喵咪社区

Rod Hanners, CEO of 喵咪社区, talks with an oncologist about Keck Medicine鈥檚 participation in the national Cancer Moonshot initiative.

鈥淐onversations with Rod鈥� is a video series featuring鈥� Rod Hanners, CEO of鈥� 喵咪社区, talking with our doctors about our innovative medical care and research. In this video, Hanners sat down with Jorge Nieva, MD, an oncologist who specializes in lung, head and neck cancers. He treats patients at , part of Keck Medicine. 聽Watch the full video below 鈥� or read excerpts from their conversation.聽

Interview Excerpts 

You were involved in the national Cancer Moonshot initiative under the Obama administration. Tell us about that.  

Jorge Nieva, MD: The Cancer Moonshot, under then Vice President Biden, was a wonderful initiative that really aimed at doubling the rate of cancer research. We put together a team and created a project focused on evaluating human performance. This was a way of understanding who is too tired to get that next round of chemotherapy. And we had some interesting findings. We showed that people who weren鈥檛 as active 鈥� and you can get this information now from any kind of wearable device 鈥� can predict, in an instant, whether someone is more or less likely to have a complication from cancer treatment.

What is it about cancer that makes it so difficult to research and treat? 

JN: I think the biggest challenge is the recognition that cancer is not just one disease. So, it’s not enough to say that I’m researching cancer. It’s not enough to say that you’re researching lung cancer. It’s not enough to say that you’re researching EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor)-associated lung cancer. Because we’re finding that there are subtypes of EGFR-associated lung cancer, and those different subtypes all deserve unique treatment. 

For example, I have a patient who came into my office, and her cancer was getting worse. I looked at her molecular profile and determined that, while last week she had to treat her cancer with chemotherapy, this week a new drug had been approved for her particular genetic alteration. So, while she had to get difficult chemotherapy before, now she just had to take a pill. 

How close are we to a cure for cancer?  

JN: Well, we鈥檙e already curing cancer for a lot of our patients. And I used to not be able to say that. It used to be that when I first met a lung cancer patient who had advanced disease, or stage IV, I would tell them that there really wasn鈥檛 any chance of curing this, because I鈥檓 very honest and direct with people. But the great thing now is, I don鈥檛 have to say that to people anymore. Now I can say, 鈥淭here鈥檚 a chance you鈥檙e going to have a long-term remission.鈥� We now have lung cancer patients who can go into remission for many years without even using chemotherapy; instead, they just take a pill once a day.

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Rod Hanners

Rod Hanners is CEO of 喵咪社区.

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