Listen Now

Gene-editing tools that make the body smarter in fighting cancer. Robots that help surgeons more precisely excise a tumor. Screening technologies that can spot lung tumors the size of a grain of rice. This gee-whiz age of innovation and technological genius looks a lot different than the horse-and-buggy era of the early 1900s when today’s everyday essentials like anesthesia and antiseptic surgeries were only beginning to catch on. And there are even more groundbreaking opportunities on the horizon. On today’s episode of Focus on Cancer, our host, Pat Basu, MD, MBA, President & CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), welcomes entrepreneur and technology-sector leader John Bardis to map out the progress, and the promise, of technological advances—yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Important progress is being made in the fight against cancer—namely, cancer incidence and death rates continue to fall across the United States. But some minority groups are immune to those advances, negatively impacted by a cancer-disparities trend that disproportionately impacts certain racial, ethnic and socioeconomic demographics—none more than the African-American community. In this episode of Focus on Cancer, our host, Pat Basu, MD, MBA, President & CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), welcomes Anita Johnson, MD, Breast Cancer Program Director at CTCA®, for a robust conversation around the impact of cancer disparities, and what we can do to address them.

When you’ve been diagnosed with cancer, you quickly learn that fighting the disease itself is only half the battle. There are also other impacts on your life—from side effects like pain and nausea to changes in your relationships to learning to manage long-term effects as a survivor after treatment. That’s why it’s important to have an integrative care plan that incorporates side-effect management, social support, and survivorship into your cancer treatment regimen. On this episode of Focus on Cancer, our host, Pat Basu, MD, MBA, President & CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), welcomes Carolyn Lammersfeld, Vice President of Integrative Care Services at CTCA®, for a robust discussion on integrative care and its important role in the cancer journey.

It’s been nearly 70 years since Cambridge University scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick discovered the double-helix structure of DNA. In the decades since, our evolving understanding of the human genome has had a profound impact on treatment advances for diseases like cancer. To commemorate Watson and Crick’s groundbreaking discovery, and the mapping of the full human genome 50 years later, DNA Day was designated as a time of public reflection and education around genetics and genomics. To celebrate the occasion, our host, Pat Basu, MD, MBA, President & CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), and his guest, CTCA® Genetic Counselor Eric Fowler, discuss the role genetic testing and counseling play in the cancer journey.

With a cancer diagnosis comes many worries and questions—what will treatment be like? How do I tell my friends and family? For many cancer patients, the diagnosis also comes with existential questions about life, the world around them and their place in it. Some find solace, meaning and purpose through the guidance of a spiritual support program—an increasingly important part of the integrative care model for patients of faith. What exactly is spiritual support, and what role does it play in the cancer journey? On this episode of Focus on Cancer, our host, Pat Basu, MD, MBA, President & CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), sits down with Rev. Percy McCray Jr., Director of Faith-Based Programs at CTCA®, to answer these and other questions.

For Marnee Spierer, MD, fighting breast cancer is more than a job. It’s also a family legacy that’s impacted at least three generations of the women in her family. So, when her sister became the latest to be diagnosed with the disease, Dr. Spierer—Radiation Oncologist and Chief of Staff and Chief of Radiation Oncology at Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), Phoenix—was faced with some very personal decisions. In today’s episode of Focus on Cancer, Dr. Spierer joins our host, Pat Basu, MD, MBA, President and CEO of CTCA®, to talk about her experience with genetic testing and counseling, what led her to decide to undergo a prophylactic mastectomy and learning firsthand—as an oncologist and a woman—about the importance of managing your risk of cancer.

Nearly a year into the worst public health crisis in 100 years, there’s hope, and true progress, on the horizon. Two promising COVID-19 vaccines are being distributed around the country, and millions of Americans have rolled up their sleeves to be inoculated against the deadly virus. But amid the optimism is some skepticism, and a ton of questions—especially among cancer patients: How will the vaccine affect me? Is it safe? Should I even get it? In today’s episode, Mashiul Chowdhury, MD, Infectious Disease Program Director at Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), joins our host, CTCA® President & CEO Pat Basu, MD, MBA, to answer those questions, and more.

Like many men and women who’ve had their lives upended by a cancer diagnosis, Atul Dhir found his journey with lymphoma to be deeply transformative, inspiring the arc of a career that has allowed him to help patients on many fronts—as a physician, a scientist and an innovator in the delivery of care and the development of anti-cancer drug therapies. A survivor of stage IV Hodgkin lymphoma (which later morphed into large-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma), Dr. Dhir sits down with the host of Focus on Cancer, Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA) President & CEO Pat Basu, to share an insider’s look inside some innovations with the power to revolutionize the patient experience.

At the age of 43, married with three children and at the pinnacle of his career as the police chief of a small Texas suburb, Eric K. says he was in “my prime,” when an ache in his lower back sent him to the doctor. He thought it was a kidney stone. Instead, it was squamous cell carcinoma of his left kidney, a rare cancer his oncologist told him he had seen only a few times before. Chemotherapy didn’t work. He was told he was out of options. Then he got a second opinion, hundreds of miles away from his San Antonio-area town. Six years later, Eric sits down with our host, Pat Basu, MD, MBA, President & CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), to share his cancer journey and to offer some advice to cancer patients: Don’t settle for anything less than the patient experience you deserve.

Like detectives working a cold case, scientists are using genes to unravel the mysteries of cancer’s origins and mutations, equipping doctors with new tools to target cancer at its source: the blunder coded in its molecular structure. Now, one groundbreaking clinical trial—the Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry (TAPUR™) Study—is revolutionizing our understanding of cancer at a cellular level. Led by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), TAPUR is studying how commercially available anti-cancer drugs perform on a broader range of cancers, by matching the drugs to tumors with specific genomic mutations that the drugs are designed to target. Four years after the study’s launch, ASCO Chief Medical Officer Richard L., Schilsky, MD, FACP, FSCT, FASCO, sits down with our host, Pat Basu, MD, MBA, President & CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), to share the strides TAPUR has made and how it’s impacted clinical trials on a global scale.

Lung cancer remains the third most common cancer in the United States—and the deadliest. But there’s lots of reason for optimism: Lung cancer incidence and death rates have been steadily falling for decades. Experts attribute the declines in part to lower smoking rates, but also to exciting advances in lung cancer treatments and increasing awareness about the need for early detection and screening. In this episode of Focus on Cancer, our host, Pat Basu, MD, MBA, President & CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), and Bruce Gershenhorn, DO, Lung Cancer Program Director at CTCA®, recognize Lung Cancer Awareness Month with a robust discussion on the progress being made in fighting lung cancer, and what more needs to be done.

It is a sprawling, complex care system with an often-fragmented patient experience, a complex cost structure and an empowered, informed patient base. The largest integrated hospital network in the nation, devoted to caring for our nation’s heroes, the Veterans Affairs system shares some key commonalities with the cancer care community, and few can speak to those insights better than the ninth Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, David J. Shulkin, MD. On the eve of Veterans Day 2020, Secretary Shulkin sits down with the host of Focus on Cancer, Pat Basu, MD, MBA, President & CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), to discuss his work at the VA, the strides that have been made in veteran health care, what’s needed to fix remaining challenges—and how many of those lessons can be applied to cancer care.

Greg Simon has played some key roles in the fight against deadly diseases: President of the Biden Cancer Initiative. Executive Director of President Obama’s White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force. Co-founder of FasterCures, an organization committed to developing new treatment therapies. A cancer survivor himself, he’s become a leading advocate and go-to analyst on emerging trends in health care, drug research and patient advocacy, affording him rich insights into both the health care-delivery system and the patient experience. In this episode of Focus on Cancer, Greg sits down with our host, Pat Basu, MD, MBA, President & CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), covering a range of cancer-related topics. At the heart of the discussion: What are the prospects for reigniting, and landing, the Cancer Moonshot?

Over the past few years, telehealth visits—connecting doctor and patient via virtual technology from the comfort of the patient’s home—were beginning to grow in popularity. Dermatologists were making skin checks. Radiologists used the technology to review radiology scans while the patient underwent tests in another location. But in the age of COVID-19, what was once more of a novelty of convenience has become an essential tool in the delivery of health care, especially in the cancer space. In this episode of Focus on Cancer, our host, Pat Basu, MD, MBA, President & CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), and his guest, Chevon M. Rariy, MD, Telehealth Program Director at CTCA®, discuss the critical role telehealth technologies are increasingly playing in cancer care.

From the color of our hair to the way our bodies tolerate medicine, our genes play a critical role in our health, and our ability to fight off or develop illness and disease, including cancer. But the genes in our DNA profile are not the only ones dictating our health. The genetic profile of a tumor is also critically important in determining how the cancer behaves and grows, and oncologists are now using that information to personalize treatments in very targeted ways. In this episode of Focus on Cancer, the second in a two-part series on how genes are used in cancer treatment, Pat Basu, MD, MBA, President & CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), and his guest, Maurie Markman, MD, President of Medicine & Science at CTCA®, discuss how precision medicine has revolutionized cancer care over the past decade or two.

Ever since scientists sequenced the first DNA strand as part of the Human Genomic Project in the early part of the 21st century, our understanding of the role genes play in our health, and disease, has revolutionized the field of medicine. This is especially true of cancer care. In this episode of Focus on Cancer, the first in a two-part series, Pat Basu, MD, MBA, President & CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), and his guest, Maurie Markman, MD, President of Medicine & Science at CTCA®, discuss pharmacogenomics, a burgeoning field that studies the role genetic variants play in how the body responds to medication.

The body’s immune system is a powerful force, protecting us against infection, illness and disease. But sometimes, those protections break down, allowing cancer to form and grow. In one of the most exciting areas of cancer treatment, doctors are discovering more and more about how to harness the immune system’s power to recognize and fight cancer. In this episode of Focus on Cancer, Pat Basu, MD, MBA, President & CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), and his guest, Ankur Parikh, DO, Director of the Precision Medical Program at CTCA, discuss the past, present and promising future of immunotherapy.

Immunotherapy drugs that marshal the body’s immune system to fight cancer. Genomic analyses that examine cancer at the cellular level, allowing for precise treatments personalized to each patient. These and other breakthroughs have been made possible because of one little-understood, yet fundamental aspect of cancer care: the clinical trial. How do clinical trials work? What progress have they made? Why do so few patients enroll in them? And what is the future of cancer research in the age of COVID-19? Pat Basu, MD, MBA, President & CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), and his guest, Arturo Loaiza-Bonilla, MD, MSEd, FACP, Medical Director of the Clinical Research Program at CTCA, answer those questions on this week’s Focus on Cancer podcast.

Because of their compromised immune systems, many cancer patients are taking extra steps to protect themselves from contracting the COVID-19 virus, staying away from crowds, wearing masks while in public, washing their hands, using grocery delivery services and limiting trips outside the home. But one thing they can’t afford to miss is their cancer treatment appointments. So many are asking: What is my cancer hospital doing to keep me safe from COVID-19? Pat Basu, MD, MBA, President & CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), and his guest, Jeffrey Metts, MD, MPH, Chief of Medicine at CTCA® Atlanta, answers that question, and others, on this week’s webcast of Focus on Cancer.

Efforts to reopen the economy aren’t just about restaurants, beaches, gyms and hair salons. The federal government’s recent decision to relax restrictions on “non-essential” medical procedures means patients can once again have the outpatient surgeries, cancer screenings and other care postponed since the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. For cancer patients, the renewed access comes none too soon—amid multiple studies that have found the pandemic has led to delays in cancer treatment, screening, even clinical trials. Pat Basu, MD, President & CEO of Cancer Treatment Centers of America® (CTCA), and his guest, Julian Schink, MD, Chief Medical Officer at CTCA®, discuss what the Opening Up America initiative means for cancer patients on the debut episode of the Focus On Cancer podcast.