Candace Johnson, PhD, President & CEO, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is here today to introduce you to Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center's new podcast series, "Cancer Talk".
She discusses what's ahead for 2017, as well as new cancer treatment innovations, new research at Roswell Park
and how cancer immunotherapy is changing the face of cancer treatment.
For the future of cancer care and cancer treatment there is hope on the horizon at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Selected Podcast
Introduction to the Cancer Talk Podcast and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
Featured Speaker:
Learn more about Dr. Candace S. Johnson
Candace S. Johnson, PhD
Dr. Candace S. Johnson joined the faculty of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in February 2002, and is currently President & CEO, the Wallace Family Chair in Translational Research, and Professor of Oncology.Learn more about Dr. Candace S. Johnson
Transcription:
Introduction to the Cancer Talk Podcast and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
Bill Klaproth (Host): Welcome to Roswell Park Cancer Talk, the official podcast series of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. We are very happy to offer this podcast to help people navigate the many issues and concerns that cancer diagnosis brings. To tell us more is Dr. Candace Johnson, President, and CEO of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Johnson, we are honored, and thank you, so much, for your time today. Can you first give us a brief introduction to Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center?
Dr. Candace Johnson (Guest): Sure, I’m delighted to be here as well. Roswell Park is really a jewel here in Western New York because it’s a cancer center that’s been around for over a hundred years. It was the very first cancer center in 1898 – 1898, so over a hundred years. It was one of the very first comprehensive NCI-Designated Centers. In other words, we have really been on the cutting-edge of cancer care and cancer research for many, many years. It’s a place where people in Western New York, and around the country, and around the world can come and get the cutting edge therapies, the innovative treatments and be able to know that a team of experts is really taking care of you and so you can know that you’re availing yourself of some of the best talent in the world.
Bill: Over a hundred years, that is amazing, and there certainly is such a rich legacy of cutting-edge therapy and research at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. As we look ahead and move through 2017, what vision do you have for Roswell Park Cancer Institute in the future?
Dr. Johnson: Like the City of Buffalo, Rowell Park is exploding in growth, in excitement, we have so many things going on. I’ve only been in this leadership role in two years, and over this two-year period, we have really recruited so many individuals from around the country from Stanford, Vanderbilt, Columbia, Pittsburg, Cleveland Clinic, you just name it, and we have brought people here. When you bring new people into the environment, it’s a very exciting one because everybody is here with their slant on what they bring to the table as far as innovation. Besides just critical mass, and increasing our capabilities both in the research arena and in the laboratory, but also at the bedside in enhancing our reputation across all diseases to be able to bring these innovative therapies here. We are focusing ourselves in two areas – and this is my vision – is that we be the center for immunotherapy in cancer, setting the stage around the country for this is where you go for your innovative therapies. We have the first ever vaccine from Cuba that we have brought to Roswell Park and are offering it to patients with lung cancer. We have some – Kunle Odunsi, who is my Deputy Director – we have some first ever vaccine approaches, and cellular therapy approaches in a variety of cancers, so immunotherapy is one of the areas we’re growing. And then genetics – genetics, looking at those specific markers that are going to make the choice, perhaps, of your therapy for your cancer directed toward that little marker that may be on your tumor and no one else’s tumor. Being able to identify tumors and characterize them with these little mutations, or these little markers can help to target better and more effective drugs. Those two areas are the things that we’re focusing on from a research perspective in 2017, but we’re also trying to really bring our cancer care more focused around our patients. The patients need to be the center of our universe here at Roswell Park. When you walk through these with a cancer diagnosis that we are concerned not only with curing your cancer and treating your cancer, we want to give you the best quality of life. We want to make your experience here – even though you’re going through a terrible time of dealing with cancer and all of the ramifications of that – we want to make it as easy and as seamless as possible.
Bill: And everybody wants to be treated as best as they can, that’s for sure. It sounds wonderful that you absolutely take that to heart. That’s one of the most important missions you can do is take care of that patient when they’re in because as you say, it is a very – most difficult time. Those are two very good areas that you just talked about, immunotherapy and genetics.
Dr. Johnson: And genetics.
Bill: Can we talk about immunotherapy --
Dr. Johnson: Yes.
Bill: -- and how that is changing the face of cancer treatment?
Dr. Johnson: It’s so exciting because over 20 years ago, the immune system was targeted, if you will, to be the next horizon for cancer therapy because we all know how powerful the immune system is. It seemed like, my goodness, we should be able to harness the immune system to help fight cancer. The immune system within all of us helps us fight off all kinds of diseases every day. You get cold, and if you didn’t have an active immune system, even just something like influenza could kill you because your body reacts against that cold virus and that influenza virus and you recover from it. When you hear of somebody that has had a transplanted organ, like a kidney, the immune system, if it’s not a match – you hear that terminology – if it’s not a match, the immune system is so aggressive, it will actually eat away at that kidney and destroy it. Here you have a tumor growing inside someone, and your immune system doesn’t eat it away, it doesn’t recognize it as foreign and why is that? It is foreign, it’s not you, even though it’s growing inside of you, but our immune system gets turned off to cancer. It took us a long time to figure this out, and the mechanism around this is very similar to when a woman gets pregnant, she has a fetus growing inside of her that is not her -- it’s part her, part her husband’s – but your immune system doesn’t recognize it as foreign. You carry that baby to term, and then you deliver it normally. There are some rare syndromes where your immune system does react against it and actually, those women have a hard time becoming pregnant. The immune system gets turned off, or it’s tolerized to that fetus. That’s what happens in cancer, your immune system gets turned off and doesn’t recognize it as foreign, but what we have discovered over these past 20 years that’s so, very exciting, is we’ve figured out the immune system and what makes it tick. Now we’re able to design therapies to activate your immune system in a very specific way, to be able to actually treat cancer. Our hope is that someday we may even be able, through vaccine approaches, to prevent cancer. There’s some very exciting things going on now in immunotherapy, and that’s really one of the most exciting areas that’s out there in cancer because your immune system inherently – like when you get a flu vaccine, you get a little feverish maybe, and you feel not-so-hot for 24 hours, but then you’re fine – so immunotherapy is you get maybe a little fever, but you don’t have the side effects you get with chemo. You don’t lose your hair; you don’t vomit and just feel like total crap [LAUGHTER] for days. It doesn’t kill your white blood cells like chemotherapy does. Immune therapy doesn’t have as much toxicity, and we really think that this could make a huge difference. The other thing that happens in chemotherapy is you become resistant many times to the drugs. They start not working for you, and you have to switch to something else – these are with chemotherapy drugs. The immune system, it is unlikely that there would be resistance mechanisms and so there’s so many reasons why immunotherapy is just one of the most exciting therapies that have come along in cancer in a long time. The thing Western New Yorkers should be so excited about, is it’s happening right in their backyard at Roswell Park because it is something that we invested in many years ago, not really -- hoping that we were going to solve this mystery and now low-and-behold, now immunotherapy is right in the mix of things and Roswell Park is right in the mix of things.
Bill: And that is great news, and what a great story, and that immunotherapy -- that is so exciting. What a treatment innovation and you are right there heralding it at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, that’s for sure.
Dr. Johnson: Yes.
Bill: One of the other exciting developments is the growth of the Buffalo-Niagara Medical Campus, of which Roswell Park is a member. Can you quickly tell us about Roswell Park’s place within the campus?
Dr. Johnson: Yes. We’ve been here for – we were the first person in the Buffalo-Niagara Medical Campus, but it’s such a marvelous environment down here -- Buffalo General, and now the Medical School, Children’s’ Hospital, the Coventus Building -- it’s all so exciting because we’re all down here, we’re all a part of this growth at the campus. It helps all of us. People are starting to live down here. It’s an environment that has lots of shops and restaurants associated with it. There’s something to be said for being right across the street if you have a meeting with someone at UB in the Medical School, you don’t have to get in your car and drive to North Campus, or South Campus to have them ride over there, so we are thrilled to be a member of the Buffalo-Niagara Medical Campus to participate actively with all of the institutions within that campus, and just to have Children’s’ Hospital across the street is just marvelous for us.
Bill: Well, it is an exciting development and putting all of those great organizations so close to each other certainly is a benefit for the patient, that’s for sure. Dr. Johnson, thank you for your insight today, and your leadership, and for a little bit of your time in talking to us about Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. We really appreciate it and for more information visit RoswellPark.org, that’s RoswellPark.org. You’re listening to Roswell Cancer Talk. I’m Bill Klaproth, thanks for listening.
Introduction to the Cancer Talk Podcast and Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
Bill Klaproth (Host): Welcome to Roswell Park Cancer Talk, the official podcast series of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. We are very happy to offer this podcast to help people navigate the many issues and concerns that cancer diagnosis brings. To tell us more is Dr. Candace Johnson, President, and CEO of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Johnson, we are honored, and thank you, so much, for your time today. Can you first give us a brief introduction to Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center?
Dr. Candace Johnson (Guest): Sure, I’m delighted to be here as well. Roswell Park is really a jewel here in Western New York because it’s a cancer center that’s been around for over a hundred years. It was the very first cancer center in 1898 – 1898, so over a hundred years. It was one of the very first comprehensive NCI-Designated Centers. In other words, we have really been on the cutting-edge of cancer care and cancer research for many, many years. It’s a place where people in Western New York, and around the country, and around the world can come and get the cutting edge therapies, the innovative treatments and be able to know that a team of experts is really taking care of you and so you can know that you’re availing yourself of some of the best talent in the world.
Bill: Over a hundred years, that is amazing, and there certainly is such a rich legacy of cutting-edge therapy and research at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. As we look ahead and move through 2017, what vision do you have for Roswell Park Cancer Institute in the future?
Dr. Johnson: Like the City of Buffalo, Rowell Park is exploding in growth, in excitement, we have so many things going on. I’ve only been in this leadership role in two years, and over this two-year period, we have really recruited so many individuals from around the country from Stanford, Vanderbilt, Columbia, Pittsburg, Cleveland Clinic, you just name it, and we have brought people here. When you bring new people into the environment, it’s a very exciting one because everybody is here with their slant on what they bring to the table as far as innovation. Besides just critical mass, and increasing our capabilities both in the research arena and in the laboratory, but also at the bedside in enhancing our reputation across all diseases to be able to bring these innovative therapies here. We are focusing ourselves in two areas – and this is my vision – is that we be the center for immunotherapy in cancer, setting the stage around the country for this is where you go for your innovative therapies. We have the first ever vaccine from Cuba that we have brought to Roswell Park and are offering it to patients with lung cancer. We have some – Kunle Odunsi, who is my Deputy Director – we have some first ever vaccine approaches, and cellular therapy approaches in a variety of cancers, so immunotherapy is one of the areas we’re growing. And then genetics – genetics, looking at those specific markers that are going to make the choice, perhaps, of your therapy for your cancer directed toward that little marker that may be on your tumor and no one else’s tumor. Being able to identify tumors and characterize them with these little mutations, or these little markers can help to target better and more effective drugs. Those two areas are the things that we’re focusing on from a research perspective in 2017, but we’re also trying to really bring our cancer care more focused around our patients. The patients need to be the center of our universe here at Roswell Park. When you walk through these with a cancer diagnosis that we are concerned not only with curing your cancer and treating your cancer, we want to give you the best quality of life. We want to make your experience here – even though you’re going through a terrible time of dealing with cancer and all of the ramifications of that – we want to make it as easy and as seamless as possible.
Bill: And everybody wants to be treated as best as they can, that’s for sure. It sounds wonderful that you absolutely take that to heart. That’s one of the most important missions you can do is take care of that patient when they’re in because as you say, it is a very – most difficult time. Those are two very good areas that you just talked about, immunotherapy and genetics.
Dr. Johnson: And genetics.
Bill: Can we talk about immunotherapy --
Dr. Johnson: Yes.
Bill: -- and how that is changing the face of cancer treatment?
Dr. Johnson: It’s so exciting because over 20 years ago, the immune system was targeted, if you will, to be the next horizon for cancer therapy because we all know how powerful the immune system is. It seemed like, my goodness, we should be able to harness the immune system to help fight cancer. The immune system within all of us helps us fight off all kinds of diseases every day. You get cold, and if you didn’t have an active immune system, even just something like influenza could kill you because your body reacts against that cold virus and that influenza virus and you recover from it. When you hear of somebody that has had a transplanted organ, like a kidney, the immune system, if it’s not a match – you hear that terminology – if it’s not a match, the immune system is so aggressive, it will actually eat away at that kidney and destroy it. Here you have a tumor growing inside someone, and your immune system doesn’t eat it away, it doesn’t recognize it as foreign and why is that? It is foreign, it’s not you, even though it’s growing inside of you, but our immune system gets turned off to cancer. It took us a long time to figure this out, and the mechanism around this is very similar to when a woman gets pregnant, she has a fetus growing inside of her that is not her -- it’s part her, part her husband’s – but your immune system doesn’t recognize it as foreign. You carry that baby to term, and then you deliver it normally. There are some rare syndromes where your immune system does react against it and actually, those women have a hard time becoming pregnant. The immune system gets turned off, or it’s tolerized to that fetus. That’s what happens in cancer, your immune system gets turned off and doesn’t recognize it as foreign, but what we have discovered over these past 20 years that’s so, very exciting, is we’ve figured out the immune system and what makes it tick. Now we’re able to design therapies to activate your immune system in a very specific way, to be able to actually treat cancer. Our hope is that someday we may even be able, through vaccine approaches, to prevent cancer. There’s some very exciting things going on now in immunotherapy, and that’s really one of the most exciting areas that’s out there in cancer because your immune system inherently – like when you get a flu vaccine, you get a little feverish maybe, and you feel not-so-hot for 24 hours, but then you’re fine – so immunotherapy is you get maybe a little fever, but you don’t have the side effects you get with chemo. You don’t lose your hair; you don’t vomit and just feel like total crap [LAUGHTER] for days. It doesn’t kill your white blood cells like chemotherapy does. Immune therapy doesn’t have as much toxicity, and we really think that this could make a huge difference. The other thing that happens in chemotherapy is you become resistant many times to the drugs. They start not working for you, and you have to switch to something else – these are with chemotherapy drugs. The immune system, it is unlikely that there would be resistance mechanisms and so there’s so many reasons why immunotherapy is just one of the most exciting therapies that have come along in cancer in a long time. The thing Western New Yorkers should be so excited about, is it’s happening right in their backyard at Roswell Park because it is something that we invested in many years ago, not really -- hoping that we were going to solve this mystery and now low-and-behold, now immunotherapy is right in the mix of things and Roswell Park is right in the mix of things.
Bill: And that is great news, and what a great story, and that immunotherapy -- that is so exciting. What a treatment innovation and you are right there heralding it at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, that’s for sure.
Dr. Johnson: Yes.
Bill: One of the other exciting developments is the growth of the Buffalo-Niagara Medical Campus, of which Roswell Park is a member. Can you quickly tell us about Roswell Park’s place within the campus?
Dr. Johnson: Yes. We’ve been here for – we were the first person in the Buffalo-Niagara Medical Campus, but it’s such a marvelous environment down here -- Buffalo General, and now the Medical School, Children’s’ Hospital, the Coventus Building -- it’s all so exciting because we’re all down here, we’re all a part of this growth at the campus. It helps all of us. People are starting to live down here. It’s an environment that has lots of shops and restaurants associated with it. There’s something to be said for being right across the street if you have a meeting with someone at UB in the Medical School, you don’t have to get in your car and drive to North Campus, or South Campus to have them ride over there, so we are thrilled to be a member of the Buffalo-Niagara Medical Campus to participate actively with all of the institutions within that campus, and just to have Children’s’ Hospital across the street is just marvelous for us.
Bill: Well, it is an exciting development and putting all of those great organizations so close to each other certainly is a benefit for the patient, that’s for sure. Dr. Johnson, thank you for your insight today, and your leadership, and for a little bit of your time in talking to us about Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. We really appreciate it and for more information visit RoswellPark.org, that’s RoswellPark.org. You’re listening to Roswell Cancer Talk. I’m Bill Klaproth, thanks for listening.