a therapy that helps minimize hair loss for patients. They explain how scalp cooling works and recall their beloved mom in this episode of Your Stories. 

How does a patient find his voice? Dr. Mark Lewis was one week into his oncology fellowship training when he self-diagnosed his rare cancer. In this episode of Your Stories, Dr. Lewis shares with his friend and colleague, Dr. Jonathan Bleeker, how the many roles he’s played as caregiver, doctor, and patient – help him navigate the cancer community.

Doctor after doctor recommended a different treatment option to Marlene Portnoy’s husband, Steve, after he was diagnosed with a desmoid tumor. Research on the subject seemed out of reach until Marlene met Dr. Mrinal Gounder. Dr. Gounder is an oncologist treating sarcoma patients, and his understanding of desmoid tumors provided the answers they needed. In this episode of Your Stories, Marlene and Dr. Gounder recount how a rare disease brought them together and how their partnership is still improving treatment for patients like Steve.     Doctor after doctor recommended a different treatment option to Marlene Portnoy's husband Steve after he was diagnosed with a desmoid tumor. Research on the subject seemed out of reach, until Marlene met Dr. Mrinal Gounder. Dr. Gounder is an oncologist treating sarcoma patients, and his understanding of desmoid tumors provided the answers they needed. In this episode of Your Stories, Marlene and Dr. Gounder recount how a rare disease brought them together, and how their partnership is still improving treatment for patients like Steve. It's a very scary thing to be diagnosed with a rare disease. In 2004, Steve had pain in his pelvis. And we were told that it was a hernia. We went to a surgeon. And he said that this is no hernia. So went and got a biopsy and found out it was actually something called a desmoid tumor, which the incidence rate is two to four per million. So it's really rare. We traveled to four different institutions around the country, each giving us a different treatment protocol, a different treatment option. And let me tell you, that's a really scary thing when doctors can't agree and don't know how to treat a disease, and don't know that much about the disease. And they all acknowledged that. Then we meet you, our desmoid tumor rock star. My own experience with desmoid tumors is really one that of serendipity. I really didn't know much about desmoid tumors just 10 years ago. And stumbled into a very interesting case of a young woman who was either 19 or 20 at the time. She was a student at New York University and had been diagnosed with a desmoid tumor. Had a surgical resection. And then the tumor had returned very quickly. We really started thinking, what else can we do for her? And based on some rational decision making regarding drug activities, and were able to get this drug. And lo and behold, as soon as she took the drug, within days her symptoms got better. And as weeks turned into months, her tumor started shrinking. And she had a remarkable outcome with this drug, which frankly really surprised us. When we saw that one patient benefited, then we said, well, maybe we should really try this in other patients. We had many desmoid tumor patients who were really struggling through standard chemotherapies, or many for whom chemotherapies had stopped working. And they were living with this disease, really struggling with this disease. And we decided we want to tell the story in a scientific way to the rest of the world. So we wrote a paper. I knew of the paper. And I knew the positive results. And when patients would email me with questions of how to treat the disease and nothing seemed to work, I would attach this paper of this promising drug, promising treatment. And say, please bring this to your physicians and let them know about this. And I'm going to tell you, I did this pretty frequently. And the feedback I got was tremendous. The results were fabulous. I remember thinking, oh my goodness, we have to move forward with this. This is a really important option. So I remember coming up to you and saying, Mrinal, what are we going to do about this? We've got to do a clinical study. So at your urging, you know, I really started thinking about what we can do to design a prospective phase III study, where we can really demonstrate the activity of this drug. And demonstrate its activity and, ultimately, bring it for patients use, not just in the United States, but worldwide. So that process alone took about a year or two. And there were many, many, many roadblocks along that path. But looking back, there were many people who had helped me in that process. We finally started this clinical trial, a phase III clinical trial, which was run both in the United States, as well as in Canada. One of the concerns, from the very beginning, is how are we going to accrue patients? How are we going to find these patients with these rare cancers? And how are we going to bring attention to them to this study? And that accrual would be a major problem. In fact, it was one of the major deterrents to this study from the very beginning from people who are well-meaning, but who really worried that accrual would be a problem. And we had so much, so much interest. I mean, how long did you think the accrual process was going to take? We were estimating that our study, which only had 87 patients, to take a really long time. But in reality, in partnership with you, we accrued 87 patients in 17 months, which was absolutely astounding. I think the success of completing that trial speaks to the necessity of a partnership, especially in rare diseases, whether it's cancer or non-cancer, in this collaboration between drug companies, between academia, between patient advocacy groups, and even cooperative groups that have the network to conduct these studies. These can't be done in a single institution. Mrinal, where do you think that we're going to go from here? I mean, it was remarkable. We have this phase III study that was recognized as one the top 10 breakthroughs in oncology in 2018, which you published paper in the New England Journal of Medicine. I mean, it brought so much awareness and recognition to desmoid tumors. 10 years ago, even in my wildest dreams, I think in none of our wildest dreams would have imagined that this study would be so positive, or would be recognized as one of the top 10 advances in 2018. I can tell you my goal has always been to bring this drug to patients so that this can be approved. And insurance companies can pay for this drug, not just in the United States, but really worldwide. I can only hope that this will move in that right direction. When this study was successful, it really gave confidence to other companies to develop new drugs in this disease. And this is really a model not just in sarcoma, but really in all diseases, whether they're cancerous or not. I think there is a lot of exciting work that's ahead of us. I'm curious to see what the next 10 years will bring. And you know what, just reach for the stars. Nothing is impossible. Yeah. Yeah. I think we've proven that. Marlene's husband Steve recovered from his desmoid tumor with surgery and radiation. Marlene's experiences advocating for her husband launched the work she does now to ensure desmoid tumor patients have access to breakthrough research from specialists like Conquer Cancer Researcher Dr. Gounder. To support more research like Dr. Gounder's, visit conquer.org and make a donation today. Hearing the experiences of others can help people cope with the challenges cancer brings. Help others find these inspiring stories by leaving a review of the podcast and subscribe today on iTunes or Google Play to hear every new episode. Thanks for listening to Your Stories conquering cancer. The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.

Judith and Alan Kaur know more than most of us about the science of long-lasting love. And they use their unique experiences in the cancer community to advance research. In this episode of Your Stories, the Kaurs reveal their non-traditional approach to marriage and medicine. Judith, the first doctor to receive a Conquer Cancer grant more than 35 year ago and Alan,  who encouraged his wife to go to med school in the 1970s after they’d started their family, teach us that relationships aren’t unlike clinical trials:  If the participants are willing to do the work – to closely study their subjects, accept new information, and course correct when prompted by the heart and the mind -  the discoveries can change lives.

In this episode of Your Stories, Dr. Applebaum shares the hopeful news about conquering childhood cancers with fellow oncologist Dr. Douglas Yee and gives doctors’ orders for how all patients with cancer and their families can face every phase of a diagnosis with childlike hopes. Dr. Mark Applebaum, a kid at heart, uses every trick in the coloring books he shares with his young patients to improve the often long and brutal treatments they face. In this episode of Your Stories, Dr. Applebaum shares hopeful news about conquering childhood cancers with fellow oncologist Dr. Douglas Yee. He gives doctors orders for how all patients with cancer and their families can face every phase of a diagnosis with childlike hopes. So I'm a medical oncologist. I take care of breast cancer patients. So back when I was in medical school and training, I really wanted to be an all-purpose physician that took care of people. When I was thinking about that I said, well, maybe I would like to be a pediatrician. I went to do my pediatrics rotation. The thing that didn't work for me was that most of your patients really don't want to see you. In other words, kids either in a well baby check or if they're sick or anything, they don't want to see you, much less talk. So, obviously, it appealed to you. Yeah, I mean, the reality is I'm a large child. When I was in college, and even in medical school, I just gravitated towards working with kids. It's just more fun. Our rooms are more highly decorated. I get to watch magicians when I'm on rounds because they happen to be in the child's room. I can't tell you how many art projects I've gotten to watch and participate in just because that's what my patient was doing when I was seeing them. And it keeps you young and it keeps you sprightly. And the good news is for pediatric oncology, I mean, for the vast majority of children with leukemia, we cure those kids. And that's fantastic. My specialty is not leukemia I do research on a disease called neuroblastoma, which is one of more common pediatric cancers. It's a disease that affects nerve tissue. And I try to research better cures and try to find different ways of identifying patients who are more likely to have better or worse disease and really figure out how we can precisely treat those kids. So we're working towards those goals. But kids keep it young and fun. And the pediatric oncologists within pediatrics, we're sort of a special breed because there are a lot of pediatricians who don't want to work with the sick kids. Well child checks are more fun. We deal with the issues of life and death. And that's a struggle, but it's an honor. I think it's very hard for me early on in my career because I see some success, I see some failure in my research and with my patients. But I don't have that long view. And one of the things I see from my senior colleagues is they love nothing more than hearing from their patients 20 years later. They love nothing more than looking back and saying, this is where things were 20, 30 years ago. This is where they are now. Look at what I've contributed to. What is your perspective on that? I think on the individual level, it's really always gratifying. And you don't, like you said, sometimes you don't think about a patient's perspective completely. But when a patient will tell me that, well, you know, I never thought I was going to see my child graduate or get married. And so in some respects that's extraordinarily gratifying on a personal level. But the other aspect is how do you as an individual help make that happen more often than not? And how do you then really try to set the field up so that things are changing a little more rapidly? As you know, the struggles that my dad has had with advanced prostate cancer, and he is at the phase where he's just running out of options basically. I mean, from that perspective, it's been both fascinating and heart wrenching to interact with the medical oncology community. I mean, you're at an academic center, and I am as well. And I think the first thing we always think about is, how can I get my patient on a study? How can I find something better than standard of care if standard of care just isn't good enough? It is always the challenge when there's barriers between what we in the academic world perceive as optimal care and what people are getting. And as somebody who sees a referral practice, I see that a lot. When we train practitioners, we need to make sure we train them in a way that they're always curious. Now, you don't necessarily have to be a leader in research, but you certainly have to stay on top of things. So culturally, I think we just need to train more physicians who come with that background. I tell patients and everybody that today's ceiling is tomorrow's floor. If you're practicing at the top of your game today, 5, 10, 2 years from, now it's not going to be that way anymore. So we have to make sure that everybody in the health care system understands that. As you said, pediatrics is a best case example. I think what we've always benefited from in pediatrics is our patients have to come to an academic center. And we've always had to pool resources because we deal in nothing but rare diseases. The only reason we've made advances is because we have a strong focus on research. I don't think it's just research that, though, has been a struggle. It's also been supportive care. As my dad has been progressing, his symptoms are becoming more severe. And unfortunately, he's having a harder time mobilizing. And I had to encourage my family to fight to get palliative care services, which to me, in my practice, it's a no-brainer. If I've got somebody with metastatic disease, like the day they're diagnosed, I call my palliative colleagues, and I say, hey, can you help me with symptom management here? We need to make them do well. But we also need to make sure that they're-- in my case, in pediatrics-- going to school, seeing their friends, acting like children. That's so important. That's what I was told on day 1 of fellowship. Yes, it's terrifying to start taking care of children with cancer. And you're not trained for it yet. And you're going to be taking the call at the middle of the night from somebody who needs to talk to somebody who knows something about pediatric oncology. But just remember, no matter what you do, if the patient is first, you will not be wrong. My patient, she's now 10 years old, and she's been battling with high-risk neuroblastoma for a couple of years. And her mom gave a very, very moving speech about everything that she has gone through in the past couple of years. And it's very emotional for me to hear as her physician. We don't, I think, as doctors always think about what my patient is doing on a day-to-day basis because we think about sort of our patients as a whole. And where is this person in treatment? And what do I need to make sure that this treatment keeps marching on? But seeing it from that sort of one person's side and all the ups and downs of cancer treatment, and seeing all the pictures and hearing the stories of how their family had to rally through good and bad, it was really quite touching. And it really brought home, I think, the importance of what we do. It was pretty amazing to hear that. Conquer Cancer funded Dr. Applebaum's early research, which he says helped lay the foundation for every discovery he's made to treat children with neuroblastoma. To learn more about his research, visit conquer.org. The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.

International business leader Riccardo Braglia has experienced great loss from cancer. But the perspective he gained inspires what he gives to help patients everywhere. Riccardo shares his story with ASCO CEO Cliff Hudis, MD, FACP, FASCO.

Kimberly Irvine was used to taking care of the people she loved.  Conquering breast cancer – twice – forced the young mom to learn how to take care of herself in a whole new way. In a conversation with fellow philanthropist Riccardo Braglia, Kimberly shares how cancer changed her family and offers advice for patients who meet cancer in the prime of their lives.

Nancy and Alex Berry were shocked when their son, Jake, was diagnosed with testicular cancer during a sports physical. He was only 16. In this episode of Your Stories, the devoted parents discuss what it’s like to watch your child compete against cancer and share how the experience changed their family forever.

In Follow the Signs, Monique Robinson shares how trusting her instincts, her doctors, and the family supporting her guided her path as she survived breast cancer.  Host Brenda Brody, cancer survivor and advocate, talks to Monique about the challenges of enduring treatment, talking to children about a parents’ diagnosis, and living with the fear of the cancer returning. 

What did Stacy White do after being diagnosed with breast cancer for the third time? She got a new degree, changed careers, and as she tells host and fellow survivor Brenda Brody, refused to let the disease deter her dreams. 

Steve Cooper tells Brenda Brody how helping other people who have been diagnosed with larynx cancer, he found the will to recover - physically and emotionally - from squamous cell carcinomas.

Childhood friends, both breast cancer survivors, relive the joy and fears of their experiences and share why patients shouldn’t conquer cancer alone.

In the latest Your Stories podcast, Brenda Brody introduces you to fellow co-host Dr. Don Dizon. They talk mental health, sexual health, and the challenges facing LGBTQ+ patients that inspire Dr. Dizon’s work to achieve equity in cancer care.

Soon after recovering from Hodgkin lymphoma, Lisa Geller's cancer returned. Then another shocking diagnosis: endometrial cancer. In the latest Your Stories podcast, Lisa, a teacher, tells host Dr. Don Dizon what she learned when her treatments did not go as she or her doctors expected.

Dr. Lewis, who self-diagnosed his MEN1, understands how patients can feel doubted and judged. Among the ways both Dr. Lewis and Dr. Dizon believe patients can best be served is shed any blame associated with a cancer diagnosis.

In the latest Your Stories podcast, 12-year-old Cain and his mom, Tawny share with host Dr. Mark Lewis how their family maintains hope and what others can do to help families who are conquering cancer together.

Breast cancer survivor Brenda Brody tells Dr. Mark Lewis how she endured the mental anguish of treatment, why she became a mentor, and why she shares her story to help others. 

Why representation matters. Why pronouns matter. And why it matters more than ever for patients with cancer from the LGBTQ+ community to be counted and welcomed.  Scout, MA, PhD, executive director of the National LGBT Cancer Network, tells host Dr. Don Dizon why be believes erasing the implicit bias and stigma LGBT patients often face begins with doctors and allies asking the uncomfortable questions and feeling comfortable admitting when they “just don't know what they don't know.” 

Lillian Kreppel had to advocate for herself and seek a second opinion before receiving a delayed diagnosis: HPV-related stage II anal cancer. During treatment, she found stark limitations in HPV information, including lack of public awareness and patient education, inadequate guidelines for cancer screening, and a lot of HPV-related social stigma. Now a survivor, Lillian leads the HPV Cancers Alliance, an advocacy organization she co-founded to help improve HPV education for patients, providers, and the public. She shares key lessons for patients navigating screening and treatment, debunks stigmas and myths surrounding HPV, and highlights the importance of patient advocacy and donor-funded research.

In 2022, one of our most popular Your Stories episodes was the conversation featuring Dr. Karen Winkfield, who is a Biden-appointed member of the National Cancer Advisory Board and one of the country's leading experts in advancing health equity. We are re-releasing this episode to highlight the lasting importance of addressing health disparities and working to eradicate structural racism in cancer research and oncology care. Dr. Winkfield unpacks why cancer risks are higher and survival rates are lower for Black people and discusses the health disparities facing people from disenfranchised communities.

For some families, cancer is in their genes. But this didn't stop Hattie Sherman from conquering it. Hattie is a third-generation survivor of hereditary breast cancer, with her mother, Molly, and grandmother having experienced the diagnosis as well. Fortunately, as cancer research continues to advance, treatments are vastly improving for each generation of patients. In this episode, Hattie, Molly, and Dr. Patt join Your Stories host, Dr. Mark Lewis, for a candid conversation about the intergenerational impact of conquering cancer. They talk about the turbulence and challenges that breast cancer brings and explain why sustained support for cancer research is necessary for advancements in treatment to continue.

At just 19 years old, Anya was diagnosed with Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD), an extremely rare and incurable blood cancer. After three years of unsuccessful treatments, Anya was quickly running out of options. In this episode of our Your Stories podcast, Anya's mother, Colleen, and one of Anya's oncologists, Conquer Cancer-funded researcher Dr. Jithma Abeykoon, discuss the complexities of uncovering her diagnosis, the disappointment of failed treatments, and the relief and surprise that came when they discovered a new treatment option that finally worked.

Support communities for people conquering cancer form a critical bridge between the worlds of social work and oncology and offer immense benefits for people transitioning from patient to survivor. Stephanie Stern, a licensed professional counselor, support group facilitator, and program director at a nonprofit community organization, helps people to more effectively manage the mixed emotions that come with conquering cancer. In this episode of our podcast, Stephanie joins Brenda Brody, a breast cancer survivor and Your Stories host, to share how support communities help people navigate their experiences from diagnosis through treatment and beyond.

NBC journalist Craig Melvin's 43-year-old brother, Lawrence Meadows, passed away from colorectal cancer in 2020. Since then, Craig has made it his mission to increase public awareness and raise support for colorectal cancer research. Along with two-time Conquer Cancer grant recipient and colorectal oncologist Dr. Kimmie Ng, Craig joins this episode of our Your Stories podcast to emphasize the critical role donors play in advancing colorectal cancer research. Hosted by Dr. Don Dizon, Craig and Dr. Ng share a candid conversation about the stigmas and misconceptions around colorectal cancer, along with the impact of Dr. Ng's ongoing research. They also discuss the stark rise of diagnoses in Black patients and young adults, and how donor support is bringing new discoveries to patients.

For patients with oral cancers, treatment is often just the beginning of their journey. Even after they emerge cancer-free, many still face a long journey to recovery and restored quality of life As a maxillofacial surgeon and oncologist, Dr. Chi Viet concentrates heavily on helping her patients to not only conquer this rare cancer, but to more easily and effectively manage their pain along their road to recovery. Using a Conquer Cancer grant, Dr. Viet worked to find epigenetic biomarkers –– or hereditary indicators –– of oral cancer survival, with the goal of personalizing patient care In this episode of our Your Stories podcast, Dr. Viet speaks with host Dr. Don Dizon about her early career evolution from dentist to cancer surgeon and how her own patients help to advance rare cancer research for current and future patients.

Imagine you—or a loved one—receives a cancer diagnosis. Overnight, you find yourself trying to become an oncology expert, desperately looking for information about options. You stumble across a research paper that looks promising—if you could make sense of all the science-speak. Then you find Cancer.Net, the patient information website of Conquer Cancer and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). This doctor-approved resource makes cancer terminology easier to digest and offers the latest guidelines on research and treatment. In this episode of Your Stories, host and cancer survivor Brenda Brody is joined by Dr. Jyoti Patel, a clinical oncologist and the editor-in-chief of Cancer.Net. Together, they unpack some of the year's biggest research breakthroughs, explain what makes these findings meaningful for patients, and talk about the long-term impact of donor-funded research. They also share why providing cancer information in lay terms is essential to raising awareness and support.

As a little girl, Kenedi loves eating ice cream, drawing stories about her family's chickens, and playing with her sister. But at age 7, after feeling sick for some time, a cancer diagnosis upended Kenedi's life. Despite being the top disease-related cause of death for children, pediatric cancers are still considered rare. As with most rare diseases, childhood cancer receives far less research funding compared with more common cancers. The consequence? Fewer breakthroughs or treatment options for patients. Even so, elevated investment in childhood cancer research has provided a lifeline for kids like Kenedi, ultimately increasing their odds of survival. Funded by a Conquer Cancer grant, her own oncologist, Dr. Wendy Allen-Rhoades, dedicated significant effort to identifying warning signs signaling the presence of sarcoma cells in the body. This donor-supported research resulted in a clinical trial that ultimately — and successfully — informed Kenedi's treatment. By age 8, Kenedi was in remission. In our latest Your Stories podcast, Dr. Allen-Rhoades talks to host Brenda Brody about caring for Kenedi, why raising awareness and funds for childhood cancer research is so critical, and how supporting Conquer Cancer helps pediatric oncologists and the children they treat.

You've seen them: the pink ribbons pinned to your senator's suit jacket. Runners dressed in head-to-toe pink athletic gear, racing for a cure. Football players streaking down the field in pink cleats. It wasn't always like this. Long before people began thinking pink, breast cancer remained fairly stigmatized, a taboo subject only discussed behind the closed doors of a doctor's office. Today, though, the conversation around breast cancer has reached a level of nearly unrivaled ubiquity, thanks in large part to a huge collective of philanthropists, advocates, physicians, scientists and patients around the world who, more than 30 years ago, decided it was time—perhaps even long past time—for a change. In this episode of Your Stories, Conquer Cancer's executive vice chair Dr. Clifford Hudis is joined by Dr. Judy Garber, scientific director of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and CNN reporter and two-time breast cancer survivor Athena Jones. Together, they talk about the history behind the advocacy movement for breast cancer, what it is that keeps the conversation going, and what everyone—including those trying to conquer other cancers—can learn from this rise in breast cancer advocacy.

By the time internet-comedy power-couple Kristin (“Lady Glaucomflecken”) and Will Flanary (“Dr. Glaucomflecken”) were 35, Will had survived cancer twice, along with a sudden cardiac arrest. Throughout these traumatic experiences, Kristin took on the role of caregiver. In at least one case, she was also his lifeline. Between her experience marrying into medicine, caring for a partner with a life-altering diagnosis, and her background in social psychology and cognitive neuroscience, Kristin brings a unique array of perspectives and insight to the cancer advocacy table. In this episode of Your Stories, we welcome Kristin back to share more about being a caregiver, the challenges of navigating U.S. healthcare, and why cancer advocacy is so vital. 

Athlete, professional climber, reality show participant, competitor, physician, and cancer survivor: Favia Dubyk embodies the definition of conqueror. But facing advanced-stage lymphoma during her second year of medical school caused a major setback in Favia's athletic life. Surgical treatment and chemotherapy had devastating effects on her identity as an expert rock climber: She had gone from ascending boulders to struggling just to open her fridge. It took Favia years of dedicated training to reach and surpass her baseline level of fitness. Even today, as an alum of extreme sports competition shows like NBC's American Ninja Warrior and USA's Race to Survive Alaska, Favia continues to feel the effects of conquering late-stage lymphoma and grueling cancer treatments. In this episode of Your Stories, Favia tells Dr. Mark Lewis – who also received a cancer diagnosis while in medical training – about the experience of surviving cancer as a professional athlete. She encourages oncology providers to better understand their patients' aspirations in life and tailor treatment plans based on those goals. Favia also discusses what kinds of emotional support she found most helpful during treatment, what drives her as a cancer pathologist to help patients make sense of their medical results, and why it matters for people conquering cancer to appreciate the little things in life. 

Emmy award-winning journalist Loriana Hernadez-Aldama takes you behind the scenes of her incredible and emotional story surviving leukemia and then breast cancer. Loriana believes being “prehabilitated” helped her take on treatment, and she challenges you to be ready in case you are faced with an unexpected diagnosis or recurrence. 

Dr. Karen Winkfield and Dr. Don Dizon are two of the country's foremost leaders in advancing health equity. During Black History Month, they offer a very candid discussion on why cancer risks are higher and survival rates are lower for Black people, while addressing the disparities facing all patients from underrepresented, excluded, and disenfranchised communities.

Jana Hirsch's mom died from cancer when she was a little girl, so she knows all too well the feelings of pain and loss her 11-year-old daughter, Nika is enduring. Nika's dad, Rico, died from cancer last year. In this Your Stories podcast, Jana offers advice for helping children mourn and Nika shares how helping others keeps her dad's memory alive. 

California cyclist Mark Crafts, stunned with a mid-life cancer diagnosis, trusts in cancer research to keep rolling on the most unpredictable ride of his life. He tells Dr. Mark Lewis how, with his support from his Team Crafty family, friends, and cycling crew and an unflinching hope in cancer research, he keeps rolling toward the next big breakthrough.

Bethany Hart was pregnant when she received a devastating diagnosis. She lost her baby, Hallie, as well as her fertility. Now cancer-free and an advocate for other survivors, Bethany shares how she created the family she'd dreamed about before cancer.

Mai Achong was 26 when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Though she survived and her dream of motherhood was fulfilled, the challenges of survival continue to haunt her. From parenting while in treatment to navigating health care systems, Mai shares all the lessons she learned as a patient and a survivor.

Even when young patients survive cancer, its challenges often remain with them for the rest of their lives. Carly Flumer survived thyroid cancer in her late 20s and learned invaluable lessons about communication between doctors and patients. Now 32, she is helping other adolescent and young adult patients navigate the unique challenges they face during and after treatment. 

At the heart of Dr. Applebaum's neuroblastoma research is a determination to make treatments for kids with cancer easier and more effective. In this conversation with Dr. Yee, the oncologists offer hope on how cancer research is helping patients of all ages.

Helping her Spanish-speaking family communicate with their oncologist inspired Dr. Jenny's Ruiz's work in cancer care. This three-time Conquer Cancer grant and award recipient shares how her language-based research aims to improve survival rates for pediatric patients.

Dr. Shanu Modi led DESTINY-Breast04, a groundbreaking study that resulted in FDA approval of a promising treatment that can improve survival for nearly 50% of all patients with metastatic breast cancer today. This Conquer Cancer grant recipient talks about the importance of patient participation in clinical trials, the necessity of donor-funded research, and the bright future of breast cancer care. 

When Liz Beisel's late father, Ted Beisel, passed away in 2021 from pancreatic cancer, she partnered with Swim Across America to help fund a Conquer Cancer Young Investigator Award. Dr. Peter Yu, an early-career oncologist and pancreatic cancer researcher, received this grant in 2022. This helped launch his promising research project to improve treatment and care for patients with pancreatic cancer. Liz tells Your Stories host, Dr. Don Dizon, how memories of her dad motivate her to raise vital funds for research, and Dr. Yu shares how and why he works to advance pancreatic cancer care. Together, they reflect on why it matters to accelerate research for every patient. 

Less than 1% of patients diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) – the most aggressive type of brain cancer – live longer than a decade. But Molly is one of those rare survivors. Her best friend, Martha, and Martha's sister, Conquer Cancer board member Dr. Amy Peterson, fiercely supported Molly every step of the way. Molly tells Your Stories host, Dr. Mark Lewis, how she navigated her experiences with cancer. Martha recounts how she supported Molly through her journey. And Dr. Amy Peterson discusses how cancer research informed Molly's course of care. Together, the trio celebrates the power of leaning on loved ones for support and shares why donor-funded research is vital to advance treatment for all patients. 

Long before he was a world-renowned neurosurgeon, Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa was a 5-year-old boy selling food at gas stations in his native Mexico. But he wanted to dream bigger: At 19, he left his native Mexico in hopes of a better future. Despite speaking little English and having no money, he felt it was his chance at better supporting his loved ones. He was right. After two years of working manual labor, he decided to build a better future for himself, ultimately earning a scholarship to the University of California Berkeley. Next, he applied and was accepted to Harvard Medical School. After earning his medical degree, Dr. Quiñones began his career as a neurosurgeon in 2005 at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He subsequently received a Conquer Cancer grant to help advance research for patients with brain tumors and other neurological cancers. In this Your Stories episode, Dr. Quiñones tells host Dr. Don Dizon about the challenges he faced on the path to becoming a physician-scientist. He also discusses the inspiration he derives from providing care for patients, how his grandmother influenced his career path, and the role that philanthropy has in building the next generation of cancer researchers.

Henrietta Lacks: Her name is forever intertwined with Black history and medicine. Her cells are the source of the world's first immortalized human cell line. Without her consent, her biological material was used to make groundbreaking advancements in research in a wide range of conditions and diseases, including AIDS and polio to radiation treatment and cancer care. More than 70 years have gone by since Henrietta Lacks passed away from ovarian cancer at age 31. And yet, today, the Lacks story remains just as relevant for Black patients in the U.S. and around the globe. In this episode of Your Stories, we're joined by Dr. Clyde Yancy, a member of the Henrietta Lacks Foundation Board of Directors and a professor of medicine and vice dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion at Northwestern University. Dr. Yancy provides unique insights into Lack's unforgettable place in history, the implications for building and maintaining trust in modern medicine, and what can be done to foster equity and representation for Black patients in cancer research. Together with host Dr. Don Dizon, he also unpacks the importance of diversifying the medical workforce and why it matters for Black patients and patients of color to see themselves in their providers.

Imagine receiving a cancer diagnosis, only to immediately learn that not only has it spread to other parts of your body, but it's also incredibly rare for it do so—so rare, in fact, that little to no research exists to inform your treatment. Katie Coleman doesn't need to imagine this: She's lived it. In December 2020, at just 29 years old, Katie was diagnosed with metastatic oncocytoma, a type of kidney cancer so rare that fewer than 10 cases have been recorded in history. Consequently, it's also remained largely understudied, underfunded, and overlooked in cancer research. Luckily, Katie found Dr. Pavlos Msaouel, an oncologist and a three-time Conquer Cancer grant and award recipient with an incredibly niche research focus: targeting rare kidney tumors. Despite a lack of research about Katie's specific type of tumor, Dr. Msaouel's experience with targeting rare kidney tumors—informed by his Conquer Cancer-funded research—enabled her care team to hone in on an approach that ultimately left her cancer-free. Now a cancer survivor and patient advocate, Katie has made it her mission to share her story and help others learn to more effectively navigate cancer care. In this episode of Your Stories, Katie speaks with podcast host and fellow survivor Brenda Brody about what she found most helpful during her cancer experience and the empowering impact of shared decision-making between providers and patients.

What do esophageal cancer, testicular cancer, lung cancer, cervical cancer, and colon cancer have in common? Each carries some type of stigma or taboo—whether because they're linked to behavioral causes or because they affect portions of the anatomy traditionally deemed private. The impact of these stigmas can be detrimental: In some cases, stigmatized cancers receive less research funding, resulting in fewer treatment innovations for patients. Moreover, stigmas often result in patients hesitating to seek critical diagnostic care, increasing the risk that their cancer won't be caught until it's too late. April is National Cancer Control Month, which aims to cut the U.S. cancer death rate in half by 2028. Although better cancer screening is a vital step toward that goal, many people do not get screened—a structural problem made worse by cancer stigmatization. In this episode of the Your Stories podcast, we're joined by Dr. Stacy Wentworth, an award-winning oncologist and cancer survivorship expert. As medical director of cancer survivorship at Atrium Wake Forest Baptist Health Comprehensive Cancer Center, she has two decades of experience with leading patient-centered care teams in diverse settings. Dr. Wentworth is also the founder of her weekly Substack, Cancer Culture. In this forum, she explores how personal, scientific, and sociocultural factors shape attitudes toward cancer, including the various stigmas and difficult conversations that may come with it.

Not only does cancer predate the practice of medicine, but it may also predate the human species entirely. In 2016, archeologists in South Africa unearthed a large 1.7 million years-old bone fragment, ultimately revealed to be the toe bone of an ancient but unknown species of human dating back millennia. On that piece of bone, they discovered something else: a malignant tumor. It's a stark reminder that, for as long as their profession has existed, oncologists have been studying and treating cancer. For many, it raises a frustrating question: After so many centuries of studying cancer, why haven't we cured it yet? The answer is complicated. Dr. Otis Brawley joins the Your Stories podcast to help us better understand what makes cancer such a complex and persistent adversary. In addition to being a professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University and a former chief medical and scientific officer of the American Cancer Society, Dr. Brawley is a member of Conquer Cancer's Board of Directors and editor of The Cancer History Project, a free online resource dedicated to documenting the history of cancer in medicine. He talks with host Dr. Mark Lewis about why cancer has not yet been “cured” and about how our study and understanding of it has evolved over time.

For Dr. Kekoa Taparra, cancer is deeply personal. Growing up in a remote area of Oahu, Hawaii, Dr. Taparra witnessed his younger cousin's struggles with neuroblastoma. He watched his mother lift and carry his aunt, too weak to walk because of breast cancer. He heard the sharp cries of another aunt suffering with endometrial cancer. These early experiences drove Dr. Taparra to not only dedicate his career to oncology and cancer research, but to focus on addressing the various inequities that face Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (NHPI) communities—from low rates of inclusion in clinical trials to geographic barriers to cancer care. In 2023, Dr. Taparra received the inaugural Dr. Judith and Alan Kaur Endowed Young Investigator Award through Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation. With this support, he launched a research project that uses machine learning to explore the various drivers of NHPI cancer disparities and helps categorize NHPI cancer data more effectively. He joins Your Stories host Dr. Don Dizon to share more about this important work and how his upbringing fueled his dedication to conquering cancer for every patient.

Whether you're relaxing on the beach, taking a hike in nature, or hitting your favorite water park, we've heard it time and time again: Excess sun exposure increases the risk of skin cancer, so protect your skin and apply your sunscreen. Of course, while some skin cancer risk factors are unavoidable, we all know there are proactive, preventive steps we can take—like applying sunscreen and limiting sun exposure—to decrease our risk. But what if you could do something that not only protects yourself from skin cancer, but also people around the world? Although numerous milestones have been made in skin cancer research and treatment, there remains significant room for improvement when it comes to treatment and care. Dr. Lynn Schuchter is director of the Tara Miller Melanoma Center at Penn Medicine and a former president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, or ASCO, for short. Having dedicated her career to caring for patients with skin cancers, Dr. Schuchter knows all too well how much progress still needs to be made in the field of skin cancer research and care. Today, Dr. Schuchter joins the Your Stories podcast to talk about the importance of prevention, patient-centered care, and the past, present, and future of skin cancer research and treatment.

Gabriele “Gabe” Grunewald was a professional distance runner and a relentless optimist. She competed in Big Ten Championship races, became an NCAA track and field All-American athlete, and finished 4th in the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials. Such accomplishments become even more impressive when you learn that—even as she racked up accolades and wins—Gabe also faced cancer numerous times. In 2009, Gabe was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer called adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC). Then, in 2010, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Despite these circumstances, Gabe persevered, continuing to train and run professionally. She also became a rare cancer advocate, launching the Brave Like Gabe Foundation to encourage other patients and survivors to embrace their own courage and chase their dreams. In June 2019, after a decade of living with ACC, Gabe passed away at her home in Minneapolis surrounded by loved ones—including her husband, Dr. Justin Grunewald. An ultra-marathon runner himself, Dr. Grunewald is also an internal medicine specialist and chair of the Brave Like Gabe Foundation's Rare Cancer Research Working Group. He joins the Your Stories podcast to share more about Gabe's story and legacy, along with the importance of supporting rare cancer research so that patients with these rare diseases have more hope for better outcomes.

Prom. Graduation. College. These are just a few rites of passage that high school seniors everywhere look forward to. But for Auburn, a devastating turn of events tilted her entire world off its axis and put all her senior year plans on hold. At just 18 years old, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. Instead of graduating with her classmates and going to senior prom, Auburn endured numerous rounds of lymphoma treatment, which is notorious for being incredibly taxing, especially for younger patients. Fortunately, one of Auburn's providers, Dr. Raymond Mailhot, is uniquely qualified to help patients find the best and least traumatic course of care. A two-time Conquer Cancer-funded award recipient, Dr. Mailhot focuses on improving radiation oncology for younger patients in the U.S. and in Latin American countries. With his Conquer Cancer funding, he's determined to improve radiation treatment options for pediatric patients—research that has helped inform his approach to Auburn's care. In this Your Stories episode, Auburn and Dr. Mailhot have a heartfelt exchange about the many difficulties that cancer brings, especially for younger patients. Together, they reflect on Dr. Mailhot's thoughtful approach to providing care for Auburn and the ways that Auburn has persevered to carve a promising path for her life.

Every 14 seconds, someone is diagnosed with breast cancer, making it one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers in the world, second only to lung cancer, and the leading cause of cancer-related death among women globally. And, while a cancer diagnosis can be devastating for anyone of any age or gender, one group faces a particularly unique and complex set of challenges: young working mothers. It's a reality that Irish patient Aisling O'Brien knows all too well. Aisling spent most of 2023 undergoing numerous rounds of treatment—including breast-conserving surgery right before the winter holidays—all while parenting three young children. “I'm slowly getting back to what is now my new normal,” says Aisling, now that she's through treatment and cancer-free. “It's given me a lot of perspective. I don't sweat the small stuff. I don't get nervous about things anymore, because what's the worst that could happen?  It's shown me that I have a strength that I never knew I had.” It helped that Aisling had a medical oncologist who was there to support her and her family every step of the way: Dr. Michaela Higgins. A two-time Conquer Cancer grant recipient based at St. Vincent's University Hospital in Dublin, Ireland, Dr. Higgins has led numerous clinical trials for patients with breast cancer, helping to advance new treatments and cures. In this Your Stories episode, Aisling and Dr. Higgins join host Dr. Mark Lewis for a conversation about the many challenges that come with balancing motherhood and breast cancer, along with the promising future of breast cancer research and care.

Caitlin Murray has mastered turning life's setbacks into something that brings joy to the 1.5 million people around the world who follow her Instagram page. When her 3-year-old son, Calum, was diagnosed with leukemia in 2016, Caitlin and her family's lives were quickly filled with doctor visits, grueling treatments, and endless uncertainty. Soon after Calum's devastating diagnosis, Caitlin launched her blog, Big Time Adulting, to help keep her family informed and to cope with the challenges of parenting a child with cancer. However, Caitlin's unique style of humor ultimately amassed an enormous audience. Today, with Calum in remission, Big Time Adulting serves as a multimedia outlet where Caitlin writes and shares about life, love, parenting, and the many ups and downs along the way. In this episode of the Your Stories podcast, Caitlin discusses how maintaining a sense of humor can be a powerful antidote to the unforeseen obstacles that life can bring. She also reflects on the impact of practicing gratitude, including why it matters to raise support for cancer research.

For patients with cancer, the holiday season can be particularly difficult: How is anyone supposed to prioritize self-care and recovery at a time when much of the world is going on about the joys of giving? As a breast cancer survivor and a career fashion and beauty publicist, Melissa Berry is all too familiar with that challenge, along with the massive toll cancer can have on a person's self-image. Enter Cancer Fashionista, a platform she's built to help patients and survivors navigate cancer without sacrificing their self-confidence, self-worth, and self-empowerment. In this episode of Your Stories, Melissa shares her story—including how she turned her cancer journey into a brand and a platform that reaches thousands of patients and survivors every day.

While his teenage classmates were getting ready for school, then-13-year-old Sean Swarner was watching the water rise in the shower, his hair clogging the drain. His first cancer diagnosis—and the subsequent treatment regimen—took an immense toll on his self-image and well-being. That morning in the shower, he remembers, all of the fear and despair overcame him: Sean collapsed to his knees, tears and tap water streaming down his face. “I remember looking at myself in the mirror,” he recalls, “and I couldn't even recognize who was looking back.” After a year of treatment, Sean reached remission. But then, two years later—during a follow-up with his oncologist—Sean and his parents received shocking news. His doctor had found a second cancer: an Askin sarcoma, a rare and aggressive tumor in his chest that eventually left him with only one functioning lung. Worse still, Sean's chances of survival appeared slim. In the years to follow, Sean became the first cancer survivor to summit Mount Everest, before eventually completing each of the world's Seven Summits (the highest mountains on each of the seven continents). That includes three attempts on Mount Denali, the tallest mountain in North America and one of the world's most dangerous—ultimately reaching the summit in 2017. “In my mind,” Sean recalls, “I kind of jokingly thought to myself, ‘If this fool who's had two cancers and has one lung can climb to the top of the world, that might inspire some people.'” In this episode of Your Stories, Sean joins host Dr. Mark Lewis to discuss how conquering cancer shaped his life and set him on a course to complete some of the world's most prized adventuring achievements. He also talks candidly about the motivations behind these achievements and his hope that others will look at his accomplishments and take away a simple message: If a guy with one lung can do it, so can you.

Whether you find it on social media, via search engine, or on a popular news website, it often seems like medical misinformation is everywhere, including in the cancer space.   Maybe it's the claim that sugar causes cancer to spread faster. Maybe it's someone saying that people with dark skin don't get skin cancer. Or maybe it's the conspiracy theory that drug companies and government agencies are withholding the cure for cancer so they can continue to profit from expensive oncology care.   These are just a few examples of purported cancer facts you might encounter online—and none of them are true.  From misinterpreted oncology research to race-related stigmas and myths, the spread of cancer-related misinformation runs rampant, taking an increasing toll on global health and often hampering our efforts at early detection and prevention. In one 2022 study, researchers found harmful misinformation in approximately 32.5 percent of the cancer-related English-language publications they analyzed.  “Unfortunately, what we're frequently seeing in online networks is that the worst-quality information actually receives more engagement than the high-quality information,” says one of the study's lead authors, Dr. Stacy Loeb, a Conquer Cancer recipient whose spent years researching the consequences of misinformation for patient health. “The structure of online networks can lead to much more rapid and widespread misinformation than we ever would have seen in the past.”  In this episode of Your Stories, Dr. Loeb joins ASCO's Sybil Green to discuss the rise of misinformation online, its impact on the cancer landscape, and how people across the cancer community can help to turn the tide. 

 The first cancer diagnosis was scary enough.   “I feel like Hollywood actually gets this moment pretty darn right,” Emma says, recalling the day—not long before her 18th birthday—that she learned she had cancer. “The world around you kind of slows down, you get tunnel vision, maybe a little dizzy. The only thing you can really hear is your breathing and your heart rate.”    Eventually—following multiple rounds of chemotherapy—Emma was declared cancer-free. But then came the second diagnosis.    “The key difference between the first and second time is that the first time, you have fear of the unknown. You don't know what's coming for you, and you don't know what you don't know,” Emma says. This time, however, she knew all too well. “I did know what was coming for me. I know what I'm going to be facing. And I would argue that that is almost worse. But, if you're gonna relapse, there's only one positive: You know how to do it better this time.”   In this episode of Your Stories, Emma joins her oncologist, Conquer Cancer-funded researcher Dr. Molly Taylor, for a candid discussion about resilience, recovery, and what helped her make a major comeback after facing cancer twice.

It started—as these stories so often do—with fatigue. At first, Jace Yawnick simply chalked it up to a busy life and a job requiring frequent travel. But then he noticed something: There were times the fatigue kicked in when he hadn't just gotten off a plane or done anything else particularly strenuous. “Intuitively,” Jace says, “something within me just knew something wasn't right.”  Then came the coughing and the back pain. It would be months—and more than one misdiagnosis—before doctors found the problem: Hodgkin lymphoma. As he processed the news of his diagnosis, Jace realized something: Facing cancer was not something he wanted to do by himself.    And so, when he started to chronicle his cancer experience online, he was simply looking for catharsis and camaraderie. He got both—along with a community of 700,000-plus followers who've followed his entire journey in hopes of seeing the moment he fulfilled a cherished goal: to ring the bell and declare himself cancer-free. In this episode, Jace talks to Your Stories host Dr. Mark Lewis about what it's like to share your cancer journey with thousands of people, the importance of advocating for yourself, and the role of community when it comes to conquering cancer. 

With a rare exception here and there, most scientists will at least complete a college-level science class before making their first cancer research breakthrough. Heman Bekele, on the other hand, is just wrapping up his sophomore year of high school.  By the time he was named Time Magazine's Kid of the Year in 2024, Heman was already generating buzz in the scientific community. The year before, he'd won the grand prize in the 2023 3M Young Scientist's Challenge, in which kids compete to think of the most unique solutions to common problems.   His entry? A soap that could potentially be used to treat skin cancer, inspired by his early childhood years in Ethiopia.    “One of the things that really stood out to me was that a lot of people worked really long hours outside in the sun,” says Heman, who first began developing the idea when he was around 11 years old. Over time, he learned more about skin cancer, its prevalence in low- and middle-income countries, and the lack of awareness and treatments for patients in those countries.   “I wanted to take action within the field of skin cancer and make it more affordable to get treatment,” he explains. From there, Heman began a long, slow, trial-and-error process that ultimately led him to soap as a treatment delivery device. “What is the universal product that everyone uses? I landed on soap, which significantly outweighed every other option.”   In this episode of the Your Stories podcast, Heman discusses the story behind his idea for a soap to treat skin cancer, along with the need for affordable skin cancer treatment and the challenges of finding scientific mentors when you're still too young to get a driver's license.