TheoryLab

Cancer cells, explains Dorothy Sipkins, MD, PhD, “have this tendency to steal from or copy the way that normal cells respond to their microenvironment.”

In this conversation Dr. Sipkins explains how cancer cells profit from the tissue microenvironment. She also describes an important discovery made by her lab, showing how acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells get around the blood-brain barrier to find the microenvironment in the central nervous system where they flourish.

Dorothy Sipkins, MD, PhD, is an associate professor at the Duke University Medical Center in the Division of Hematological Malignancies and Cellular Therapy. Dr. Sipkins runs a lab that’s focused on tissue microenvironments, or “niches, that regulate the migration, survival and regeneration of cancerous cells.”

3:42 – Why the tissue microenvironment is so important…

8:02 – …and how different microenvironments are crucial for cancer cells

11:55 –The treatment challenges resulting from the movement of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cells into the central nervous system

16:17 – The long, difficult (but absolutely critical) journey her lab took to understanding how ALL gets around the blood-brain barrier to find the tissue microenvironment that allows it to flourish

30:36 – How her lab is trying to find “the best drug, the best tool, the best way to inhibit this process” in patients

31:07 – How ACS helped advance her research

32:52 – A message she’d like to share with survivors and caregivers

As both a clinician and scientist Kosj Yamoah, MD, PhD, has dedicated his career to increasing access and quality of care for prostate cancer patients, particularly African American men.

In this conversation Dr. Yamoah describes the challenges associated with knowing when prostate cancer is likely to be aggressive. And he talks about the increased incidence and mortality among African American prostate cancer patients, touching on causal factors as well as issues around incidence, diagnosis, treatment delivery, treatment response, and outcomes.

Kosj Yamoah, MD, PhD, is a radiation oncologist and Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute.

1:08 – The biggest challenge clinicians face when treating prostate cancer patients

3:01 – Some of the issues faced by African American prostate cancer patients

5:14 –Disparities and health inequity issues for African American prostate cancer patients

8:25 – On his research into biomarkers for prostate cancer

12:30 – On prospectively validating the effectiveness of Decipher—a genomic test looking at gene expression within tumor tissue to measure its aggressiveness—in African American men

17:06 – His work in West Africa, where “prostate cancer is the 2nd leading cause of cancer death,” as part of the Men of African Descent and Carcinoma of the Prostate (MADCaP) consortium

21:17 – On starting high school at age 7 (!!!)

26:25 – A heartfelt message for cancer survivors and caregivers

As both a clinician and scientist Kosj Yamoah, MD, PhD, has dedicated his career to increasing access and quality of care for prostate cancer patients, particularly African American men.

In this conversation Dr. Yamoah describes the challenges associated with knowing when prostate cancer is likely to be aggressive. And he talks about the increased incidence and mortality among African American prostate cancer patients, touching on causal factors as well as issues around incidence, diagnosis, treatment delivery, treatment response, and outcomes.

Kosj Yamoah, MD, PhD, is a radiation oncologist and Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute.

1:08 – The biggest challenge clinicians face when treating prostate cancer patients

3:01 – Some of the issues faced by African American prostate cancer patients

5:14 –Disparities and health inequity issues for African American prostate cancer patients

8:25 – On his research into biomarkers for prostate cancer

12:30 – On prospectively validating the effectiveness of Decipher—a genomic test looking at gene expression within tumor tissue to measure its aggressiveness—in African American men

17:06 – His work in West Africa, where “prostate cancer is the 2nd leading cause of cancer death,” as part of the Men of African Descent and Carcinoma of the Prostate (MADCaP) consortium

21:17 – On starting high school at age 7 (!!!)

26:25 – A heartfelt message for cancer survivors and caregivers

“To be a scientist,” notes Steve Morris, MD, “you have to take failure after failure with undying enthusiasm.” Without that persistence, we might never have had the lung cancer drug Crizotinib.

The path to that drug’s development spanned more than two decades, and Dr. Morris played a critical and recurring role.

In 1994, Dr. Morris and his team discovered the gene ALK and showed that it plays a critical role in some lymphomas. He went on to help show that a variety of cancer sub-types are caused by ALK abnormalities, including certain lung cancers, lymphomas, leukemias, mesotheliomas, thyroid cancers, and pediatric cancers.

But he didn’t stop with discovery. He and his team also created a diagnostic test, the Vysis ALK Break Apart FISH Probe Kit, to help clinicians determine if a patient’s tumors have an abnormal ALK gene.

Ultimately his efforts helped drug developers to come up with the lung cancer drug Xalkori (crizotinib), which was first approved by the FDA in 2011 for the treatment of ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer. The drug’s use has been expanded since. Crizotinib is also being evaluated as a potential targeted drug therapy in the treatment of neuroblastoma, a type of brain cancer, and other cancers with ALK mutations or rearrangements. Up to 15% of neuroblastomas have mutations in the ALK gene.

Steve Morris, MD, is the co-founder of Insight Genetics and serves as Chief Medical Officer for companies developing cancer therapies. Prior to that he was a Full Member at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

4:49 – On his team’s “time-consuming, labor-intensive, capital-intensive” discovery of the ALK gene

8:48 – How ALK plays a role in cancer

11:20 – The road to making ALK a druggable target

16:58 – The diagnostic test he and his team developed to help clinicians determine if a patient’s tumors have an abnormal ALK gene

26:19 – On why he left academic medicine to pursue drug development and the creation of diagnostic tests

29:32 – On the challenges of drug development, including the low success rate, the long development timeline, and the very high capital investment

32:52 – On the exciting prospects of precision medicine

38:39 – The role of American Cancer Society funding on his career and the discovery of ALK

“To be a scientist,” notes Steve Morris, MD, “you have to take failure after failure with undying enthusiasm.” Without that persistence, we might never have had the lung cancer drug Crizotinib.

The path to that drug’s development spanned more than two decades, and Dr. Morris played a critical and recurring role.

In 1994, Dr. Morris and his team discovered the gene ALK and showed that it plays a critical role in some lymphomas. He went on to help show that a variety of cancer sub-types are caused by ALK abnormalities, including certain lung cancers, lymphomas, leukemias, mesotheliomas, thyroid cancers, and pediatric cancers.

But he didn’t stop with discovery. He and his team also created a diagnostic test, the Vysis ALK Break Apart FISH Probe Kit, to help clinicians determine if a patient’s tumors have an abnormal ALK gene.

Ultimately his efforts helped drug developers to come up with the lung cancer drug Xalkori (crizotinib), which was first approved by the FDA in 2011 for the treatment of ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer. The drug’s use has been expanded since. Crizotinib is also being evaluated as a potential targeted drug therapy in the treatment of neuroblastoma, a type of brain cancer, and other cancers with ALK mutations or rearrangements. Up to 15% of neuroblastomas have mutations in the ALK gene.

Steve Morris, MD, is the co-founder of Insight Genetics and serves as Chief Medical Officer for companies developing cancer therapies. Prior to that he was a Full Member at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

4:49 – On his team’s “time-consuming, labor-intensive, capital-intensive” discovery of the ALK gene

8:48 – How ALK plays a role in cancer

11:20 – The road to making ALK a druggable target

16:58 – The diagnostic test he and his team developed to help clinicians determine if a patient’s tumors have an abnormal ALK gene

26:19 – On why he left academic medicine to pursue drug development and the creation of diagnostic tests

29:32 – On the challenges of drug development, including the low success rate, the long development timeline, and the very high capital investment

32:52 – On the exciting prospects of precision medicine

38:39 – The role of American Cancer Society funding on his career and the discovery of ALK

As a clinician and researcher, Efren Flores, MD, is dedicated to helping everyone, including the most vulnerable populations, prevent and treat lung cancer. In this conversation, Dr. Flores talks about health equity and disparities, the barriers that patients are faced with, and the importance of coordinated care. He also speaks eloquently about the stigma that some lung cancer patients have to deal with and how, “medical conditions don’t define people. Nobody is defined by cancer.”

Efren Flores, MD, is a radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Instructor in Radiology at Harvard Medical School, where he’s the Officer for Community Health and Equity. He’s also a member of the National Lung Cancer Roundtable, a coalition of leading professional, government and non-governmental organizations working to accelerate the nation's efforts to reduce mortality from lung cancer.

4:30 – On health equity and health disparities, the critical issue of missed appointments in radiology, and some of the barriers patients have to overcome

11:32 – What patient outreach looks like in lung cancer

14:42 – How mental health clinicians could be key to advancing lung cancer screening for a hard-to-reach population

16:53 – The importance of coordinated patient care

20:34 – The National Lung Cancer Roundtable and how it can help vulnerable patient populations

25:20 – What he wishes people knew about lung cancer

27:04 – The impact of American Cancer Society funding on his research

28:57 – A message he’d like to share with patients

As a clinician and researcher, Efren Flores, MD, is dedicated to helping everyone, including the most vulnerable populations, prevent and treat lung cancer. In this conversation, Dr. Flores talks about health equity and disparities, the barriers that patients are faced with, and the importance of coordinated care. He also speaks eloquently about the stigma that some lung cancer patients have to deal with and how, “medical conditions don’t define people. Nobody is defined by cancer.”

Efren Flores, MD, is a radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Instructor in Radiology at Harvard Medical School, where he’s the Officer for Community Health and Equity. He’s also a member of the National Lung Cancer Roundtable, a coalition of leading professional, government and non-governmental organizations working to accelerate the nation's efforts to reduce mortality from lung cancer.

4:30 – On health equity and health disparities, the critical issue of missed appointments in radiology, and some of the barriers patients have to overcome

11:32 – What patient outreach looks like in lung cancer

14:42 – How mental health clinicians could be key to advancing lung cancer screening for a hard-to-reach population

16:53 – The importance of coordinated patient care

20:34 – The National Lung Cancer Roundtable and how it can help vulnerable patient populations

25:20 – What he wishes people knew about lung cancer

27:04 – The impact of American Cancer Society funding on his research

28:57 – A message he’d like to share with patients

Dr. Monica Webb Hooper is a leader in the field of cancer health disparities, internationally recognized for her tobacco research. She is Director of the Office of Cancer Disparities Research in the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University. She is also Professor of Oncology, Family Medicine & Community Health and Psychological Sciences.

3:50 - What are cancer disparities?

6:09 – The listening tour her cancer center underwent to learn more about community health care needs, perceptions, desires, and experiences

8:29 – Tobacco-related health disparities and the unique role that stress has on ethnic and racial disparities

14:14 – Culturally specific interventions for African Americans, how to increase access to these interventions, and the challenges of keeping patients engaged using mobile applications

22:56 – How to find the web-based intervention, “Pathways to Freedom: Leading the Way to a Smoke-Free Community”

23:42 – The mission of the Tobacco Obesity Oncology Laboratory (TOOL)

25:12 – The impact of ACS funding on her work

26:34 – A message she’d like to share with cancer patients

Dr. Monica Webb Hooper is a leader in the field of cancer health disparities, internationally recognized for her tobacco research. She is Director of the Office of Cancer Disparities Research in the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University. She is also Professor of Oncology, Family Medicine & Community Health and Psychological Sciences.

3:50 - What are cancer disparities?

6:09 – The listening tour her cancer center underwent to learn more about community health care needs, perceptions, desires, and experiences

8:29 – Tobacco-related health disparities and the unique role that stress has on ethnic and racial disparities

14:14 – Culturally specific interventions for African Americans, how to increase access to these interventions, and the challenges of keeping patients engaged using mobile applications

22:56 – How to find the web-based intervention, “Pathways to Freedom: Leading the Way to a Smoke-Free Community”

23:42 – The mission of the Tobacco Obesity Oncology Laboratory (TOOL)

25:12 – The impact of ACS funding on her work

26:34 – A message she’d like to share with cancer patients

As a lung cancer pulmonologist who sees 5-7 new patients every week, runs a patient-focused clinical research program, and has been helping patients fight lung cancer for more than 25 years, Gerard Silvestri, MD, MS, has a long history with this disease. So when he says, “I have never been in my career so optimistic as I am now,” take note.

In this interview Dr. Silvestri talks about reasons for optimism in nearly every aspect of lung cancer research, from prevention and screening to new treatments and survivorship.

Dr. Silvestri is Professor of Medicine and the George C. and Margaret M. Hillenbrand Endowed Chair at the Medical University of South Carolina. He’s also on the steering committee of the National Lung Cancer Roundtable, a coalition of leading professional, government and non-governmental organizations working to accelerate the nation's efforts to reduce mortality from lung cancer.

2:29 – On his work in the clinic and the lab: “Every Tuesday I see between 5 and 7 new patients with lumps and bumps, and my job is to do three things—ask the questions: ‘What is it?’ (that’s the diagnosis); ‘Where is it?’ (that’s the stage); and ‘What can we do about it?’ (those are the treatment options).”

4:21 – What should people know about lung cancer? After noting that, “more women will die of lung cancer than all other female cancers combined,” he shared encouraging news about prevention and screening.

6:36 – On what it means to be a high-risk patient

8:42 – On where high-risk patients should go for screening, and the importance of returning for follow-up screenings: “The where is actually really important…you should be in a place that can really care for you.”

12:11 – On lung cancer in patients who have never smoked

15:09 – On why he’s never been more optimistic about treatment breakthroughs

20:04 – On the work of the National Lung Cancer Roundtable

23:30 – On three aspects of the Roundtable’s work that are particularly exciting

27:51 – A message he’d like to share with cancer patients and caregivers