The Biggest Challenge in Medicine with Neil deGrasse Tyson & Dr. Linda Malkas

My dad was diagnosed with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (73 yo). Of the thyroid cancers, it's pretty much the worst with a 2% survival rate. His tumor was wrapped around the carotid artery and pushing up against his esophagus to almost perforating it. There were also a few spots in his lungs where it had metastasized. He was given more or less two months to live. Regardless, he started on radiation and chemotherapy. He then tested positive for the new gene therapy medication and started on that as well. This was all back in February. His latest PET scan showed zero tumor anywhere!! He's with us celebrating the holidays, which no one thought possible. It absolutely was not an easy year for him, nor is it still. The cancer drugs and treatments all did their jobs, but the side effects are brutal. He still has a long road ahead.

This was the longest I’ve seen Neil and Chuck be silent while the guest talks. Bravo to all!

Thank you so much Dr Malkas for your work. I have Stage IV cancer and you give me hope for young people in the future. I am so grateful for all the hard work cancer scientists do.

Where do you see cancer research in 5-10 years?

Sounds like we just listened to a possible Nobel prize winner in Medicine. Excellent program!

I am a cancer survivor and work for a cancer nonprofit and Linda broke down the most complex concepts into understandable descriptions (shower curtains and cocktails). I am blown away by your research and how you can describe it all. It did keep all 3 of the other smart guys quiet for a LONG time. Fascinated!

Not many episodes does the crew just sit quietly and listen. Speaks volumes about what we are learning here.

My husband died 7 years ago from cancer. Most important is proper ID of the cancer. I read so many papers and he endured so many treatments. Some I was most afraid of were the most helpful. Some were very painful and not helpful. In the end it was the proliferation rate that called the shots. It was a mathematical game all along. I hope we will someday win this fight. So many health resources would be available for other purposes if we do. We as a world live in an exciting time. As a species we have the chance to learn to live sustainably and prosper without becoming a cancer ourselves. Never before have we had the resources to do this. Today we do if we learn to listen to our better angels and control the small thinking ego greed within.

Thank you Neil. My daughter was diagnosed with Fibrolameller HCC in August of 2019. flHCC is an ultra rare cancer that starts in the liver. She is 1 in 5,000,000. It is so rare that there is no standard of treatment other that to do surgery and hope you get it all. Liver surgery of this type is a grueling procedure that takes a minimum of 6 weeks to recover from. The median age for flHCC is 23. My daughter was 23 when diagnosed. A 9cm tumor was removed during her first surgery. Almost50 percent 8f her liver was removed. A year later her scan showed new growth. Surgery was done again and lymph nodes were removed. 3 months later scans showed two new possible spots and surgery was done on the non lu g spot. That turned out to be a false positive but still required 6 weeks to recover again. One more surgery was required to remove stitches that did not dissolve properly. She has now been NED - no evidence of disease for over 3 years. Obviously we all hope these good scans continue forever but this has a nasty habit of coming back as many cancers do. This AO-1996 sounds like a winner. Thank you for raising awareness about this drug.

One scary aspect of cancer is that it doesn't always make its presence known until it has gone to an advanced stage. Cancer screening is crucial to early detection especially if you have a family history. In my personal experience, 18 months ago in early 2023, I was diagnosed with papillary thyroid carcinoma. I had no family history of thyroid cancer and was completely asymptomatic. Yet is was incidentally found in the course of diagnosing an unrelated condition. a complete thyroidectomy was performed, plus 50 suspect lymph nodes were removed. 13 of them were found to malignant from a post surgery biopsy. I had stage 2 thyroid cancer and didn't even know it. I went through a round of radiation to take care of what was left and I have been cancer free for a year now. I was one of those people who thought they would never have it. But it can happen to anyone.