Empowered Patient Podcast

Dr. Robert Gish is the Medical Advisor to Helio Genomics and the Medical Director of the Hepatitis B Foundation and is looking for answers to questions related to who is most at risk for liver cancer. He is also working to improve blood testing to diagnose liver cancer earlier by looking for tumor material that shows methylated DNA changes.

Robert explains, "So, one of the biggest messages I would have is the deficiency in surveillance for liver cancer. Screening is the first test, and surveillance is ongoing testing. Some people get confused with the word screening, unfortunately. We are not testing patients for liver cancer anywhere near what we should. Probably 20%, one out of five, people are getting proper surveillance when they're at risk for liver cancer."

"Let's talk about at risk. That's a second message. Identifying people with risk, which is cirrhosis, 80%, 85% of people with liver cancer have cirrhosis, is also inadequate. We need to teach people how to find out if somebody has cirrhosis without doing a liver biopsy. We have great tools, but the education of the medical community and patient community needs to be much more robust, in my opinion."

@HepBFoundation #HelioGenomics #CancerDetection #LiverCancer #BeatCancerEarly #Stage4NoMore

hepb.org

heliogenomics.com

Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Robert Gish is the Medical Advisor to Helio Genomics and the Medical Director of the Hepatitis B Foundation and is looking for answers to questions related to who is most at risk for liver cancer. He is also working to improve blood testing to diagnose liver cancer earlier by looking for tumor material that shows methylated DNA changes.

Robert explains, "So, one of the biggest messages I would have is the deficiency in surveillance for liver cancer. Screening is the first test, and surveillance is ongoing testing. Some people get confused with the word screening, unfortunately. We are not testing patients for liver cancer anywhere near what we should. Probably 20%, one out of five, people are getting proper surveillance when they're at risk for liver cancer."

"Let's talk about at risk. That's a second message. Identifying people with risk, which is cirrhosis, 80%, 85% of people with liver cancer have cirrhosis, is also inadequate. We need to teach people how to find out if somebody has cirrhosis without doing a liver biopsy. We have great tools, but the education of the medical community and patient community needs to be much more robust, in my opinion."

@HepBFoundation #HelioGenomics #CancerDetection #LiverCancer #BeatCancerEarly #Stage4NoMore

hepb.org

heliogenomics.com

Download the transcript here

Dr. Paul Peter Tak is the CEO and President of Candel Therapeutics, developing innovative immunotherapies for patients with solid tumors that are difficult to treat, like brain cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer. This approach induces cell death in cancer cells at the site of injection, and it also trains cells to look for tumor cells migrating throughout the body.

Paul Peter explains, "The approach we call oncolytic viral immunotherapy. The name already indicates that we use viruses here for a good purpose, actually, to treat cancer. And immunotherapy indicates that we try to activate the patient's own immune system to fight cancer at the site of the injection, as well as at the site of the un-injected distant metastasis. Basically, you can see it as a form of what we call in situ vaccination. In situ means at the place of the injection."

"We kill the tumor cells at the site of the injection, and we do that in a way that's immunogenic. That means that we activate the immune system, and we create the optimal conditions at the site of the injection of the body's own immune system to start to recognize specifically the so-called cancer neoantigens. These are the molecules that are expressed on the surface of the cancer cells, and that can be recognized by these T cells. We call them cytotoxic T cells. The name already means that they're able to kill the tumor cells."

#Candel #CandelTherapeutics #Candoers #CAN2409 #Immunotherapy #SolidTumors #Cancer

candeltx.com

Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Paul Peter Tak is the CEO and President of Candel Therapeutics, developing innovative immunotherapies for patients with solid tumors that are difficult to treat, like brain cancer, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer. This approach induces cell death in cancer cells at the site of injection, and it also trains cells to look for tumor cells migrating throughout the body.

Paul Peter explains, "The approach we call oncolytic viral immunotherapy. The name already indicates that we use viruses here for a good purpose, actually, to treat cancer. And immunotherapy indicates that we try to activate the patient's own immune system to fight cancer at the site of the injection, as well as at the site of the un-injected distant metastasis. Basically, you can see it as a form of what we call in situ vaccination. In situ means at the place of the injection."

"We kill the tumor cells at the site of the injection, and we do that in a way that's immunogenic. That means that we activate the immune system, and we create the optimal conditions at the site of the injection of the body's own immune system to start to recognize specifically the so-called cancer neoantigens. These are the molecules that are expressed on the surface of the cancer cells, and that can be recognized by these T cells. We call them cytotoxic T cells. The name already means that they're able to kill the tumor cells."

#Candel #CandelTherapeutics #Candoers #CAN2409 #Immunotherapy #SolidTumors #Cancer

candeltx.com

Download the transcript here

Dr. Samantha Dale Strasser Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder at Pepper Bio, uses a transomic perspective with a global functional causal lens on genomic data to drive insights throughout the drug discovery process and identify the best treatments for patients. The goal is to go beyond the traditional understanding of diseases to unlock opportunities and solutions not considered in the past.

Samantha explains, "So, I mentioned the genome is fantastic because it looks at instructions, but it looks at what can happen. It doesn't look at what is happening. And so looking up those data layers, bringing us to phosphoproteomics, brings functional context of fundamentally what proteins are doing and how that impacts disease and treatment selection."

"The second facet that we drive forward here at Pepper is bringing a global context. So just kind of genomics itself is obviously a massive data set of hundreds of thousands of genes. But then you look at bringing in context from transomics, as well as proteomics and phosphoproteomics, all of those data layers we want to look at in their entirety. We don't want to pre-select a favorite pathway per se because we want to ensure that critical insights aren't missed. So with Pepper, again, the transomics approach brings global information to bear to ensure that we're capturing all of that critical biology at each data layer."

@Pepper_Bio #DrugDiscovery #Genomics #Transomics #Proteomics #Phosphoproteomics

Pepper.Bio

Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Samantha Dale Strasser Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder at Pepper Bio, uses a transomic perspective with a global functional causal lens on genomic data to drive insights throughout the drug discovery process and identify the best treatments for patients. The goal is to go beyond the traditional understanding of diseases to unlock opportunities and solutions not considered in the past.

Samantha explains, "So, I mentioned the genome is fantastic because it looks at instructions, but it looks at what can happen. It doesn't look at what is happening. And so looking up those data layers, bringing us to phosphoproteomics, brings functional context of fundamentally what proteins are doing and how that impacts disease and treatment selection."

"The second facet that we drive forward here at Pepper is bringing a global context. So just kind of genomics itself is obviously a massive data set of hundreds of thousands of genes. But then you look at bringing in context from transomics, as well as proteomics and phosphoproteomics, all of those data layers we want to look at in their entirety. We don't want to pre-select a favorite pathway per se because we want to ensure that critical insights aren't missed. So with Pepper, again, the transomics approach brings global information to bear to ensure that we're capturing all of that critical biology at each data layer."

@Pepper_Bio #DrugDiscovery #Genomics #Transomics #Proteomics #Phosphoproteomics

Pepper.Bio

Download the transcript here

Dr. Miguel Grillo, Prosthodontic Specialists of San Diego raises awareness about the importance of proper chewing and the role teeth play in overall health. Finding periodontal disease at an early stage means measures can be taken to save teeth. Patients with the late-stage disease and those with cosmetic concerns now have more options for permanent solutions to restore their smiles.

Miguel explains, "So prosthodontist is a specialty within dentistry. What we specialize in is the reconstruction of the mouth. So when it gets to the point where others cannot handle a case due to complexity, it could be medical, restorative, or behavioral issues. Then we basically take it from there, and we do large restorations of the mouth with implants, partials, dentures, or crowns or veneers. And we're in the business of making things work better, function well, and giving people their lives back."

"I think you can pick up a lot of clues just by looking at somebody's smile and seeing the teeth, how long the teeth are, if they're worn, if they're flat, if they don't have the right curvature, if they're old restorations, decay. You can see a lot from the outside that gives you some insight as to what you might see when you do a full examination. But ultimately, really you need to blend in clinical examination with a radiographic evaluation to come up with a proper diagnosis. But you can actually probably tell more than you think."

#Prosthodontics #ReconstructiveSurgeries #OralHealth #DentalImplants #Teeth #MiguelGrilloDMD

prosthodonticspecialist.com

Listen to the podcast here

Dr. Miguel Grillo, Prosthodontic Specialists of San Diego raises awareness about the importance of proper chewing and the role teeth play in overall health. Finding periodontal disease at an early stage means measures can be taken to save teeth. Patients with the late-stage disease and those with cosmetic concerns now have more options for permanent solutions to restore their smiles.

Miguel explains, "So prosthodontist is a specialty within dentistry. What we specialize in is the reconstruction of the mouth. So when it gets to the point where others cannot handle a case due to complexity, it could be medical, restorative, or behavioral issues. Then we basically take it from there, and we do large restorations of the mouth with implants, partials, dentures, or crowns or veneers. And we're in the business of making things work better, function well, and giving people their lives back."

"I think you can pick up a lot of clues just by looking at somebody's smile and seeing the teeth, how long the teeth are, if they're worn, if they're flat, if they don't have the right curvature, if they're old restorations, decay. You can see a lot from the outside that gives you some insight as to what you might see when you do a full examination. But ultimately, really you need to blend in clinical examination with a radiographic evaluation to come up with a proper diagnosis. But you can actually probably tell more than you think."

#Prosthodontics #ReconstructiveSurgeries #OralHealth #DentalImplants #Teeth #MiguelGrilloDMD

prosthodonticspecialist.com

Download the transcript here

Chuck Sawyer is the Special Assistant to the President at Northwestern Health Sciences University, NWHSU, located in Bloomington, Minnesota. Chuck argues for a different approach to pain management given the opioid epidemic and the overuse of opioid narcotics to treat acute pain and chronic pain. Of particular concern is extending the use of chiropractic treatments and acupuncture for Medicaid and Medicare patients.

Chuck explains, "And fast forward to the present day, we now have ten programs, with our chiropractic program continuing to be the largest. But we've added acupuncture at both the master's and doctoral levels, and we have a program in therapeutic massage. More recently, programs in other allied health careers including medical assisting, medical laboratory science, radiologic technology, and radiation therapy. We have a post-bachelors pre-health program for students with bachelor's degrees who are seeking enrollment in medical schools and dental schools, and two online programs just launched in integrative health and wellness and functional nutrition."

"Then you get to the age of 65, and all of a sudden, now your coverage, and even though your access to care is still good in the Medicare program, your coverage is very limited. So aging into Medicare is a problem. And so it's time really for Medicare to catch up with what's happening on the commercial side, and particularly now with the heightened emphasis on non-pharmacologic options for treating pain. It's time for Medicare to broaden its coverage so that patients don't have to pay out of pocket for services that are covered in the Medicare program when provided by healthcare professionals, other than chiropractic doctors and acupuncturists."

#NWHSU #TreatingPain #IntegrativeHealth #AlternativeMedicine #Acupuncture #ChiropracticDoctors #PainManagement #Opioids #NonDrugTreatment #NonPharmacologic #Medicaid #Medicare

nwhealth.edu

Listen to the podcast here

Chuck Sawyer is the Special Assistant to the President at Northwestern Health Sciences University, NWHSU, located in Bloomington, Minnesota. Chuck argues for a different approach to pain management given the opioid epidemic and the overuse of opioid narcotics to treat acute pain and chronic pain. Of particular concern is extending the use of chiropractic treatments and acupuncture for Medicaid and Medicare patients.

Chuck explains, "And fast forward to the present day, we now have ten programs, with our chiropractic program continuing to be the largest. But we've added acupuncture at both the master's and doctoral levels, and we have a program in therapeutic massage. More recently, programs in other allied health careers including medical assisting, medical laboratory science, radiologic technology, and radiation therapy. We have a post-bachelors pre-health program for students with bachelor's degrees who are seeking enrollment in medical schools and dental schools, and two online programs just launched in integrative health and wellness and functional nutrition."

"Then you get to the age of 65, and all of a sudden, now your coverage, and even though your access to care is still good in the Medicare program, your coverage is very limited. So aging into Medicare is a problem. And so it's time really for Medicare to catch up with what's happening on the commercial side, and particularly now with the heightened emphasis on non-pharmacologic options for treating pain. It's time for Medicare to broaden its coverage so that patients don't have to pay out of pocket for services that are covered in the Medicare program when provided by healthcare professionals, other than chiropractic doctors and acupuncturists."

#NWHSU #TreatingPain #IntegrativeHealth #AlternativeMedicine #Acupuncture #ChiropracticDoctors #PainManagement #Opioids #NonDrugTreatment #NonPharmacologic #Medicaid #Medicare

nwhealth.edu

Download the transcript here