The Zoomed-Out Therapeutic Picture of Cancer with Clinician-Researcher Dr. Doru Paul

The latest in cancer therapeutics is just around the corner. Press play to learn from a true expert in the field and discover:

• How immune checkpoint inhibitors work
• What can be learned from the triangular communication that occurs between a primary tumor, metastatic site, and bone marrow
• When new and unprecedented therapeutics for cancer may be commercially available

Dr. Doru Paul is Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, a practicing oncologist and hematologist who has treated more than 10,000 patients with various types of cancers over the years, and a clinical and translational researcher who has been involved with over 30 studies in oncology. He also works within the realm of theoretical biology, all with the goal of better understanding cancer and finding more effective, less toxic ways to treat it.

Dr. Paul has only been practicing at Cornell for the past three years, but he’s been at the cancer riddle for more than 33 years now. While at Cornell, he has focused on the treatment of head and neck cancers, some of the most common being throat, nasopharynx, and thyroid cancer.

In today’s show, he explains the recent success with immunotherapy, both by itself and in combination with chemotherapy, as well as some of the newest medications being used, like monoclonal antibody (MAB) immune checkpoint inhibitors. He discusses the use of FDG-PET (fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography) to attack cancer vulnerabilities, dispels some of the misconceptions surrounding this approach, and explains why it’s actually effective and free of side effects.

He also discusses an idea that he’s been developing over the past six years, which requires zooming out from the microscopic level to the macroscopic level and focusing on the killer of 90 percent of patients: metastasis. Specifically, he talks about the communication that occurs between primary tumors, metastatic sites, and bone marrow, and targeted approaches that function at this level.

Tune in for details on these topics and more. Episode also available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/30PvU9C