Send us Fan Mail

On this episode of Oncology Unscripted, patient advocates Julie Johnson and Katie Coleman and radiation oncologist Dr. Matt Spraker continue The Insider's Guide to Radiation Therapy! 

This four episode series will cover radiation 101, stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), and proton therapy!

In this episode, we discuss SBRT, alternatively called stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR). We also discuss a related treatment, stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS).

Here are some links to things we discussed during the show:

• Rare Cancer Research Foundation
• Pattern.org
• Count Me In
• JAMA Oncology SBRT/SABR patient page
• CyberKnife information from the manufacturer (Accuray)
• GammaKnife information from the manufacturer (Eleckta)
• The patient-led Remove the Mask Campaign

Here are some clinical and scientific publications mentioned during this show:

• Original Timmerman study of SBRT for early stage lung cancer
• Discovery of the SBRT "No Fly Zone" in the chest
• International Radiosurgery Consortium of the Kidney (IROCK) meta-analysis of SBRT for primary kidney cancer (renal cell carcinoma).

Here are some resources that may be of interest, but were not discussed in this episode:

• An excellent video on Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) versus Whole Brain Radiotherapy (WBRT) for brain metastases from our friends at PRIMR
• RTOG 1112 Trial: Benefit of adding SBRT to Sorafenib in locally advanced liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma). (conference abstract only)
• TRENDY Trial: Suggests that SBRT is superior to trans-arterial chemoembolization (TACE) for early liver cancer (haptocellular carcinoma).
• MD Anderson Cancer Center Phase II Trial: Suggests that SBRT may be used to defer systemic therapy in patients with oligometastatic kidney cancer (renal cell carcinoma) 

Oncology Unscripted is a Photon Media production. Intro and Outro music by Emmy-award winning artist Lucas Cantor Santiago.

Additional content from Katie Coleman can be found at her website, https://www.katiekickscancer.com/. 

This show and our opinions are meant for general informational purposes and are not medical advice. We encourage you to reach out to your doctors to discuss your individual case. 

Send us Fan Mail

On this episode of Oncology Unscripted, patient advocates Julie Johnson and Katie Coleman and radiation oncologist Dr. Matt Spraker continue The Insider's Guide to Radiation Therapy! 

This four episode series will cover radiation 101, stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), and proton therapy!

In this episode, we complete radiation 101, covering 2 more important points to understand radiotherapy:

1. How are radiation plans created and delivered, and how has this improved over decades?
2. Who are the workers in the Radiation Oncology department and what is the workflow that patients experience when getting treatment?

Here are some other things we discussed during the show:

• Explanation of Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), UCLA Health
• Multileaf Collimator (MLC) video, Phoenix Cyberknife
• Percentage depth dose curve
• An "old" radiotherapy block, Vishal Majithia on Flikr

Oncology Unscripted is a Photon Media production. Intro and Outro music by Emmy-award winning artist Lucas Cantor Santiago.

Additional content from Katie Coleman can be found at her website, https://www.katiekickscancer.com/. 

This show and our opinions are meant for general informational purposes and are not medical advice. We encourage you to reach out to your doctors to discuss your individual case. 

Send us Fan Mail

On this episode of Oncology Unscripted, patient advocates Julie Johnson and Katie Coleman and radiation oncologist Dr. Matt Spraker kick of The Insider's Guide to Radiation Therapy! This four episode series will cover radiation 101, stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), and proton therapy! 

Radiation 101 covers the basics you need to know in order to understand how oncologists think about and use radiotherapy to kill cancer. In this episode we discuss two important points:

1. What is radiation and how does it kill cancer (and affect other tissues)?
2. How is radiation therapy used in medicine?

Here are some links to things mentioned in the show:

• Matt on "Ask Me Anything" - Radiation Therapy for Sarcoma (YouTube)
• Electromagnetic energy figure
• A nice written history of radiotherapy - cancer.org
• Spoon of Sugar Podcast - a very nice, detailed overview of radiation therapy
• How Do X-Rays Work? - HowStuffWorks.com

Oncology Unscripted is a Photon Media production. Intro and Outro music by Emmy-award winning artist Lucas Cantor Santiago.

Additional content from Katie Coleman can be found at her website, https://www.katiekickscancer.com/. 

This show and our opinions are meant for general informational purposes and are not medical advice. We encourage you to reach out to your doctors to discuss your individual case. 

Send us Fan Mail

On this episode of Oncology Unscripted, patient advocates Julie Johnson and Katie Coleman and radiation oncologist Dr. Matt Spraker discuss Julie and Katie's recent trip to ASCO 2023. 

Here are some things that were discussed during the show:

• Katie's Twitter thread on ASCO 2023
• Info on ASCO's Patient Advocacy Membership
• SARC Trials
• ASCO Voices

Oncology Unscripted is a Photon Media production. Intro and Outro music by Emmy-award winning artist Lucas Cantor Santiago.

Additional content from Katie Coleman can be found at her website, https://www.katiekickscancer.com/. 

This show and our opinions are meant for general informational purposes and are not medical advice. We encourage you to reach out to your doctors to discuss your individual case. 

Send us Fan Mail

On this episode of Oncology Unscripted, patient advocates Julie Johnson and Katie Coleman and radiation oncologist Dr. Matt Spraker discuss artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine and ChatGPT!

We first discuss the software and some other examples of AI in medicine.  Then Matt goes head to head against ChatGPT answering questions that Julie or Katie might ask their doctors in the middle of the night.

We close with some recommendations on how patients can use ChatGPT to improve their care. 

Here are some things we discussed during the show:

• Doctors versus ChatGPT in JAMA Internal Medicine
• OLD-CARTS acronym in medicine

Oncology Unscripted is a Photon Media production. Intro and Outro music by Emmy-award winning artist Lucas Cantor Santiago.

Additional content from Katie Coleman can be found at her website, https://www.katiekickscancer.com/. 

This show and our opinions are meant for general informational purposes and are not medical advice. We encourage you to reach out to your doctors to discuss your individual case. 

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to Oncology Unscripted, hosted by patient advocates Julie Johnson and Katie Coleman and radiation oncologist Dr. Matt Spraker.

This week Julie, Katie, and Matt discuss some oncology terms. Who works in oncology clinics? We discuss some of the people you might interact with when visiting your doctor.

Matt shares how radiation, medical, and surgical oncologists are trained, and clarifies the difference between medial students, residents, and fellows.

We close with a discussion of mid-level clinicians, such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

Oncology Unscripted is a Photon Media production. Intro and Outro music by Emmy-award winning artist Lucas Cantor Santiago.

Additional content from Katie Coleman can be found at her website, https://www.katiekickscancer.com/. 

This show and our opinions are meant for general informational purposes and are not medical advice. We encourage you to reach out to your doctors to discuss your individual case. 

Send us Fan Mail

Patient advocates Julie Johnson and Katie Coleman team up with radiation oncologist Dr. Matt Spraker to "meet in the middle" for a candid podcast about cancer care for patients and people working in field.

In this episode we discuss the second opinion, seeking an alternate recommendation from a different doctor outside the main team. 

We start by reviewing Katie's Twitter polls that asked patients' and doctors' their feelings on the topic. We then some cases where second opinions are a good idea, such as rare cancers, and Julie and Katie share some resources they used to seek them out.  At the end, we share ideas for how to ask your doctor for help in determining if a second opinion would be beneficial and how to go about finding it.
 
Here are some other things we discussed on the show:

•  Best Doctors, a virtual second opinion service.
• The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), and their patient resources. 
• Healthcare Unfiltered Podcast episode where they discuss prostate cancer pathology grading.
• Cancer Champions and Cancer Commons, navigation and support services.

Oncology Unscripted is a Photon Media production. Additional content from Katie Coleman can be found at her website, https://www.katiekickscancer.com/.

This show and our opinions are meant for general informational purposes and are not medical advice. We encourage you to reach out to your doctors to discuss your individual case. 

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to Oncology Unscripted! In this new podcast, patient advocates Julie Johnson and Katie Coleman team up with radiation oncologist Dr. Matt Spraker to "meet in the middle" for a candid podcast about cancer for patients and doctors.

In the premier episode, Julie and Katie share their diagnosis stories to kick off a conversation about their initial experiences. We cover a wide range of topics: getting diagnosed in a breast center versus the emergency room, types of scans used for evaluating cancer and when they are done, and the ways Julie and Katie found information about their diagnoses.

We also discuss language used in the clinic and why words matter.

To see all of Katie's content, check out her website at https://www.katiekickscancer.com/.

Oncology Unscripted is a Photon Media production.