Early Onset Cancer Program at Smilow Cancer Hospital

Transcript

• 00:02Nationally, what we've been
• 00:04observing are increasing trends of
• 00:06early onset cancers in general.
• 00:14It is a really important area to
• 00:16address for a number of reasons.
• 00:19One is that oftentimes cancers in younger
• 00:21adults tend to be more aggressive.
• 00:23There can be some differences
• 00:24in responses to therapies,
• 00:26and these patients can have
• 00:27unique psychosocial needs,
• 00:28supportive needs that have to be brought
• 00:30into their care in order for them
• 00:33to really launch into survivorship.
• 00:37One of the important focus
• 00:39areas for us is going to be
• 00:40an early onset breast cancer.
• 00:42These are young adults.
• 00:44Primarily individuals who are
• 00:45extremely active in their lives,
• 00:48they have very busy lives and
• 00:50managing all of these things in life,
• 00:52along with a cancer
• 00:53diagnosis and cancer treatment
• 00:55really can put a strain,
• 00:56it can really impact mental health and
• 00:59have it be a difficulty to go forward.
• 01:03So our particular early onset cancer
• 01:04program is actually going to be very
• 01:07translational and very comprehensive.
• 01:08So we're going to look at this by
• 01:11engaging multidisciplinary experts that
• 01:12addresses how do we make advances in
• 01:14this space from the clinical arena,
• 01:16which means we have to go
• 01:18hand in hand with research.
• 01:20And everywhere along the way,
• 01:22we need to think about
• 01:24this from the aspect of
• 01:26addressing disparities and enhancing equity.
• 01:31Patients who have early onset
• 01:33cancers are often the patients
• 01:35that need to be seen for genetic
• 01:37testing and genetic counseling,
• 01:39and then use those results to be
• 01:41able to give medical management
• 01:42recommendations to patients about cancer,
• 01:45screening risk for themselves for
• 01:47additional cancers, treatment of cancers,
• 01:49and then genetic testing in their families.
• 01:52Now this field has really risen in
• 01:55importance because of this
• 01:56field of precision medicine.
• 01:57So now for patients even that have cancers,
• 02:00particularly advanced cancers,
• 02:01genetic testing is being done to be
• 02:03able to identify genetic changes that
• 02:05can help inform their treatments.
• 02:07And also even in the space of some patients,
• 02:10for example with earlier
• 02:11stage breast cancers,
• 02:12those genetic results can help
• 02:14inform their surgical decisions.
• 02:15So it's really important across the
• 02:17spectrum from cancer treatment all
• 02:19the way to cancer risk information.