April 21, 2024 • 14 mins
Guest host Connie Willis and radiation oncologist Dr. Jeffrey Long discuss the past, present and future of treating cancer.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now here's a highlight from coast to coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
You're right on top of this. You're the top in
the ballgame of it all. And you can talk so
kindly and so much in layman's terms, and even if,
like if I get stuck with some something that I
just can't understand, you are right there to try to
help me to understand it. So to be a patient
of yours must have been just a wonderful thing for people.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
I appreciate those kind words, and it's really true, Connie.
We measure patient satisfaction and for a solid year we
were at the ninety nine percentile on all questions I ask.
So it's not only excellence and cancer care. I try
to provide every day for my patients, but we also
provide it compassionately and that just makes such a big
(00:49):
difference when you're in any kind of cancer treatment environment.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well tell me where you are, now, what do you
what's your work right now?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Sure? Right now, I'm hanging out in Georgetown, Kentucky. That's
where we live. Connie, You like this. I thought I
was going to retire. I've been practicing radios ontology for
thirty seven years and while came here and got bored
and decided to go back to practice again, working full time.
And I think part of that is I love it.
(01:19):
I love helping people, and especially in this modern era, Connie,
we're curing more people than was ever possible before. And
we'll get into that, but the exciting thing about cancer
care today is that we are able to treat patients
with modern cancer approaches that have less side effects, less
(01:40):
risk for long term problems or complications, if you will,
and yet we're able to cure more people than we
certainly could I think even ten years ago. So exciting
times to be involved in treating cancer.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I'm glad to hear that, but I'm sure there's a
lot of other people out there that are that they
didn't get that chance. You know that they know someone
close to them that they didn't get that chance of
what you're talking about. And I know you have dealt
with so much of this, and that's why you are
also one of the leaders in the near death experiences,
because you've been right there and you've been open enough.
(02:15):
And that's one of the things I really love about you, too,
is not only are you on top of your game,
but you're also open enough to the things that we
discuss here on Coast to Coast of what's afterwards, and
you you're open to that. A lot of people are
not in your field.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
You know that's true. But the good news is people
are more and more open to my interest in near
death experiences and good like Bigfoot and a lot of
paranormal things. Connie, I think due to a lot of
a lot more information available to the public, not only
in cancer, but also in the paranormal arena, you've got
more people believing in these paranormal phenomena who would have
(02:57):
poo pooted, say, ten twenty years ago. Certainly Coast to
Coast am has got a lot of critic for that.
Bringing information out to the world, new and exciting information.
It helps people understand the reality of these phenomena.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well. One of the things, thank goodness, one of the
things that I had asked you about with the cancer
and talking about it tonight, was if you can tell
me the just educate us on the past, very briefly,
because I think everybody wants to get into the president
and the future, and you're ahead of the game on that.
(03:36):
But before you even do that, I'm gonna throw something
at you and you can answer this along the way
wherever you want to answer it. It might be quickly.
But one of the things whenever I mention anything like this,
there's always the people, especially the people that listen to Coast.
I mean they, you know, they're not afraid to say this.
They say, look, they already have the cure to cancer.
(03:57):
It's just a money thing, and if they cure everybody,
then they're going to lose a ton of money. What
do you think about.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
That, Oh, Connie, I wish that were true. I wish
we had some simple, effective care for all types of cancer.
I could told you something else professionally, but unfortunately that
does not exist. There's cancer, first of all, is not
just a single disease. While we use one word for it,
(04:25):
there are literally hundreds of different types of cancer, and
they all require different treatment approaches, different concepts. Cancer unfortunately,
is very common, did you know, Connie. In twenty twenty
four in the United States, there's an estimated over two
million new cancer case is going to be diagnosed, and tragically,
(04:45):
an estimated six hundred thousand deaths. So cancer is a
huge problem. But the good news is with modern techniques validated,
scientifically tested and accepted basically that work. We're now curing
more people than what ever possible before. So while the
statistics are scary, looking at the cancer treatment we'll be
(05:08):
talking about, there's a huge message of hope and I
want to at least make that point right off the bat.
But you were asking about the history of cancer, and
that's fascinating. For example, the very first cancer diagnosis that
was documented was three thousand BC in the ancient Egyptians.
They're recorded what we now know to be breast cancer.
(05:30):
So cancer and our awareness of it as is humanity
has been around for a long long time. In fact,
as far back as four hundred BC, one of the
famous Greek physicians, Hippocrates, first use the term Greek term carcinos,
and then from that derivative we now have the term
cancer today. So certainly cancer has a long history and
(05:56):
which is kind of back that far, and it's been
literally a scourge of humanity for millennia.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
So what about like, yeah, there's just so much to
talk about with this. I get, you know, what what
is cancer? And is this what? Ultimately it's just a
very is it a very natural thing? And hey, we're all.
We all know we're naturally going to die, and this
is part of that, and we gave it a name,
(06:27):
and we gave it a name. Or is this something
that we've done to ourselves? How do we get this
is something that we've done to our to the human race.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
That's a great question. In a real sense, You're right,
cancer is, if you will, natural, it's our own bodily
cells that just divide uncontrollably and invade adjacent normal tissues
or may spread to other parts of the body. It
ultimately starts that what's called the cellular DNA. The DNA
(06:59):
is the part of every normal cell that's involved in
division and reproduction. And so when there's an estimated perhaps
six eight or so DNA genetic hits, then you unfortunately
have that cell that very first cell becomes cancerous and
they grow much more faster than surrounding normal cells. And
(07:20):
after they grow for a period of while, we've got
a lump, and then ultimately you've got cancer. So in
a way, it is, if you will, the cancer, our
normal cells that have just gotten out of control. And
it's not certainly the most common cancer that we have
in this day and age in the United states is
lung cancer, and yeah, unfortunately that's predominantly due to smoking,
(07:43):
So in a sense we do that to ourselves. But
certainly many many other types of cancer are just simply
bad luck. You get up in years, you have a
higher risk of cancer. The older you get. The cells
have just had longer, throughout a long lifetime to develop
those damages to the cells DNA and then cancer results.
(08:06):
So there's some things we can all do to help
reduce our own risk of cancer. And yet on the
other hand, cancer, many cancers are just simply a result
of things we could not possibly have avoided.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Is it in the future, is there a way to
go in there to the DNA and make some changes.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
We absolutely, we're getting better and better at targeting what
the cancer cells have in the body. There's all sorts of,
if you want to say, molecular markers or small components
of the cancer cell that are different from healthy normal cells.
And some of our modern targeted therapy is actually able
(08:52):
to target and interact with cancer cells in the body
and fight the specific part of the cancer cell that
makes it different from normal cells and can selectively kill
cancer cells. So we're getting into concepts of like targeted
cancer treatment, and that's an exciting thing that's only gone
(09:13):
on big guns in the last say ten years or so.
This allows us to treat more cancer with less side
effects and more effectively than we ever could before. And
it's still we're still learning. We're still able to find
more and more strategies to use these very targeted treatment
of cancer cells. So there's a huge number of people
(09:34):
alive today that are the beneficiaries of the modern era
of targeted cancer cell and say immunotherapy too.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
So we're all going to go at one point, we're
all going to go to the next thing, and you
and I both without shoutover doubt in our minds, know
that we keep going. We just leave this vehicle. So right, Yeah,
So it is it just uh, is it kind of
(10:06):
inevitable that that is the thing that is going to
take more of us than anything?
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Well, it's not really inevitable. It's a big problem though.
Statistically speaking, it's scary. One out of four of us
is going to get cancer in our lifetime and that's
that's a big deal. But the good news is we're
curing most people. So while people are getting cancer and
you know, probably more in this day and age than
(10:35):
ever at least that I'm smoking cancers. You know, there's
that huge hope that we can cure people and cure
people with cancer treatments that are less toxic and more
effective and allow people to have treatments it can keep
cancer in check even if it's spread for a long
long time. And that's the message of hope and frankly,
(10:57):
reassurance that I'm able to offer my patients on a
regular basis when I see them. And you're right, Connie,
I know that even if our best cancer treatments fail
and the cancer unfortunately gets loose and someone is to
succumb from that, I think both you and I, Connie,
have had family members that have died of cancer, so
that really hits home to both of us. And yet
(11:18):
we both know that even when that happens, there is
an afterlife, and research I do in near death experiences,
I know that conclusively, and I tell that to the
patients that if they've lost a friend, family, or loved
one to cancer, I can reassure them that their friend, family,
or loved one is in and afterlife, a wonderful afterlife
(11:39):
and a much better place than the rest of us
have than our ongoing earthly existence.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Is chemotherapy and radiation therapy the same.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
A lot of people ask that I'm a radiation oncology doctor,
so I use radiation to treat cancer. The colleagues that
we work right next to are called medical oncologists, and
that's the medical specialty that uses chemotherapy and other systemic
treatments to help fight cancer. With radiation therapy, what I
do every day is we have our treatment machine. They're
(12:12):
called linear accelerators, and it's fascinating bit of technology. The
electronically we're able to accelerate electrons believe it or not
too close to the speed of light before they in fact,
they're actually having relativistic effects. These electrons that are mechanically accelerated,
the electrons that then strike a tunged in target and
(12:34):
produce extremely high energy X rays. It's the high energy
X rays that can penetrate deep into the body and
selectively kill cancer. And that's the fundamentally what we do
with radiation therapy. Our modern techniques allow us to pinpoint
radiation therapy with the precision that is vastly better than
(12:55):
even ten to twenty years ago. So we're able to
drop a radiation dose right on the bad cancer cells
with exceptional sparing and surrounding normal tissue. Now, chemotherapy, that's
a whole nother medical specialty, and that involves systemic treatments,
and there's a whole There's literally over one hundred different
types of chemotherapy. Some of them are more toxic than others,
(13:18):
some less. But I've noticed in the thirty seven years
I've practiced, the chemotherapy has gotten much more effective and
yet much less side effects. In this modern era. Whenever
we see patients getting both chemotherapy and radiation therapy, it's
amazing enheartening to me how they describe how few side
effects they're having. For example, most people that get chemotherapy
(13:42):
don't lose their hair. Now, of course some do, but
that's just part of the ongoing modern techniques where are
able to treat people more effectively with less less problems
from the treatment.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at
one am Eastern and go to costacosta m dot com
for more
Now here's a highlight from coast to coast AM on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
You're right on top of this. You're the top in
the ballgame of it all. And you can talk so
kindly and so much in layman's terms, and even if,
like if I get stuck with some something that I
just can't understand, you are right there to try to
help me to understand it. So to be a patient
of yours must have been just a wonderful thing for people.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
I appreciate those kind words, and it's really true, Connie.
We measure patient satisfaction and for a solid year we
were at the ninety nine percentile on all questions I ask.
So it's not only excellence and cancer care. I try
to provide every day for my patients, but we also
provide it compassionately and that just makes such a big
(00:49):
difference when you're in any kind of cancer treatment environment.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well tell me where you are, now, what do you
what's your work right now?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Sure? Right now, I'm hanging out in Georgetown, Kentucky. That's
where we live. Connie, You like this. I thought I
was going to retire. I've been practicing radios ontology for
thirty seven years and while came here and got bored
and decided to go back to practice again, working full time.
And I think part of that is I love it.
(01:19):
I love helping people, and especially in this modern era, Connie,
we're curing more people than was ever possible before. And
we'll get into that, but the exciting thing about cancer
care today is that we are able to treat patients
with modern cancer approaches that have less side effects, less
(01:40):
risk for long term problems or complications, if you will,
and yet we're able to cure more people than we
certainly could I think even ten years ago. So exciting
times to be involved in treating cancer.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
I'm glad to hear that, but I'm sure there's a
lot of other people out there that are that they
didn't get that chance. You know that they know someone
close to them that they didn't get that chance of
what you're talking about. And I know you have dealt
with so much of this, and that's why you are
also one of the leaders in the near death experiences,
because you've been right there and you've been open enough.
(02:15):
And that's one of the things I really love about you, too,
is not only are you on top of your game,
but you're also open enough to the things that we
discuss here on Coast to Coast of what's afterwards, and
you you're open to that. A lot of people are
not in your field.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
You know that's true. But the good news is people
are more and more open to my interest in near
death experiences and good like Bigfoot and a lot of
paranormal things. Connie, I think due to a lot of
a lot more information available to the public, not only
in cancer, but also in the paranormal arena, you've got
more people believing in these paranormal phenomena who would have
(02:57):
poo pooted, say, ten twenty years ago. Certainly Coast to
Coast am has got a lot of critic for that.
Bringing information out to the world, new and exciting information.
It helps people understand the reality of these phenomena.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Well. One of the things, thank goodness, one of the
things that I had asked you about with the cancer
and talking about it tonight, was if you can tell
me the just educate us on the past, very briefly,
because I think everybody wants to get into the president
and the future, and you're ahead of the game on that.
(03:36):
But before you even do that, I'm gonna throw something
at you and you can answer this along the way
wherever you want to answer it. It might be quickly.
But one of the things whenever I mention anything like this,
there's always the people, especially the people that listen to Coast.
I mean they, you know, they're not afraid to say this.
They say, look, they already have the cure to cancer.
(03:57):
It's just a money thing, and if they cure everybody,
then they're going to lose a ton of money. What
do you think about.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
That, Oh, Connie, I wish that were true. I wish
we had some simple, effective care for all types of cancer.
I could told you something else professionally, but unfortunately that
does not exist. There's cancer, first of all, is not
just a single disease. While we use one word for it,
(04:25):
there are literally hundreds of different types of cancer, and
they all require different treatment approaches, different concepts. Cancer unfortunately,
is very common, did you know, Connie. In twenty twenty
four in the United States, there's an estimated over two
million new cancer case is going to be diagnosed, and tragically,
(04:45):
an estimated six hundred thousand deaths. So cancer is a
huge problem. But the good news is with modern techniques validated,
scientifically tested and accepted basically that work. We're now curing
more people than what ever possible before. So while the
statistics are scary, looking at the cancer treatment we'll be
(05:08):
talking about, there's a huge message of hope and I
want to at least make that point right off the bat.
But you were asking about the history of cancer, and
that's fascinating. For example, the very first cancer diagnosis that
was documented was three thousand BC in the ancient Egyptians.
They're recorded what we now know to be breast cancer.
(05:30):
So cancer and our awareness of it as is humanity
has been around for a long long time. In fact,
as far back as four hundred BC, one of the
famous Greek physicians, Hippocrates, first use the term Greek term carcinos,
and then from that derivative we now have the term
cancer today. So certainly cancer has a long history and
(05:56):
which is kind of back that far, and it's been
literally a scourge of humanity for millennia.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
So what about like, yeah, there's just so much to
talk about with this. I get, you know, what what
is cancer? And is this what? Ultimately it's just a
very is it a very natural thing? And hey, we're all.
We all know we're naturally going to die, and this
is part of that, and we gave it a name,
(06:27):
and we gave it a name. Or is this something
that we've done to ourselves? How do we get this
is something that we've done to our to the human race.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
That's a great question. In a real sense, You're right,
cancer is, if you will, natural, it's our own bodily
cells that just divide uncontrollably and invade adjacent normal tissues
or may spread to other parts of the body. It
ultimately starts that what's called the cellular DNA. The DNA
(06:59):
is the part of every normal cell that's involved in
division and reproduction. And so when there's an estimated perhaps
six eight or so DNA genetic hits, then you unfortunately
have that cell that very first cell becomes cancerous and
they grow much more faster than surrounding normal cells. And
(07:20):
after they grow for a period of while, we've got
a lump, and then ultimately you've got cancer. So in
a way, it is, if you will, the cancer, our
normal cells that have just gotten out of control. And
it's not certainly the most common cancer that we have
in this day and age in the United states is
lung cancer, and yeah, unfortunately that's predominantly due to smoking,
(07:43):
So in a sense we do that to ourselves. But
certainly many many other types of cancer are just simply
bad luck. You get up in years, you have a
higher risk of cancer. The older you get. The cells
have just had longer, throughout a long lifetime to develop
those damages to the cells DNA and then cancer results.
(08:06):
So there's some things we can all do to help
reduce our own risk of cancer. And yet on the
other hand, cancer, many cancers are just simply a result
of things we could not possibly have avoided.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Is it in the future, is there a way to
go in there to the DNA and make some changes.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
We absolutely, we're getting better and better at targeting what
the cancer cells have in the body. There's all sorts of,
if you want to say, molecular markers or small components
of the cancer cell that are different from healthy normal cells.
And some of our modern targeted therapy is actually able
(08:52):
to target and interact with cancer cells in the body
and fight the specific part of the cancer cell that
makes it different from normal cells and can selectively kill
cancer cells. So we're getting into concepts of like targeted
cancer treatment, and that's an exciting thing that's only gone
(09:13):
on big guns in the last say ten years or so.
This allows us to treat more cancer with less side
effects and more effectively than we ever could before. And
it's still we're still learning. We're still able to find
more and more strategies to use these very targeted treatment
of cancer cells. So there's a huge number of people
(09:34):
alive today that are the beneficiaries of the modern era
of targeted cancer cell and say immunotherapy too.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
So we're all going to go at one point, we're
all going to go to the next thing, and you
and I both without shoutover doubt in our minds, know
that we keep going. We just leave this vehicle. So right, Yeah,
So it is it just uh, is it kind of
(10:06):
inevitable that that is the thing that is going to
take more of us than anything?
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Well, it's not really inevitable. It's a big problem though.
Statistically speaking, it's scary. One out of four of us
is going to get cancer in our lifetime and that's
that's a big deal. But the good news is we're
curing most people. So while people are getting cancer and
you know, probably more in this day and age than
(10:35):
ever at least that I'm smoking cancers. You know, there's
that huge hope that we can cure people and cure
people with cancer treatments that are less toxic and more
effective and allow people to have treatments it can keep
cancer in check even if it's spread for a long
long time. And that's the message of hope and frankly,
(10:57):
reassurance that I'm able to offer my patients on a
regular basis when I see them. And you're right, Connie,
I know that even if our best cancer treatments fail
and the cancer unfortunately gets loose and someone is to
succumb from that, I think both you and I, Connie,
have had family members that have died of cancer, so
that really hits home to both of us. And yet
(11:18):
we both know that even when that happens, there is
an afterlife, and research I do in near death experiences,
I know that conclusively, and I tell that to the
patients that if they've lost a friend, family, or loved
one to cancer, I can reassure them that their friend, family,
or loved one is in and afterlife, a wonderful afterlife
(11:39):
and a much better place than the rest of us
have than our ongoing earthly existence.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
Is chemotherapy and radiation therapy the same.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
A lot of people ask that I'm a radiation oncology doctor,
so I use radiation to treat cancer. The colleagues that
we work right next to are called medical oncologists, and
that's the medical specialty that uses chemotherapy and other systemic
treatments to help fight cancer. With radiation therapy, what I
do every day is we have our treatment machine. They're
(12:12):
called linear accelerators, and it's fascinating bit of technology. The
electronically we're able to accelerate electrons believe it or not
too close to the speed of light before they in fact,
they're actually having relativistic effects. These electrons that are mechanically accelerated,
the electrons that then strike a tunged in target and
(12:34):
produce extremely high energy X rays. It's the high energy
X rays that can penetrate deep into the body and
selectively kill cancer. And that's the fundamentally what we do
with radiation therapy. Our modern techniques allow us to pinpoint
radiation therapy with the precision that is vastly better than
(12:55):
even ten to twenty years ago. So we're able to
drop a radiation dose right on the bad cancer cells
with exceptional sparing and surrounding normal tissue. Now, chemotherapy, that's
a whole nother medical specialty, and that involves systemic treatments,
and there's a whole There's literally over one hundred different
types of chemotherapy. Some of them are more toxic than others,
(13:18):
some less. But I've noticed in the thirty seven years
I've practiced, the chemotherapy has gotten much more effective and
yet much less side effects. In this modern era. Whenever
we see patients getting both chemotherapy and radiation therapy, it's
amazing enheartening to me how they describe how few side
effects they're having. For example, most people that get chemotherapy
(13:42):
don't lose their hair. Now, of course some do, but
that's just part of the ongoing modern techniques where are
able to treat people more effectively with less less problems
from the treatment.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at
one am Eastern and go to costacosta m dot com
for more
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