Breastcancer.org Podcast

This is a bonus episode of the audio of a Breastcancer.org webinar. It’s normal to experience emotional challenges after a cancer diagnosis. From body image to managing relationships, heightened stress, the fear of recurrence, and so much more.  In this webinar, you’ll learn about a variety of ways to cope with the anxiety and doubts that can take hold.  Breast cancer patients and survivors will s...

This podcast is the audio from a special Virtual Support Group meetup featuring guest moderator Joanna Doran. Listen to the podcast to hear Joanna and Community members discuss: Medicaid changes that may happen, including the work requirement the long-term disability approval process having both Medicaid and Medicare

This podcast is the audio from a special Virtual Support Group featuring guest moderator Kelly Grosklags. Listen to the podcast to hear Kelly and Community members discuss: why you might not want to share tough emotions with the people in your life how to tell someone you need them to listen, not fix things how different members of the group shared their diagnosis with family and friends

Four years after giving birth to her son, Jaci Field was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 39. Listen to the episode to hear Jaci discuss: her breast cancer experience and her advocacy work the  discrimination she’s faced, both because of her race and whom she chooses to love how she finds joy

At the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, Hope Rugo, MD, chaired a session on managing the side effects of new breast cancer treatments and also presented information on how to manage the side effects of hormonal therapy medicines, which are used to treat hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Rugo explain: ways to manage the side effects...

At the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting Fumiko Chino, MD, summarized her presentation on how doctors can help the people they care for overcome financial issues. She also offered some strategies for patients. Listen to the podcast to hear Dr. Chino explain: some specific resources for people with cancer why people with breast cancer may have the most financial issue...

The 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting featured five days of presentations and educational sessions on all types of cancer. Dr. Eleonora Teplinsky, a board-certified medical oncologist at the Valley-Mount Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Center in Paramus, NJ, summarizes the top breast cancer research. Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Teplinsky discuss: The SERENA-6 trial,...

At the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, Dr. Katie Schmitz chaired a session on ways to ensure that exercise is part of every cancer treatment plan. She also talked about how results of the CHALLENGE trial in colon cancer might apply to breast cancer. Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Schmitz explain: strategies doctors can use to make exercise an integral part of c...

At the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, Dr. Samantha El Warrak presented the results of her research on how five lifestyle factors affect the risk of dying from breast cancer.  Listen to the episode to hear Dr. El Warrak explain: the five risk factors included in the study which risk factors were most linked to breast cancer mortality what the results mean for women diagn...

By 2030, researchers estimate that about 246,000 people will be living with metastatic breast cancer. METAvivor is the first organization dedicated to raising awareness of, and funding research on, stage IV breast cancer. Dr. Kelly Shanahan, current METAvivor president, has been living with metastatic disease for 11 years. Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Shanahan explain: how METAvivor started f...

Ashton Davidson was diagnosed with breast cancer during gender-affirming top surgery. He faced some unique challenges and situations during and after treatment. Listen to the episode to hear Ash explain: the emotions he felt when diagnosed how he decided to become an outspoken advocate how he lives authentically in the face of adversity how he finds joy, especially today

Can people diagnosed with metastatic hormone receptor-positive breast cancer avoid chemotherapy and take a CDK4/6 inhibitor instead? Do people diagnosed with DCIS need to have surgery? Will there soon be another oral selective estrogen degrader available? Breastcancer.org medical advisor Dr. Kevin Fox explains the details of the studies and what they mean for you. Listen to the episode to hear Dr....

It’s been known for many years that Black women are twice as likely as white women to be diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. If diagnosed with this type of breast cancer, Black women are also more than twice as likely to die from the disease than women of other races and ethnicities. Researchers have been studying a number of factors that may play a role in these disparities. Dr. Sanchit...

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) are the largest funder of cancer research in the world. A January 2025 executive order froze NIH funding and cut indirect cost payments. Another executive order halted all public communications by a number of federal agencies. Challenges to the orders are winding through the courts.  Dr. Donald McDonnell, who studies and develops drugs to treat breast and pr...

About 10% to 15% of breast cancers are triple-negative. This means they don’t have receptors for the hormones estrogen or progesterone, and don’t have too many HER2 proteins. So, hormonal therapy medicines and medicines that target the HER2 protein aren’t effective against triple-negative breast cancer.  Chemotherapy and immunotherapy are commonly used to treat triple-negative disease. But scienti...

In January 2025, the U.S. Surgeon General put out an advisory on alcohol and cancer risk, calling for cancer risk-warning labels on alcoholic beverages. The advisory said alcohol contributes to nearly 100,000 cases of cancer each year, and about 20,000 deaths each year.  The advisory also cited a 2019 study showing that alcohol is more closely linked to breast cancer than any other cancer. More th...

Hormonal birth control increases breast cancer risk in women with a BRCA1 mutation, but not women with a BRCA2 mutation. Levonorgestrel IUDs increase risk, but how much? The long-term risk of breast cancer coming back — recurring — as metastatic disease has gone down in the last 20 years, but younger women still have a higher risk than older women. What does all this mean? Breastcancer.org Profess...

In cancer, biomarkers are features of the tumor, such as a genetic mutation or the presence of a certain protein. These biomarkers affect how the cancer behaves. Doctors use the results of biomarker testing to make treatment recommendations. Several organizations, including the American Cancer Society and the LUNGevity Foundation, through the No One Missed campaign, are working to pass laws to req...

Five patient advocates share what they like and what they’re excited about at the 2024 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The advocates are: Antoinette Greer, of My Sister My Friend Breast Cancer Support Gitte Joergensen, of the Lobular Breast Cancer Alliance Joan Mancuso, of Theresa’s Research Foundation Barbara Bigelow, of Metavivor and the MBC Alliance Christine Hodgdon, of GRASP Listen to th...

The 2024 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium featured five days of research presentations, educational sessions, and advocacy meetings. Dr. Marisa Weiss, founder and chief medical officer of Breastcancer.org, breaks down the research that will have the most immediate impact for people diagnosed with breast cancer. Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Weiss discuss: results from the PATINA study showi...

At the 2024 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Dr. Aditya Bardia, director of the Breast Oncology Program and Translational Research Integration at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, presented results from the DESTINY-Breast06 study, showing that Enhertu (chemical name: fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki), also called T-DXd, was better than chemotherapy for metastatic, hormone rec...

Cases of breast cancer in young women have been increasing dramatically in the last eight years. Dr. Matteo Lambertini, whose research focuses on breast cancer in young, especially fertility and pregnancy after a breast cancer diagnosis, chaired a session on breast cancer in the young at the 2024 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. He also presented the results of a study that found young women w...

Andrea Hans was diagnosed with stage II triple-negative breast cancer when she was 28. With expertise in public health and health policy, she began working as an advocate to empower young women to understand their breast cancer risk factors. Andrea received an Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation Advocate Scholarship to attend the 2024 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Listen to the episode to hear A...

At the 2024 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium Dr. Don Dizon, professor of medicine and professor of surgery at the Brown University Cancer Institute, was part of a panel entitled “Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll.” His presentation focused on sexual health after breast cancer. Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Dizon discuss: the highlights of his presentation why sexual health after cancer treatmen...

New research suggests that estrogen plays a role in allowing hormone receptor-negative breast cancer to grow. This is because estrogen limits the ability of the immune system to attack cancer cells; it also makes immunotherapy medicines, like Keytruda (chemical name: pembrolizumab), less effective. Dr. Donald McDonnell, senior author of the study, explains the results and how they might make a dif...