Breastcancer.org Podcast

The 2025 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium featured four days filled with new research findings, poster presentations, and educational sessions. Marisa Weiss, MD, founder and chief medical officer of Breastcancer.org, offers her take on the top results. Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Weiss explain: how giredestrant, a new oral SERD for early-stage, hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, may...

At the 2025 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Justin Johnson, PhD, presented a poster detailing the final results from three groups of people in a phase I trial on a vaccine to prevent triple-negative breast cancer. Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Johnson explain: why the vaccine targets the alpha-lactalbumin protein the safety and dose results of the study what’s next for the research

At the 2025 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Ann Partridge, MD, MPH, presented research on the Young, Empowered & Strong (YES) mHealth tool designed to better meet the emotional and physical health needs of young people who’ve received breast cancer treatment. Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Partridge explain: how people access the tool and how it works the specific symptoms the tool helped...

At the 2025 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Dr. Jun Mao, an integrative medicine specialist and licensed acupuncturist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, presented research showing that both real and sham acupuncture can help improve cognitive function in women treated for breast cancer. Sham acupuncture mimics real acupuncture, but no needles pierce the skin. Listen to the episode to...

At the 2025 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Whitney O’Connor, a two-time breast cancer survivor, licensed professional counselor, and founder of the Boobie Queen Company, presented a poster on the mental health tools she developed to help young women address any mental health and body image challenges they may have. Listen to the episode to hear Whitney explain: the phases of cancer survivors...

At the 2025 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Megan-Claire Chase, known online as Warrior Megsie, a fierce and funny breast cancer advocate, presented a poster on real-world patient and caregiver experiences with breast cancer risk of recurrence in the United States. Listen to the episode to hear Megan-Claire explain: why she and her colleagues wanted to do the survey the gaps in survivorship c...

At the 2025 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), Dr. Tara Sanft, associate professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine and director of the Yale Survivorship Clinic, moderated a session called “Balancing Act: Hormone Replacement Therapy in Breast Cancer Care.” Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Sanft explain: the difference between systemic and local HRT why HRT decisions need to be...

After surgery, many people with stage I to stage III hormone receptor-positive breast cancer take tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor for five to 10 years. This has been the standard of care for the last 25 years. At the 2025 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, UCLA scientist Dr. Aditya Bardia presented results on giredestrant, a new oral selective estrogen degrader/downregulator (SERD) that offe...

This bonus episode is the audio of a Breastcancer.org ⁠⁠⁠webinar. Managing breast cancer treatment can be a long, complex process with unexpected obstacles. Some people experience a cosmetic or medical issue with their breast reconstruction that occurs soon after surgery or years later. If you’re unhappy with the cosmetic results of reconstruction after a mastectomy or lumpectomy — or you’re feeli...

Male breast cancer makes up about 1% of all breast cancer cases. The numbers are small, but it does happen. Jake Messier is living with metastatic breast cancer after first being diagnosed with stage II disease in 2023. Jake has very active Tik Tok and Instagram accounts (theguywithstage4breastcancer) detailing his experience with breast cancer. Listen to the episode to hear Jake explain: how he f...

This bonus episode is the audio of a Breastcancer.org ⁠⁠webinar. Hair loss. Fatigue. Forgetfulness. Vomiting. Weight changes. Neuropathy. The possible side effects of chemotherapy for breast cancer can be concerning — especially because there’s no way to predict exactly how each person will react to treatment. It can feel overwhelming to manage it all, but there are steps you can take to help your...

Dr. Andrei Goga and his colleagues found that triple-negative breast cancer cells build molecular tunnels called gap junctions into nearby fat cells and use the fat cells’ energy for fuel. When the scientists blocked the gap junctions, the tumors stopped growing. Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Goga explain: how the study came about how the cancer cells connect to the fat cells how the process c...

This bonus episode is the audio of a Breastcancer.org ⁠webinar. For many people, life after breast cancer isn't as easy as just moving on. Physical side effects may linger, and the emotional healing is ongoing. Fear of recurrence can affect our mental health and relationships even when we are doing our best to live in the moment. Listen to this webinar for an honest conversation between breast can...

After being diagnosed with breast cancer, nearly everyone worries that the cancer will come back. But for some people, this fear is overwhelming and interferes with their ability to function and live their lives.  Clinical health psychologist Dr. Shelly Johns is studying the effect fear of breast cancer recurrence has on people’s lives and how they cope with that fear.  Listen to the episode to he...

This bonus episode is the audio of a Breastcancer.org webinar. When life is interrupted by breast cancer at a young age, there are distinct challenges and quality-of-life issues to manage.  It’s important to understand all the possible ways a diagnosis can impact the future, including fertility decisions, pregnancy care, career disruptions, parenting young kids, long-term survivorship concerns, se...

According to a KFF poll, about one in eight, or 12%, of adults in the United States have used a GLP-1 medicine like Ozempic, Trulicity, Victoza, Mounjaro, Wegovy, or Zepbound. These drugs were originally developed to treat diabetes, but quickly started being prescribed for weight loss and other uses. While they seem like wonder drugs, GLP-1 medicines do cause side effects and have risks. Nausea, v...

This is a bonus episode of the audio of a Breastcancer.org ⁠⁠⁠⁠webinar⁠⁠⁠⁠. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an invasive subtype of breast cancer that can be harder to treat and is more likely to come back. But new research into understanding TNBC is helping some patients find more precise treatment options.  Learn about innovations in immunotherapy, genetic testing, and targeted therapies,...

Many people feel supported by Breast Cancer Awareness Month activities and pink merchandise. Others feel the month focuses on people who’ve been cured and leaves out people with metastatic disease. Some men with breast cancer feel the overwhelming pinkness of the month silences their experience. And others feel the pink labels on products linked to higher breast cancer risk, such as alcohol and co...

This is a bonus episode of the audio of a Breastcancer.org ⁠⁠⁠webinar⁠⁠⁠. If you’ve struggled with anxiety, fear, depression, anger, loneliness, or felt overwhelmed by the emotional impact of a breast cancer diagnosis, this webinar is for you.  You’ll learn about a variety of approaches to treat and manage mental health issues from counseling to complementary therapies, lifestyle changes, medicati...

Triple-negative breast cancer is negative for both estrogen and progesterone receptors. So, it’s hormone receptor-negative. People diagnosed with this type of breast cancer aren’t offered hormonal therapy to reduce the risk of recurrence (the cancer coming back) because it’s thought that they wouldn’t be effective.  Dr. Lisa Newman and colleagues published research that found that among people dia...

This is a bonus episode of the audio of a Breastcancer.org ⁠⁠webinar⁠⁠. Making decisions about breast reconstruction is personal. Hours of research can go into your choice about restoring the shape and size of one or both breasts. It’s also important to think carefully about how you want to look and feel in your body.  Implants, flap reconstruction, fat grafting, going flat, immediate or delayed,...

A medical assistant at Elizabeth Wende Breast Care in Upstate New York, Chelsea Vangrol had seen young women diagnosed with breast cancer. But she never expected to be one of them. She shares her experience of being diagnosed with DCIS at age 25 so other people in a similar situation will know they’re not alone. Listen to the episode to hear Chelsea discuss: strategies she used to cope with stress...

This is a bonus episode of the audio of a Breastcancer.org ⁠webinar⁠. Whether you’re adjusting to changes to your body, experiencing weight fluctuation, hair loss, hot flashes, or just trying to feel “like yourself” again, this webinar will give you a toolkit of style strategies to try. Dr. Weiss and Emma John discuss their personal stories, and how self-expression through style has helped them af...

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are a relatively new type of medicine for breast cancer. Enhertu (chemical name: fam-trastuzumab-deruxtecan-nxki) and Dato-DXd (brand name: Datroway) are two ADCs used to treat breast cancer. Dr Benjamin Schrank and colleagues have developed a new type of ADC that combines an antibody with a toxin — called an antibody-toxin conjugate — that teaches the immune system...

At the start of her second trimester, Rafaela Dreisin was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 36. Listen to the episode to hear Rafaela discuss: how she and her doctors decided on a treatment plan how she coped with experiencing the excitement of being pregnant and the fear of her diagnosis at the same time her advice for other people in the same situation