We Remember
Our annual “We Remember” episode honors all who died from metastatic breast cancer since last October and gives voice to the grief and love that endures after each death. Each name shared is a tiny marker of a full, messy, beloved life and each one leaves behind an expansive network of loved ones. For those of us in the MBC community, the loss of our friends is particularly devastating & the cumulative losses are heavy. You are not alone in your grief. We invite you to bear witness with us to this outpouring of love for those we have lost.
Tissue Donation - You can help advance MBC research
Today we talk with breast cancer researcher Dr. Steffi Oesterreich, clinical coordinator Lori Miller, and MBC advocates Stephanie Walker and Christine Hodgdon to learn more about tissue donation programs and how they can help accelerate scientific research. Tissue donation programs ask patients to consider donating their tissues, including organs, soon after we die to help researchers better understand how breast cancer continues to spread and how to slow it down or stop it altogether. Donating our tissue is one way we can help thousands of other women and men with MBC to live longer with higher quality of life.
mTNBC Unicorns: Living In Contradiction
Becoming a cancer “unicorn”--a person whose cancer responds exceptionally well to available treatment and who survives beyond what is expected--is what most of us hope for. This is all the more true for triple negative MBC where effective, targeted treatments are still sorely lacking. Today we talk to two women who have lived with triple negative metastatic breast cancer for 8 years. Dr. Toni Willis and Colleen Broughton share their diagnosis & treatment stories, including their experiences with second opinions, clinical trials, self-advocacy, and cultivating joy for themselves & their families as they navigate surviving longer than they –or their doctors—expected to.
The Legacy of Lisa Laudico
Lisa Laudico, who created and spearheaded the Our MBC Life podcast series, died on August 6, 2022 from MBC. In this episode, Lisa’s friends, family, and colleagues remember her amazing life and celebrate the many ways she fostered connection, resilience, and hope throughout the MBC community.
Psilocybin-assisted Therapy: Patient Experiences
Welcome to the second episode in our series on the potential of psilocybin-assisted therapy to help us live as well as possible with metastatic breast cancer.
In this episode, we talk to two women with breast cancer who had legal access to psilocybin-assisted therapy. Journalist and writer Erica Rex participated in a clinical trial at Johns Hopkins after being diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. Mari Singfield, a young Canadian woman living with MBC, gained access through an exemption to Section 56(1) of the Canadian Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, a process facilitated by the organization, TheraPsil.
Both women shared with us the process that they went through to gain legal access to psilocybin-assisted therapy, what the treatment was actually like for them, and what, if anything, changed in their lives afterward.
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.
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.
Project Life and A Dash of Joy
“It is very important for us who are living with MBC to be able to go to a place where we know it’s safe to just be who we are.” This month’s Trailblazer is Project Life, a virtual wellness house that recently set up residence in cyberspace. The co-hosts Victoria Goldberg and Dar Finkelstein speak with the founder and the CEO of Project Life Leslie Glenn and its COO Jackie Seiner about the origin of the project, MBC wellness and survivorship.
The Magic of Palliative Care -Patients and Their Providers
This month we have focused on quality-of-life issues and this episode is part one of a two part series on the “Magic of Palliative Care”. At times the term “palliative care” is misunderstood and so we also use the newer term ‘supportive care’ to better explain how this care supports your quality of life as you go through MBC treatment. We first turn our focus to the medical providers who help us manage symptoms and treatment side effects and, by doing so, improve multiple aspects of our lives.