October 16, 2025 • 21 mins
Award-winning journalist Katie Couric has become one of the most public and vocal advocates for cancer awareness and research in the U.S. In this episode, she reflects on how personal experience shaped her commitment to early detection and discusses the advances in science and technology that are transforming women’s health today.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to hear something good on women's health and longevity.
We are so grateful to our partners P and G,
maker of trusted brands like Tampex Always and Always Discreet,
and Walgreens, the women's well being destination, supporting every stage. Together,
we'll bring you something good each week on women's health
and longevity, and it wouldn't be possible without their support.
(00:22):
Each week, we aspire to bringing the good news on
women's health by talking to renowned scientists and medical experts,
and by sharing health advice that can help you live
healthier and happier. Today, we're talking with award winning journalist
Katie Kirk about the importance of health screenings and the
impact cancer has had on her own life. Katie spoke
(00:42):
recently with Seneca co founder Milan Ververe at our Women's
Health and Longevity Summit in partnership with P and G
and Bank of America.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Katie, it's always wonderful to be with you, and it's
specially wonderful to be with you here in person.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Thank you, Mimae.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
So as you know so well, Katie has become one
of the most public and vocal advocates for cancer awareness
and for research in this country. We're very fortunate that
she is doing what she's doing. She stepped into this
role for very personal reasons. Her husband Jay died of
(01:19):
colon cancer in nineteen ninety eight at the age of
forty two. We were all in a state of shock.
I will never forget her sister, Emily, who was an
extraordinary politician, a really rising star in Virginia politics, died
three years later of pancreatic cancer at the age of
fifty four. And three years ago Katie herself was diagnosed
(01:44):
with early stage breast cancer. And she has faced each
of these challenges by trying to educate the public Lucky
us and raised this critical research dots dollars even to
change health policy by virtue of what she does. And
(02:07):
not only did she televise her own colonoscopy, can you
imagine if you haven't been more gain which resulted in
a twenty percent increase in colon cancer screening. So there
is huge method to what she does in terms of
(02:28):
advancing this issue. It's not just something she talks about.
She walks the walk and in two thousand and eight
she co found it Stand Up to Cancer, which has
raised more than eight hundred million dollars to fund collaborative
cancer research. So Katie, I just remember so well back
(02:53):
in the late nineties when Jay died and Katie came
to the fore in the work that she can continues
to do to this day, to talk to the public
about this and you even use the platform of the
White House at the time to really put a focus
on this critical issue. So the War on Cancer was
(03:16):
declared almost a half a century ago by then President Nixon.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Where are we from a more of a lay person's perspective, Milan,
I think we have made a lot of progress. I
was reading that in the mid seventies the number of people,
the percentage of people who lived five years or longer
after a cancer diagnosis was forty nine percent. Today is
(03:44):
sixty eight percent. So we have made a lot of
you know, incremental I think advancements through the years, and
I think a lot has been done. You know. For example,
stand Up to Cancer helped support an immino therapeutic study
actually clinical trial at Sloan Kettering and it was for
(04:04):
people who had colorectal mostly rectal cancer, and a small
subset with a specific genetic mutation was given immunotherapy and
they had a complete response rate. So all of these
people who might have died within years and potentially even
months are now living today. So you know, things like that,
(04:28):
clinical trials like that give me a lot of hope,
As many of the medical experts in this room know,
we have much more targeted therapies. You know, radioactive isotopes
that are like heat seeking missiles that go to the
cancer cells and leave the healthy cells alone. You know,
for so long chemotherapy obviously, and it's still very an
(04:49):
important therapy, but it sort of has this scorch body
aspect to it where healthy cells are killed. So I
think they're doing more targeted therapy, more personaliz medicine, which
is really exciting. And so obviously with screening, there's AI.
I read about a doctor at MIT who was both
(05:10):
a radiologist and a breast cancer patient, and she helped
develop AI through sort of thousands of scans which will
not only identify tumors, but they have this ability to
predict the environment that may produce tumors. So that will
really give guidance to people in terms of screening and monitoring.
(05:33):
So we're making tremendous progress and we're really at an
inflection point. That is why it sucks so badly that
they're cutting funding for the NIH by forty percent. It's unconscionable,
in my opinion. They're going to stop a lot of
this really promising science dead in its track. I don't
(05:53):
know if you all read the New York Times magazine
piece on this, but it was absolutely devastating what is
happening to clinical trials and incredibly promising research. I went
to the rally for Medical Research in Washington last week
and spoke, and I know that there are senators. There's
a bipartisan group of senators that are fighting that, and
(06:15):
right now the situation is very dynamic. But I'm really
hoping that they will reverse that and make sure that
these cuts to the NIH don't happen. But we'll have
to see, and we'll have to keep the pressure on. Honestly,
keep the pressure on Congress. You saw what you saw
what the pressure did with Jimmy Kimmel and Disney, So
(06:38):
why can't we do that for medical research?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Absolutely, and it does seem like there's a growing bipartisan
concern on this now, so we can only hope that
it gets reversed. Katie, you're such a strong advocate for
early diagnosis and screening, explain.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
That, well, I think it's really simple. Early detection saves lot.
The earlier you're able to detect cancer or get a diagnosis,
the better your chances are of survival. And colon cancer
is such a good example of this. You know, colon's
are these miraculous things. I mean, I love colon's. How
(07:17):
weird is that? And you've seen mine? But you know
it's sort of like it's sort of like a package.
And if you are able to extract a polyp or
even a cancerous polyp before it penetrates the colon wall
and results in systemic disease, that can lead to metastases
(07:37):
on other organs. Like when Jay was diagnosed, he had
tumors all over his liver. He was stage four metastatic
colon cancer. But if you can catch it before that happens,
that really does literally mean the difference between life or death.
And so we have to get more people to get screened.
There are other methods in addition to colonoscopies, you know,
(07:59):
colon and fit tests, and you know, my feeling is
the best test is the one that gets done and
they reduce the age, and I think universally in like
twenty twenty one to forty five. For Black and African Americans,
it was forty five because the incidence is much higher.
But now for all Americans they should get screened at
(08:20):
starting at forty five, but a third of people, all
eligible adults, don't get screened, and forty when it comes
to forty five to forty nine, only twenty percent of
those people are getting screened because I don't think the
word has permeated society that the age has been lowered.
So tell all your friends, if you know people who
(08:42):
are forty five, they really need to get screened for
colorectal cancer and obviously all the other cancers that have
screening methods available to them, like breast cancer clearly, and
we need more screening for other cancers as well.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
You know, we're reading a lot today about how younger
and younger people are being afflicted with cancer diagnoses in
their twenties, their thirties, their forties. As you mentioned, do
we know why this is happening? Do we have any idea?
Speaker 3 (09:12):
No? But it is so heartbreaking. You know, I get
a lot of people calling me when someone is diagnosed,
especially with colon cancer, but also with breast cancer and
wanting advice or referrals. And you know, I recently talked
to a mom who happens to be a doctor. Her
twenty six year old son was diagnosed with stage four
(09:36):
colon cancer. And you're right, people in their twenties, thirties
and forties, younger than the screening age, and scientists and
epidemiologists are really trying to figure this out. It's a
very vexing problem. And by the way, a lot of
really healthy people are being diagnosed with cancer. And by
(09:56):
the way, it's not just colon cancer. I think seventeen
CA answers are increasing dramatically. I know that non smoking
women under fifty are being diagnosed and really worrisome numbers
with lung cancer. But anyway, it's it's a real problem.
So they're looking at all these theories, right and now
we're trying to understand the microbiome much better, but they're
(10:18):
looking at the over prescription of antibiotics, potentially microplastics that
are everywhere. You know, they're starting to find them in
our brains and fetuses. It's really scary how how ubiquitous
these microplastics are, so they're looking at that to see
if that is somehow disrupted the microbiome. They're looking at
(10:38):
screens honestly, if somehow screen time is influencing or having
an impact on people's health and overall kind of biology.
Obviously some things like ultra processed food and obesity and alcohol.
But these numbers are so scary. I read that in
the next five years the number of people diagnosed with
(11:00):
colorectal cancer under fifty is going to almost double. So
we really need to figure out why this is happening
so we can give better public health advice and stop
these these really, you know, young people from this devastating disease.
There was a study in Northern Virginia. By the way,
(11:22):
my nephew, my sister Emily's son, Ray is now a
gastro intestinal oncologist in Northern Virginia, and one of his
colleagues did a study of all these marathon runners and
ultra marathon runners. I don't know if any of you
all read this in the Times, but they had an
inordinate number of polyps. So, you know, is it sort
(11:44):
of ultra processed protein supplements or protein bars people are eating.
They don't really know, but there are so many people
who are on the case miland who are really focused
on early onset disease that I hope we come up
with some answers really quickly. As I said, it's just
absolutely devastating. You know.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I read that story about the marathoners, young people, men
and women who, as you just said, Katie, are getting
this diagnosis, and one woman said, I'm not going to
give up being a marathoner, but I am going to
get my screening regularly. You know. It's just puts in
perspective how terrible these funding cuts are because we really
(12:25):
do need support for cancer research. We've been talking a
lot about technology. Is AI a game changer?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I think it is. I think it's so exciting that
we are going to be able, you know, AI will
be able to read these scans better than a radiologist.
And I think, as I mentioned earlier, the idea that
it not only identifies a problem but can be predictive,
I think is a real game changer. So I think
(12:55):
when it comes to diagnoses, that's really exciting. Of course,
the other thing is these liquid biopsies or blood tests
that are really not quite ready for prime time. As
far as I know, I have to talk to some
of the doctors who are more knowledgeable about liquid biopsies,
but there are a lot of people developing them that
will be able to determine if you have cancer at
(13:16):
this very cellular, you know, very early stage. I think
they're not quite ready yet, but can you imagine what
a game changer that will be, particularly you know, for
young people, if you can go get a physical and
get a blood test and they can look at sort
of determine if you have the beginnings of a whole
(13:36):
panoply of cancers. How great that will be. So I
am really optimistic about these new diagnostic modalities that people
are working on.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
You mentioned how important screening and early detection is. Can
you tell us a little bit about your own experience
with breast cancer and how that played out into the outcome.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Yeah, you know, I was pretty stunned when three years
ago my breast radiologist said, you know, I don't really
like what I see here. I'm like, seriously, And so
I had a biopsy and she called me and she said,
you have breast cancer. I couldn't believe it. You know,
I think a lot of us are lulled into this
(14:22):
sense of complacency or sense of security because we don't
have a family history, and there was no family history
for me of breast cancer, and so it was really
pretty shocking. But because I know a fair amount about
cancer at this point, having dealt with the loss of
(14:42):
my husband and my sister and really all the work
that I've done in the year since, I knew that
because I was diagnosed with stage one B, that I
had a very good chance of being treated and being cured.
And so I was really lucky. I had a lump
back to me and radiation, and I kept thinking the
(15:02):
whole time, Gosh, I am so lucky. What do women
do who don't have access to this kind of healthcare,
who can't afford to pay these specialists, who you know,
whose insurance doesn't really cover, who have no insurance. That's
all I kept thinking about in Milan during my treatment,
(15:24):
and I said to my breast surgeon, Lisa Newman, who
I stand, Lisa Newman, You're a hospital If anybody needs
a good breast cancer surgeon, I highly recommend her, you know,
I would say to her all the time, what do
women do? It's just so unfair that we have such
a caste system when it comes to healthcare in America.
It infuriates me, but I felt conversely unbelievably fortunate that
(15:48):
I had access and I got you know, the treatment,
and I feel fine. I need to take my aromatase
inhibitors much more regularly. So, speaking of dense breasts, not
that you have them, but I have them. My understanding,
forty two percent of women over forty have dense breass.
You know, they're four different breast densities. But anyway, my
(16:09):
point is I always get mammograms and breast sonograms because
my radiologist said, when you have dense breasts and you're
looking at a mammogram, it's like looking for a snowball
in a backdrop of snow. It's really sometimes very hard
to see it. And that's why I always get breast sonograms. Well,
I found out that most women ay don't even know
(16:33):
they have dense breass. Finally, the FDA a couple of
years ago, I think it was in twenty twenty four
last year mandated that clinicians notify patients and tell them
they have dense breast tissue. But still a lot of
women don't know what that means, or what to do
about it, and what it means is you probably need
additional screening in the form of MRIs or breast sonograms.
(16:55):
So I got together with some Rosa Deloro I always
want to Laura de Rosa, Rosa de Laura on Capitol
Hill from Connecticut, and we decided that we're trying to
introduce legislation called the Finded Early Act, which will cover
which will mandate insurance companies cover additional screening for all
(17:17):
the women in the country that have dense press, because again,
it's just not fair that I can afford a breastsnogram
and so many other women can't, and not to mention
the women who don't even have access two mammograms. So
hopefully even educating women about dense press has been kind
(17:40):
of something I've really tried to do since my diagnosis.
Like when something happens to me personally, I turn it
into an opportunity professionally because I feel like I have
a platform. I feel like I've been I've been doing
this so many years, and I think through trying to
understand Jay's cancer and my sister Emily and then my
(18:01):
husband John had a carsonoid tumor the size of a
coconut three months before we got married. Luckily he did well.
They got a liver resection. I'd love livers almost as
much as colon's, by the way, because they grow back.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I promised you I would ask the question about this
new documentary. Yes at your work.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Thank you. So Don Porter, who is a really talented
documentary filmmaker, lawyer turned documentarian. She's done like the documentary
on Luther Vandros and John Lewis and Lady Bird Johnson's
Diaries and I on the prize. Anyway, we have teamed
up and we are actually doing a documentary about the
disparities in medical research between men and women. I was
(18:39):
shocked that that. Yeah, I was shocked. I've tried to
be I've worked on this for three years because I
have some kind of a spidey sense about like what
issues are really coming to the fore, and I just
think it's really important. When I realized women weren't included
in clinical trials till nineteen ninety three. And this is
my favorite statistic. A rectile dysfunction that affects nineteen percent
(19:05):
of men gets five times the amount of funding as PMS,
which affects ninety percent of women. How screwed up? Is that.
I mean, I'm happy for them.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
But come on, Katie, before you leave this stage, from
all of us, thank you for the bottom of my
heart and their hearts for what you do. Aliana, thank you.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
What an important and inspiring conversation. Here are the top takeaways. First,
Katie reminds us of a simple but crucial fact about
cancer and other health conditions. Early detection saves lives. The
earlier you're able to detect cancer or get a diagnosis,
the better your chances are of survival. Second, the key
(19:52):
to early detection is screening. Katie, who co founded Stand
Up to Cancer, urges all adults to get tested for
diseases like colorectal cancer and breast cancer, even if you
think you're not vulnerable. She remembers her own shock when
a screening revealed early signs of breast cancer, and she
reminds us all not to be lulled into complacency just
(20:13):
because we don't have a family history of cancer. Lastly,
we're lucky to be living in age where AI and
other technology can not only identify problems, but can be predictive,
for example, by helping forecast how tumors might develop. That's
why it's important to keep funding medical research, says Katie,
especially for women's conditions that tend to be understudied. To
(20:33):
learn more about the power of preventive screening and how
to support medical research, visit stand Up to cancer dot org.
Have a great day. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, check
out the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Today's episode of Here's Something Good
on women's health and longevity was brought to you by
(20:54):
P and G, maker of trusted brands like Tampas Always
and Always Discreete, and by Walgreens, the women's well being destination,
supporting every stage
Welcome to hear something good on women's health and longevity.
We are so grateful to our partners P and G,
maker of trusted brands like Tampex Always and Always Discreet,
and Walgreens, the women's well being destination, supporting every stage. Together,
we'll bring you something good each week on women's health
and longevity, and it wouldn't be possible without their support.
(00:22):
Each week, we aspire to bringing the good news on
women's health by talking to renowned scientists and medical experts,
and by sharing health advice that can help you live
healthier and happier. Today, we're talking with award winning journalist
Katie Kirk about the importance of health screenings and the
impact cancer has had on her own life. Katie spoke
(00:42):
recently with Seneca co founder Milan Ververe at our Women's
Health and Longevity Summit in partnership with P and G
and Bank of America.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Katie, it's always wonderful to be with you, and it's
specially wonderful to be with you here in person.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Thank you, Mimae.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
So as you know so well, Katie has become one
of the most public and vocal advocates for cancer awareness
and for research in this country. We're very fortunate that
she is doing what she's doing. She stepped into this
role for very personal reasons. Her husband Jay died of
(01:19):
colon cancer in nineteen ninety eight at the age of
forty two. We were all in a state of shock.
I will never forget her sister, Emily, who was an
extraordinary politician, a really rising star in Virginia politics, died
three years later of pancreatic cancer at the age of
fifty four. And three years ago Katie herself was diagnosed
(01:44):
with early stage breast cancer. And she has faced each
of these challenges by trying to educate the public Lucky
us and raised this critical research dots dollars even to
change health policy by virtue of what she does. And
(02:07):
not only did she televise her own colonoscopy, can you
imagine if you haven't been more gain which resulted in
a twenty percent increase in colon cancer screening. So there
is huge method to what she does in terms of
(02:28):
advancing this issue. It's not just something she talks about.
She walks the walk and in two thousand and eight
she co found it Stand Up to Cancer, which has
raised more than eight hundred million dollars to fund collaborative
cancer research. So Katie, I just remember so well back
(02:53):
in the late nineties when Jay died and Katie came
to the fore in the work that she can continues
to do to this day, to talk to the public
about this and you even use the platform of the
White House at the time to really put a focus
on this critical issue. So the War on Cancer was
(03:16):
declared almost a half a century ago by then President Nixon.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Where are we from a more of a lay person's perspective, Milan,
I think we have made a lot of progress. I
was reading that in the mid seventies the number of people,
the percentage of people who lived five years or longer
after a cancer diagnosis was forty nine percent. Today is
(03:44):
sixty eight percent. So we have made a lot of
you know, incremental I think advancements through the years, and
I think a lot has been done. You know. For example,
stand Up to Cancer helped support an immino therapeutic study
actually clinical trial at Sloan Kettering and it was for
(04:04):
people who had colorectal mostly rectal cancer, and a small
subset with a specific genetic mutation was given immunotherapy and
they had a complete response rate. So all of these
people who might have died within years and potentially even
months are now living today. So you know, things like that,
(04:28):
clinical trials like that give me a lot of hope,
As many of the medical experts in this room know,
we have much more targeted therapies. You know, radioactive isotopes
that are like heat seeking missiles that go to the
cancer cells and leave the healthy cells alone. You know,
for so long chemotherapy obviously, and it's still very an
(04:49):
important therapy, but it sort of has this scorch body
aspect to it where healthy cells are killed. So I
think they're doing more targeted therapy, more personaliz medicine, which
is really exciting. And so obviously with screening, there's AI.
I read about a doctor at MIT who was both
(05:10):
a radiologist and a breast cancer patient, and she helped
develop AI through sort of thousands of scans which will
not only identify tumors, but they have this ability to
predict the environment that may produce tumors. So that will
really give guidance to people in terms of screening and monitoring.
(05:33):
So we're making tremendous progress and we're really at an
inflection point. That is why it sucks so badly that
they're cutting funding for the NIH by forty percent. It's unconscionable,
in my opinion. They're going to stop a lot of
this really promising science dead in its track. I don't
(05:53):
know if you all read the New York Times magazine
piece on this, but it was absolutely devastating what is
happening to clinical trials and incredibly promising research. I went
to the rally for Medical Research in Washington last week
and spoke, and I know that there are senators. There's
a bipartisan group of senators that are fighting that, and
(06:15):
right now the situation is very dynamic. But I'm really
hoping that they will reverse that and make sure that
these cuts to the NIH don't happen. But we'll have
to see, and we'll have to keep the pressure on. Honestly,
keep the pressure on Congress. You saw what you saw
what the pressure did with Jimmy Kimmel and Disney, So
(06:38):
why can't we do that for medical research?
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Absolutely, and it does seem like there's a growing bipartisan
concern on this now, so we can only hope that
it gets reversed. Katie, you're such a strong advocate for
early diagnosis and screening, explain.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
That, well, I think it's really simple. Early detection saves lot.
The earlier you're able to detect cancer or get a diagnosis,
the better your chances are of survival. And colon cancer
is such a good example of this. You know, colon's
are these miraculous things. I mean, I love colon's. How
(07:17):
weird is that? And you've seen mine? But you know
it's sort of like it's sort of like a package.
And if you are able to extract a polyp or
even a cancerous polyp before it penetrates the colon wall
and results in systemic disease, that can lead to metastases
(07:37):
on other organs. Like when Jay was diagnosed, he had
tumors all over his liver. He was stage four metastatic
colon cancer. But if you can catch it before that happens,
that really does literally mean the difference between life or death.
And so we have to get more people to get screened.
There are other methods in addition to colonoscopies, you know,
(07:59):
colon and fit tests, and you know, my feeling is
the best test is the one that gets done and
they reduce the age, and I think universally in like
twenty twenty one to forty five. For Black and African Americans,
it was forty five because the incidence is much higher.
But now for all Americans they should get screened at
(08:20):
starting at forty five, but a third of people, all
eligible adults, don't get screened, and forty when it comes
to forty five to forty nine, only twenty percent of
those people are getting screened because I don't think the
word has permeated society that the age has been lowered.
So tell all your friends, if you know people who
(08:42):
are forty five, they really need to get screened for
colorectal cancer and obviously all the other cancers that have
screening methods available to them, like breast cancer clearly, and
we need more screening for other cancers as well.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
You know, we're reading a lot today about how younger
and younger people are being afflicted with cancer diagnoses in
their twenties, their thirties, their forties. As you mentioned, do
we know why this is happening? Do we have any idea?
Speaker 3 (09:12):
No? But it is so heartbreaking. You know, I get
a lot of people calling me when someone is diagnosed,
especially with colon cancer, but also with breast cancer and
wanting advice or referrals. And you know, I recently talked
to a mom who happens to be a doctor. Her
twenty six year old son was diagnosed with stage four
(09:36):
colon cancer. And you're right, people in their twenties, thirties
and forties, younger than the screening age, and scientists and
epidemiologists are really trying to figure this out. It's a
very vexing problem. And by the way, a lot of
really healthy people are being diagnosed with cancer. And by
(09:56):
the way, it's not just colon cancer. I think seventeen
CA answers are increasing dramatically. I know that non smoking
women under fifty are being diagnosed and really worrisome numbers
with lung cancer. But anyway, it's it's a real problem.
So they're looking at all these theories, right and now
we're trying to understand the microbiome much better, but they're
(10:18):
looking at the over prescription of antibiotics, potentially microplastics that
are everywhere. You know, they're starting to find them in
our brains and fetuses. It's really scary how how ubiquitous
these microplastics are, so they're looking at that to see
if that is somehow disrupted the microbiome. They're looking at
(10:38):
screens honestly, if somehow screen time is influencing or having
an impact on people's health and overall kind of biology.
Obviously some things like ultra processed food and obesity and alcohol.
But these numbers are so scary. I read that in
the next five years the number of people diagnosed with
(11:00):
colorectal cancer under fifty is going to almost double. So
we really need to figure out why this is happening
so we can give better public health advice and stop
these these really, you know, young people from this devastating disease.
There was a study in Northern Virginia. By the way,
(11:22):
my nephew, my sister Emily's son, Ray is now a
gastro intestinal oncologist in Northern Virginia, and one of his
colleagues did a study of all these marathon runners and
ultra marathon runners. I don't know if any of you
all read this in the Times, but they had an
inordinate number of polyps. So, you know, is it sort
(11:44):
of ultra processed protein supplements or protein bars people are eating.
They don't really know, but there are so many people
who are on the case miland who are really focused
on early onset disease that I hope we come up
with some answers really quickly. As I said, it's just
absolutely devastating. You know.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I read that story about the marathoners, young people, men
and women who, as you just said, Katie, are getting
this diagnosis, and one woman said, I'm not going to
give up being a marathoner, but I am going to
get my screening regularly. You know. It's just puts in
perspective how terrible these funding cuts are because we really
(12:25):
do need support for cancer research. We've been talking a
lot about technology. Is AI a game changer?
Speaker 3 (12:34):
I think it is. I think it's so exciting that
we are going to be able, you know, AI will
be able to read these scans better than a radiologist.
And I think, as I mentioned earlier, the idea that
it not only identifies a problem but can be predictive,
I think is a real game changer. So I think
(12:55):
when it comes to diagnoses, that's really exciting. Of course,
the other thing is these liquid biopsies or blood tests
that are really not quite ready for prime time. As
far as I know, I have to talk to some
of the doctors who are more knowledgeable about liquid biopsies,
but there are a lot of people developing them that
will be able to determine if you have cancer at
(13:16):
this very cellular, you know, very early stage. I think
they're not quite ready yet, but can you imagine what
a game changer that will be, particularly you know, for
young people, if you can go get a physical and
get a blood test and they can look at sort
of determine if you have the beginnings of a whole
(13:36):
panoply of cancers. How great that will be. So I
am really optimistic about these new diagnostic modalities that people
are working on.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
You mentioned how important screening and early detection is. Can
you tell us a little bit about your own experience
with breast cancer and how that played out into the outcome.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Yeah, you know, I was pretty stunned when three years
ago my breast radiologist said, you know, I don't really
like what I see here. I'm like, seriously, And so
I had a biopsy and she called me and she said,
you have breast cancer. I couldn't believe it. You know,
I think a lot of us are lulled into this
(14:22):
sense of complacency or sense of security because we don't
have a family history, and there was no family history
for me of breast cancer, and so it was really
pretty shocking. But because I know a fair amount about
cancer at this point, having dealt with the loss of
(14:42):
my husband and my sister and really all the work
that I've done in the year since, I knew that
because I was diagnosed with stage one B, that I
had a very good chance of being treated and being cured.
And so I was really lucky. I had a lump
back to me and radiation, and I kept thinking the
(15:02):
whole time, Gosh, I am so lucky. What do women
do who don't have access to this kind of healthcare,
who can't afford to pay these specialists, who you know,
whose insurance doesn't really cover, who have no insurance. That's
all I kept thinking about in Milan during my treatment,
(15:24):
and I said to my breast surgeon, Lisa Newman, who
I stand, Lisa Newman, You're a hospital If anybody needs
a good breast cancer surgeon, I highly recommend her, you know,
I would say to her all the time, what do
women do? It's just so unfair that we have such
a caste system when it comes to healthcare in America.
It infuriates me, but I felt conversely unbelievably fortunate that
(15:48):
I had access and I got you know, the treatment,
and I feel fine. I need to take my aromatase
inhibitors much more regularly. So, speaking of dense breasts, not
that you have them, but I have them. My understanding,
forty two percent of women over forty have dense breass.
You know, they're four different breast densities. But anyway, my
(16:09):
point is I always get mammograms and breast sonograms because
my radiologist said, when you have dense breasts and you're
looking at a mammogram, it's like looking for a snowball
in a backdrop of snow. It's really sometimes very hard
to see it. And that's why I always get breast sonograms. Well,
I found out that most women ay don't even know
(16:33):
they have dense breass. Finally, the FDA a couple of
years ago, I think it was in twenty twenty four
last year mandated that clinicians notify patients and tell them
they have dense breast tissue. But still a lot of
women don't know what that means, or what to do
about it, and what it means is you probably need
additional screening in the form of MRIs or breast sonograms.
(16:55):
So I got together with some Rosa Deloro I always
want to Laura de Rosa, Rosa de Laura on Capitol
Hill from Connecticut, and we decided that we're trying to
introduce legislation called the Finded Early Act, which will cover
which will mandate insurance companies cover additional screening for all
(17:17):
the women in the country that have dense press, because again,
it's just not fair that I can afford a breastsnogram
and so many other women can't, and not to mention
the women who don't even have access two mammograms. So
hopefully even educating women about dense press has been kind
(17:40):
of something I've really tried to do since my diagnosis.
Like when something happens to me personally, I turn it
into an opportunity professionally because I feel like I have
a platform. I feel like I've been I've been doing
this so many years, and I think through trying to
understand Jay's cancer and my sister Emily and then my
(18:01):
husband John had a carsonoid tumor the size of a
coconut three months before we got married. Luckily he did well.
They got a liver resection. I'd love livers almost as
much as colon's, by the way, because they grow back.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
I promised you I would ask the question about this
new documentary. Yes at your work.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Thank you. So Don Porter, who is a really talented
documentary filmmaker, lawyer turned documentarian. She's done like the documentary
on Luther Vandros and John Lewis and Lady Bird Johnson's
Diaries and I on the prize. Anyway, we have teamed
up and we are actually doing a documentary about the
disparities in medical research between men and women. I was
(18:39):
shocked that that. Yeah, I was shocked. I've tried to
be I've worked on this for three years because I
have some kind of a spidey sense about like what
issues are really coming to the fore, and I just
think it's really important. When I realized women weren't included
in clinical trials till nineteen ninety three. And this is
my favorite statistic. A rectile dysfunction that affects nineteen percent
(19:05):
of men gets five times the amount of funding as PMS,
which affects ninety percent of women. How screwed up? Is that.
I mean, I'm happy for them.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
But come on, Katie, before you leave this stage, from
all of us, thank you for the bottom of my
heart and their hearts for what you do. Aliana, thank you.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
What an important and inspiring conversation. Here are the top takeaways. First,
Katie reminds us of a simple but crucial fact about
cancer and other health conditions. Early detection saves lives. The
earlier you're able to detect cancer or get a diagnosis,
the better your chances are of survival. Second, the key
(19:52):
to early detection is screening. Katie, who co founded Stand
Up to Cancer, urges all adults to get tested for
diseases like colorectal cancer and breast cancer, even if you
think you're not vulnerable. She remembers her own shock when
a screening revealed early signs of breast cancer, and she
reminds us all not to be lulled into complacency just
(20:13):
because we don't have a family history of cancer. Lastly,
we're lucky to be living in age where AI and
other technology can not only identify problems, but can be predictive,
for example, by helping forecast how tumors might develop. That's
why it's important to keep funding medical research, says Katie,
especially for women's conditions that tend to be understudied. To
(20:33):
learn more about the power of preventive screening and how
to support medical research, visit stand Up to cancer dot org.
Have a great day. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, check
out the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows. Today's episode of Here's Something Good
on women's health and longevity was brought to you by
(20:54):
P and G, maker of trusted brands like Tampas Always
and Always Discreete, and by Walgreens, the women's well being destination,
supporting every stage
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