Beyond The Clinic: Living Well With Melanoma

In this episode, we welcome Dione Detraz, RD, integrative dietitian nutritionist and author of The Cancer Diet Cookbook: Comforting Recipes for Treatment and Recovery, to talk about cancer nutrition for cancer survivors. A healthy, strong, and balanced immune system is critical in preventing infection and in chronic diseases such as cancer. In this episode, you will learn how to use your diet and lifestyle to support a healthy and balanced immune system when living with melanoma. 

Dionne Detraz, RDN, is a Cancer Nutrition Expert and Registered Dietitian Nutritionist. She specializes in helping people navigate cancer treatment with integrative diet and lifestyle strategies so they can have more energy and fewer side effects from treatment.

Dionne’s experience includes over 15 years of working in health education, wellness, and nutrition. Before launching Ground & Root to help cancer survivors fully ground themselves in the healing process, in 2016, she worked for two years at the University of California San Francisco Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. Dionne spent more than 10 years as an outpatient dietitian and health educator at Kaiser Permanente. Her education includes a unique blend of medical nutrition therapy with integrative and functional medicine.

Originally from California, Dionne lives with her husband and their two daughters in France. Last year, she published The Cancer Diet Cookbook: Comforting Recipes for Treatment and Recovery.

Contact Information: https://groundandroot.com/

Our guest Dr. Mary-Frances O'Connor is a renowned grief expert, author, neuroscientist, and an associate professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, where she directs the Grief, Loss, and Social Stress (GLASS) Lab, which investigates the effects of grief on the brain and the body. In this episode, she discusses groundbreaking discoveries about what happens in our brain when we grieve, providing a new paradigm for understanding love, loss, and learning about the changes that occur in the brain during the grief process, and how we can develop a toolkit to go about restoring a meaningful life while grieving. 

In her new book, The Grieving Brain, Mary-Frances O'Connor, PhD, gives us a fascinating new window into one of the hallmark experiences of being human. O'Connor has devoted decades to researching the effects of grief on the brain, and in this book, she makes cutting-edge neuroscience accessible through her contagious enthusiasm, and guides us through how we encode love and grief. With love, our neurons help us form attachments to others; but, with loss, our brain must come to terms with where our loved ones went, or how to imagine a future that encompasses their absence.

Based on O'Connor's own trailblazing neuroimaging work, research in the field, and her real-life stories, The Grieving Brain does what the best popular science books do, combining storytelling, accessible science, and practical knowledge that will help us better understand what happens when we grieve and how to navigate loss with more ease and grace.

About Mary-Frances O’Connor, PhD is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, where she directs the Grief, Loss and Social Stress (GLASS) Lab, investigating the effects of grief on the brain and the body. O’Connor earned a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Arizona in 2004, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in psychoneuroimmunology at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. Following a faculty appointment at UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, she returned to the University of Arizona in 2012. Having grown up in Montana, she now lives in sunny Tucson, Arizona.

Melissa Wilson, PA-C, MPAS from UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, and Vernon Sondak, MD, Chair, Department of Cutaneous Oncology, Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida, join host Raymond Liu, MD, for a discussion about the future of melanoma in 2023 and beyond. 

Treatments combining immunotherapies with targeted therapies, which disable the carcinogenic products of mutated cancer cells, have further increased treatment efficacy and durability. Toxicity and resistance, however, remain critical challenges to the field. During this podcast, our guests review past treatments and novel therapeutic interventions and discuss the term "de-escalation of care" and future directions as well as how to communicate with your healthcare team.

About Our Guests

Dr. Sondak is Chair of the Department of Cutaneous Oncology at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida. He holds the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation Distinguished Endowed Chair in Cutaneous Oncology, and is also a Professor in the Departments of Oncologic Sciences and Surgery at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine. Since 2004, when he came to Tampa, the Cutaneous Oncology Clinic at Moffitt has grown into one of the largest multidisciplinary treatment centers for pediatric melanoma and related conditions in the world. Dr. Sondak has been a leader in studies of surgical treatment of melanoma and other cutaneous malignancies, particularly in the application of sentinel lymph node biopsy and lymph node dissection to the staging and treatment of melanoma, and has been instrumental in training many surgical oncologists in these techniques over the years. Dr. Sondak also has a strong research background: he served as Principal Investigator of the Moffitt Skin SPORE, a major NCI-funded “team science” grant conducting translational research in melanoma and other cutaneous malignancies. His research interests include surgical treatment of melanoma in adults and children; adjuvant (postoperative) and neoadjuvant (preoperative) therapy of melanoma; and evaluation of new therapies for patients with localized or disseminated melanoma.  

Melissa Wilson, PA-C, MPAS, has a wealth of knowledge and experience helping melanoma patients and their families. Melissa is up-to-date about the latest melanoma treatments and research.

A natural trailblazer, Melissa is proud of her collaborative work as an NCCPA-certified physician assistant senior since 2005 with the distinguished melanoma specialist Dr. John Kirkwood at the University of Pittsburgh in the Cancer Institute Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine. Their treatment and research initiatives were so successful that they have been used as a template for other cancer programs throughout the country. Wilson works as a lead physician assistant for the Melanoma Program at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center.

A natural teacher, Melissa has also worked with a multidisciplinary team on patient education and collaboration. She holds appointments at Chatham University Clinical Preceptor, where she is adjunct faculty and is a cancer care module lecturer on melanoma since 2013.

In this episode, Melissa Wilson, PA-C, MPAS, AIM's "Ask a Medical Expert" and host of the webinar series, "From the Clinic to the Living Room," joins our podcast as our guest host and welcomes Stage IV Melanoma Survivor, Stephanie Bowen to the program. Stephanie shared her personal journey with melanoma from receiving the diagnosis and going through treatment to her feelings on the other side as a survivor with no evidence of disease. 

While it may be an uncomfortable topic to bring up, sharing your sexual orientation and gender identity with your cancer team can help improve your overall care. As we’ve discussed many times on this program, communication is key to improving your experience and ensuring you’re receiving the best and most tailored, care for you. Chastity Burrows Walters will discuss the challenges individuals face in disclosing their sexual orientation and gender identity with their care team and will provide tips on how to have these conversations. She will discuss the importance of finding a cancer care provider who is both knowledgeable and respectful. Through establishing this relationship of trust, your care team can make better recommendations for screenings, support groups, or follow-up care.

Speaker: Chasity Burrows Walters, PhD, RN

Bio: Chasity Burrows Walters is the Senior Director of Patient and Community Education at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). In that role, she is responsible for the vision, leadership, and strategic planning of educational initiatives, focusing on health equity. A longstanding advocate for LGBTQ patients, she is the founder and Leadership Sponsor of MSK’s LGBTQ Clinical Advisory Committee and a leader in MSK’s LGBTQ+ Pride, MSK’s Employee Resource Network. Dr. Walters is a member of multiple professional organizations, including the Oncology Nursing Society, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Sigma, GLMA, and is a past Chair of the Cancer Patient Education Network. In addition to awards for her leadership during her academic career, Dr. Walters has been the recipient of the Oncology Nursing Society Excellence in Patient and Public Education Award as well as the Cancer Patient Education Network’s Distinguished Service Award. Dr. Walters has presented and published on a range of topics related to the care of LGBTQ patients and teaches LGBTQ Public Health.

When faced with a cancer diagnosis, some patients rely on their spirituality to cope and find meaning behind the experience. For some, spirituality is a belief in a higher power. For others, it’s simply a recognition that there is something greater than oneself. In this conversation, Michael Eselun discusses how patients, caregivers, and others facing challenges, rely on or call into question their own spirituality.

Guest: Michael Eselun, BCC

Michael Eselun, (he/him) BCC, a Board Certified Chaplain, has been named the Dr. John Glaspy Chaplain in Oncology Care for the Simms/Mann‐UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology-- a role he has filled for thirteen years. In addition to oncology work, he has worked extensively in palliative care, hospice care, and acute psychiatric care. Two-time TED-X speaker, Michael speaks extensively to healthcare professionals, patient populations and faith communities across the country. He weaves stories with vulnerability, insight, and humor-- stories to wrap around the deeper questions of life, mortality and meaning. He’s been widely published in journals, including two articles in the Journal of Pastoral Care and Counseling.  He has also worked as an activist/educator addressing anti-LGBTQ bias in the larger community for well over 30 years.  Michael was recently inducted into the UCLA-Semel Institute Eudaimonia Society, in recognition of having lived a meaning-driven life. You can find out more at www.michaeleselun.com.

When going through difficulty, many people turn to friends and family for support. But what happens when those people dismiss your feelings and tell you to “look on the bright side?” While it may be said with the best of intentions, this is an example of toxic positivity. In this episode, Whitney Goodman, author of the book Toxic Positivity: Keeping It Real in a World Obsessed with Being Happy, will define toxic positivity and speak on the importance of allowing ourselves, and those we support, to feel hard feelings. It’s okay to not be okay sometimes. Goodman uses research and client examples to help listeners learn how to work through difficult emotions.

Guest: Whitney Goodman, LMFT

Whitney Goodman is the radically honest psychotherapist behind the hugely popular Instagram account @sitwithwhit, the author of Toxic Positivity, and the owner of The Collaborative Counseling Center, a private therapy practice in Miami, FL. She helps people who want to improve their relationships and emotional awareness.

Whitney earned her undergraduate degree at Tulane University and a graduate degree in Counseling Psychology from The University of Miami. She has additional training and certifications in working with couples, trauma, and clients who have been diagnosed with chronic illness. Whitney has her own column in Psychology Today and has been featured in dozens of domestic and international publications, including The New York Times, Teen Vogue, NY Magazine, Instyle, and Good Morning America.

Whitney is a millennial on a quest to make mental health information accessible and easy to understand. She rejects the idea that a therapist should be a blank slate and believes that authenticity and emotional expression are the keys to living a full life. Whitney fully embraces her successes, humanity, and struggles and strives for authenticity in everything she does.

Whitney lives in Miami, FL with her husband, their son, and two dogs, Luna and Charlie.

Many skin cancer survivors develop high anxiety regarding sun exposure and being outside, especially during summer. How can active coping strategies and behavioral changes help patients address these concerns? In this conversation, we’ll discuss the psychological impacts of UV exposure on patients and how you can continue to live life to the fullest while protecting yourself and those you love from harmful exposure.

Guest: Kathleen M. Madden, MSN, FNP-BC, AOCNP®, APHN & Melissa Wilson, PA-C, MPAS

Kathleen Madden, MSN, FNP-BC, AOCNP®, APHN is a Family Nurse Practitioner in the melanoma & cutaneous medical oncology group of the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Clinical Cancer Center at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. Kathy’s experience during the past two decades at NYU has included working primarily in adult medicine and oncology with a focus on skin cancers with melanoma; she also serves as a sub-investigator for all melanoma & cutaneous research protocols and select phase 1 protocol at the Clinical Cancer Center. Kathy lectures nationally in her area of expertise and has multiple publications in her specialty. She has also served as clinical adjunct faculty for students working toward their bachelor's and master of science in nursing. Kathy is also passionate about integrative healing arts and holds board certifications in Advanced Practice in Oncology and Holistic Nursing and additional certifications in Clinical Homeopathy, Clinical Aromatherapy, IGM® Practitioner and Instructor, Clinical Meditation, and Imagery. She is a member of the Oncology Nursing Society, ASCO, APSHO, ANA, American Holistic Nurses Association as well as other professional organizations. Kathy continues to pursue learning experiences that synthesize eastern and western modalities, ultimately enhancing and benefiting both personal and professional endeavors.

Cancer Survivorship begins the moment you learn of your diagnosis and continues long after treatment. And thanks to medical advances, more people are surviving cancer than ever before. Survivorship care is changing quickly to address the complex needs of patients and their families for the duration of their cancer experience. What does it mean to live life to the fullest after a diagnosis? During this episode, we will discuss how survivorship programs meet patients where they are and work to address the patient’s medical and emotional needs.

Speaker: Ann H. Partridge, MD, MPH

Bio: Ann Partridge, MD, MPH is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Vice Chair of Medical Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where she also serves as Director of the Adult Survivorship Program and leads the Program for Young Women with Breast Cancer. As a medical oncologist and clinical researcher, she has sought to improve the care and outcomes of patients with cancer by conducting research, and by developing innovative clinical programming. Dr. Partridge serves in leadership roles nationally and internationally including as co-chair of the Breast Committee of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology and co-chair of the biennial ESMO-ESO sponsored Breast Cancer in Young Women Conference. She also served as Chair of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Breast Cancer in Young Women from 2010-17. She has received prior awards and grants including a Champions of Change award from the White House, an ASCO Improving Cancer Care Grant, the CDC Carol Friedman Award, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Outstanding Investigator Award for Breast Cancer, and the Ellen L. Stovall Award in Cancer Survivorship from ASCO, and the A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award from Harvard Medical School.

After graduating from Georgetown University, Dr. Partridge received her medical degree from Cornell University Medical College, pursued an internal medicine residency at the Hospital for the University of Pennsylvania, and completed Medical Oncology and Hematology fellowship at Dana-Farber/Partners CancerCare. She earned a Master of Public Health degree at the Harvard School of Public Health.

In today's busy medical practices, you need to be involved in your own care (or that of a loved one) to assure the best care. In this episode of Beyond the Clinic: Living Well With Melanoma, Melissa Wilson, PA-C, MPAS, and AIM's "Ask a Medical Expert," and Dr. Raymond Liu, Director of Cancer Survivorship for Kaiser Permanente San Francisco, discuss steps to help you to become your own best advocate and take control of your care.

AIM's Melanoma Learning Center is a virtual hub for all types of melanoma education. We provide reliable, relevant, and current information about all aspects of melanoma for patients, families, healthcare professionals, caregivers, and others interested in the disease.