Podcasts about Immunotherapy

Good morning from Pharma Daily: the podcast that brings you the most important developments in the pharmaceutical and biotech world. Today, we delve into a series of transformative developments across the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors, highlighting strategic investments, innovative therapies, and regulatory milestones. AstraZeneca's recent $2 billion investment in Summit Therapeutics is a testament to the industry's focus on cutting-edge oncology solutions. This substantial funding aims to advance the development of ivonescimab, a PD-1xVEGF bispecific antibody, in conjunction with antibody-drug conjugates. This strategic move underscores the potential of combining different therapeutic modalities to target complex cancer pathways, particularly in gastrointestinal malignancies. By leveraging dual-targeting capabilities, these therapies promise enhanced efficacy, marking a significant step forward in cancer treatment paradigms. Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk is making strides in metabolic disease management through its partnership with Hengrui Pharma. This collaboration to develop a weekly oral GLP-1R/GIPR dual agonist for obesity underscores the growing emphasis on innovative metabolic therapies. The upfront payment of $300 million, with additional milestone payments potentially reaching $2.6 billion, reflects the high stakes involved in addressing obesity—a global health challenge. This approach could revolutionize current treatment standards by improving patient compliance and outcomes through targeted small molecule interventions. On the manufacturing front, Genentech's $750 million expansion of its Hillsboro facility highlights the increasing demand for biopharmaceuticals. This investment is poised to double the facility's size by 2031, supporting new drug approvals in oncology, neurology, and immunology. Enhanced production capacity is crucial for meeting the intricate requirements of biologics and personalized medicine, ensuring that breakthrough treatments reach patients more effectively. In the realm of antibody research, Ginkgo Bioworks, AbbVie, and Takeda have joined forces to form the Antibody Developability Consortium. By creating a standardized dataset for antibody development using artificial intelligence and machine learning, this initiative aims to streamline the discovery and manufacturability of therapeutic antibodies. The collaboration seeks to overcome existing challenges in antibody drug development, potentially expediting time-to-market for new therapies. In neurology, AC Immune's Phase 2 trial of ACI-7104 has shown promising results in early-stage Parkinson's disease by meeting all primary endpoints and demonstrating complete immunogenicity. This active immunotherapy targeting alpha-synuclein presents hope for modifying disease progression rather than merely alleviating symptoms. Such advancements highlight the potential of vaccination strategies in addressing neurodegenerative diseases. Roche is also embracing innovation by planning autonomous AI labs for drug R&D. These labs are expected to accelerate clinical candidate development significantly, reducing costs while improving success rates in bringing new drugs to market. This initiative exemplifies how AI-driven drug discovery is reshaping research methodologies. Despite these advancements, challenges persist within the industry. UniQure's gene therapy for Huntington's disease showed diminished effectiveness over four years in Phase 1/2 trials, illustrating the complexities inherent in developing neurological disorder treatments. Additionally, BioNTech's closure of three sites in Germany resulting in substantial job cuts highlights broader economic pressures despite its success with mRNA vaccines. Regulatory developments are crucial as well. The FDA's approval of Roche's Gazyva for idiopathic nephrotic syndrome marks a pivotal advancement as it becomes the first treatment option for this condition in 70 years. This approval not only provides hope for patients but also sets a precedent for future research into autoimmune diseases. In contrast to these successes, Roche decided to discontinue its muscle-sparing obesity antibody following disappointing phase 2 results. Such outcomes emphasize the importance of interim analyses and adaptive strategies in drug development. Overall, these updates underscore a dynamic period characterized by strategic investments, technological innovation, and collaborative efforts aimed at addressing some of healthcare's most pressing challenges. The integration of cutting-edge technologies such as AI and novel therapeutic modalities continues to drive progress towards more effective and personalized patient care solutions. As we wrap up today's episode of Pharma Daily, it's clear that while opportunities abound within the industry through scientific breakthroughs and strategic collaborations, challenges remain that require careful navigation. Companies that balance innovation with rigorous clinical evaluation will be at the forefront of delivering transformative healthcare solutions globally. Thank you for tuning into Pharma Daily; stay informed with us as we continue to track these evolving trends shaping the future of pharmaceuticals and biotech.Support the show

Jenny Opalinski has spent more than a decade inside hospitals where people lose the ability to speak, breathe, swallow, and sometimes survive. A medical speech language pathologist by training, she worked in ICU, neuro rehab, and long term acute care settings, including a Level 1 trauma center, where she watched clinicians absorb 10 to 15 traumatic events in a single shift and then get told to move the crash cart faster next time.That lived reality pushed her to co found The Wellness Shift, an advocacy and education platform focused on healthcare worker burnout, suicide, and assault. In this conversation, Opalinski walks through the moment that changed everything for her: standing in a hospital hallway listening to a family wail after a failed code, followed by a debrief that addressed logistics and ignored grief entirely.She also explains how that work led to Humanity Rx, her podcast about the human cost of medicine, and Dragon's Breath: Calming Tricks for Big Feelings, a children's book that translates evidence based breathing and regulation strategies into language kids can actually use. The episode covers moral injury, time scarcity, false wellness, respiratory muscle training, and why empathy keeps getting treated as an optional expense instead of clinical infrastructure.RELATED LINKSJenny Opalinski on LinkedInHumanity Rx PodcastFEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship email podcasts@matthewzachary.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There is an urgent need for safe and effective therapies to improve outcomes for patients with relapsed osteosarcoma. Viscum album extract (Iscador P, Iscador AG, Arlesheim, Switzerland) is a mistletoe extract manufactured from the leaves, stems and berries of Viscum album L., grown on pine trees (P = Pini). It has shown efficacy and safety in lab experiments and small clinical trials for patients with relapsed osteosarcoma. Data from a small pilot study in Italy paved the way for developing a larger clinical trial in the United States to test the use of Viscum album extract for children, teenagers, and young adults with osteosarcoma that has come back and can be removed with surgery. Another goal of this study is to learn more about what impact Viscum Album extract may have on patients' quality of life, tumor biology and immune system during treatment.

A rare sight on the podcast: a paper from the cutting edge of practice, with the novel use of CAR-T cells in treating neurological diseases. Editors Phil Smith and Geraint Fuller bring a selection of papers from the October 2026 issue of the journal to discuss. Returning to the more commonplace, they present a how-to on conversations around lower back pain. There's the editors' choice for the issue: a majestic paper on suspected encephalitis, as well as non-motor symptoms in Parkinson's, a review of the 2024 McDonald criteria for MS diagnosis, and pitfalls to avoid with oxygen desaturation. Read the issue: https://pn.bmj.com/content/26/5/413  Please subscribe to the Practical Neurology podcast on your favourite platform to get the latest podcast every month. If you enjoy our podcast, you can leave us a review or a comment on Apple Podcasts (https://apple.co/3vVPClm) or Spotify (https://spoti.fi/4baxjsQ). We'd love to hear your feedback on social media - @PracticalNeurol. Production and editing by Brian O'Toole. Thank you for listening. 

Dr. Paul Peter Tak, President and CEO of Candel Therapeutics, discusses the company's virus-based approach for treating multiple tumor types. Their lead therapy is an oral drug and an engineered adenovirus injected into tumors to deliver a gene that educates the patient's immune cells to recognize and eliminate cancer cells throughout the body. Unlike personalized tumor vaccine approaches, this drug is an off-the-shelf medicine that generates an individualized anti-tumor immune response and is showing encouraging data in trials in pancreatic cancer, brain cancer, ovarian cancer, and prostate cancer. Paul Peter explains, "Our mission is really to improve patients' lives, whether this is about patients with early localized prostate cancer, for example, who want to live without cancer, or patients at the other side of the spectrum. For example, patients with metastatic, progressive non-small cell lung cancer, a form of lung cancer, who have run out of options, where we try to extend their life with a good quality of life. So basically, we want to improve patients' clinical outcomes." "We have two investigational medicines that are both engineered viruses. So we try to change the viruses so they do something useful and good for the health of patients. And our lead asset, our lead medicine that's under development, is called aglatimagene. And it's an engineered adenovirus. So it's an adenovirus that cannot replicate, cannot make you sick, but we use it to deliver a gene to the tumor by injecting it into the tumor. And viruses are very good at transporting genes. We hijack that mechanism to get the beneficial effect. And ultimately, we combine aglatimagene with a tablet. So tablets that are taken orally for two weeks are activated under the influence of the virus in the tumor. And that will ultimately lead to the education of the patient's own immune cells in such a way that these immune cells start to recognize and eliminate the tumor cells throughout the body." #CandelTherapeutics $CADL #Oncology #Biotech #ClinicalTrials #ProstateCancer #LungCancer #SolidTumors #OncologyInnovation #Immunotherapy #CancerResearch #Immunooncology #ViralImmunotherapy Candeltx.com Download the transcript here 

Dr. Paul Peter Tak, President and CEO of Candel Therapeutics, discusses the company's virus-based approach for treating multiple tumor types. Their lead therapy is an oral drug and an engineered adenovirus injected into tumors to deliver a gene that educates the patient's immune cells to recognize and eliminate cancer cells throughout the body. Unlike personalized tumor vaccine approaches, this drug is an off-the-shelf medicine that generates an individualized anti-tumor immune response and is showing encouraging data in trials in pancreatic cancer, brain cancer, ovarian cancer, and prostate cancer. Paul Peter explains, "Our mission is really to improve patients' lives, whether this is about patients with early localized prostate cancer, for example, who want to live without cancer, or patients at the other side of the spectrum. For example, patients with metastatic, progressive non-small cell lung cancer, a form of lung cancer, who have run out of options, where we try to extend their life with a good quality of life. So basically, we want to improve patients' clinical outcomes." "We have two investigational medicines that are both engineered viruses. So we try to change the viruses so they do something useful and good for the health of patients. And our lead asset, our lead medicine that's under development, is called aglatimagene. And it's an engineered adenovirus. So it's an adenovirus that cannot replicate, cannot make you sick, but we use it to deliver a gene to the tumor by injecting it into the tumor. And viruses are very good at transporting genes. We hijack that mechanism to get the beneficial effect. And ultimately, we combine aglatimagene with a tablet. So tablets that are taken orally for two weeks are activated under the influence of the virus in the tumor. And that will ultimately lead to the education of the patient's own immune cells in such a way that these immune cells start to recognize and eliminate the tumor cells throughout the body." #CandelTherapeutics $CADL #Oncology #Biotech #ClinicalTrials #ProstateCancer #LungCancer #SolidTumors #OncologyInnovation #Immunotherapy #CancerResearch #Immunooncology #ViralImmunotherapy Candeltx.com Listen to the podcast here 

Gugs Mhlungu speaks to Dr Thulja Trikamjee, a specialist pediatrician and allergologist from the University of Cape Town, about the different types of allergies that can flare up with seasonal changes. They discuss common symptoms such as sneezing, a runny or blocked nose, and red, watery or itchy eyes; how allergies can be treated, and why symptoms can manifest differently from person to person. Gugs Mhlungu is your weekend companion for thoughtful conversations on lifestyle, health, culture, books, food, and everything happening around 702Land. Thanks for listening. Catch the 702 Weekend Breakfast with Gugs Mhlungu live on 702 every weekend morning from 6 am to 10 am (SA time). Find more from the show and catch-up podcasts on the Primedia+ app https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj Subscribe to the 702 newsletters for more https://buff.ly/v5mfetc Let’s keep the conversation going online: 702 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/Radio702 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to our weekend Cabral HouseCall shows!   This is where we answer our community's wellness, weight loss, and anti-aging questions to help people get back on track!   Check out today's questions:    Dana:  I'm a 42 year old woman in perimenopause. During the middle part of my cycle, around when ovulation should be happening, I notice that my urine has a very strong smell compared to the rest of my cycle. This lasts about a week. I'm not dehydrated and I don't eat anything differently during this time than I do any other time of the month. This has been going on monthly for at least 6 months but probably closer to a year or more. Is there any cause for concern? What could be causing this? Is this something that can be expected with hormone fluctuations, and if so, why would it have started now but not been going on the rest of my life?      Anonymous: I'm in perimenopause and working with a functional medicine doctor who determined that all 3 of my sex hormones were low. She has put me on several supplements including Pregnenolone. After taking the supplements I noticed that I was experiencing joint pain while not having changed anything else diet or exercise wise. After some removing and adding back I determined that it is the pregnenolone that is causing the joint pain, she finds it very odd. What reasons would this be happening? I live in a country where I can't order your supplements, what would be the best things to take to help boost hormones if I can't take pregnenolone?       Anonymous: Hi Dr CaBral! I recently got my IUD out due to constant spotting and some news about family getting cancer from years of hormone replacement. After having one for many years on and off, I thought it best to let my body just get back to it's natural state. I did a 7day detox and started taking progesterone support for a month after. After 3 months my cycles have returned back to normal, but I've started losing my hair, have dry skin and just dragging all the time now. My chiropractor/naturopath muscle tested and ovaries were not optimal at all, thyroid was a 2 out of 10, my system is showing blocked and my body is having a hard time detoxing on it's own. Overall I'm very healthy and was not having issues until now. I don't have the money to test right now. What can I do to get back on track?       Mackenzie: About a year and a half ago, I started getting what seems to be eczema flare ups around my eyes, specifically my eyelids and outer corners of my eyes. When it flares up, my eyelids become red, swollen, itchy and watery. The skin becomes thick and very dry and flakey. Around the time it began, I did move into a new building, and my partner has noticed a spot on his neck similar to what I get around my eyes. It seems to flare up more when I eat too much sugar/gluten, but I also sometimes have flares when I don't eat those things. Recently it has only flared when I have a virus, ie a cold/flu or HSV outbreak. I'm an IHP1, and recently completed the Vita-Min Tox test and the only thing noted was slightly high aluminum levels which I am working on. What do you rec. I focus on next? Thank you!!       Anonymous: Hello Dr.Cabral, hope you are well. Regular viewer of your weekly ask cabral content. Not asking for medical advice but wanting to support my immune system during immunotherapy for my liver. They mention potential autoimmune side effects, I know your releasing a new resource or course regarding cancer. Hoping you touch on Immunotherapy on it. I read your research page. It was very extensive and helpful.       Thank you for tuning into today's Cabral HouseCall and be sure to check back tomorrow where we answer more of our community's questions!    - - - Show Notes and Resources: StephenCabral.com/3886 - - - Get a FREE Copy of Dr. Cabral's Book: The Rain Barrel Effect - - - Join the Community & Get Your Questions Answered: CabralSupportGroup.com - - - Dr. Cabral's Most Popular At-Home Lab Tests: > Complete Minerals & Metals Test (Test for mineral imbalances & heavy metal toxicity) - - - > Complete Candida, Metabolic & Vitamins Test (Test for 75 biomarkers including yeast & bacterial gut overgrowth, as well as vitamin levels) - - - > Complete Stress, Mood & Metabolism Test (Discover your complete thyroid, adrenal, hormone, vitamin D & insulin levels) - - - > Complete Food Sensitivity Test (Find out your hidden food sensitivities) - - - > Complete Omega-3 & Inflammation Test (Discover your levels of inflammation related to your omega-6 to omega-3 levels) - - - Get Your Question Answered On An Upcoming HouseCall: StephenCabral.com/askcabral - - - Would You Take 30 Seconds To Rate & Review The Cabral Concept? The best way to help me spread our mission of true natural health is to pass on the good word, and I read and appreciate every review!  

In this episode of Oncology Unplugged, host Chandler Park, MD, a medical oncologist at Norton Cancer Institute in Louisville, Kentucky, was joined by Pashtoon Kasi, MD, MS, the medical director of GI Medical Oncology, the Rad Family Chair in Gastrointestinal Oncology, and an associate clinical professor in the Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research at City of Hope Orange County in Irvine, California.Their discussion centered on the rapid rise of neoadjuvant immunotherapy in colorectal cancer (CRC) management, framing the shift in which immunotherapy is given upfront and surgery becomes the adjuvant step as a genuine paradigm change. Drs Park and Kasi grounded the conversation in the biology of mismatch repair–deficient (dMMR)/microsatellite instability–high tumors, which harbor a high neoantigen load, rendering them sensitive to checkpoint blockade.A major focus was the treatment evolution that stemmed from data from the phase 3 ATOMIC trial (NCT02912559), which added atezolizumab (Tecentriq) to FOLFOX (leucovorin, fluorouracil, oxaliplatin) in stage III dMMR disease, to the NICHE clinical trial series from the Netherlands, in which brief neoadjuvant nivolumab (Opdivo) plus 1 dose of ipilimumab (Yervoy) produced near-universal responses. Dr Kasi then detailed his own NEST trials, which replicated this short-course design using the Fc-enhanced CTLA-4 inhibitor botensilimab plus balstilimab, notably extending activity into the larger mismatch repair–proficient/microsatellite stable (MSS) population with sustained disease-free survival.Drs Park and Kasi explored mechanistic insights that have been seen with CRC drugs, including an "inside-out" serosal-to-mucosal response pattern, regulatory T cell depletion, and the rationale that an intact tumor and lymph nodes provide more antigens than the postsurgical setting. They also discussed circulating tumor DNA as an emerging surrogate end point, the implications of data from the phase 3 STELLAR-303 trial (NCT05425940) of an immunomodulatory TKI plus atezolizumab (Tecentriq) in patients with MSS disease, liver metastases as an immunosuppressive niche, and the alarming rise of early-onset CRC.

Glenn Wiggle and Mike Lomas open with President Trump taking his message straight to Americans through the White House app instead of legacy outlets like CNN, then turn to the Russia-Ukraine talks, where Glenn blames rising diesel prices on Ukrainian drone strikes against Russian refineries and questions Trump's price-gouging push against oil companies. The hosts react to a Center for Strategic Politics poll on how Democrats would feel about Trump leaving office early, and Glenn runs population-adjusted numbers comparing Canada's assisted death program to U.S. gun homicides. Mike shares an immunotherapy success story and how AI could shorten drug development, before the conversation moves to Minnesota's voter rolls, Dearborn, and the C40 Cities agenda linked to Zohran Mamdani, which Glenn says would sharply limit meat consumption and driving in member cities.00:00:00 Intro00:00:24 Trump sidesteps the press00:03:32 Ukraine, refinery strikes, and diesel prices00:07:58 Oil gouging claims and teaching basic economics00:11:54 Poll on Democrats and Trump leaving office00:18:02 Mark Carney and Canada's assisted death program00:23:19 Immunotherapy and AI in drug discovery00:27:59 Voter rolls, cashless bail, and Dearborn00:34:38 C40 Cities, meat, and driving limits00:44:26 Wrap-up and upcoming events

In episode 627, Tina and James again invite Danielle Perry and Caitlin Finley back to the podcast to answer the question, in children with peanut allergy, does oral immunotherapy increase peanut tolerance, and what are the adverse effects? It does work, but it is not a cure, so you need to know the numbers and the important context – you'll get this from this podcast. Show Notes Tools For Practice A Tough Nut to Crack: Does oral immunotherapy improve outcomes in peanut allergy? To claim your CPD credits, click the link below and then select "Claim Credits Now".   https://cfpclearn.ca/podcast/bs627/

Fitz Koehler is a fitness expert, race announcer, author, and breast cancer survivor whose career spans decades of helping people move, train, and live healthier lives. After earning a master's degree in exercise and sport sciences, she built the Fitzness brand, launched the Morning Mile school fitness program, and became one of the country's most recognizable voices at endurance events before cancer abruptly shifted the conversation. She spent 15 months enduring chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation after discovering breast cancer shortly after receiving a clean mammogram. She kept traveling, announcing races, and working through treatment while watching the body she had spent a lifetime building become weaker by the week. Instead of asking why cancer happened, she focused on the only things she believed remained under her control: movement, nutrition, sleep, and mental health. The conversation explores where personal agency ends and biology takes over. Koehler argues that exercise is not about chasing perfection or preventing every diagnosis. It is about building physical reserve before illness arrives and preserving strength, mobility, and independence during treatment. She rejects wellness snake oil, fad supplements, and miracle cures in favor of practical habits rooted in exercise science and lived experience. The discussion also confronts a harder truth. Koehler did everything “right” and still developed cancer. That tension becomes the center of the episode. Fitness cannot eliminate randomness, but it can influence how people experience treatment, recover from surgery, and reclaim their lives afterward. The conversation moves beyond motivation and into survivorship, exercise oncology, cancer rehabilitation, evidence-based nutrition, and the limits of individual control inside a healthcare system that often tells patients what they should do without showing them how to do it. Along the way, the conversation wanders through kickboxing, Cinnabon, Jean-Claude Van Damme, chocolate-covered Cheetos, Jerry Seinfeld playing during chemotherapy stretches, and why the simplest advice is often the hardest to follow. Beneath the humor sits a larger argument: preparing the body for hardship is not about living forever. It is about living better when life inevitably gets difficult. RELATED LINKSFitz Koehler⁠Fitzness⁠The Morning Mile⁠You. Supercharged!⁠My Noisy Cancer Comeback⁠Your Healthy Cancer Comeback⁠UF Health Cancer Center⁠American College of Sports Medicine Exercise Is Medicine⁠FEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship email podcasts@matthewzachary.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

"Unlike our cancer indications where we use these medications often to activate the immune system to target cancerous cells, in noncancer indications, the goal is really to either suppress an overactive immune or inflammatory cells or modulate the immune system. Immune modulation by use of chemotherapy and immunotherapy can help reduce abnormal inflammation, decrease autoantibody production, and also can alter T-cell and B-cell activity," ONS member Kelsey Miller, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, OCN®, clinical nurse specialist in oncology and infusion therapy at Reading Hospital in West Reading, PA, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®, TCTCN™, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a conversation about chemotherapy and immunotherapy for noncancer indications. Music Credit: "Fireflies and Stardust" by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0  Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by September 18, 2027. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation. Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to the use of anticancer therapies for noncancer indications. Episode Notes  Complete this evaluation for free NCPD.  ONS Podcast™ episodes: Pharmacology 101 series Episode 152: Administer Rituximab Immunotherapy With Confidence ONS Voice articles: JAK1 Inhibitor Quickly Relieves ICI-Related Dermatitis Oncology Drug Reference Sheet: Cyclophosphamide Oncology Drug Reference Sheet: Methotrexate What Oncology Nurses Need to Know About Arboviral Disease in Patients Receiving B-Cell–Depleting or –Modulating Therapies ONS books: Access Device Guidelines: Recommendations for Nursing Practice and Education (fourth edition) Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy Guidelines and Recommendations for Practice (second edition) Clinical Guide to Antineoplastic Therapy: A Chemotherapy Handbook (fourth edition) Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing article: Early Recognition and Response of Chemotherapy-Induced Hypersensitivity Reactions: A Nursing Discussion ONS courses: ONS Fundamentals of Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy Administration™ Safe Handling Basics Vascular Access Devices ONS Huddle Cards: Anaphylaxis Monoclonal Antibodies ONS position statement: Education of the Nurse Who Administers and Cares for the Individual Receiving Antineoplastic Therapies American Academy of Neurology: Practice Guideline Recommendations: Disease-Modifying Therapies for Adults With Multiple Sclerosis American College of Rheumatology: Treatments National Multiple Sclerosis Society: Infused therapies Injectable therapies Medications Used Off-Label NCODA Patient Education Sheets To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode "The most common immunotherapy agent that's well known to both oncology and other autoimmune disorders is rituximab. And that is used for rheumatoid arthritis, granulomatous, and antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA)-associated vasculitis. And then it also has many off-label indications for other autoimmune disorders, such as lupus and multiple sclerosis. It's also used in immune thrombocytopenia and Sjogren's condition." TS 3:28 "Two common chemotherapy agents that come to mind that are used in lower doses for noncancer conditions are methotrexate, which helps modify the underlying disease process to reduce inflammation and preserve organ and joint function. And that's most commonly used rheumatology-wise first-line for rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis. A second chemotherapy agent that's well known to oncology is cyclophosphamide, and that really serves as a powerful immunosuppressant for conditions such as ANCA-associated vasculitis and severe lupus nephritis." TS 3:57 "When talking about the monoclonal antibody frequency, it's often shorter in our oncology indications. We may see it weekly, every 21 days, every 28 days—compared to our autoimmune disorders that are months in between. This is really due to cancer cells continuously proliferating, so we need to stop the growth and not allow residual cancer cells to remain. And for the monoclonal antibodies, for example, rituximab again, it's depleting B cells that contribute to autoantibody production and inflammation. So targeting that after one to two infusions, the peripheral B cells are often depleted within days to weeks because of how well the drug works, how targeted it is. Those effects may persist for 6–12 months or even longer." TS 8:39 "Infection prevention education—it's so important to get to know the patient to individualize your teaching. For example, you need to know what matters most of the patients when they go home. Are they taking care of their grandchildren? Do they love to go outside and garden and do mulching? Are they cleaning up their chicken coop? So those kind of things, as a nurse, you can then help tailor your education so you can help prevent infection in these patients because I don't think just standard run-of-the-mill infection prevention teaching is as beneficial as when you can individualize it for that patient." TS 17:33 "If organizations are going to allow non-oncology nurses to administer, we just want to make sure that there is an established process or a protocol to administer rescue medications. That may include what you're already doing if you have a change in patient condition—calling for activating that emergency response system if you're in an inpatient setting. When we look at our ambulatory infusion centers that may have non-oncology nurses administering, you still have to have that training and competency verification and also emergency medical equipment readily available. That would include oxygen and your rescue medications. For the non-oncology nurse, some key points are to make sure that you check on your patient throughout these infusions and have that conversation up front to report any symptoms, both big and small." TS 23:06 "For safe handling, there are many misconceptions that it differs between cancer and non-cancer. When I first started at our organization, even some providers may minimize the risk for low-dose oral chemotherapy. However, it's still metabolized and excreted through our bodily fluids. And we know that traditional chemotherapy, like methotrexate and cyclophosphamide, is cytotoxic. So if a patient's prescribed them for noncancer indications, you still need to cover the basics, like shared bathrooms, what to do if there's contaminated linen, and also bring up the topic of contraception to ensure that our patients and their partners remain safe and do not get exposed." TS 27:13

Send us Fan MailWhat if the problem isn't that your immune system can't see the cancer - but that the cancer has effectively reprogrammed the immune cells around it?Faron Pharmaceuticals is pursuing a very different strategy: using an antibody called bexmarilimab to target Clever-1 on macrophages and potentially change an immunosuppressive tumor environment into one that can support an anti-cancer immune response.Today we're going inside that strategy - and asking what the clinical evidence actually tells us so far.Dr. Joab Williamson, Ph.D. is Vice President of Operations at Faron Pharmaceuticals ( https://faron.com/ ), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel immunotherapies designed to address some of the most difficult-to-treat cancers.Dr. Williamson brings a particularly interesting perspective to this discussion. At Faron, he leads clinical operations, clinical supply and clinical science activities, while helping guide programs from development strategy through execution. His background spans clinical development, program management and pharmaceutical operations, and he has also completed a PhD in Health Economics and Pharmacoeconomics focused on how strategic drug-development decisions can affect the value and ultimately the path of a therapeutic program.Faron's lead program is bexmarilimab, an investigational antibody targeting Clever-1, a receptor found on immunosuppressive macrophages. The idea is that by targeting Clever-1, these macrophages can be reprogrammed from a tumor-supporting, immunosuppressive state toward an immune-stimulating state - potentially helping the immune system recognize and attack cancer more effectively.The program is particularly advanced in higher-risk myelodysplastic syndromes, or HR-MDS, and is also being investigated in acute myeloid leukemia and several solid tumors. Recent data from the BEXMAB program have reported durable responses in HR-MDS, while Faron is now moving toward a randomized Phase 2b study and expanding the investigation of bexmarilimab into additional treatment settings.And that brings us to an especially interesting point in the program: the transition from promising clinical science to the much harder question of actually executing the trials that can determine whether that science translates into a meaningful new treatment.#FaronPharmaceuticals #Bexmarilimab #CancerImmunotherapy #Immunotherapy #Leukemia #AML #MDS #MyelodysplasticSyndromes #BloodCancer #Clever1 #Macrophages #TumorMicroenvironment #CancerResearch #ClinicalTrials #Biotechnology #Biotech #DrugDevelopment #PrecisionMedicine #MedicalInnovation #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilitiesSupport the show

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William B. Coley started using a bacterial infection to treat cancers in the late 19th century, one of the earliest uses of immunotherapy. Research: Ahuja, Sana and Sufian Zaheer. “The evolution of cancer immunotherapy: a comprehensive review of its history and current perspectives.” Korean Journal of Clinical Oncology 2024; 20(2): 51-73. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14216/kjco.24009 Atkins, Douglas. “Helen Coley Nauts: Advocate for Immunotherapy.” National Library of Medicine. 4/19/2016. https://circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov/2016/04/19/helen-coley-nauts-advocate-for-immunotherapy/ Cancer Research Institute. “The History of Cancer Immunotherapy.” Coley, William B. “Therapeutic Value of the Mixed Toxins of the Streptococcus of Erysipelas and Bacillus Prodigiosus in the Treatment of Inoperable Malignant Tumors. With a Report of 160 Cases.” American Journal of the Medical Sciences. September 1896. College of Physicians of Philadelphia. “Cancer Vaccines and Immunotherapy.” History of Vaccines. https://historyofvaccines.org/vaccines-101/future-immunization/cancer-vaccines-and-immunotherapy/ Colley, William B. “The Treatment of Inoperable Sarcoma by Bacterial Toxins (the Mixed Toxins of the Streptococcus erysipelas and the Bacillus prodigiosus).” Reprinted from the “ Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine,” November, 1909. London. John Bale, Sons & Danielsson, LTD. 1909. https://archive.org/details/b22425949/mode/1up Decker WK, da Silva RF, Sanabria MH, Angelo LS, Guimarães F, Burt BM, Kheradmand F and Paust S (2017) Cancer Immunotherapy: Historical Perspective of a Clinical Revolution and Emerging Preclinical Animal Models. Front. Immunol. 8:829. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2017.00829 Devaraja, K. et al. “Coley’s Toxin to First Approved Therapeutic Vaccine—A Brief Historical Account in the Progression of Immunobiology-Based Cancer Treatment.” Biomedicines 2024, 12, 2746. https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines12122746 Dobosz, Paula and Tomasz Dzieciatkowski.” The Intriguing History of Cancer Immunotherapy. Frontiers in Immunology. 12/17/2019. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.02965 Hall, Stephen S. “A Commotion in the Blood: Life, Death, and the Immune System.” Henry Holt and Company. Excerpted at New York Times. https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/hall-commotion.html Harutyunyan, Mariam. “How William Coley Became The Father of Cancer Immunotherapy.” OncoDaily Magazine. 7/31/2026. https://oncodaily.com/magazine/william-coley-549446 Hiroaki Ikeda, Cancer immunotherapy in progress—an overview of the past 130 years, International Immunology, Volume 37, Issue 5, May 2025, Pages 253–260, https://doi.org/10.1093/intimm/dxaf002 Journal of the American Medical Association. “Erysipelas Toxins in the Treatment of Malignant Tumors.” 10/27/1894. Journal of the American Medical Association. “The Failure of the Erysipelas Toxins.” Vol 23 Iss 24. 12/15/1894. Kokolus, Katie. “The History of Immunotherapy: Toxins, Targets & T Cells.” LabRoots. 10/18/2021. https://www.labroots.com/trending/cancer/21449/history-immunotherapy-toxins-targets-cells?srsltid=AfmBOooP1eoVP2LbWKR5m-HLu1PSBFhOyPH1jSJWWcxvyK6EA4-hBu47 Levine, David B. “The Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled: William Bradley Coley, third Surgeon-in-Chief 1925-1933.” HSS journal : the musculoskeletal journal of Hospital for Special Surgery vol. 4,1 (2008): 1-9. doi:10.1007/s11420-007-9063-2 McCarthy, Edward F. “The Toxins of William B. Coley and the Treatment of Bone and Soft-tissue Sarcomas.” The Iowa Orthopaedic Journal. Vol. 26. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “MSK Immunotherapy — Timeline of Progress.” https://www.mskcc.org/timeline/immunotherapy-msk National Library of Medicine. “Harnessing the Power of You: The History of Immunotherapy.” https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/the-history-of-immunotherapy/index.html Nauts, Helen Coley. “Coley’s Toxins – The First Century.” Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients. June 2004. Nawrat, Allie. “Charting the history of immunotherapy, cancer treatment’s fourth pillar.” Pharmaceutical Technology. 7/28/2020. https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/features/charting-the-history-of-immunotherapy-cancer-treatments-fourth-pillar/?cf-view&cf-closed Oiseth SJ, Aziz MS. “Cancer immunotherapy: a brief review of the history, possibilities, and challenges ahead.” J Cancer Metastasis Treat. 2017;3:250-61. http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-4722.2017.41 Tontonoz, Matthew. “What Ever Happened to Coley’s Toxins?.” Cancer Research Institute. 4/2/2015. https://www.cancerresearch.org/blog/what-ever-happened-to-coleys-toxins See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Ross Pelton, Director of Science & Education for Essential Formulas Incorporated, maker of Dr. Ohhira's premium probiotic products, reveals how the gut microbiome affects metabolism, appetite, weight regulation, and overall health. He emphasizes the importance of microbiome diversity, supported by eating a wide variety of plant foods rich in fiber and polyphenols, and discusses how fermented foods and postbiotic metabolites help maintain a healthy gut environment. Pelton explains Dr. Ohhira's multi-year fermentation process and the idea that postbiotics may be key health regulators. He reviews studies suggesting benefits from Dr. Ohhira's probiotics for athletic performance markers, reduced fatigue, and improved bowel regularity, and notes research showing antibiotic-related losses in gut diversity can persist for years. He also mentions a higher-dose “Reset Challenge,” a postbiotic paste concentrate, and an ME-3 product aimed at increasing glutathione.

In this episode of Oncology Unplugged, host Chandler Park, MD, a medical oncologist at Norton Cancer Institute in Louisville, Kentucky, was joined by Joshua Brody, MD, the director of the Lymphoma Immunotherapy Program at the Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Center and a faculty member of the Icahn Genomics Institute in New York, New York.Their discussion centered on the evolving frontline and relapsed treatment landscape in Hodgkin lymphoma, highlighting the field's decades-long shift away from intensive chemotherapy and radiation toward better-tolerated, biologically targeted regimens. Drs Park and Brody framed Hodgkin lymphoma as a rare success story in oncology, noting that a once-uniformly fatal disease is now curable in more than 90% of patients, and emphasized that the modern treatment goal has moved from maximizing efficacy at any cost to preserving efficacy and minimize long-term toxicity, particularly given the disease's young patient population and correspondingly long survivorship horizon.A major focus of the conversation was the retirement of bleomycin from frontline regimens. Dr Brody explained that bleomycin carried substantial risk of pneumonitis and pulmonary fibrosis without strong single-agent antitumor activity and traced its decline to the phase 3 RATHL trial (NCT00678327), which established that patients with a clean interim PET scan after 2 cycles of doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (ABVD) could safely omit bleomycin from subsequent cycles. He noted that this PET-adapted approach helped set the stage for the 2 trials that have since reshaped frontline advanced-stage therapy: the phase 3 ECHELON-1 trial (NCT01712490), which showed that brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris) plus doxorubicin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (AVD) outperformed standard ABVD, and the phase 3 SWOG S1826 (NCT03907488) trial, in which nivolumab (Opdivo) plus AVD produced a significantly lower relapse rate than brentuximab vedotin plus AVD, with durable benefit confirmed at the 2025 ASH Annual Meeting. Dr Brody described nivolumab plus AVD as the current standard of care for most patients with advanced-stage disease in the United States, citing both its efficacy and its more favorable toxicity profile relative to brentuximab vedotin, which carries a meaningful risk of peripheral neuropathy.The discussion then turned to the underlying biology that makes Hodgkin lymphoma so responsive to PD-1 blockade. Dr Brody explained that the malignant Reed-Sternberg cell relies heavily on PD-L1 overexpression, frequently driven by 9p24 amplifications or translocations, to evade T-cell surveillance, leaving the tumor unusually vulnerable once that mechanism is blocked pharmacologically. He noted that this single dominant immune-evasion pathway helps explain why response rates to anti–PD-1 therapy in Hodgkin lymphoma exceed those seen in melanoma and non–small cell lung cancer.Drs Park and Brody also explored treatment selection in early-stage disease, where Dr Brody noted that multiple regimens now achieve cure rates exceeding 90%, leaving no single clear standard. Options include traditional ABVD with low-dose radiation, radiation-free approaches with intensified chemotherapy, and emerging nivolumab-inclusive regimens, with selection often individualized based on disease location and patient-specific factors, such as the feasibility of giving radiation to sensitive anatomic sites.On relapsed disease, Dr Brody emphasized that outcomes remain favorable even after treatment failure, with second-line therapy typically incorporating whichever novel agent, anti–PD-1 or brentuximab vedotin, was not used in the frontline setting, often combined with chemotherapy. He noted that some patients achieve durable remission without proceeding to autologous stem cell transplant, though transplant remains an option for appropriate candidates, and flagged older patients as an ongoing unmet need given poorer transplant tolerability in this population.The conversation concluded with a look at emerging therapies beyond current CD30- and PD-1-targeted approaches, including CD70-directed antibody-drug conjugates and CD30-directed CAR T-cell therapy, both still early in development. Dr Brody highlighted new data presented at the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting on an investigational PRMT5 inhibitor among heavily pretreated patients. He described the finding as unexpected and among the most promising developments on the horizon for relapsed and refractory disease.

Paul Romness, CEO, President, and Chair of OS Therapies, which is developing an immunotherapy to treat osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer that stimulates the immune system to identify and eliminate cancer cells. The approach upregulates positive immune factors amd downregulates negative factors resulting in a dual biomarker response and better management of side effects. OS Therapies plans to expand its platform technology to other solid tumors with significant unmet needs, including breast,  esophageal, and colorectal cancer.    Paul explains, "What I think is important is that OS Therapies was started for unmet need, not just in the United States, but there are 20,000 patients a year that get osteosarcoma globally. And it's our responsibility to address patients globally. And it is interesting from a regulatory standpoint, as they start to coordinate with each other, that there are routes for us to get approval in the United States through MHRA, through the UK, and through the collaboration with the EU, with a system called Orbis. But we're also still very confident and very encouraged by the progress we've made with the FDA over the last few months."   "And for OS Therapies, we will pivot to other solid tumors. So our primary mission is osteosarcoma, but once we get approval, we'll pivot to other solid tumors that still have a lot of unmet medical need, like breast cancer. There are still 40,000, mostly women, dying each year of breast cancer, esophageal cancer, or colorectal cancer. So if we can encourage other companies to come into this space, we'll not only achieve our primary mission, but we'll also deliver for patients, which is our goal." #OSTherapies #Osteosarcoma #RareDisease #RareCancer #PediatricOncology #RareDiseaseOncology #SolidTumors #Immunotherapy #ListeriaCancerImmunotherapy #Biomarkers #Oncology #ClinicalTrials #HER2 #CancerResearch #ComparativeOncology#CanineOsteosarcoma ostherapies.com Download the transcript here

Paul Romness, CEO, President, and Chair of OS Therapies, which is developing an immunotherapy to treat osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer that stimulates the immune system to identify and eliminate cancer cells. The approach upregulates positive immune factors amd downregulates negative factors resulting in a dual biomarker response and better management of side effects. OS Therapies plans to expand its platform technology to other solid tumors with significant unmet needs, including breast,  esophageal, and colorectal cancer.    Paul explains, "What I think is important is that OS Therapies was started for unmet need, not just in the United States, but there are 20,000 patients a year that get osteosarcoma globally. And it's our responsibility to address patients globally. And it is interesting from a regulatory standpoint, as they start to coordinate with each other, that there are routes for us to get approval in the United States through MHRA, through the UK, and through the collaboration with the EU, with a system called Orbis. But we're also still very confident and very encouraged by the progress we've made with the FDA over the last few months."   "And for OS Therapies, we will pivot to other solid tumors. So our primary mission is osteosarcoma, but once we get approval, we'll pivot to other solid tumors that still have a lot of unmet medical need, like breast cancer. There are still 40,000, mostly women, dying each year of breast cancer, esophageal cancer, or colorectal cancer. So if we can encourage other companies to come into this space, we'll not only achieve our primary mission, but we'll also deliver for patients, which is our goal." #OSTherapies #Osteosarcoma #RareDisease #RareCancer #PediatricOncology #RareDiseaseOncology #SolidTumors #Immunotherapy #ListeriaCancerImmunotherapy #Biomarkers #Oncology #ClinicalTrials #HER2 #CancerResearch #ComparativeOncology#CanineOsteosarcoma ostherapies.com Listen to the podcast here

Sagar Lonial discusses advances in multiple myeloma treatment, the evolving role of immunotherapy and minimal residual disease, unmet needs in relapsed disease, lessons from research, and emerging technologies shaping future care.  Timestamps:  00:00 – Introduction 01:24 – Inspiration for Myeloma Research 03:20 – Transformative Myeloma Treatment Developments 05:03 – Translating Science into Treatment 07:41 – Future of Immunotherapy in Myeloma 09:45 – Unmet Needs After Relapse 10:53 – Lessons from Research Setbacks 13:05 – Future Role of MRD Assessment 15:50 – Fostering Research Innovation 17:50 – Emerging Advances in Myeloma 19:45 – Three Wishes for Myeloma 

Jeremy Heffner, MD, FACS is a board-certified trauma surgeon, former Chair of Surgery at Lima Memorial Health System, and cofounder of Surgery Unified, one of the largest physician-led communities in surgery. His perspective carries weight because he has spent decades inside operating rooms, hospital leadership, physician culture, and the growing collision between medicine and corporate healthcare. He grew up in a blue-collar Ohio family of firefighters, railroad workers, police officers, and tradespeople. Medicine represented something rare: a career that combined service, stability, and purpose. He pursued engineering, earned his medical degree, completed trauma surgery fellowship training at the University of Michigan, and entered a profession that taught physicians to sacrifice themselves for patients.Then the rules changed.This conversation traces the gap between the medicine physicians were trained to practice and the healthcare industry that emerged around them. Administrative burden expanded. Insurance companies gained influence over treatment decisions. Prior authorization became routine. Hospital systems consolidated. Physicians retained responsibility for outcomes while losing authority over the conditions required to achieve them.Heffner describes watching colleagues struggle with burnout, moral injury, PTSD, and growing frustration with a system that increasingly inserts business incentives between clinicians and patients. He explains why younger physicians are entering medicine with a level of visibility that previous generations never had. They see the paperwork, the denials, the loss of autonomy, and the personal cost before they ever finish training.The discussion moves beyond physician dissatisfaction and into the broader consequences for patients. When insurers delay care, hospitals absorb costs, clinicians absorb stress, and patients absorb uncertainty. The financial incentives remain intact while trust erodes across every level of the healthcare system.At its core, this episode examines what happens when a profession built around service finds itself operating inside an industry built around extraction. The result affects physicians, nurses, caregivers, and every patient forced to navigate the consequences.RELATED LINKSJeremy Heffner⁠Surgery Unified⁠SurgeOn⁠University of Michigan Department of Surgery⁠KevinMD⁠Suck It Up Buttercup⁠FEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship email podcasts@matthewzachary.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In 1971, the National Cancer Act transformed cancer into a national research priority. More than 50 years later, the next frontier is no longer defined solely by scientific discovery, but by how quickly knowledge, lived experience, and patient voices can reshape healthcare itself.The concluding chapter of The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship explores how the cancer advocacy movement continues to evolve in an era of digital communities, social media, precision medicine, and grassroots activism. Building on the work of pioneers such as Mary Lasker, Rose Kushner, and the generations of survivors who followed, today's advocates are expanding the movement beyond awareness to demand health equity, trusted information, patient-centered research, and meaningful representation in healthcare decision-making.The episode examines how technology has transformed advocacy from local support groups into global communities capable of organizing in real time. Researchers, policymakers, nonprofit leaders, and survivors reflect on the growing influence of digital storytelling, online education, and peer-to-peer networks that connect patients across diagnoses, generations, and geographic boundaries. At the same time, they acknowledge new responsibilities: ensuring accurate medical information, combating misinformation, protecting trust, and keeping patients at the center of innovation.The story also looks ahead to the next generation of advocates. Young leaders are applying lessons learned from decades of cancer activism while drawing inspiration from broader movements for social justice, public health, and community organizing. Their work reflects a simple but enduring truth: meaningful change rarely begins inside institutions. It begins when ordinary people refuse to accept that the system cannot improve.Cancer survivorship has never been a finished story. Every generation inherits the progress achieved by those who came before while confronting challenges uniquely its own. The future of survivorship will be shaped not only by scientific breakthroughs, but by those willing to listen, organize, educate, and ensure that every patient's voice helps define what comes next.RELATED LINKSNational Cancer Institute⁠Cancer Moonshot⁠Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | Division of Cancer Prevention and Control⁠HopeLab⁠Tigerlily Foundation⁠Stupid Cancer⁠FEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship on your favorite podcast platform. For more information, visit CancerMavericks.com. Please send any questions to podcasts@matthewzachary.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In 1987, Mary P. Lovato, a member of Kewa Pueblo in New Mexico, was diagnosed with acute leukemia. To receive a bone marrow transplant, she had to travel more than 800 miles from home because specialized cancer care was unavailable through the Indian Health Service. When she returned, she discovered another obstacle: many in her community feared cancer so deeply that they avoided speaking about it altogether.This episode examines how cancer survivorship exposed profound inequities in the American healthcare system. Long before health equity became a national priority, advocates from underserved communities were confronting disparities rooted in geography, poverty, racism, language, underfunded healthcare systems, and historical mistrust of medical institutions. Their work demonstrated that scientific advances alone cannot improve survival if patients cannot reach, afford, or trust the care available to them.The story follows pioneers including Mary P. Lovato, who built the first national Native-led cancer support and education program for Indigenous communities, and Maimah Karmo, founder of the Tigerlily Foundation, whose breast cancer diagnosis inspired a movement to improve early detection, clinical trial participation, and representation for Black women. Their advocacy challenged longstanding barriers to culturally competent care while highlighting persistent inequities in access to screening, fertility preservation, navigation, and innovative treatments.The episode also explores why diversity in clinical research matters. For decades, many cancer clinical trials disproportionately enrolled White patients, limiting both access to promising therapies and the scientific understanding of how treatments perform across different populations. Researchers, patient advocates, and community leaders responded by redesigning outreach, improving patient navigation, reducing logistical barriers, and insisting that affected communities help shape the research itself.Cancer survivorship cannot be measured solely by scientific breakthroughs. It also depends on whether every patient has a meaningful opportunity to benefit from them. The pursuit of health equity remains one of the defining challenges and enduring responsibilities of modern oncology.RELATED LINKSNational Cancer Institute | Cancer Health Disparities⁠Indian Health Service⁠Tigerlily Foundation⁠National Cancer Institute | Cancer Clinical Trials⁠American Indian Cancer Foundation⁠Abramson Cancer Center | University of Pennsylvania⁠FEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship on your favorite podcast platform. For more information, visit CancerMavericks.com. Please send any questions to podcasts@matthewzachary.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Eric D. Whitman, MD, and Francis Paul Worden, MD, discuss the integration of immunotherapy into the cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) treatment paradigm and key considerations for navigating treatment selection for this patient population. The pair also highlight strategies to maximize efficacy and minimize toxicity with immunotherapy-based approaches.

In this Korean-language episode of Lung Cancer Considered, Dr. Chul Kim is joined by Dr. Hye-Ryun Kim and Dr. Young Kwang Chae to discuss the evolving role of immunotherapy across the lung cancer treatment continuum. They explore perioperative strategies for resectable NSCLC, treatment selection and biomarkers in advanced disease, emerging research, and what they are looking forward to at WCLC 2026 in Seoul. Guest Host: Chul Kim, MD, MPH Thoracic Medical Oncologist and Associate Professor Georgetown University Guests: Hye Ryun Kim, MD, PhD Medical Oncologist Chief of Lung Cancer Center Yonsei Cancer Center Young Kwang Chae, MD, MPH, MBA Professor, Division of Hematology Oncology, Department of Medicine Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

In the latest episode of The Line Podcast, recorded on August 28th, 2026, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson begin with the rapidly escalating Canada-U.S. trade war, which somehow managed to get very stupid, very quickly. Ontario Premier Doug Ford told Donald Trump to kiss his ass; Trump responded by signing an executive order renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America.” Your hosts discuss just how weird this confrontation could get—and whether what we're watching now is merely the opening phase of something much longer and more serious.This episode is brought to you by Cameco. In nuclear energy, timelines and costs matter. Incomplete designs carry real risk of delays and cost overruns. That's why the AP1000 reactor is the right choice for Canada: it is already operating today and ready now to deliver the power we need, with 100 percent Canadian ownership and strong participation from Canadian suppliers. If we are serious about building Canada and powering it on time and on budget, the choice is clear. The AP1000 reactor is the only option that delivers.To learn more, visit ap1000.cameco.comNext, Matt and Jen argue that Canada still needs to get much better at fighting the communications and information war. The United States has recently confronted Chinese influence operations aimed at shaping its domestic politics, which raises an uncomfortable question: how confident should Canadians be that nobody is trying the same thing here? And if information operations are becoming a normal instrument of state power, should Canada be thinking seriously about developing the capacity to play offence as well as defence?This episode is also brought to you by Fractional Execs Canada. Need help with a serious business problem? As Canadian businesses grow they often require expert help to solve key business challenges. Fractional Execs Canada have assembled a team of experienced strategists, implementers, sales and marketing operators that can help transform your business into a growth engine. They match you with the right person, or team to move your business forward at a pace your business can manage.Talk to Fractional Execs Canada and discover a better, more collaborative way to take your business and your ‘busyness' in a better direction. Canadian expertise to support the growth of Canadian businesses. Build your business with those that know how.Find them Fractional-Execs.ca.Finally, your hosts turn to a CBC controversy that sounds considerably crazier in the headlines than it actually is. CBC's longstanding journalistic policy is to avoid independently designating particular acts as “terrorism,” preferring to use the term with attribution—a policy shared in various forms by several major international news organizations. But an internal reminder applying that rule to the 9/11 attacks has predictably exploded into a controversy suggesting that Canada's public broadcaster somehow doesn't believe 9/11 was terrorism. Matt and Jen explain why the underlying policy isn't nearly as stupid as it looks—and also why, in this particular case, it's still dumb enough that CBC should fix it.This episode is also brought to you by BioCanRx. Through our partnership with federally-funded Canadian not-for-profit BioCanRx this summer, we're talking about potential solutions for the problems that are limiting Canada's ability to domestically develop new drugs, especially immunotherapies for cancer. Today: new methods for biomanufacturing.Immunotherapies are created using living components –– sometimes even our own cells — so they're extremely complex and costly to create and deliver to patients. That's why in the United States, only one in five people who could be treated by a personalized therapy like CAR T can afford to receive it. Fortunately, new manufacturing paradigms have the potential to increase accessibility. Similar to how 3D printers can efficiently produce individual mechanical components, closed-system manufacturing creates immunotherapy drugs in self-contained, benchtop machines that enhance efficiency through automation. This turns many hospitals across Canada into potential manufacturing sites and makes scaling up the delivery of personalized therapies to individual Canadian patients a real possibility.Some new manufacturing technologies can even scale from producing a single patient's personalized dose to mass-producing doses for 100,000 patients per day — meaning they could mass-produce vaccines during an emergency.BioCanRx is working with federal partners to understand where this technology can fit within our biomanufacturing regulatory structure, and how AI might help. More on that next time. Learn more at BioCanRx.com.All that and more in the latest episode of The Line Podcast.#TheLinePodcast#CanadaUSRelations#DonaldTrump#DougFord#MarkCarney#TradeWar#ForeignInterference#CBC#CanadianPolitics#CurrentAffairs

In 2000, Katie Couric underwent a live colonoscopy on national television following the death of her husband, Jay Monahan, from colorectal cancer at age 42. The broadcast demystified a procedure many Americans feared, led to an estimated 20% increase in colonoscopy screenings, and became one of the clearest examples of how public storytelling can change healthcare behavior.This episode examines how celebrities, journalists, filmmakers, and entertainers helped reshape the public conversation about cancer during a period when survivorship was becoming increasingly visible. As breakthroughs in targeted therapies, immunotherapy, and early detection allowed more people to live beyond cancer, public figures used their platforms to encourage screening, reduce stigma, and accelerate research. Their influence extended far beyond awareness campaigns, helping transform cancer from a private diagnosis into a national public health conversation.Central to this story is Laura Ziskin, the Hollywood producer behind Pretty Woman and the Spider-Man films, whose metastatic breast cancer diagnosis inspired the creation of Stand Up To Cancer. Working alongside Couric and leaders from entertainment, journalism, and biomedical research, Ziskin championed a new funding model that required multidisciplinary scientific collaboration, helping accelerate discoveries that contributed to multiple FDA-approved cancer therapies. The episode also highlights the advocacy of actor Patrick Dempsey, whose family's experience with ovarian cancer led to the creation of the Dempsey Center, expanding support for patients and caregivers beyond medical treatment.The story also asks what celebrity advocacy often leaves unsaid. Financial toxicity, caregiver burden, chronic pain, mental health, and the long-term effects of treatment rarely receive the same attention as dramatic diagnoses or breakthrough cures. As cancer survivorship continues to evolve, the greatest challenge may not be convincing people to care about cancer, but helping them understand what it truly means to live with and beyond it.RELATED LINKSStand Up To Cancer⁠Katie Couric Media⁠Dempsey Center⁠American Association for Cancer Research⁠National Cancer Institute⁠Dana-Farber Cancer Institute | Adult Survivorship Program⁠FEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship on your favorite podcast platform. For more information, visit CancerMavericks.com. Please send any questions to podcasts@matthewzachary.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In episode 627, Tina and James again invite Danielle Perry and Caitlin Finley back to the podcast to answer the question, in children with peanut allergy, does oral immunotherapy increase peanut tolerance, and what are the adverse effects? It does work, but it is not a cure, so you need to know the numbers and […]

In 2006, a landmark report titled Closing the Gap: Research and Care Imperatives for Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer confirmed what young survivors had been saying for years. While survival rates for children and older adults had steadily improved, adolescents and young adults had experienced decades of stalled progress. They had become cancer's lost generation.This episode explores how young adult survivors transformed their shared isolation into one of the most influential grassroots movements in cancer advocacy. Diagnosed during the years typically devoted to education, careers, relationships, and starting families, patients between the ages of 15 and 39 confronted challenges that extended far beyond treatment. Fertility preservation, sexual health, employment, financial toxicity, insurance, and long-term quality of life were rarely discussed in oncology clinics, leaving many to navigate survivorship alone.The episode follows advocates including Tamika Felder, Lindsay Avner, Heidi Adams, Doug Ulman, and Dr. Archie Bleyer, whose research and advocacy fundamentally changed how medicine understands adolescent and young adult cancer. Through organizations including Planet Cancer, Fertile Hope, the Lance Armstrong Foundation, and later Stupid Cancer, survivors built online communities, educational resources, conferences, and national partnerships that challenged long-standing assumptions about cancer care. Their work helped establish fertility preservation as a standard discussion before treatment, expanded research dedicated to adolescent and young adult oncology, and elevated quality of life as a critical clinical outcome alongside survival.The movement also demonstrated the power of lived experience to reshape medicine. Survivors became researchers, educators, nonprofit founders, and policy advocates, insisting that cancer care account not only for years of life saved, but for the lives patients hoped to build afterward.What began as a search for peers evolved into a national movement that permanently transformed adolescent and young adult oncology. Today, dedicated research programs, clinical fellowships, survivorship resources, and patient advocacy organizations continue to build on the foundation these young cancer mavericks created.RELATED LINKSNational Cancer Institute | Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Cancer Program⁠Closing the Gap: Research and Care Imperatives for Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer⁠American Society of Clinical Oncology | Fertility Preservation Guidelines⁠Stupid Cancer⁠Livestrong Foundation⁠Journal of Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology⁠FEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship on your favorite podcast platform. For more information, visit CancerMavericks.com. Please send any questions to podcasts@matthewzachary.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A personalised mRNA vaccine has shown promising early results in preventing high-risk melanoma from returning when combined with the immunotherapy drug Keytruda. Dr Heidi Hart explains how the treatment works, why the trial results are significant, and what still needs to happen before personalised cancer vaccines could become widely available. Presenter John Maytham is an actor and author-turned-talk radio veteran and seasoned journalist. His show serves a round-up of local and international news coupled with the latest in business, sport, traffic and weather. The host’s eclectic interests mean the program often surprises the audience with intriguing book reviews and inspiring interviews profiling artists. A daily highlight is Rapid Fire, just after 5:30pm. CapeTalk fans call in, to stump the presenter with their general knowledge questions. Another firm favourite is the humorous Thursday crossing with award-winning journalist Rebecca Davis, called “Plan B”. Thank you for listening to a podcast from Afternoon Drive with John Maytham Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays from 15:00 and 18:00 (SA Time) to Afternoon Drive with John Maytham broadcast on CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/BSFy4Cn or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/n8nWt4x Subscribe to the CapeTalk Daily and Weekly Newsletters https://buff.ly/sbvVZD5 Follow us on social media: CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of On The Line, Jen Gerson sits down with Brian Dijkema, president of Cardus Canada, to discuss a new Department of National Defence directive that would move military chaplaincy away from explicit religious language, symbols and prayer in favour of more generic forms of “spiritual reflection.”This episode is brought to you by BioCanRx. Through our partnership with federally-funded Canadian not-for-profit BioCanRx this summer, we're talking about potential solutions for the problems that are limiting Canada's ability to domestically develop new drugs, especially immunotherapies for cancer. Today: new methods for biomanufacturing. Immunotherapies are created using living components –– sometimes even our own cells –– so they're extremely complex and costly to create and deliver to patients. That's why in the United States, only one in five people who could be treated by a personalized therapy like CAR T can afford to receive it. Fortunately, new manufacturing paradigms have the potential to increase accessibility.  Similar to how 3D printers can efficiently produce individual mechanical components, closed-system manufacturing creates immunotherapy drugs in self-contained, benchtop machines that enhance efficiency through automation. This turns many hospitals across Canada into potential manufacturing sites and makes scaling up the delivery of personalized therapies to individual Canadian patients a real possibility.Some new manufacturing technologies can even scale from producing a single patient's personalized dose to mass-producing doses for 100,000 patients per day –– meaning they could mass-produce vaccines during an emergency. BioCanRx is working with federal partners to understand where this technology can fit within our biomanufacturing regulatory structure, and how AI might help. More on that next time. Learn more at BioCanRx.com.Dijkema argues that the change isn't actually neutral. Instead, he sees it as part of a longer-running bureaucratic effort to reduce the visible role of religion within the Canadian Armed Forces. He and Gerson dig into the philosophical question at the heart of the dispute: is secular humanism really a neutral baseline for a diverse society, or is it itself a worldview that the state risks imposing on everyone else? They also talk about what military chaplains actually do. Dijkema argues that chaplains serve a special purpose. Questions about death, war, morality and meaning are not simply clinical problems, and military personnel should have access to people capable of engaging with them through their own religious traditions.This episode is also brought to you by the Forest Products Association of Canada. Canada's resilience will not be built through diversified trade and good intentions alone. It will be built with strong domestic supply chains, reliable Canadian materials, and industries that invest in workers and communities here at home. Two months ago, the federal government acknowledged the Forest Sector Transformation Task Force Report and the practical path it set out. Now the focus must be action. Canada's forest products sector can help deliver the homes, infrastructure, and economic potential the country needs. But that requires predictable access to manage our forests, transportation systems that work, and a regulatory environment that rewards investment rather than delays it. The direction is clear. Now Ottawa needs to turn recognition into results.Learn more at FPAC.ca.Gerson and Dijkema also examine the directive's special treatment of Indigenous spiritual practices, which Dijkema argues is both logically inconsistent and ultimately patronizing. His preferred alternative is straightforward: expand the space available to religious and non-religious Canadians alike rather than trying to make everyone conform to a supposedly neutral middle ground.This episode is brought to you by Cameco. In nuclear energy, timelines and costs matter. Incomplete designs carry real risk of delays and cost overruns. That's why the AP1000 reactor is the right choice for Canada: it is already operating today and ready now to deliver the power we need, with 100 percent Canadian ownership and strong participation from Canadian suppliers. If we are serious about building Canada and powering it on time and on budget, the choice is clear. The AP1000 reactor is the only option that delivers. To learn more, visit ap1000.cameco.com.Check out our main page at ReadTheLine.ca, and as always, like and subscribe.#OnTheLine #CanadianForces #MilitaryChaplaincy #ReligiousFreedom #Pluralism #BrianDijkema #Cardus #CanadaPolitics #CanadianMilitary #JenGerson

Have you heard about the radioactive wolves in Chernobyl? Or the latest gene-editing tech that's curing rare diseases? Or that male birth control might be on the horizon? No?!Well, get ready, because while we've been busy living our lives, genomics has been moving – fast! Things that once read like science fiction are moving on over to the non-fiction section.This season on Nice Genes!, join Dr. Kaylee Byers as she engages in some big genomics breakthroughs – from personalized cancer treatments, to how our bodies react in space, to how animals adapt to the most extreme environments, and whether we can actually change how we age.It's a whole new gene-eration (if you will) of discoveries that you won't want to miss!New episodes every two weeks, starting September 8th. Make sure you follow Nice Genes! so you don't miss an episode!

For decades, traditional cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation have targeted tumors directly—often with severe side effects and mixed results. But what if the key to treating cancer was already inside our bodies? Prof. Thomas Gajewski, a renowned oncologist at the University of Chicago, is leading a revolution by using the body's gut microbiome to fight cancer. His pioneering work in cancer immunotherapy focuses on why some patients with melanoma responded dramatically to immune-based therapies while others do not. In this episode, Gajewski discusses how training T-cells to recognize and attack tumors is transforming oncology, why the microbiome might hold the key to supercharging cancer treatments, and what it will take to make life-saving immunotherapies effective for every patient. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In 2006, the Institute of Medicine published From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition, concluding that millions of Americans were surviving cancer only to find themselves navigating a healthcare system unprepared for life after treatment. The report challenged oncology to recognize that curing cancer was not the end of care, but the beginning of survivorship.This episode explores how the growing cancer survivorship movement exposed the long-term consequences of cancer treatment that medicine had largely overlooked. As survival rates improved following the National Cancer Act of 1971, millions of survivors faced chronic fatigue, neuropathy, infertility, cognitive impairment, financial hardship, employment discrimination, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress. These were not rare complications. They became defining features of survivorship for many patients.Drawing on the work of oncologist Dr. Patricia Ganz, survivor advocate Ellen Stovall, and researchers, clinicians, and survivors across the country, the episode examines how survivorship research expanded beyond recurrence and mortality to include quality of life, psychosocial care, rehabilitation, and long-term follow-up. Their efforts helped establish survivorship care plans, multidisciplinary survivorship clinics, and a broader understanding that cancer affects every aspect of a person's life long after treatment ends.The episode also confronts persistent inequities in survivorship care. Insurance coverage often ends when treatment stops, supportive services remain inconsistent, financial toxicity continues to drive medical hardship, and racial, geographic, and socioeconomic disparities still influence who receives comprehensive follow-up care. For many survivors, finishing treatment simply marks the beginning of another struggle.Modern oncology increasingly recognizes that surviving cancer is measured by more than years of life. It is also measured by quality of life, dignity, access to care, and the ability to rebuild a future after treatment. That evolution remains one of the most significant legacies of the cancer survivorship movement.RELATED LINKSNational Academy of Medicine | ⁠From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition⁠National Cancer Institute Office of Cancer Survivorship⁠American Society of Clinical Oncology | Survivorship Compendium⁠CancerCare⁠HopeWell Cancer Support⁠National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship⁠FEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship on your favorite podcast platform. For more information, visit CancerMavericks.com. Please send any questions to podcasts@matthewzachary.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In 1967, breast surgeon Dr. Harold P. Freeman arrived at Harlem Hospital expecting to treat cancer. Instead, he confronted a healthcare system where poverty, racism, lack of insurance, and institutional barriers often determined who lived long enough to receive treatment. Patients frequently arrived with advanced disease, not because medicine lacked answers, but because access to care had failed them.This episode explores how cancer survivorship expanded beyond medical breakthroughs to include healthcare access, health equity, and organized advocacy. Building on the early work of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS), it examines the recognition that surviving cancer depended not only on research, but also on whether patients could navigate a fragmented healthcare system.Freeman responded by creating one of the nation's first patient navigation programs at Harlem Hospital in 1990. Community-based navigators helped patients overcome practical barriers including insurance, transportation, appointments, communication, and fear. The model dramatically improved timely diagnosis and treatment, increased breast cancer survival in Harlem, and ultimately inspired the Patient Navigator Outreach and Chronic Disease Prevention Act of 2005, establishing navigation as a cornerstone of modern oncology care.The episode also follows cancer survivor Ellen Stovall, whose leadership transformed survivorship into a national policy movement. Through the NCCS, she united advocates across cancer types, fought for insurance protections, expanded access to clinical trials, helped shape the creation of the Office of Cancer Survivorship at the National Cancer Institute, and organized the landmark 1998 National March for Cancer Survivorship in Washington, D.C. Her work reframed survivorship as a public policy issue rather than a personal experience.Together, Freeman and Stovall demonstrated that scientific progress alone could not eliminate disparities in cancer outcomes. Their work established two enduring principles that continue to shape oncology today: patients need someone to help them navigate care, and survivors must have a voice in the policies that govern it. Modern cancer survivorship depends on both.RELATED LINKSNational Coalition for Cancer Survivorship⁠Harold P. Freeman Patient Navigation Institute⁠National Cancer Institute Office of Cancer Survivorship⁠Patient Navigator Outreach and Chronic Disease Prevention Act of 2005⁠American Cancer Society⁠Tuskegee Study Timeline | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention⁠FEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship on your favorite podcast platform. For more information, visit CancerMavericks.com. Please send any questions to podcasts@matthewzachary.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hunter Grad, CEO and founder of Ameliogenix, joins the show to talk about developing mRNA immunotherapies for cardiovascular disease. George K and George A sit down with Hunter to discuss: How a procrastinated university project turned into a biotech startup tackling the leading cause of death worldwide The novel application of mRNA technology to permanently reduce cholesterol levels through targeting proteins within the body rather than viral diseases What it takes to bootstrap a biotech company in Ottawa, not Silicon Valley The brutal realities of fundraising in biotech versus software startups, and why pivoting isn't always an option when lives are on the line Clearing up the myths and misinformation around mRNA technology, from how it actually works to addressing fertility concerns The role of machine learning in accelerating biotech research and drug discovery, and why quality data matters more than flashy AI hypeHunter breaks down complex immunology concepts into digestible explanations while sharing the raw challenges of being a young founder in a traditionally academic-led industry. This episode explores innovation at the intersection of technology and medicine, the importance of rigorous science over buzzwords, and what it means to swing for the fences on a problem that affects 2 billion people worldwide.Originally aired: November 3, 2025

Welcome to a very, very, very special bonus episode of Out of Patients, and one unlike anything published on this feed before. For nearly 20 years, Matthew Zachary has handed these microphones to patients, caregivers, doctors, advocates, troublemakers, and people with something worth saying. This time, he handed them to his daughter. Hannah Greenzweig grew up around this show, and now she has commandeered the studio with 3 of her wonderfully creative high school friends to talk about something they built entirely themselves. There is an enormous amount of Dad Pride baked into this episode, along with the strange and wonderful realization that sometimes your kid grows up, takes your chair, takes your microphone, and produces a better show without you.Hannah Greenzweig, Michael Aidinov, Gwendolyn Baldini, and Astronomy are student artists from the Roundabout Youth Ensemble at James Madison High School in Brooklyn. Working alongside teaching artists from Roundabout Theatre Company, they spent a school year creating an original play from the ground up, writing every scene, developing every character, and producing the performance themselves.Instead of discussing a Broadway production, they dissect one they invented.Their play, Subject Matter, began with a room full of improbable ideas. Murderous bounce houses, pirate family sagas, underwater adventures, courtroom dance battles, and birthday parties at math museums all competed before the group settled on an absurd rivalry between New York's fictional History Museum and Math Museum. From there, they built a fully staged comedy about institutional competition, sabotage, oversized personalities, and the unexpected discovery that history and mathematics need each other more than either side wants to admit.The conversation pulls back the curtain on a creative process most audiences never see. The students explain how scenes evolved through constant rewrites, how characters emerged from improvisation, how costumes came together with last minute ingenuity, and how rehearsals often collapsed into uncontrollable laughter. They recount cutting favorite ideas, solving production problems with limited resources, and trusting each other enough to keep rewriting until the story worked.The episode also captures something harder to script: teenagers speaking honestly about collaboration without adults translating their experience. They celebrate classmates who stepped into unexpected roles, teachers who quietly held the production together, and the strange joy of creating something that exists only because everyone showed up.It is a conversation about theater, friendship, education, creativity, and what happens when 4 young artists get the microphones and the adults get out of the way.RELATED LINKSRoundabout Theatre CompanyRoundabout Youth EnsembleJames Madison High SchoolFEEDBACKLike this bonus episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship email podcasts@matthewzachary.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A man is struck by a car on the streets of Los Angeles. In the emergency department, a CT scan ordered to look for traumatic injuries reveals something nobody expected: a mass in his colon. Days later, sitting across from Dr. Belinda Waltman, he calls the accident “a blessing in disguise.” Then he changes the subject. He is less worried about cancer than about whether he can afford to miss another day of work. In this season finale of Standard Deviation, host Dr. Oliver Bogler explores what happens when biomedical science collides with the realities of the healthcare safety net. Dr. Waltman, a primary care physician in Los Angeles County, specializes in expedited cancer workups for uninsured and underinsured patients. Every diagnosis arrives carrying another set of questions about housing, transportation, food insecurity, wages, and survival that rarely appear in medical records or scientific literature. For years, Waltman carried those stories without knowing how to bring them into the academic record. As a full-time clinician without a research lab, grant funding, or publication pipeline, she faced barriers familiar to many working scientists and physicians whose most important observations happen outside traditional research settings. With support from the Life Science Editors Foundation's JEDI program, those experiences became The Margins Matter, a narrative medicine essay published in JAMA that argues the social realities surrounding cancer care are not background details. They are part of the disease itself. Bogler traces how editorial mentorship transformed lived clinical experience into published scholarship while asking a larger question about who gets to shape the scientific record. The conversation examines cancer care, Medicaid, health-related social needs, medical publishing, and the structural incentives that determine which stories become evidence and which disappear from view.The result is a conversation about documentation, visibility, and why the margins of medicine often determine who survives long enough to benefit from its advances.RELATED LINKSDr. Belinda Waltman⁠The Margins Matter | JAMA⁠The Margins Matter | PubMed⁠Life Science Editors Foundation⁠FEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship email podcasts@matthewzachary.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We love to hear from our listeners. Send us a message.In Episode 135 of Cell & Gene: The Podcast, Host Erin Harris talks to Sonal Gupta, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer of CoRegen, about the company's novel approach to treating solid tumors by engineering regulatory T cells (Tregs) rather than conventional effector immune cells. Dr. Gupta explains how CoRegen's investigational cell therapy, CRG150, targets the upstream regulator SRC3 to simultaneously influence multiple immune checkpoint pathways. She also discusses the scientific rationale behind the platform, the transition into first-in-human clinical studies, the biomarkers and translational questions the company hopes to answer, and why manufacturing, CDMO selection, and chain-of-identity capabilities are foundational to the future success of autologous cell therapies.Subscribe to the podcast!Apple  |  Spotify |  YouTubeVisit my website: Cell & GeneConnect with me on LinkedIn

In 1986, 23 survivors, physicians, nurses, attorneys, and community organizers gathered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for a weekend that would permanently change the language and politics of cancer. Working late into the night, they debated not only strategy, but identity, ultimately declaring that from the moment of diagnosis, every person with cancer is a survivor.This episode traces the social and political forces that gave birth to the modern cancer survivorship movement. As advances in early detection and treatment allowed more people to live beyond cancer, survivors discovered that finishing treatment did not mean returning to normal life. Many faced employment discrimination, loss of insurance, social stigma, infertility, chronic health complications, and a healthcare system that viewed survival as the end of care rather than the beginning of a new chapter.Against the backdrop of the civil rights, disability rights, and community health movements of the 1960s and 1970s, physicians, activists, and survivors challenged medicine's paternalistic culture and demanded a greater voice in decisions affecting their lives. Central to this story are physician and survivor Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan, whose landmark 1985 essay, Seasons of Survival, redefined survivorship as a lifelong continuum, and community organizer Katherine Logan, whose determination united dozens of grassroots organizations into what became the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship.The coalition's founding established principles that continue to shape oncology today. Survivors were no longer defined solely by disease or treatment outcomes. Their experiences became evidence. Their voices became essential to clinical research, healthcare policy, and patient advocacy. By redefining survivorship as an ongoing experience rather than a destination, the movement challenged medicine to recognize the lasting physical, emotional, financial, and social consequences of cancer.The ideas forged during that weekend in Albuquerque became the foundation of modern cancer survivorship. Nearly 40 years later, the coalition's defining principle, that survivorship begins at diagnosis, continues to influence cancer care, research, policy, and the way millions of people understand life after cancer.RELATED LINKSNational Coalition for Cancer Survivorship⁠National Cancer Institute Office of Cancer Survivorship⁠The New England Journal of Medicine⁠Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA.gov)⁠Library of Congress | Civil Rights History Project⁠White Coat, Clenched Fist by Fitzhugh Mullan⁠FEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship on your favorite podcast platform. For more information, visit CancerMavericks.com. Please send any questions to podcasts@matthewzachary.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act, transforming cancer research with an unprecedented federal investment and launching what became known as the War on Cancer. The legislation did not emerge from scientific discovery alone. It was the culmination of decades of relentless advocacy by researchers, philanthropists, journalists, and patients who believed cancer demanded the same national commitment that had put astronauts on the Moon.This episode traces the origins of the cancer survivorship movement by returning to a time when cancer was rarely discussed in public, many physicians withheld diagnoses from their patients, and surgery offered few lasting cures. It follows the pioneering work of pathologist Dr. Sidney Farber, whose early chemotherapy research challenged conventional thinking, and Mary Lasker, whose political strategy, fundraising, and public campaigns helped transform cancer from a private tragedy into a national public health priority. Together, they built the coalition that reshaped federal support for oncology research and forever changed the relationship between science, government, and the American public.The story then turns to journalist and breast cancer survivor Rose Kushner, whose refusal to accept the standard one-step radical mastectomy challenged nearly a century of surgical dogma. Working alongside surgeon Dr. Bernard Fisher, Kushner helped bring evidence-based medicine to breast cancer treatment through randomized clinical trials that demonstrated less invasive surgery could achieve equivalent outcomes. Their efforts changed clinical practice, strengthened informed consent, and helped establish the principle that patients should participate in decisions about their own care.The breakthroughs explored in this episode extended far beyond new treatments. They redefined the role of patients in medicine, accelerated clinical research, and laid the foundation for modern cancer survivorship. The movement that followed would not simply help more people live longer. It would change what surviving cancer meant.RELATED LINKSNational Cancer Institute⁠National Cancer Act of 1971⁠American Cancer Society⁠Dana-Farber Cancer Institute⁠National Library of Medicine⁠The New England Journal of Medicine⁠FEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship on your favorite podcast platform. For more information, visit CancerMavericks.com. Please send any questions to podcasts@matthewzachary.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Lew Bender, Founder and CEO of Intensity Therapeutics, has developed a novel approach to treating solid tumors through direct intratumoral injection of existing chemotherapy drugs. The company uses a proprietary formulation containing a special molecule that makes water-based drugs soluble in fatty tissue, allowing cisplatin and vinblastine to penetrate tumor cells effectively. Beyond direct killing of cancer cells, the approach triggers an immunological response that trains the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells throughout the body, including metastatic tumors that were not directly injected. Lew explains, "We're injecting directly into the tumors, and we have identified a formulation that allows for water-based drugs to become soluble in fat and water. Effectively, a tumor is fat and water. And while it has been tried before to inject water into fat, I helped to develop a chemistry that allows for water-based products to be absorbed by fatty tissue like tumors." "We are injecting our formulation, which is a special molecule called SHAO, that makes things soluble in fat and water, and two very well-known potent anti-cancer agents, cisplatin and vinblastine, that are able to kill cancers when they get into the cancer cells. So we dose based on the size of the tumor, check into the tumors, and the tumors in an immunological way. So what does that mean? It means that as the tumor cells die, they create chemicals that allow for the influx and recognition of the immune cells that this is not a good entity to be in the body." "We are killing the cancer with the drug, but at the same time training the immune system on the tumors so that the immune system can recognize the cancer as not self and attack the cancer in a more precise way." #IntensityTherapeutics $INTS  #CancerResearch #Oncology #Biotech #CancerCare  #ClinicalTrials #BreastCancer #TargetedOncology #IntratumoralInjection #OncologyInnovation #ImmunoOncology #IntratumoralTherapy #SolidTumors #TNBC #Sarcoma #HealthcareProfessionals intensitytherapeutics.com Download the transcript here

Lew Bender, Founder and CEO of Intensity Therapeutics, has developed a novel approach to treating solid tumors through direct intratumoral injection of existing chemotherapy drugs. The company uses a proprietary formulation containing a special molecule that makes water-based drugs soluble in fatty tissue, allowing cisplatin and vinblastine to penetrate tumor cells effectively. Beyond direct killing of cancer cells, the approach triggers an immunological response that trains the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells throughout the body, including metastatic tumors that were not directly injected. Lew explains, "We're injecting directly into the tumors, and we have identified a formulation that allows for water-based drugs to become soluble in fat and water. Effectively, a tumor is fat and water. And while it has been tried before to inject water into fat, I helped to develop a chemistry that allows for water-based products to be absorbed by fatty tissue like tumors." "We are injecting our formulation, which is a special molecule called SHAO, that makes things soluble in fat and water, and two very well-known potent anti-cancer agents, cisplatin and vinblastine, that are able to kill cancers when they get into the cancer cells. So we dose based on the size of the tumor, check into the tumors, and the tumors in an immunological way. So what does that mean? It means that as the tumor cells die, they create chemicals that allow for the influx and recognition of the immune cells that this is not a good entity to be in the body." "We are killing the cancer with the drug, but at the same time training the immune system on the tumors so that the immune system can recognize the cancer as not self and attack the cancer in a more precise way." #IntensityTherapeutics $INTS  #CancerResearch #Oncology #Biotech #CancerCare  #ClinicalTrials #BreastCancer #TargetedOncology #IntratumoralInjection #OncologyInnovation #ImmunoOncology #IntratumoralTherapy #SolidTumors #TNBC #Sarcoma #HealthcareProfessionals intensitytherapeutics.com Listen to the podcast here

Long before cancer survivors organized into a movement, Hollywood had already shaped how Americans understood the disease. Films rarely used the word “cancer,” physicians often withheld diagnoses from patients, and the people who survived were almost nowhere to be found on screen.Recorded before The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship became a documentary series, this bonus conversation explores where the project first began. Matthew Zachary sits down with his mother, Roz Greenzweig, a retired educator and lifelong film enthusiast whose memories of classic cinema became an unexpected lens for understanding how cancer was portrayed throughout the twentieth century.Together, they revisit landmark films including Dark Victory, Love Story, and other iconic portrayals that reflected an era when cancer was treated as unspeakable, inevitable, and almost always fatal. Their conversation contrasts those carefully constructed Hollywood narratives with the lived reality of a family confronting a brain cancer diagnosis in 1995, revealing how popular culture both reflected and reinforced the fears surrounding the disease.The discussion also foreshadows many of the themes explored throughout the documentary series: the evolution of patient advocacy, the emergence of cancer survivorship, the role of caregivers, and the power of storytelling to influence public understanding. Before policy changed, before advocacy organizations grew into national movements, conversations like these were already challenging long-held assumptions about what cancer looked like and who had the right to tell its story.Consider this the prologue to The Cancer Mavericks. Before the movement found its history, it began with a family trying to make sense of the stories they had inherited.RELATED LINKSAmerican Cancer Society⁠National Cancer Institute⁠American Film Institute⁠ER (NBC)⁠50/50 (Official)⁠Chasing Life (ABC Family Archive)⁠FEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review The Cancer Mavericks: A History of Survivorship on your favorite podcast platform. For more information, visit CancerMavericks.com. Questions? Email podcasts@matthewzachary.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

My guest is Dr. Matthew (Max) Krummel, PhD, professor at UCSF and one of the world's leading immunologists. We discuss how your immune system works and how sleep, emotions, and even memories shape immune function. We also explore thymus function, its role in autoimmunity, and its potential role in combating cancer. And we discuss how the type and timing of immunization can impact health. This episode provides an actionable framework for understanding how your immune system works, which ought to benefit people of all ages and health statuses. Read the episode show notes at hubermanlab.com. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman Eight Sleep: https://eightsleep.com/huberman Function: https://functionhealth.com/huberman Joovv: https://joovv.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Max Krummel (00:02:18) Immune System, Immunotherapy (00:08:36) Illness, Childhood & Immune System (00:13:02) Aging & Immunity, DNA Mutations (00:18:36) Sponsors: Joovv & Eight Sleep (00:21:14) Self vs Non-Self Recognition, Aging, Cancer; Immune Surveillance (00:30:11) Cancer, Immune System, Age & Measuring Change (00:35:57) Thymus, T Cells; Aging & Cancer (00:42:13) Reproduction, Aging & Immune System; Basic Research (00:47:28) Sleep & Illness Susceptibility (00:52:55) Sponsor: AG1 (00:54:08) Umbilical Cord Banking; Organoids, CAR T Cells, Thymus (01:02:57) Scientific Curiosity, Failures, & Discovery (01:13:14) Spatial Biology & Immune Cells; Memory & Immune State; Stress, Meditation (01:25:00) Sponsor: Function (01:26:37) Mindset; Tissue Engineering, Peptides, Systems Biology (01:34:25) Immunizations in Childhood and Beyond (01:39:37) Pharmaceutical Companies, Public Distrust (01:49:22) Disease Risk, Immunity; Autism, Flu, (01:58:56) Biological Resilience, Cancer; Computational Research (02:08:02) Autoimmune Conditions, Asthma, IBD (02:13:34) Autoimmunity & Genetic Diversity Benefits (02:17:11) Science Communication, Max's Substack (02:24:07) Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow, Reviews & Feedback, Sponsors, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rebecca Bloom is a former employee benefits and executive compensation attorney who spent more than 25 years helping women navigate cancer, work, insurance, disability coverage, and financial survival. She is the founder and author of When Women Get Sick, a book built from decades inside the legal, workplace, and patient advocacy systems most people only discover after diagnosis.Bloom started in Big Law at Simpson Thacher handling employee benefits and compensation work she originally chose to pay off student loans. Then her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Suddenly the language she used in corporate law offices became the language of survival at home. Explanation of benefits forms. Coverage disputes. Second opinions. Disability protections. Medical leave. Bills no one could explain.That collision changed the direction of her life.In this episode, Bloom explains how serious illness quietly turns patients into unpaid administrators managing paperwork, logistics, financial risk, and emotional labor while trying to survive treatment. She breaks down how employer based health insurance shapes nearly every aspect of cancer care in America and why women often carry the invisible burden of protecting everyone else from discomfort while they themselves fall apart.The conversation digs into workplace power, the illusion of the healthcare “safety net,” caregiver exhaustion, and the class divide hiding underneath patient empowerment culture. Bloom explains why educated, insured women with resources still struggle to navigate healthcare bureaucracy and what happens to patients without those advantages.This episode explores cancer care, health insurance, employee benefits, patient advocacy, workplace protections, caregiving, and the structural incentives that force sick people to become project managers of their own survival.RELATED LINKSRebecca BloomWhen Women Get SickBay Area Cancer ConnectionsSimpson Thacher & BartlettFEEDBACKLike this episode? Rate and review Out of Patients on your favorite podcast platform. For guest suggestions or sponsorship email podcasts@matthewzachary.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.