The Beacon

Dr. West questions Dr. Gideon Blumenthal of the FDA about how he and his team there struggle to provide timely access to emerging cancer treatments, while also debating questions of the proper thresholds for efficacy and safety.

Drs. Gideon Blumenthal & Jack West discuss his early career interests and trajectory from medical oncology training at the NIH to joining the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate oncology drugs.

Dr. Jack West provides a brief summary of key findings & limitations of two new papers just out in JAMA Oncology (Theelen et al & Bauml et al.) that evaluate the potential benefit of preceding immunotherapy with radiation in patients with advanced NSCLC.

Dr. Jack West speaks with Dr. Sandip Patel about how molecular oncology has changed outcomes in cancer care, but also how we face great difficulty in getting the knowledge & practice patterns out to communities.

Drs. Sandip Patel & host Jack West track his early interest in medicine and even oncology & the importance of good communication & value of effective use of language when working with patients with cancer.

Dr. West speaks with Dr. Suzanne Dahlberg about her path into biostatistics, leadership in shaping trials with ECOG & Dana Farber Cancer Institute, & changing endpoints & trial designs in an era of molecular oncology.

Host Dr. Jack West questions Dr.. Puneeth Iyengar, radiation oncologist at UT-Southwestern, about proton beam radiation therapy, risks & benefits of cranial irradiation, & local ablative therapy for local consolidation therapy for oligometastatic disease.

Dr. Puneeth Iyengar talks with Dr. Jack West about growing up Indian in Louisiana, his training path from Boston to New York before returning to Texas, his entry into radiation oncology, & how the field is adapting to changes in cancer care.

Dr. Jack West speaks with Dr. Esther Choo, academic ER specialist at OHSU in Portland, about her commitment to gender equity in medicine, gender & racial disparities, social & mass media outreach, & her leadership in the Times Up Healthcare movement.

Dr. Esther Choo, ER Physician at OHSU in Portland, speaks with Dr. Jack West about being an outsider growing up, as well as her path into medicine & interest in emergency medicine, where care intersects with broad social issues.