What topics/experts would you like to see on The Breastcancer.org Podcast?
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Also, I have been ruminating on the recent death of actress Catherine O'Hara, who died of a pulmonary embolism that was apparently a secondary consequence to her cancer. Although we hear from time to time about increased risks of blood clots just from having cancer (like the cancer debris from dead cells floating in the bloodstream?) I was surprised to learn its the second most common cause of death for cancer patients, and that many of our drugs also carry with them blood clot risks, not just chemos but some targeted drugs like Verzenio and others. It might be worth a podcast to heighten awareness, though I'm not sure what most of us could do to protect ourselves. Some stats would be useful, maybe the increased scans we get are actually helpful if they find lung clots early ? and I wonder how often scans do pick up lung clots in cancer patients compared to the general population
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@cure-ious I've found an expert, a researcher at NYU Langone. I'm working to schedule a podcast on histotripsy in April. Thank you so much for your suggestion!
Jamie
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Another good idea, @cure-ious We do have this page on the site: which we are in the process of updating to be more complete. My understanding is that cancers produce chemicals that makes blood "stickier" — meaning the cancer tells the liver to produce more clotting factors. I'm not sure why this is. It's estimated that about 20 percent of people with cancer will develop a clot and people with cancer of the pancreas, uterus, lungs, stomach, kidney, brain, and bladder more likely to develop a clot. Interestingly, not liver, as far as I can tell.
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Jamie, for the histotripsy, I had wondered what it could be used for in cases where there are maybe many liver mets, but maybe it could be particularly useful to beat back mets when someone needs to go off drugs (like do a drug washout before starting a clinical trial)- surely better than having to take chemo for that
also to debulk when liver has a lot of tumors, and/or maybe this can get rid of some not very prevalent but possibly dangerous liver met mutations, like to reduce heterogeneity?
Also some places apparently can only localize tumors with ultrasound, which is hard to do as that's not very sensitive, but at other places use a CT-fusion where they overlapy a CT scan with an ultrasound and also line stuff up with whatever landmarks they can see in the liver, like bile ducts, stents or bits of whatever crap-
And they can rotate the table during treatment, or flip it completely to get at hard places, it sound like access and tumor sizes are some of the issues…
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Another topic of interest to me is graves disease (hyperthyroidism) and breast cancer but this could be extended to hypothyroidism too
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Thank you, @snm I have hyperthyroidism, so this topic is of great interest to me as well. I will look for an expert.
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I’m interested in research thar suggests that having Covid can awaken dormant cancer cells.
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Thanks, @aj This is the only research I'm aware of:
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@cure-ious The podcast on histotripsy is now live here: I tried to get answers to all your questions. Thanks for the suggestion!
Jamie
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Outstanding discussion on that podcast, and was excited to hear him answer my questions!!!
I had no idea that they are going to be able to try histotripsy next year on primary breast tumors- can you imagine a world without the need for surgeries, no mastectomies?!
I remember my primary breast cancer doctor said that she might be the last generation of breast surgeons, because in the future there would be a wand of some kind that could eliminate the tumor without surgery. Maybe she was just a bit optimistic- that was 23 years ago!!!
Thanks a lot, Jamie!!!
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Can we have a podcast on what other countries are currently doing on Cancer treatments and research? The US is in shambles right now base on our current administration. We only hear about what is happening in the US but what about what is happening in like Japan? I been hearing a lot about their custom immunotherapy treatments, not mRNA.
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@cure-ious, you are most welcome!
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@zen1028 I will try. But at the large conferences — SABCS, ASCO, ESMO — researchers from all over the world present, so the top breast cancer research at those events is likely what is happening in other countries. Keep in mind that healthcare systems in other countries are different than they are in the United States and certain drugs are approved here and not there, and vice versa. So what's being studied in other countries may not be applicable to the United States. All that said, I will see what I can do.
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