Latest / Community D.C. / Community DC Michael Sapienza CCA Interview Final for 3.8.26

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Community DC Michael Sapienza CCA Interview Final for 3.8.26 · Community D.C.

0:06
Speaker 1: Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Community d C.
0:09
Speaker 1: I'm your host Tennis Glasgow. This morning, we welcome to
0:12
Speaker 1: the program for the first time Michael Sapienza. He is
0:15
Speaker 1: the CEO for the Coorectal Cancer Alliance, the largest national
0:19
Speaker 1: nonprofit dedicated to and in colorectal cancer by empowering a
0:23
Speaker 1: community of allies. It focuses on three main pillars, accelerating
0:27
Speaker 1: high impact research, providing comprehensive personalized support for patients and caregivers,
0:32
Speaker 1: and increasingly preventioned through awareness and screening, with a goal
0:35
Speaker 1: to reach an eighty percent screening rate. Here's my conversation
0:39
Speaker 1: with Michael. It's very educational and informative, and I hope
0:42
Speaker 1: you enjoyed it as much as I did.
0:43
Speaker 2: Good morning, Michael, Good morning.
0:46
Speaker 1: Well, it's a pleasure to have you on board on
0:47
Speaker 1: Community DC for the first time. I'm so appreciative of
0:50
Speaker 1: your time because I know how busy you are. I
0:52
Speaker 1: gave this a very brief history in the opening about CCA,
0:55
Speaker 1: and it really is truly incredible. Since nineteen ninety nine,
0:57
Speaker 1: I know you've been with the organization for ten years,
1:00
Speaker 1: and I imagine there's been a lot of research and
1:02
Speaker 1: treatments and medical science is moving very quickly that you
1:05
Speaker 1: know over the last decade that you've been blown away by.
1:08
Speaker 1: And I'd love to talk to you about all those things,
1:09
Speaker 1: plus events, donations, volunteering your team, which is very special.
1:14
Speaker 1: But I would like to start just to give some
1:16
Speaker 1: context about CECA, about the history I mentioned nineteen ninety nine,
1:19
Speaker 1: I kind of did a little research. I never want
1:21
Speaker 1: to rely on Google doctor or Google md or anything
1:24
Speaker 1: about when it comes to the actual data or the
1:27
Speaker 1: history of things. So if you could, it seems like
1:29
Speaker 1: a lot of people just came together they noticed that
1:32
Speaker 1: there was a big issue out there when it came
1:33
Speaker 1: to this type of cancer, which I read as the
1:36
Speaker 1: second leader in causing cancer deaths. Over fifty thousand men
1:40
Speaker 1: and women die annually per year in US, and those
1:43
Speaker 1: the data kind of blew me away. Let me know
1:45
Speaker 1: if that's accurate. But also, can you tell me a
1:47
Speaker 1: little bit about the history of the organization back in
1:49
Speaker 1: ninety nine.
1:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, I'll start with the history.
1:52
Speaker 3: So there was march on Washington, you know, really for
1:56
Speaker 3: cancer cancer merchan from Washington, and basically they all gathered
1:59
Speaker 3: on them all and you know, there were all these
2:01
Speaker 3: tables for every single kind of cancer except for col
2:04
Speaker 3: rectal cancer.
2:05
Speaker 2: Yet there there was a group of forty.
2:08
Speaker 3: Patients that were there that I all had colon or
2:10
Speaker 3: rectal cancer. And from that group, those are the individuals
2:14
Speaker 3: that actually started the Colon Cancer at that point, it
2:16
Speaker 3: was Colon Cancer Alliance, and they were all volunteer for
2:19
Speaker 3: about ten years, so they didn't have you know, additional
2:23
Speaker 3: actually paid.
2:24
Speaker 2: Staff, et cetera.
2:25
Speaker 3: They started what you probably remember in the good old days,
2:28
Speaker 3: the list serfs that you would just kind of write
2:30
Speaker 3: right back and forth on them and what not to
2:33
Speaker 3: support patients. And then you know, over time they started
2:38
Speaker 3: a helpline, and they started awareness, and they started a walk.
2:42
Speaker 3: And then my story is that I was a professional
2:45
Speaker 3: musician by training. Actually I was a classical trumpet player
2:48
Speaker 3: living in Miami Beach, Florida actually at the time, and
2:51
Speaker 3: this was around two thousand and six, so almost twenty
2:55
Speaker 3: years ago now.
2:56
Speaker 2: Where my mom and dad called me on a Saturday morning.
2:59
Speaker 3: I had just been performing with Yo Yo Mah doing
3:02
Speaker 3: Chelstakovich and all this amazing stuff, and they said, we've
3:05
Speaker 3: hit a bump in the road. And I said, Okay,
3:07
Speaker 3: what does that mean? And they said, well, they found
3:09
Speaker 3: a large tumor in my colon. And of course I'm
3:11
Speaker 3: thinking to myself and it's like, okay, where's your colon?
3:14
Speaker 2: I've heard of like large intestine.
3:16
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm in my twenties, so it's like, you know,
3:18
Speaker 3: where is that I could tally with serious? And you
3:22
Speaker 3: know the first thing I did, speaking of Google doctor,
3:24
Speaker 3: is go look. And unfortunately, my mom died on Mother's
3:28
Speaker 3: Day in two thousand and nine from the disease.
3:30
Speaker 2: And at that time it.
3:34
Speaker 3: Was the second leading cause of cancer to death for
3:36
Speaker 3: both men and women combined.
3:37
Speaker 2: It still is today.
3:39
Speaker 3: And I remember my brother very clearly saying to me,
3:42
Speaker 3: you know, Michael, you seem a little distracted from your music.
3:45
Speaker 3: You know what if you had a million dollars, what
3:47
Speaker 3: would you do? And I said, I would start a
3:49
Speaker 3: colon cancer foundation. Well, we didn't have a million dollars.
3:52
Speaker 3: We grew up middle class, and I said, you know what,
3:56
Speaker 3: we're going to do it anyway. And so the long,
3:58
Speaker 3: long story of it is, in twenty ten, after my
4:01
Speaker 3: mom died, we started a small foundation called the Christopher
4:04
Speaker 3: Life Coin Cancer Foundation here in Washington, d C. And
4:08
Speaker 3: that grew to be the second largest within a couple
4:12
Speaker 3: of years in the whole country, a couple of million
4:14
Speaker 3: dollar organization. And I led the merger in twenty fourteen,
4:18
Speaker 3: twenty fifteen with the Colon Cancer Alliance. So that happened
4:21
Speaker 3: in twenty sixteen, and it's it's been an amazing, amazing,
4:26
Speaker 3: amazing journey. And I'm sure I can share with you,
4:29
Speaker 3: you know, your listeners, a lot of other exciting things
4:32
Speaker 3: that has happened along the way.
4:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, please do. Thanks for the history of that. I'm
4:36
Speaker 1: sorry for your loss. And you know, the other thing
4:38
Speaker 1: is that I think every family member is touched by
4:40
Speaker 1: some kind of cancer. I lost my dad back in
4:41
Speaker 1: seventy nine to lung cancer. You've lost your mom, and
4:45
Speaker 1: it all touches us. And I think as our audience
4:48
Speaker 1: learned and gets educated Michael about CC, you know, we
4:52
Speaker 1: hear about it, it's obviously more prominent. And I want
4:55
Speaker 1: to talk about research and the amazing things that are
4:57
Speaker 1: happening today. And you know, people surviving this, which is
5:00
Speaker 1: truly incredible, but the origin of it when it was
5:04
Speaker 1: discovered and so many people having right now, have the
5:07
Speaker 1: researchers and doctors kind of educated us the general public
5:11
Speaker 1: and also your people about where it was and where
5:14
Speaker 1: it is today and why so many people are getting it.
5:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I still think that, you know, it's
5:21
Speaker 3: not as talked about as it should be. I think
5:24
Speaker 3: we've done a lot of work over the last fifteen
5:27
Speaker 3: years bringing it, you know, out of the woodwork per se.
5:30
Speaker 3: You know, whereas my grandma might say I had stomach
5:32
Speaker 3: cancer or abdominal cancer, now people are finally saying I
5:36
Speaker 3: have colorectal cancer.
5:37
Speaker 2: Right, it's a hard word to say.
5:38
Speaker 3: It's the place of your body that not everybody wants
5:41
Speaker 3: to talk about.
5:43
Speaker 2: But you know, in general, we really don't.
5:45
Speaker 3: Know why we're seeing this increase in young onset.
5:49
Speaker 2: Right.
5:50
Speaker 3: We do know that screening actually has helped save and
5:54
Speaker 3: reduce mortality for people over the age of fifty five,
5:58
Speaker 3: so it is proven. We can talk about that, of course,
6:01
Speaker 3: but really for people under the age of fifty five
6:04
Speaker 3: or even younger, we don't.
6:06
Speaker 2: Know what is causing the increase.
6:08
Speaker 3: You know, people well cannot hypothesize and whatnot, but we
6:12
Speaker 3: still don't know. But there certainly is some sort of
6:15
Speaker 3: change that it's happening to see this dramatic increase.
6:19
Speaker 1: I mentioned the numbers domestically in the US of people
6:22
Speaker 1: that are passing away from this. If you were to
6:25
Speaker 1: give us a little bit of the latest data that
6:27
Speaker 1: you have between men and women, the percentages there, and
6:31
Speaker 1: also is there a demographic as far as age it's
6:35
Speaker 1: more prominent to maybe possibly contract this.
6:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's actually kind of about the same
6:41
Speaker 3: men and women. There's maybe a like one or two
6:44
Speaker 3: percent difference between men and women. But you know, it
6:48
Speaker 3: has the stigmas like this old man's disease, but it's
6:50
Speaker 3: absolutely not. I mean, I know you you know, have
6:54
Speaker 3: a young woman colleague of yours who unfortunately, in her
6:58
Speaker 3: thirties got the disease, and so it certainly isn't it's
7:01
Speaker 3: really equal. There's fifty five thousand people will die of
7:04
Speaker 3: it this year, one hundred and fifty five thousand people
7:06
Speaker 3: will be diagnosed. It's the number one cancer killer for
7:09
Speaker 3: both men and women under fifty, which is just horrific.
7:14
Speaker 3: And the problem is is that screening really starts at
7:17
Speaker 3: forty five. So for anybody that is an average risk,
7:20
Speaker 3: screening starts at forty five. So what does that mean
7:23
Speaker 3: that it's the number one cancer killer for people under fifty?
7:26
Speaker 3: Yet they can't get screened until they're forty five. Well,
7:28
Speaker 3: what it means is we don't have enough treatments or
7:31
Speaker 3: good enough treatments to treat those people.
7:34
Speaker 2: And that is what's.
7:35
Speaker 3: Really really horrific and what's driving a lot of what
7:39
Speaker 3: the Corrective Cancer Aliance does.
7:41
Speaker 1: You know something I can certainly relate to my audience
7:44
Speaker 1: knows that I've had ruminturned arthritis since I was twenty one. Now,
7:47
Speaker 1: I contracted it back in eighty seven, So no internet,
7:51
Speaker 1: no education, no social media, and I was only twenty
7:54
Speaker 1: one at the time. And of course, when you get
7:56
Speaker 1: something like that with no educational information, Michael, I imagine you,
8:00
Speaker 1: you know, you would know that you feel like you're
8:01
Speaker 1: on an island by yourself. Now, I will tell you
8:04
Speaker 1: this as I learned in the Internet, coming on social media,
8:07
Speaker 1: the education and more people started getting ra and now
8:10
Speaker 1: you hear about autoimmune diseases everywhere. The money started funneling in.
8:14
Speaker 1: And this is always the way it is. And I'm
8:16
Speaker 1: sure you can give your experiences. When somebody doesn't know
8:18
Speaker 1: about a disease, or they don't talk about it, or
8:20
Speaker 1: not a lot of people have it, the funding's never there,
8:23
Speaker 1: The education's never there, but the numbers that you mentioned
8:26
Speaker 1: now it's extraordinary and not a good way of how
8:29
Speaker 1: many people have it now. So I imagine that you've
8:32
Speaker 1: seen over the last decade more people getting it. Hopefully
8:35
Speaker 1: there's more funding, there's more research, and I'm hoping the
8:38
Speaker 1: more people are living. Is that kind of your experience
8:40
Speaker 1: in the last decade that you've been a part of this.
8:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, what's what's interesting is that, you know,
8:48
Speaker 3: having lost my mom to this disease and really thinking
8:52
Speaker 3: about the course of where we've come as a community
8:56
Speaker 3: within corrrectal cancer. It's never enough. Yeah, you know, people
9:02
Speaker 3: with the fact that it's the number one cancer killer
9:04
Speaker 3: for men and women under fifty.
9:05
Speaker 2: Means it's not enough. And yeah, have we done a lot?
9:09
Speaker 3: Have we raised tons of awareness, brought celebrities in, have
9:12
Speaker 3: we increased the screening rate, have we brought more people
9:15
Speaker 3: into research, etc. Yes, But for example, we still have
9:21
Speaker 3: a five year metastatic survival rate of thirteen percent. That
9:24
Speaker 3: means to only thirteen percent of people that get MEDICYC
9:27
Speaker 3: disease live five years or longer. You compare that with
9:30
Speaker 3: other diseases like breast cancer, for example, forty percent five
9:33
Speaker 3: year metasthatic survival rate.
9:35
Speaker 2: And it's because to.
9:36
Speaker 3: Your point around our more money, more money, more money,
9:40
Speaker 3: which equals more treatments, it equals more innovation.
9:44
Speaker 2: And for example, like if you are.
9:46
Speaker 3: A young a man or woman and you're going into
9:49
Speaker 3: college or going into grad school, et cetera, and you're
9:51
Speaker 3: looking at studying something, you go where the money is, right,
9:55
Speaker 3: there's a grant for breast cancer research, there's a grant
9:57
Speaker 3: for whatever it is. And so one of the things
10:01
Speaker 3: we're trying to do is get more darts on the board, right,
10:04
Speaker 3: So funding these young investigators so that they have more
10:09
Speaker 3: ideas that then can go on to get other types
10:12
Speaker 3: of funding. So, yes, we're seeing progress. We're definitely seeing progress.
10:17
Speaker 3: But you know, I'll just say it is nowhere near
10:20
Speaker 3: enough progress.
10:22
Speaker 1: It never is, It never is. And you know what,
10:24
Speaker 1: this is a really excellent segue because I do want
10:27
Speaker 1: to talk about funding, but I know you're also an advocate.
10:29
Speaker 1: Not only have you lived through it personally, but now
10:32
Speaker 1: you've been doing this the last decade and whether you're
10:34
Speaker 1: headed to Capitol Hill or you're talking to people that
10:37
Speaker 1: you would love to fund the CCA, tell us about
10:41
Speaker 1: the advocation because I know it's ultra important just to
10:43
Speaker 1: get the word out there and to get more funding.
10:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's.
10:48
Speaker 3: Been an interesting topic around being an advocate because it's
10:51
Speaker 3: real easy, no offense to people that want to tell
10:53
Speaker 3: this story. I mean, I still, you know, get emotional
10:56
Speaker 3: talking about my mom, etc. But what really I've kind
11:00
Speaker 3: of transformed into is we need to bring people into
11:04
Speaker 3: this cause, to build a community, to be together, to
11:07
Speaker 3: raise money to end it, because that is.
11:11
Speaker 2: Truly what's going to affect people's lives.
11:13
Speaker 3: And so as an advocate, I say to myself like,
11:16
Speaker 3: all right, you know, yes, I go on to you know,
11:19
Speaker 3: the radio things like this and TV and all these
11:21
Speaker 3: things to talk about awareness and screening and whatnot. But
11:24
Speaker 3: I think really where I've been trying to concentrate a
11:26
Speaker 3: lot of my advocacy and my time is on raising money,
11:31
Speaker 3: creating community so people want to be part of something right.
11:35
Speaker 3: And Yeah, like I go on the hill a lot.
11:37
Speaker 3: I talk to people in the executive branch a lot.
11:40
Speaker 3: I talk to you know, people in constituents and patients
11:43
Speaker 3: all across the country to really truly understand what they're
11:46
Speaker 3: going through and what they need. And you know, the
11:48
Speaker 3: financial toxicity of cancer care is a whole separate thing.
11:53
Speaker 3: I don't know, your listeners probably know that James Vanderbig
11:57
Speaker 3: who passed away at forty eight, you know, was having
11:59
Speaker 3: trouble paying his bills, right.
12:01
Speaker 2: And you know, I don't want to use a single.
12:03
Speaker 3: Celebrities kind of situation, but I know it is the
12:08
Speaker 3: number one thing besides having health insurance that determines your
12:12
Speaker 3: outcome from cancer. So you know, there's just there's just
12:16
Speaker 3: so many things that people can advocate for, and for me,
12:19
Speaker 3: it's been really around around additional philanthropy and funding because
12:24
Speaker 3: that basis or that foundation for any disease, like you said,
12:28
Speaker 3: with rhue matariy arthritis, with breast cancer, with HIV AIDS,
12:31
Speaker 3: that like community is the thing that kind of sparks
12:34
Speaker 3: the the energy and the ecosystem all across the world.
12:38
Speaker 1: Really, right, And for a little context, with the James Vanderbeek,
12:42
Speaker 1: he had a large family, had six children and a wife,
12:44
Speaker 1: and the medical expenses bled them dry. Now we don't
12:47
Speaker 1: know anything about his finances and all of that, but
12:50
Speaker 1: they did go fundme and kept the family in their house,
12:52
Speaker 1: and you know, it was it's it's the story out there, folks,
12:56
Speaker 1: so that it can be expensive to die in America.
12:58
Speaker 1: It is really rough out there. I want to do
13:00
Speaker 1: this because you mentioned it a couple of times, Michael,
13:03
Speaker 1: about screening. I think people need to be educated about
13:06
Speaker 1: screening when they can go. Also, we're going to talk
13:10
Speaker 1: about treatments as well too. I know that you know,
13:12
Speaker 1: everybody's journey is different when it comes to CC. But
13:14
Speaker 1: with that said, we've got people's attention about it when
13:18
Speaker 1: they are able to screen or get a call on oscary,
13:20
Speaker 1: can you kind of tell about, you know, how everything
13:22
Speaker 1: works and when they should start really thinking about these things.
13:26
Speaker 2: Yeah.
13:26
Speaker 3: Absolutely so. The number one thing that people can do
13:31
Speaker 3: is get screened. It's the most important thing that I
13:35
Speaker 3: will say. My mom was fifty six when she got
13:37
Speaker 3: the disease. She had never been screened. She would be
13:40
Speaker 3: alive today if she hadn't been, So I think it's
13:44
Speaker 3: really you know, we hear these healthcare messages all the time,
13:47
Speaker 3: but sometimes it's like, this is the preventable cancer. It
13:50
Speaker 3: truly is. And so if you are forty five years
13:53
Speaker 3: or older and you have no family history of the disease,
13:56
Speaker 3: you need to be screened. And what does that mean?
13:59
Speaker 3: It means that you can get a colonoscopy, which you
14:02
Speaker 3: know certainly is if you have a family history. Later
14:05
Speaker 3: with myself, you have to have a kolonoscopy, but you
14:08
Speaker 3: also can get an at home test like a Coli
14:10
Speaker 3: Guard test, where they send it to you.
14:13
Speaker 2: You have to do it every three years.
14:14
Speaker 3: If it's positive, obviously you have to get a kolonoscopy,
14:17
Speaker 3: But for people that are busy, that can't take a
14:20
Speaker 3: time off of work or don't have someone to give
14:22
Speaker 3: them a ride, you know, and even if even if
14:25
Speaker 3: they aren't busy, Colguard is still a very very very
14:28
Speaker 3: good test. So again, if you're forty five years or older,
14:31
Speaker 3: you have to get screened. If you have a family
14:34
Speaker 3: history of the disease, you need to start being screened
14:36
Speaker 3: at age forty or ten years prior to when your
14:39
Speaker 3: first to be relative has been diagnosed. I just did
14:41
Speaker 3: another interview and the woman said her, I think it
14:43
Speaker 3: was her mother in law had been diagnosed at forty one,
14:46
Speaker 3: so their kids had to be started screening at thirty one.
14:50
Speaker 2: So I think that's really, really really important.
14:52
Speaker 3: And then the last thing I'll say about that is,
14:56
Speaker 3: again we have this young onset epidemic we do, really,
15:00
Speaker 3: really do. And so if you are under the age
15:02
Speaker 3: of forty five and you can't get screened, and you
15:05
Speaker 3: have any of the following symptoms like change of bowel
15:08
Speaker 3: habits but in your stool, especially dark blood, if you
15:11
Speaker 3: have unexpected weight loss, cramping, night sweats, and that lasts
15:15
Speaker 3: for more than two or three weeks, do not ignore
15:18
Speaker 3: those symptoms.
15:19
Speaker 2: Do not ignore them.
15:20
Speaker 3: Go to your doctor, demand demand if you don't have
15:23
Speaker 3: a primary care doctor, go to an urgent care demand
15:26
Speaker 3: a colonoscopy, because well, often what happens, Dennis, is that
15:30
Speaker 3: these folks they go into their doctor and they're misdiagnosed
15:33
Speaker 3: time after time again, and then three out of four
15:36
Speaker 3: people under the age of fifty are diagnosed too late,
15:39
Speaker 3: and then they don't have the treatments to be able
15:41
Speaker 3: to help them. So again I'll just say for people
15:43
Speaker 3: under forty five, if you have any of those symptoms,
15:46
Speaker 3: it's really important to be your own advocate.
15:48
Speaker 1: You know, Michael, I want to do a small PSA
15:50
Speaker 1: beside my ra that I have. And you know I'm
15:53
Speaker 1: sixty now, so you know I always have to think
15:55
Speaker 1: about my health and luckily, you know, I've been managing
15:57
Speaker 1: my Ari, Well, I'm in good health, I'm meeting well
16:00
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. But I can't recommend enough
16:02
Speaker 1: to people and urge them. And I have a good doctor.
16:05
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes you have to search for the right
16:06
Speaker 1: person out there. But folks, please do all these things,
16:09
Speaker 1: whether it's a screening or getting a colonosco bybe I've
16:12
Speaker 1: already had two in my life the latter, and I
16:16
Speaker 1: just you know, you need to. I know that a
16:17
Speaker 1: lot of people don't want to go to the doctor.
16:19
Speaker 1: I get it that sometimes it can be miserable and
16:21
Speaker 1: uncomfortable and awkward and weird. But I think you're hearing
16:24
Speaker 1: Michael's words, you're hearing mine. Just go do it, and
16:27
Speaker 1: if you can get ahead of it, you could probably
16:29
Speaker 1: save your life. And there's a lot of people that
16:30
Speaker 1: care around you too about that. So I'm glad we
16:33
Speaker 1: talked about you mentioned funding. I know that there's a
16:35
Speaker 1: lot of different ways that people can donate and also
16:38
Speaker 1: how funding comes in. Can you talk about the many
16:40
Speaker 1: different ways, Michael.
16:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
16:42
Speaker 3: I think you know, the easiest one is to go
16:45
Speaker 3: on our website Collorectal cancer dot org. That's super easy.
16:49
Speaker 3: But there's also you know, more exciting ways. For example,
16:51
Speaker 3: on March twenty second in Washington.
16:53
Speaker 2: D C.
16:53
Speaker 3: We have what's called the Scope it Out five K Walk.
16:57
Speaker 3: It's an awesome experience down on the Marb. We have
17:00
Speaker 3: thousands of people that come. It's an opportunity for families
17:03
Speaker 3: and friends and whatnot to come downtown and be part of,
17:07
Speaker 3: you know, a bigger cause. And so that's Scope it
17:09
Speaker 3: Out five k dot com. You can find out more
17:12
Speaker 3: information about that as well. I've actually been doing that
17:15
Speaker 3: Dentis since before my mom died. So we our team
17:19
Speaker 3: name is Team Collinators. And the first year we raised
17:23
Speaker 3: like what I thought was the most amount of money
17:25
Speaker 3: ever was like thirty thousand dollars, which.
17:26
Speaker 2: That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
17:29
Speaker 3: And I actually got every member of my orchestra I
17:32
Speaker 3: was playing in, the orchestra called the New World Symphony
17:35
Speaker 3: to donate except for one and off that one holdout,
17:39
Speaker 3: like I still of course remember that person's name. But anyway,
17:42
Speaker 3: it's on March twenty second on the National Mall and
17:44
Speaker 3: it is a you know, normally like an amazing inspiring
17:47
Speaker 3: event and you kind of walk all the way down
17:50
Speaker 3: towards the Washington Moondument and the Reflection Pool and then
17:53
Speaker 3: back and it's you know, there's fun, fun things there
17:57
Speaker 3: to do as well.
17:58
Speaker 2: So those are really the two.
18:00
Speaker 3: And of course if anybody is interested in you know,
18:03
Speaker 3: having you know, more of a significant impact, you can
18:06
Speaker 3: also just visit correctal cancer dot org as well, and
18:09
Speaker 3: you know, we'll definitely find ways for you to participate in,
18:13
Speaker 3: you know, the philanthropy piece of.
18:14
Speaker 1: This, Michael. Before I talk about research, I want to
18:17
Speaker 1: talk about treatment. I know there are many kinds and
18:18
Speaker 1: once again, everybody in their individuals journey is different and
18:21
Speaker 1: I get that, but just to kind of a thirty
18:23
Speaker 1: thousand foot view for our listeners when it comes to treatments,
18:26
Speaker 1: how many are there? And over the last decade, I'm
18:28
Speaker 1: sure you've seen some pretty miraculous things. I hope you
18:31
Speaker 1: can talk a little bit about that from your vantage point.
18:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely so about I think it would probably be
18:37
Speaker 3: almost ten years ago now we saw the first immunotherapy
18:41
Speaker 3: work in colorectal cancer. And you've probably heard, you know,
18:45
Speaker 3: when Jimmy Carter was younger, he got melanoma.
18:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know it was really bad.
18:50
Speaker 3: I think it was in his liver and I can't
18:52
Speaker 3: remember exactly where, but you know, he went on one
18:54
Speaker 3: of these immunotherapy drugs and it completely cured him. So
18:59
Speaker 3: for about three to five percent of colorectal cancer patients
19:02
Speaker 3: is a very small amount. Unfortunately, those patients are able
19:06
Speaker 3: to take immunotherapy to do a combination IMMI therapy treatment.
19:10
Speaker 2: And I'll just a short story.
19:12
Speaker 3: There's this young gentleman, Steven Estrada, who was diagnosed at
19:15
Speaker 3: the age of twenty seven. When I met him in
19:17
Speaker 3: twenty fourteen, he was weeks from dying. Weeks I mean,
19:21
Speaker 3: very very ill, and I got him in to see
19:23
Speaker 3: a doctor. They it was a trial right then and
19:25
Speaker 3: there with the immunotherapy. Long story short, it cured his cancer.
19:29
Speaker 3: And I mean we're talking about like his cancer was
19:32
Speaker 3: all over his body. So that is probably the most
19:35
Speaker 3: significant advancement. Yeah, and we are now now we're trying
19:40
Speaker 3: to make it so that the other ninety five percent
19:42
Speaker 3: of pulord cancer patients, what we call MSS microsatellite stable patients,
19:47
Speaker 3: be able to respond to those treatments. We've made some
19:50
Speaker 3: other advances. For example, some of your listeners who have
19:54
Speaker 3: breast cancer in their family. We have her two patients
19:57
Speaker 3: as well within colorectal cancer. Now we have some treatments
19:59
Speaker 3: for them and b RAPH, which is another mutation, so
20:03
Speaker 3: there are some but I will say the frontline treatment
20:06
Speaker 3: for colorrectal cancer has been the same for about fifteen
20:10
Speaker 3: to twenty years, which is unbelievable. It's the only cancer
20:14
Speaker 3: that that is the case of and we're just now really.
20:18
Speaker 2: Trying to push at the alliance to change that.
20:22
Speaker 3: But yes, we've seen new treatments for her too, Imita
20:25
Speaker 3: therapy treatments be what we call b RAPH treatments, and
20:28
Speaker 3: so I mean I'm excited. You know, there certainly are
20:32
Speaker 3: new things and new innovation on the horizon for patients
20:35
Speaker 3: you know, every day.
20:36
Speaker 1: That's great to hear. I did want to talk a
20:38
Speaker 1: little bit about research, and I think that leads into
20:41
Speaker 1: the treatment out there. I know, once again we go
20:44
Speaker 1: back to funding and money to do all the research.
20:46
Speaker 1: When you do have opportunity to talk to third parties
20:49
Speaker 1: and doctors and the researchers out there, what are they
20:52
Speaker 1: frustrated by? But what are they also excited by? Because
20:55
Speaker 1: I notice your passion in some of the things you've
20:56
Speaker 1: seen over the last decade that are improving. But what
20:59
Speaker 1: about from their van point. Did you chat with them?
21:02
Speaker 2: Yeah?
21:02
Speaker 3: So, you know, I work with all of the best
21:06
Speaker 3: oncologists in the country, but especially here in the DC
21:09
Speaker 3: area Georgetown and John Hopkins and you know gw and
21:12
Speaker 3: and Ova and Howard, all all of those, and I'll
21:15
Speaker 3: just say, like I mean, I think the pieces that
21:17
Speaker 3: they are most excited about are these new what we
21:23
Speaker 3: call targeted agents. Without getting too scientific, it's really finding
21:28
Speaker 3: new targets for colorectal cancer and matching those like you know,
21:33
Speaker 3: we used to what we did in World War Two,
21:34
Speaker 3: we carpet bomb you know, like you gave chemo quote
21:37
Speaker 3: unquote chemo to the entire village and hope that it worked,
21:41
Speaker 3: but you really didn't know who was going to work
21:43
Speaker 3: for or what. And so now we have these what
21:45
Speaker 3: we call precision medicine, and we do what we call
21:48
Speaker 3: biomarker testing. So biomarkers are like, what is the specific
21:52
Speaker 3: thing in your tumor that we can target? And so
21:55
Speaker 3: I think that that's really what they're most excited about.
21:57
Speaker 3: But there's also been advances in like, you know, how
22:00
Speaker 3: do we treat liver disease and how do we treat.
22:02
Speaker 2: Lung disease and you know, really making it.
22:05
Speaker 3: So it's more of a chronic disease than it is,
22:10
Speaker 3: you know, a death sentence. I will say, I do
22:14
Speaker 3: think like it is tough. Colorarectal cancer is a tough
22:18
Speaker 3: disease to treat because, without being again too scientific, the
22:23
Speaker 3: tumor micro environment, meaning the area of how to infiltrate
22:30
Speaker 3: the tumor, it's just tougher to treat than it is
22:33
Speaker 3: for breast.
22:33
Speaker 2: Cancer or other diseases.
22:35
Speaker 3: And so we're working to you know, kind of change
22:38
Speaker 3: that and move that forward as well.
22:40
Speaker 1: Michael, I don't know how much opportunity you get to
22:43
Speaker 1: talk to some of your peers around the world to
22:45
Speaker 1: do what you do out there, but not to make
22:48
Speaker 1: this a competition, but when the United States and it's
22:50
Speaker 1: data that you've talked about, how we compared to the
22:53
Speaker 1: rest of the world, and are they doing anything different
22:55
Speaker 1: better or where's the rest of the world when it
22:57
Speaker 1: comes to CC.
22:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, colorbactal cancer unfortunately, is pretty much the same around
23:04
Speaker 3: the world. The young onset is on the rise around
23:08
Speaker 3: the world, and we've worked with folks in Australia and
23:11
Speaker 3: the UK and Europe and even South Asia.
23:14
Speaker 2: Et cetera.
23:16
Speaker 3: But in terms of who still leads on biomedical research,
23:19
Speaker 3: it is the United States. Now, I will say, Dennis,
23:23
Speaker 3: it's a little frustrating right now because that is starting
23:26
Speaker 3: to change, meaning China is able to do clinical trials
23:32
Speaker 3: for much cheaper, much quicker, and you know that frustrates me.
23:38
Speaker 3: Frustrates me as an American. It frustrates me just because
23:41
Speaker 3: you know, I want us to be the leader in invasion,
23:44
Speaker 3: et cetera, and it is more expensive to do here.
23:47
Speaker 3: The FDA sometimes, which is an amazing body obviously, and
23:51
Speaker 3: they you know, in terms of safety and efficacy or
23:54
Speaker 3: the number one in the world.
23:56
Speaker 2: But I think we are going to have to as a.
23:58
Speaker 3: Country really think about what's the role number one of
24:02
Speaker 3: government in terms of funding cancer care. I was really
24:05
Speaker 3: excited to see the most recent path with an increase,
24:09
Speaker 3: an increase where in cancer funding. Whereas before they were
24:13
Speaker 3: talking about decreasing, cut and cut and cut and cutting.
24:17
Speaker 3: This day, actually, you know, Congress, the Senator, Senate, and
24:20
Speaker 3: the House actually kind of pushed back on the President's
24:24
Speaker 3: planned budget and the Executive brand's planned budget and actually
24:27
Speaker 3: increase the funding.
24:28
Speaker 2: So I was really really excited to see that that's huge.
24:31
Speaker 1: Yeah.
24:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, we and the cancer community were really worried for
24:34
Speaker 3: a while. But I do think that the President and
24:37
Speaker 3: the Executive Branch and RFK Junior and the Secretary and
24:41
Speaker 3: both you know, House and Senate said, you know what,
24:44
Speaker 3: we are Americans. We believe that cancer care actually saves
24:47
Speaker 3: all lives, no matter whether we're right, center, left, or
24:51
Speaker 3: in between. And so I was really excited to see
24:53
Speaker 3: that and hopefully that will continue to drive you know,
24:57
Speaker 3: innovation in our in our country. Not that we don't
25:00
Speaker 3: want it across the world, of course, but I still
25:02
Speaker 3: want to see that here in the United States as well.
25:04
Speaker 1: And I think that's where Project CRECYRC comes in as
25:07
Speaker 1: well too. Can you talk a little bit about.
25:08
Speaker 3: That, Yeah, absolutely. Project Curacy RC is one hundred million
25:12
Speaker 3: dollar commitment. We funded about I think about fifteen million
25:16
Speaker 3: dollars now at thirty three institutions across the country. But
25:20
Speaker 3: we're also starting a new clinical trial, which means at
25:23
Speaker 3: about forty institutions across the country, we'll be able to
25:27
Speaker 3: deploy quickly new ideas and what we call quick no gos,
25:33
Speaker 3: go no go signals at a much cheaper price than
25:37
Speaker 3: a traditional research organization. Could do, and that just means
25:41
Speaker 3: new treatments, faster treatments, and really kind of building all
25:45
Speaker 3: of that and putting it into a data lake. So
25:48
Speaker 3: people have probably heard of the you know, AI and
25:50
Speaker 3: fancy data lakes.
25:51
Speaker 2: But we need data.
25:53
Speaker 3: We need patient data for the FDA to be able
25:55
Speaker 3: to approve these drugs. And so between the clinical trial
25:59
Speaker 3: and the data dtabase that we have, excuse me, we
26:02
Speaker 3: really hope that that will speed up research and development
26:05
Speaker 3: and enable even pharma to do it with us at
26:09
Speaker 3: a cheaper cost so it can get to patients quicker.
26:12
Speaker 1: Is it highly likely that's going to happen.
26:15
Speaker 3: I am very very hopeful that we are able to
26:17
Speaker 3: make that happen because you know, we are the trusted
26:21
Speaker 3: source the Corrective Cancer Alliance and other advocacy organizations.
26:25
Speaker 2: Patients trust us.
26:26
Speaker 3: And they will you know, log on to you know,
26:30
Speaker 3: our registry or our you know what we call blue
26:33
Speaker 3: HQ and give us their information and that is what
26:37
Speaker 3: is really vital. And for pharma to get them to
26:40
Speaker 3: do that, it's much much harder and it's much more
26:43
Speaker 3: expensive to do that. That data collection we call them
26:45
Speaker 3: patient reported outcomes or longitudinal data that has to be created,
26:50
Speaker 3: you know, it has to be created, and it's used
26:52
Speaker 3: by the FDA to get approval for commercialization for a drug.
26:56
Speaker 3: And so the hope is that by us doing this
26:59
Speaker 3: combination of things we call it adaptive clinical trial, the
27:02
Speaker 3: actual data, having longitudinal data, etc. Will help reduce the
27:07
Speaker 3: cost and allow patients to get treatments faster.
27:09
Speaker 1: Outstanding, Michael, we have about two and a half minutes left,
27:11
Speaker 1: so I want to get some final thoughts from you.
27:13
Speaker 1: We're going to give the website, by the way, the
27:14
Speaker 1: people that have worked on your website and all the information.
27:16
Speaker 1: It's gorgeous, it's easy to navigate. I suggest people go there.
27:20
Speaker 1: I've learned just a ton in the research that I've
27:22
Speaker 1: done for this interview, so we'll give that in just
27:24
Speaker 1: a moment. But Michael, what we've talked about and did
27:26
Speaker 1: some final thoughts, the floor is yours.
27:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll just say, you know, I appreciate that it's
27:31
Speaker 3: the opportunity to talk about correctal cancer.
27:33
Speaker 2: As you heard, screening number one.
27:35
Speaker 3: Most important thing if you're forty five or older, please
27:37
Speaker 3: make sure that you're doing it. Number two, this has
27:40
Speaker 3: become an epidemic for people under the age of fifty
27:43
Speaker 3: and we need your support in this community. We invite
27:47
Speaker 3: you and you know, really encourage you to be part
27:50
Speaker 3: of it, whether that's at the scope at AL five
27:52
Speaker 3: K in Washington, DC or you know, just visiting our
27:56
Speaker 3: website to donate, because we need new treatments for these
27:59
Speaker 3: patients that are metastatic and thirty five years old and
28:03
Speaker 3: have kids. They do not deserve this, and I think
28:06
Speaker 3: we can do better as a country. And then I
28:09
Speaker 3: think the last thing is is continue to be an
28:11
Speaker 3: advocate for yourself and for others around you around getting
28:15
Speaker 3: screened and being part of the community.
28:17
Speaker 2: It's so incredibly important. I mean, we've seen tons.
28:19
Speaker 3: Of progress here in this disease, but we have a
28:23
Speaker 3: long way to go. So I really truly truly appreciate
28:26
Speaker 3: you bringing light to this within the DC area. It's
28:28
Speaker 3: so important, and you know it's my home as well,
28:31
Speaker 3: and so I'm you know, excited to be able to
28:34
Speaker 3: you know, continue to make sure we save lives from
28:36
Speaker 3: this disease.
28:36
Speaker 1: It's our pleasure. Michael. Let's get that website to everybody now.
28:40
Speaker 2: Absolutely correctal cancer dot org. Correctal cancer dot Org.
28:45
Speaker 1: One of the other things you did before I let
28:46
Speaker 1: you go is that you know, anytime you need to
28:48
Speaker 1: get the word out, sometimes celebrities do a great job
28:50
Speaker 1: of that. I know that Katie Kirk has done work
28:52
Speaker 1: with you and with the Blue Hole Bash, both Craig
28:55
Speaker 1: Melvin and Lindsay's Arniak, who are our favorites that we
28:58
Speaker 1: used to work in Local NBC and that the power couple.
29:00
Speaker 1: In fact, I've been watching Lindsay do the Olympics, which
29:03
Speaker 1: is fantastic, and Craig has been doing New York and
29:06
Speaker 1: all sorts of other really cool things. When you get
29:09
Speaker 1: those type of people that are involved, I know it's
29:12
Speaker 1: a megaphone for you like it is for your iHeart
29:14
Speaker 1: and why we're partner with you. But it must be
29:16
Speaker 1: extraordinary to work with those people, just so you know
29:18
Speaker 1: they've got this very large megaphone for you.
29:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been incredible. You know, we worked with Craig
29:23
Speaker 3: for years and he's just been a doll. And so
29:26
Speaker 3: as Lendsay they do this big bottoms up golf tournament
29:28
Speaker 3: with US. Ryan Reynolds and his marketing agency Maximum Effort
29:32
Speaker 3: has partnered with US, Dak Prescott and.
29:35
Speaker 2: So many others outstanding.
29:37
Speaker 1: Hey, Michael, you're doing great work. I know You've heard
29:39
Speaker 1: this from other people, but your mom would be very
29:41
Speaker 1: proud of what you're doing with your team. The last
29:44
Speaker 1: ten years have been extraordinary. I'm happy that you're leading
29:47
Speaker 1: this incredible company to do amazing things out there. I
29:50
Speaker 1: know there's a lot of work and a lot of
29:51
Speaker 1: money to raise out there, but thanks for all that
29:54
Speaker 1: you do and I really appreciate your efforts and I'm
29:56
Speaker 1: glad we could spotlight you on Community DC.
29:59
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Thank you