MBC Matters: Understanding Blood Test Results
Blood tests are an essential part of our cancer care. However, interpreting them can often feel like deciphering a foreign language.
Joining us today is Dr. Alfredo Torres and we’ll break down the common types of blood tests, explain what the numbers mean, and discuss how these results impact your treatment plan.
Newly Diagnosed with MBC: Tests, Terms, & Tips with Dr. Rebecca Shatsky
Being diagnosed with MBC can feel like you’ve been dropped into a dangerous and alien landscape, one whose inhabitants speak a new and confusing language. Numb and bewildered, you face a mountain of medical decisions—each with seemingly high stakes. The last in Our MBC Life’s 3-part series for people newly diagnosed with MBC, this episode's interview with Dr. Rebecca Shatsky, interspersed with experienced-patient voices, sheds light on cancer types, tests, and treatment—and empowers listeners to navigate this challenging new terrain with understanding, knowledge, and confidence.
RTAC: FES/Cerianna Screening for Estrogen Positive MBC
There’s a FDA- approved diagnostic imaging agent developed to comprehensively evaluate estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) lesions in recurrent or metastatic breast cancer as an adjunct to biopsy. By creating a “whole-body” picture of ER+ lesions, Cerianna may be a helpful diagnostic tool in helping oncologists better determine the most appropriate course of treatment. Learn more in this episode.
MBC101: The HER2-Low Show
The DESTINY-Breast04 trial at ASCO 2022 introduced many people to the term “HER2-low.” But how do you know if you’re HER2-low? In this episode, with the help a breast pathologist and a clinical oncologist we dive into this subtype and what it means to us.
Dr. Nancy Lin: Are CNS Mets Becoming More Treatable? What’s New with STOP-HER2?
Brain metastases are unfortunately an all too common and devastating complication of breast cancer. The blood-brain barrier has long been a key obstacle to developing effective systemic therapies; however, newer agents are showing signs of overcoming this challenge. Dr. Nancy Lin explains.
ER Progression and Resistance: Causes, Consequences, and Hope
Endocrine therapy is an effective way to treat hormone-sensitive breast cancers, but de novo and acquired resistance to this treatment remains a major challenge. In this episode, the Our MBC Life team hears from two dynamic MSK oncologists Dr. Pedram Razavi and Dr. Komal Jhaveri on treatment strategies and the latest research around the problem of endocrine resistance.
Dr. Stephanie Graff: Understanding Progression
What does it mean when our cancer shows progression? And how do we know when that happens? The Our MBC Life team gets the lowdown from Dr. Stephanie L. Graff.
Dr. Priya Kumthekar: Glimpses of Hope for Leptomeningeal Metastases
Co-hosts Victoria Goldberg and Dr. Paula Jayne sit down with neuro-oncologist Dr. Priya Kumthekar to talk about leptomeningeal metastases: what they are, how are they treated, and what research is upcoming, including a discussion on ANGled, the new Phase 3 trial for MBC patients newly diagnosed with leptomeningeal metastases.
MBC101 - what happens when MBC spreads to the brain?
On 10/12/21 Lianne Kraemer, an MBC patient advocate living with brain mets , and SHARE hosted two brilliant young clinicians from Moffitt in a discussion on management of breast cancer brain metastases. Today we are bringing you this webinar with our additional commentary. We will let you in on a little secret. This episode is a glimpse into how we envision the next season’s Road to a Cure. It will include more content with an educational angle for the newly diagnosed or those who are ready to take a deeper dive with us into the basics. We call it MBC101.
Road to a Cure - drug resistance
It is fitting that our 7th and last stop before the SABCS is back to NYC. Co-hosts Lisa Laudico and Ellen Landsberger talk with Dr Sarat Chandarlapaty, a leading Physician Scientist at MSKCC. As both a physician treating patients and a scientist in the lab, Dr. Chandarlapaty gives us an understanding of translational medicine, transferring what he learns from his patients back into the lab to answer questions that advance the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.
Road to a Cure - ABC with Dr. Fatima Cardoso
This is the sixth stop in our series Road to a Cure. From the start our goal for this series was not only to educate and give hope to every listener but also to ensure that each of these special interviews feels like an intimate conversation with our smartest friend who also happens to be an oncologist researcher. This episode will not disappoint., Co-hosts Victoria Goldberg and Lisa Laudico, sit down with the Director of the Breast Unit of the Champalimaud Clinical Center in Lisbon, Portugal, Dr. Fatima Cardoso.
Road to a Cure - ADC & SARM
How famous is Dr Hope Rugo? She belongs to a tiny elite group of oncologists who have their own Wikipedia page. Dr. Dennis Slamon is quite possibly the only other member. Enough said. No surprise that we can’t wait to hear what she has to say about a new class of drugs, known as ADCs and specifically, the first ADC for mTNBC that already has a nickname – Sassy (sacituzumab govitecan). Do you know what a SARM is? It is a special class of drugs for those who are Androgen Receptor (AR) positive. Listen and find out.
Road to a Cure - use of immunotherapy
This week we are visiting Dr Stephanie Goff at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr Goff is a surgical oncologist and a senior member of a research team led by Dr. Steven A. Rosenberg, a man widely regarded as the father of immunotherapy. A friend, who knows a thing or two about this place. is joining us on this trip. Her name is Judy Perkins, and she is the first MBC patient who has been cured by a revolutionary immunotherapy treatment, known as adoptive cell therapy, that was administered by Dr Goff and her colleagues at the NCI.
Road to a Cure - Dr. Heather Parsons & Dr. Nancy Lin
The Road to a Cure series heads to Boston to have Senior Producer and Co-host, Victoria Goldberg and co-host Dr. Paula Jayne speak with Dr. Nancy Lin and Dr. Heather Parsons about the possibilities and the current barriers to considering a cure for HER2+ MBC. Dr. Parsons and Dr. Lin are medical oncologists and professors at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lin is also the Director of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Program and the Associate Chief of the Division of Breast Oncology at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. While an amazing gift, long-term survival among some HER2+ patients can also sometimes bring special challenges. Given the higher prevalence of brain metastases among HER2+ patients, Drs. Lin and Parsons also discuss current research on brain mets, along with areas of promising overall MBC research for each subtype.
Road to a Cure - Dr. Sara Hurvitz
The Road to a Cure series gets on the redeye to LA to have Senior Producer and Co-host, Victoria Goldberg and co-host Kate Pfitzer speak with Dr. Sara Hurvitz. She talks about her perspective on where we are as we work for a cure, the HER2+ studies she is excited about, and other research that is intriguing as it relates to all subtypes
Road to a Cure - Dr. Larry Norton
Our special series, Road to a Cure, makes its first stop at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, with an interview with Dr. Larry Norton. He is Senior Vice President in the Office of the President, and Deputy Director for Clinical and Translational Science in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Norton’s also the Medical Director of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at MSK and a founder of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Senior Producer & Host Lisa Laudico and co-host Dr. Ellen Landsberger speak with Dr. Norton on what he sees happening with Metastatic Breast Cancer research today. They ask him about what lines of research are most exciting to him and also all about how he cares for his own mental health
Report back from SABCS
Welcome to this bonus episode of Our MBC Life. It feels like a lifetime ago, but just a few weeks ago the world's largest breast cancer conference, the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, was held. Just after the symposium SHARE welcomed Dr. Neil Iyengar from Memorial Sloan Kettering to a webinar where he shared information from SABCS highlighting both early-stage and metastatic research.
All About Lobular Breast Cancer
Did you know that not ALL breast cancer can be detected by a lump? We are joined by Laurie Hutcheson of the Lobular Breast Cancer Alliance and researchers Steffi Oesterreich, PhD and Adrian Lee, PhD why ILC is difficult to research and what looks promising for the future.
Nancy U. Lin, MD
A conversation with Dr. Nancy Lin, Director of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.