In the TheoryLab podcast, we usually highlight the work of American Cancer Society scientists and funded researchers. But in this episode, we speak with some amazing women who exemplify why we support cancer research.

In this two-part episode, you'll hear from a metastatic breast cancer THRIVER, a cancer survivor, and the managing director of Making Strides Against Breast Cancer (MSABC).

(2:49) First, we spoke with Valerie Mortimer—a metastatic breast cancer thriver—and Joya Harris—a stage 3 breast cancer survivor. They shared what it was like to be diagnosed with breast cancer, how they found strength during their journey, and advice they have for newly diagnosed patients. They also talked about how helpful it can be to become part of a community of survivors and caregivers.

(26:40) In the second half of the episode, we spoke with Susan Petre, Managing Director of Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. What is Making Strides? How much money is raised through it, and how does the American Cancer Society use those funds? She also talks about how the event has changed this year in response to the pandemic. And she ends by talking about some of her favorite memories from Making Strides events over the years.

Siran Koroukian, PhD, is a leading health policy and health services researcher whose work bridges health equity, big data, public health, and cancer.

In her new study—funded through a collaboration between the American Cancer Society and Flatiron Health—Dr. Koroukian will use real world data from Flatiron’s national de-identified oncology datasets curated from electronic health records. Using clinical and genomic data gathered from routine care, she will explore patterns of genomic testing and precision medicine among patients with metastatic colon cancer.

With this research she hopes to “unravel new opportunities to improve the quality and equity of cancer care in colorectal cancer patients with metastatic disease, thus informing new interventions to improve cancer outcomes, and lead to a more equitable distribution of scarce healthcare resources.”

Siran Koroukian, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. She also leads the shared resource on population cancer and analytics within the comprehensive cancer center. And she’s a four-time American Cancer Society grantee. She was recently the recipient of the American Cancer Society Flatiron Health Real-World Data Impact Award to advance patient-centric research.

2:23 – On informed cancer care and management and why it’s important for colorectal cancer patients

4:34 – Current treatment guidelines for colorectal cancer patients with advanced or metastatic disease

10:25 – Why are colorectal cancer patients who are young and healthy but underserved not receiving genomic testing and personalized therapy?

15:18 – On how inefficiencies in the health care system and the overuse of finite health care resources contributes to disparities

19:48 – How her research into Flatiron Health datasets—which include patients of all ages with many kinds of insurance status—will show who is benefiting from precision medicine and who is not…

20:55 – …and how her research could help more patients benefit from precision medicine

23:22 – The impact of ACS funding on her career

26:00 – A message she’d like to share with cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers

Siran Koroukian, PhD, is a leading health policy and health services researcher whose work bridges health equity, big data, public health, and cancer.

In her new study—funded through a collaboration between the American Cancer Society and Flatiron Health—Dr. Koroukian will use real world data from Flatiron’s national de-identified oncology datasets curated from electronic health records. Using clinical and genomic data gathered from routine care, she will explore patterns of genomic testing and precision medicine among patients with metastatic colon cancer.

With this research she hopes to “unravel new opportunities to improve the quality and equity of cancer care in colorectal cancer patients with metastatic disease, thus informing new interventions to improve cancer outcomes, and lead to a more equitable distribution of scarce healthcare resources.”

Siran Koroukian, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. She also leads the shared resource on population cancer and analytics within the comprehensive cancer center. And she’s a four-time American Cancer Society grantee. She was recently the recipient of the American Cancer Society Flatiron Health Real-World Data Impact Award to advance patient-centric research.

2:23 – On informed cancer care and management and why it’s important for colorectal cancer patients

4:34 – Current treatment guidelines for colorectal cancer patients with advanced or metastatic disease

10:25 – Why are colorectal cancer patients who are young and healthy but underserved not receiving genomic testing and personalized therapy?

15:18 – On how inefficiencies in the health care system and the overuse of finite health care resources contributes to disparities

19:48 – How her research into Flatiron Health datasets—which include patients of all ages with many kinds of insurance status—will show who is benefiting from precision medicine and who is not…

20:55 – …and how her research could help more patients benefit from precision medicine

23:22 – The impact of ACS funding on her career

26:00 – A message she’d like to share with cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers

Leticia Nogueira, PhD, MPH—Senior Principal Scientist in the Data Science Research team at the American Cancer Society—has broken new ground with her research into climate change and cancer.

In 2019, she published work showing how disasters such as hurricanes can interrupt the provision of oncology care. Radiotherapy is particularly vulnerable, because it requires dependable electrical power and the daily presence of specialized teams and patients for treatment delivery.

She followed that up this year with a look at how climate change increases exposure to carcinogens and disrupts access to cancer care:

“Climate change is already increasing cancer risk through increased exposure to carcinogens after extreme weather events such as hurricanes and wildfires. In addition to increasing cancer risk, climate change is also impacting cancer survival. Extreme weather events can impede patients' access to cancer care and the ability of cancer treatment facilities to deliver care. For these reasons, cancer treatment facilities should ensure that their disaster preparedness plans can withstand climate threats and should evaluate and mitigate their own contributions to greenhouse gas emissions. Fortunately, many actions that address climate change also reduce carcinogen releases or exposures.”

(Article: Climate Change and Cancer, CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, July 2020, https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3322/caac.21610)

1:28 – How she first became interested in this line of research

3:53 – On how climate change increases cancer risk

4:44 – Recent examples of extreme weather increasing our exposure to carcinogens

6:49 – How climate change and resulting extreme weather events has impacted cancer care

10:27 – Why cancer patients are especially vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters on their care

11:58 – What cancer patients can do to be prepared if disaster strikes, and some helpful resources

14:26 – How cancer care facilities can make themselves more resilient to the threats of climate change

16:50 – On the carbon footprint involved in cancer care, and some interesting ways it could be reduced

20:10 – What listeners can do to help

22:11 – A message she’d like to share with cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers

Leticia Nogueira, PhD, MPH—Senior Principal Scientist in the Data Science Research team at the American Cancer Society—has broken new ground with her research into climate change and cancer.

In 2019, she published work showing how disasters such as hurricanes can interrupt the provision of oncology care. Radiotherapy is particularly vulnerable, because it requires dependable electrical power and the daily presence of specialized teams and patients for treatment delivery.

She followed that up this year with a look at how climate change increases exposure to carcinogens and disrupts access to cancer care:

“Climate change is already increasing cancer risk through increased exposure to carcinogens after extreme weather events such as hurricanes and wildfires. In addition to increasing cancer risk, climate change is also impacting cancer survival. Extreme weather events can impede patients' access to cancer care and the ability of cancer treatment facilities to deliver care. For these reasons, cancer treatment facilities should ensure that their disaster preparedness plans can withstand climate threats and should evaluate and mitigate their own contributions to greenhouse gas emissions. Fortunately, many actions that address climate change also reduce carcinogen releases or exposures.”

(Article: Climate Change and Cancer, CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, July 2020, https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3322/caac.21610)

1:28 – How she first became interested in this line of research

3:53 – On how climate change increases cancer risk

4:44 – Recent examples of extreme weather increasing our exposure to carcinogens

6:49 – How climate change and resulting extreme weather events has impacted cancer care

10:27 – Why cancer patients are especially vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters on their care

11:58 – What cancer patients can do to be prepared if disaster strikes, and some helpful resources

14:26 – How cancer care facilities can make themselves more resilient to the threats of climate change

16:50 – On the carbon footprint involved in cancer care, and some interesting ways it could be reduced

20:10 – What listeners can do to help

22:11 – A message she’d like to share with cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers

What is it that goes so wrong when cancer cells develop the ability to divide indefinitely?

Dr. Johannes Walter joined the TheoryLab podcast to help answer that question. He and his lab are at the leading edge of discovery science aimed at understanding DNA replication and repair, areas that are critical to understanding cancer and developing new therapies.

Johannes Walter, PhD, is an American Cancer Society Research Professor, Professor of Biological Chemistry at Harvard Medical School, and Member of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Research Professor. He’s also the co-founder of MOMA Therapeutics, which aims to “discover the next generation of precision medicines by targeting the molecular machines that underlie human disease.”

3:04 – What is DNA? Why is it so important to cell division?

7:39 – What causes DNA damage?

11:34 – How damaged DNA is most often repaired

14:36 – When DNA repair goes wrong

17:43 – Using frog egg extract to study DNA repair and understand cancer in humans

21:44 – Why frog egg extract? Why not an extract from human cells?

24:47 – While cells have around 10 different strategies for repairing DNA, his lab is studying a process where DNA repair is coupled with DNA replication

29:05 – On what can go wrong in a cancerous cell

32:00 – “Synthetic lethality” – an exciting way that his research into DNA repair could lead to improved cancer treatments

35:27 – How his team recently began to work on something called strand discontinuity

38:13 – How ACS funding has impacted his career

40:34 – A message he’d like to share with cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers

What is it that goes so wrong when cancer cells develop the ability to divide indefinitely?

Dr. Johannes Walter joined the TheoryLab podcast to help answer that question. He and his lab are at the leading edge of discovery science aimed at understanding DNA replication and repair, areas that are critical to understanding cancer and developing new therapies.

Johannes Walter, PhD, is an American Cancer Society Research Professor, Professor of Biological Chemistry at Harvard Medical School, and Member of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Research Professor. He’s also the co-founder of MOMA Therapeutics, which aims to “discover the next generation of precision medicines by targeting the molecular machines that underlie human disease.”

3:04 – What is DNA? Why is it so important to cell division?

7:39 – What causes DNA damage?

11:34 – How damaged DNA is most often repaired

14:36 – When DNA repair goes wrong

17:43 – Using frog egg extract to study DNA repair and understand cancer in humans

21:44 – Why frog egg extract? Why not an extract from human cells?

24:47 – While cells have around 10 different strategies for repairing DNA, his lab is studying a process where DNA repair is coupled with DNA replication

29:05 – On what can go wrong in a cancerous cell

32:00 – “Synthetic lethality” – an exciting way that his research into DNA repair could lead to improved cancer treatments

35:27 – How his team recently began to work on something called strand discontinuity

38:13 – How ACS funding has impacted his career

40:34 – A message he’d like to share with cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers

The American Cancer Society has updated its guideline on diet and physical activity for cancer prevention.

Dr. Laura Makaroff—Senior Vice President of Prevention and Early Detection at the American Cancer Society—joined the podcast to explain how staying at a healthy weight, staying active throughout life, following a healthy eating pattern, and avoiding or limiting alcohol may greatly reduce a person's lifetime risk of developing or dying from cancer.

At least 18% of all cancer cases in the US are related to a combination of these factors. These lifestyle habits are the most important behaviors after not smoking that people can control and change to help lower their cancer risk.

The updated guideline reflects the latest evidence published since the last update in 2012.

It appears in the American Cancer Society’s peer-reviewed journal, CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians: https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3322/caac.21591. A summary can be found on our home page: https://www.cancer.org/latest-news/american-cancer-society-updates-guideline-for-diet-and-physical-activity.html.

2:05 – Background on the Guidelines for Diet and Physical Activity and why they were updated

3:23 – How the guidelines are intended for a broad audience of health care professionals, policymakers, and the general public

6:32 – On the impact of body weight on cancer risk

11:04 - Why preventing weight gain as we age is important

14:01 – “Move more, sit less” and the link between physical activity and post-menopausal breast cancer

18:06 – On healthy lifestyle patterns and accommodating slip-ups while maintain a healthy pattern

24:09 – Recommendations for alcohol consumption

25:48 – “If you could eliminate just one obstacle to our engaging in healthy behaviors, what would it be?”

28:05 – ACS resources that can help people make better decisions about their health behaviors

30:15 – A message she’d like to share with cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers

The American Cancer Society has updated its guideline on diet and physical activity for cancer prevention.

Dr. Laura Makaroff—Senior Vice President of Prevention and Early Detection at the American Cancer Society—joined the podcast to explain how staying at a healthy weight, staying active throughout life, following a healthy eating pattern, and avoiding or limiting alcohol may greatly reduce a person's lifetime risk of developing or dying from cancer.

At least 18% of all cancer cases in the US are related to a combination of these factors. These lifestyle habits are the most important behaviors after not smoking that people can control and change to help lower their cancer risk.

The updated guideline reflects the latest evidence published since the last update in 2012.

It appears in the American Cancer Society’s peer-reviewed journal, CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians: https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3322/caac.21591. A summary can be found on our home page: https://www.cancer.org/latest-news/american-cancer-society-updates-guideline-for-diet-and-physical-activity.html.

2:05 – Background on the Guidelines for Diet and Physical Activity and why they were updated

3:23 – How the guidelines are intended for a broad audience of health care professionals, policymakers, and the general public

6:32 – On the impact of body weight on cancer risk

11:04 - Why preventing weight gain as we age is important

14:01 – “Move more, sit less” and the link between physical activity and post-menopausal breast cancer

18:06 – On healthy lifestyle patterns and accommodating slip-ups while maintain a healthy pattern

24:09 – Recommendations for alcohol consumption

25:48 – “If you could eliminate just one obstacle to our engaging in healthy behaviors, what would it be?”

28:05 – ACS resources that can help people make better decisions about their health behaviors

30:15 – A message she’d like to share with cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers

It’s difficult to comprehend how busy and densely packed it is on the inside of a cell. But understanding cell structure and organization is critical to developing new cancer drugs.

Isaac Klein, MD, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Richard Young Laboratory at the Whitehead Institute, recently published findings that could have wide-ranging implications for the understanding of how cancer drugs work.

Dr. Klein joined the podcast to explain why knowing how to get cancer drugs to exactly the right place in a cell—at a sufficient concentration—is critical to developing new and more effective cancer treatments.

Isaac Klein, MD, PhD, is the American Cancer Society Layla Rohani Postdoctoral Fellow. His grant was specially funded by the Rohani Family and Friends. He is a physician and scientist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Center and Whitehead Institute at MIT.

4:11 – What is it like inside of a cell? Is organization a challenge for cells?

8:30 – A great analogy to help us understand cell organization and “condensates,” and why it’s important for some sub-compartments in cells not to have membranes walling them off from other parts of the cell.

13:47 – With no membranes, or walls, how do the contents of a condensate stay together?

19:50 – How cancer drugs are pulled into different condensates

23:02 – How cancer drugs get to the right spot in a cell, at the right concentration

26:23 – How the cancer drug Cisplatin works

31:07 – How their research findings hint at ways to make cancer drugs more powerful

35:03 – The impact of ACS funding on his research

36:24 – A message he’d like to share with cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers