Our MBC Life

Each October, Our MBC Life marks Breast Cancer Awareness month with a special episode dedicated to all those who died from metastatic breast cancer over the past year. To live with your own diagnosis or to be a loved one, caregiver, or friend of someone with MBC is to inhabit a community of loss. Every day, we confront the reality of mortality and struggle to balance fear with hope, and sorrow with joy. “We Remember” is OMBCL’s opportunity to give voice to the profound grief we share and...

In this episode, Senior Producer and Host Martha Carlson embraces the hope that we can do something to help our closest relatives avoid metastatic breast cancer and even early-stage breast cancer. Despite living with no known inheritable mutation associated with breast cancer risk, Martha has MBC and her Mom recently died of the same disease. Now, her 20-something oldest child has discovered an additional factor that puts her at increased risk. Listen along as they discuss risk reduction and ...

On today's episode, we are thrilled to discuss an important and often misunderstood area of oncology: Biosimilars and their increasing use in cancer care.You might be curious, what exactly are biosimilars? How are they developed and approved? And most importantly, how are they transforming the lives of patients diagnosed with cancer? We will break down these questions and more with an overview from Dr. Julie Gralow, a breast medical oncologist and chief medical officer at the American So...

For our Season 9 opening episode, we're learning about agnostic treatments in cancer with Dr. Richard Schilsky of ASCO, who discusses the TAPUR Study. You may wonder, what is TAPUR and how does it relate to agnostictreatments? The pioneer behind the study, Dr. Schilsky, explains clinical trials for agnostic therapeutics, how you can join a TAPUR trial, and what to expect.

Tumor-agnostic therapies represent a radical shift in oncology. They abandon the traditional way of treating tumors based on cancer type and, instead, provide personalized options based on the genetic mutations. Today’s podcast is the 1st part of a 2-part series dedicated to agnostic treatments in cancer. Join us as Dr. Joshua Drago of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center shares his expertise about the agnostic approach to cancer care. In this episode he discusses agnostic research and poin...

Today, we’re bringing you a very special episode created in partnership with SHARE Cancer Support. This is an audio version of our Webinar Report Back from ASCO 2024: Latest Updates on Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC). We're excited to present this report from the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting, highlighting the latest advancements and research in hormone receptor positive (HR+) metastatic breast cancer. In today's episode, you will hear from Dr. Kevin Kalinsky, a medical oncologist a...

Research has shown that self-advocates are more likely to receive better care and have their medical questions and problems addressed. We're excited to bring you this episode, focusing on a crucial aspect of managing metastatic breast cancer—understanding blood test results. Blood tests are vital in cancer care, offering insights into our health, monitoring treatment effectiveness, and guiding our medical team's decisions. However, interpreting these results can be challenging. Joining us tod...

There’s a lot of research about how diet and exercise can have a positive effect on survivorship for those with early-stage breast cancer, but what about those of us with MBC? In this episode, we are delighted to bring you a conversation with Dr. Neil Iyengar, a prominent oncologist and researcher known for his deep interest in how lifestyle affects a variety of outcomes. Emerging research and patient experiences are showing that exercise and diet can play a vital role in improving quality of...

In the third of our special series on living with bone metastases, we are turning to one of the most frequent questions and concerns we hear: Can I exercise?? To get the answers, OMBCL co-hosts Ashley Fernandez and Martha Carlson spoke with Dr. Kathryn Schmitz, who has led the way in understanding and implementing exercise for people with breast cancer, including those of us with metastatic breast cancer. Dr. Schmitz founded the Moving Through Cancer initiative of the American College of...

In this second of three episodes on managing bone metastases in MBC, we bring you a broad review of the major interventions to treat and manage bone mets. We explain the differences among the specialties of Radiology (think x-rays and PET/CT scans) vs. Radiation Oncology (external beam, Stereotactic Radiation Surgery (SRS) or Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) and Interventional Radiology (Biopsies, Cryoablation, Radiofrequency Ablation among others). The majority of patients with MBC...

Today’s episode is the first in a three part series covering all things related to bone metastasis. In our first episode, we’re covering the basics starting with some bone education. We’re joined by Dr. Azeez Farooki, an endocrinologist at MSK, who discusses his role on treatment for bone disease stemming from breast cancer. We’re also joined by Dr. Monica Fornier, a breast medical oncologist also at MSK, who treats people living with metastatic breast cancer. Both doctors will be diving into...

Even though breast cancer research is comparatively well-funded, researchers still don't fully understand the many different ways metastatic cancer eventually evades currently available treatments. Just like a detective can learn much from studying the scene of a crime, researchers need to understand how breast cancer causes death to better understand how to stop it from doing so. One of the quickest ways for them to do that is through something called a tissue donation program.Ma...

Did you know that in the US rural communities have lower cancer rates but higher death rates from cancer? Did you know that only 3% of medical oncologists practice in rural communities?When it comes to cancer, living in a rural area puts people at a disadvantage.They face limited access to quality healthcare, long travel times, and low recruitment to clinical trials, all of which affect quality of care and health outcomes. Join our producers Stephanie Walker and Martha...

The landscape of medication to treat ER+, HER2 negative or low is changing rapidly as patients experience progression on CDK4/6 inhibitors and look for next steps. Now that biomarker testing is more readily available (both tissue and liquid), there are more options particularly in the PI3 kinase pathway. In this episode we will discuss biomarker testing, the PI3 kinase pathway, and an exciting new patient initiative, the PIK3CA Pathbreakers.

Today we are bringing you a special episode that we created in partnership with SHARE Cancer Support. It’s an audio version of a live webinar that was done this past February called Report back from San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium 2023. SABCS is the world’s leading breast cancer research meeting where scientists, patient advocates, and others dedicated to working in the field of cancer gather.In this podcast, Dr. Timothy Pluard, director of the Saint Luke’s Koontz Center for Advanced Brea...

We wanted to start this season with an episode dedicated to our friend and team member, Natalia Green. Natalia passed away from MBC at the age of 39 on November 29, 2023. She was an integral part of the podcast team, having been a senior producer/host and right-hand woman to Lisa Laudico, our founder. She became involved in the podcast through her advocacy work, starting first after her early-stage breast cancer diagnosis, then becoming more involved in the metastatic breast cancer community ...

The winter holidays are here, bringing all the joyful festivities with them. I thought this might be a great time to chat a bit about the joy of celebrations - the good, the bad, and the ugly. I know many of us right now are scurrying around with the Christmas and New Year holidays at the top of our mind, but today I’d like to spend more of our focus, not only on the typical winter holidays, but on all the myriad of celebrations we encounter in our lives. We will reflect on how we love them, ...

For many of us living with MBC, travel provides a much-needed respite from the day-to-day realities of living with our disease. But balancing trips with treatment and side effects can be challenging. In this episode, you'll hear from members of the OMBCL team, along with some remarkable MBC frequent flyers as they share places they’ve been, the places they want to go, and the advice they have for those times when a journey really is a journey. We hope you’ll find inspiration and encouragement...

New therapeutic options are now available for HR+ MBC. Dr. Virginia Kaklamani will discuss endocrine therapy resistance, liquid biopsy/blood test, mutations, and treatment sequencing of targeted therapy. You will learn about oral selective estrogen receptor degraders (SERDS), clinical trials, and more.

Research for triple negative breast cancer is growing, but current treatments still continue to fail the vast majority of people living with triple negative MBC. Data from the National Cancer Institute gives a five-year relative survival of only 12.8% of women diagnosed with triple negative MBC. Those women have what's called an exceptional response to treatment; more simply, we call them “unicorns” – beings that can bring wonder & hope. The stories of well-known triple negati...

Lisa Manning and Tony Laudico met in Tokyo, Japan where they were both working at the time. It was a serendipitous encounter of a Canadian and an American, and the beginning of their version of a modern fairy tale romance. They lived happily for 27 years in many countries around the globe and made thousands of memories with their extended families, friends and two wonderful sons. But unlike many fairy tales that end when a couple dies on the same day after a long life togeth...

With the holiday season fast approaching, it is a great time to talk about gratitude and how important it is to have a joyful life. Making gratitude a part of your life, just like breathing, is such a huge help if you are searching for joy. But you can't just conjure up a life lived in gratitude. Unlike being thankful, which exists in the mind, gratitude is an appreciation that comes from the heart. It has to be cultivated and practiced. Today's 'Think Joy Thursday' explores ways to do this a...

Young Adults & MBC is an episode that explores the lives of those diagnosed under the age of 40 with Stage IV breast cancer. First up, our Senior Producer, Natalia Green, interviews Angelica Valadez, initially diagnosed with early stage breast cancer in 2020 then diagnosed with MBC in 2022. Next, she interviews Sooz Stever, a YSC State Leader for Utah diagnosed with early stage TNBC in 2016 and MBC ally, dedicated to improving the lives of those living with metastatic breast cancer.We’ll ...

Welcome to the episode 7 of our Meditation Mondays series, created with MBC patients in mind. In today's meditation, we will be focusing on our life and the 10,000 joys and the 10,000 sorrows that have passed through it and all of our livesSit back and prepare to become calm and relaxed for the next 12 minutes Inspired by a very enthusiastic response to monthly meditation sessions from one of SHARE’s MBC support groups. These sessions are on average under 20 minutes lon...

Each October, Our MBC Life marks Breast Cancer Awareness month with a special episode dedicated to all those who died from metastatic breast cancer over the past year. But one podcast can’t begin to encompass and reflect the true toll of all of the lives cut short by this ruthless and terminal disease. Here’s the hard truth about MBC, according to advocacy and research organization Metavivor: In the US alone, an estimated 42,360 women and 530 men will die from the disease in 2023—117 per...

On this episode of Think Joy Thursday, we will be exploring the relationship between perspective and joy. Choosing the way you look at the world is a major key in having a joyful life. You can learn that it is possible to hold joy and sorrow in the same hand by using perspective. It’s not always easy to do this, so we will explore ways to incorporate perspective into your life, as well as some tips and tricks to make it become your go-to reaction when confronted with difficult situations.

This episode of our podcast is about and with a very special group of MBC patients. This group is increasing in numbers and yet it is underrepresented in clinical research, and its unique needs are not well understood. In fact, we don’t even agree on what to call this group - aging, elderly, older adults, geriatrics. We are talking about those of us who are living with metastatic breast cancer and are over 65 years old.Did you know that breast cancer has the highest incidence in the aging pop...

Welcome to the episode 6 of our Meditation Mondays series, created with MBC patients in mind. In today's meditation, we will be focusing on how in meditation we're listening to ourselves and finding space to open up and offer ourselves the attention and the care.Sit back and prepare to become calm and relaxed for the next 19 minutes Inspired by a very enthusiastic response to monthly meditation sessions from one of SHARE’s MBC support groups. These sessions are on average&nbs...

Today we’re bringing you a very special podcast episode that we create every year in partnership with SHARE Cancer Support called “Report Back From ASCO”, a webinar that occurred earlier this summer. ASCO, or the American Society for Clinical Oncology, is the world's leading professional organization for physicians and oncology professionals. The society organizes an annual meeting that serves as a platform for sharing the latest advancements in oncology research, clinical practice, and treat...

Welcome to the Think Joy Thursday series, created to help not just MBC patients, but anyone dealing with difficult situations, learn tools to put into practice to help achieve a happier mindset. On this episode, we will be exploring the difference between happiness and joy. We will share some scientific research that has been done to determine if we are pre-disposed to being joyful and will delve into ways to help you spot true joy. We will explore how to have joy even if you are experi...

This is a pilot episode brought to you in part by LatinaSHARE, meant for those needing resources and information about MBC in Spanish. Below you can read the episode's description in both Spanish and English:Únase a nosotros para darle la bienvenida una vez más al Dr. Jesús D. Anampa MD, oncólogo médico en el Centro Montefiore Einstein para la Atención del Cáncer. En su presentación nos enseñará sobre inmunoterapia, así como nuevas estrategias utilizadas para el tratamiento del cáncer de seno...

When Roberta Lombardi, a Connecticut mom of three, heard her diagnosis of early-stage triple-positive breast cancer, she had 14 months of treatment but found herself changed after the experience. She formed a nonprofit, Infinite Strength, to support breast cancer patients of all stages but she quickly pivoted toward the lives of moms with metastatic breast cancer: Specifically, single mothers of kids under 18, with financial need and MBC. The need is great and the response has been as well. R...

Welcome to the episode 5 of our Meditation Mondays series, created with MBC patients in mind. In today's meditation, we will be focusing on having a sense of being in community, having the support of the community. Sit back and prepare to become calm and relaxed for the next 16 minutes Inspired by a very enthusiastic response to monthly meditation sessions from one of SHARE’s MBC support groups, this episode is our third in the series of meditation sessions recorded over...

Welcome to our second episode of the Summer 23 season. Awhile back we introduced the new series under the brand #OMBCLShorts. As the title implies, these are shorter episodes. Our second OMBCL Shorts features Dr. Erika Hamilton answering questions about her top takeaways from ASCO23. In this 20-minute interview we covered important updates on the CDK4/6 inhibitors for both early-stage and metastatic breast cancer, as well as research on a new H...

Welcome to the Our MBC Life Summer Season 2023. In this episode Victoria Goldberg is joined by clinical psychologist and author Sarah Mandel to discuss her beautiful, honest, and thoughtful memoir Little Earthquakes and her insights into life and death, trauma and healing. parenting and hope. When Sarah was pregnant with her second child, her daughter Sienna, she began preparing for her maternity leave, juggling the demands of her soon-to-be-new baby and her little dau...

Welcome to the episode 4 of our Meditation Mondays series, created with MBC patients in mind. Being with the truth of whatever is here in this moment with compassion and without judgement and knowing that we're not any one thing because we are constantly changing, is at the heart of this practice. Join us!As we say at the start of every meditation session, sit back and prepare to become calm and relaxed for the next 19 minutes Inspired by a very enthusiastic response t...

In today’s episode, Anne Woodward sits down with a special guest to discuss the in’s and outs of having MBC while living in the public eye. Get ready folks you are not going to want to miss hearing from Kelly Crump. She is the first ever sports illustrated swimsuit model photographed while posing on a picturesque beach in a gorgeous swimsuit with a mastectomy scar for all the world to see. In this incredible interview Kelly explains how she embraced social media to live out loud and in doing ...

Welcome to the Meditation Mondays series, created with MBC patients in mind and designed for people who want to assist their body's natural tendency to repair and heal. It's not a substitute for medical treatment, but a compliment to it.Inspired by a very enthusiastic response to monthly meditation sessions from one of SHARE’s MBC support groups, this episode is our third in the series of meditation sessions recorded over the last year. These sessions are on average 20-25 minutes ...

Introducing OMBCL Shorts! This new feature of our podcast brings you memorable outtakes from the amazing interviews we do with people living with MBC and the many incredible people who support us. Our inaugural OMBCL Shorts features Dr. Stephanie Graff talking about what she does when someone is newly diagnosed with MBC. This season, we had a 3-part series for people newly diagnosed and we couldn't resist getting her take on the topic. And we're so glad we asked! Listen in, enjoy, and let us ...

If you don't hear much about the rising rates of all stages of breast cancer, including MBC, in young women, you're not alone. De novo MBC rates (when Stage 4 MBC is found at the first diagnosis) are rising "exponentially", and fastest among women between the ages of 25 and 39, but not in older women. These trends are alarming to researchers. Perhaps most shocking of all: half of young women diagnosed with breast cancer under 45 have a postpartum diagnosis, defined as being within 10 years fr...

In 2021, the estimated number of women in the United States living with metastatic breast cancer rose to about 168,000 from 155,000 the year before, according to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The good news is that survival rates are also climbing, Over the last 20 years, advances in HER2 targeting treatments, ADCs, immune checkpoint inhibitors, and CDK4/6 inhibitors have prolonged survival and changed the breast cancer treatment landscape. New treatment paradigms and advances in...

Welcome to the Meditation Mondays series, created with MBC patients in mind and designed for people who want to assist their body's natural tendency to repair and heal. It's not a substitute for medical treatment, but a compliment to it.Inspired by a very enthusiastic response to monthly meditation sessions from one of SHARE’s MBC support groups, this episode is our second in the series of meditation sessions recorded over the last year. These sessions are on average 20-25 minutes long....

Living with metastatic breast cancer is hard enough, but for those who are single or do not have a primary caregiver, living alone with MBC can be especially challenging. Even if you're used to being independent, having cancer and going through treatment when you live alone raises many challenges. Making space for all that you are feeling & managing the practical things of day to day may sometimes feel overwhelming but with some extra planning and working out who can support you, it...

The first days, weeks, and months after being diagnosed with MBC can feel like you’ve been dropped into a dangerous and alien landscape, one whose inhabitants speak a new and confusing language. Numb and bewildered, you face a mountain of medical decisions—each of them seemingly high stakes.If that sounds all too familiar, take a deep breath. Our goal for this third episode in our 3-part series for newly diagnosed patients is to help our listeners: 1. Understand the Basics of their diagn...

Candid and emotional, this interview with Michelle Anderson-Benjamin, who was diagnosed first with early-stage breast cancer during the pandemic and then, soon after completing treatment, with metastatic breast cancer, brings our 3-episode series for those newly diagnosed with MBC into the realm of advocacy.Michelle shares her experiences as a health care professional who looked around and found that not only were resources lacking, her own doctors couldn't show her how her path might look. T...

Hearing the words “you have metastatic breast cancer” is devastating. Whether your diagnosis comes de novo or months, years, or even decades after treatment for early-stage breast cancer, there is no way to prepare for the terror, anger, despair, and sense of freefall that follows. It’s no wonder that the phrase “emotional rollercoaster” comes up so often when MBC patients describe the experience.OMBCL co-hosts Nancy Roylance and Ashley Fernandez sat down with oncology social worker Lisa Nels...

Welcome to the Meditation Mondays series, created with MBC patients in mind and designed for people who want to assist their body's natural tendency to repair and heal. It's not a substitute for medical treatment, but a compliment to it. More and more people find that using their minds in this way helps them relax, feel stronger. And it seems that when you take a more active role in your health, you generally feel better and do better.Inspired by a very enthusiastic response to monthly medita...

A diagnosis of Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer is typically the (or one of the) most significant traumas a person and their loved ones will experience. Rather than an immediate death sentence, strides in cancer medication and research means that many will live for years after receiving this terminal diagnosis. Thus, patients and their families may begin to wonder, "what do I/we do with the time afforded to me?" and “How can I/we help others living with MBC now and in the future?”&nbsp...

In this episode of our Road To A Cure series, we talk with oncologist and researcher Dr. Erika Hamilton about the practice-changing developments of the past 15 months. This is a timely discussion as research continues to catch up to need in our lives with metastatic breast cancer. 2022 brought the big news that an anti-body drug conjugate, Enhertu, was delivering results in people with what was then known as HER2-negative breast cancer. Suddenly the term HER2-Low was everywhere. Of cours...

Our guest today is Jean Sachs, Chief Executive Officer of Living Beyond Breast Cancer, who’s overseen and grown the impact of LBBC for nearly three decades. She joined LBBC in 1996 as its first Executive Director and was named CEO in 2008. During that time, LBBC has become a national force in breast cancer patient support and action. Jean’s focus on inclusivity, whether by race, age, geographic location, gender, has meant that LBBC is among the most welcoming patient-focused nonprofit organiz...

Inspired by a very enthusiastic response to monthly meditation sessions from one of Share’s MBC support groups, this episode kicks off our plan to post these recorded mediation sessions on the OMBCL website. April Pichon, Oncology social worker at Houston Methodists Cancer Center, and Barbara Chutroo, long-time meditator and social worker, join OMBCL co-hosts Nancy Roylance, Victoria Goldberg and Miranda Gonzales in an exploration of how meditation and mindfulness can help MBC patients f...

Breast cancer is no laughing matter, but that does not keep our guests in this episode from using and sharing humor to cope with their diagnosis. For our first guest, NYC actress and comedian Jenny Saldaña, a life-changing diagnosis spurred her to write the play “Pink,” a dramedy that includes some of the more humorous moments of life with breast cancer. Khevin Barnes, who lost his first wife to ovarian cancer and then was diagnosed with breast cancer himself, was inspired to write ...

When it comes to metastatic breast cancer, clinical trials are the way we find new drugs, better therapeutic targets, and, hopefully, more time. There are many issues with how clinical trials are designed, who they recruit and who is excluded, but one of the most difficult to confront at least here in the US has been the failure of the entire system to address how Black women and men with MBC are so much less likely than non-Black patients to be on a clinical trial. Systemic racism has m...

Welcome to to the second part of our post–ASCO analysis of the state of affairs in hormone receptor-positive MBC. It was not so long ago that the only options for this most common subset of breast cancer were single agent endocrine therapy and systemic chemo. We have come a long way over the last couple of decades. Today we are asking Drs. Stephanie Graff, Sara Hurvitz, and Kevin Kalinsky to talk about how they make decisions in the clinic on how to select and or...

Cerianna is an FDA approved molecular imaging agent that has the ability to tell the doctor the receptor status of all the tumors—essentially creating a “whole-body" picture of estrogen receptor (ER) positive lesions in recurrent or metastatic breast cancer (MBC). The ability of physicians to more precisely “visualize” the disease may be instructive in determining the most appropriate course of treatment. Cerianna is administered as a single intravenous injection, and then imaged using a Posi...

Not only is our Caregivers episode during National Family Caregiver Month, but it’s also our 100th episode! Join us as Our MBC Life salutes all the people in our lives whose love, care, friendship, compassion, humor and resilience brings comfort, meaning and joy into our days. In this episode, three of them share an intimate perspective on what’s it like to be a caregiver.First, William Roth talks with co-hosts Natalia Green and Ashley Fernandez about his experience as a caregiver for his mot...

While the DESTINY-Breast04 trial, which earned a standing ovation as a practice-changing study for treatment of HER2-low MBC garnered most of the headlines from the ASCO (America Society of Clinical Oncologists) annual meeting in June, it was not the only reason for optimism. In this episode, the first of a two-part series, Our MBC Life’s Victoria Goldberg and Lynda Weatherby continue to explore what the research shared at ASCO means for us, the patients living with MBC. You’ll he...

'We Remember' honors all who died from metastatic breast cancer over the past year—parents, children, spouses and partners. It gives voice to both the grief and the love that endures after each death. To live with a metastatic diagnosis or to be a caregiver, friend, or loved one of someone with MBC is to inhabit a community of loss. Both demand that you confront and live with the reality of mortality, all the while balancing fear with hope, and profound sorrow with joy.Produc...

The short answer to our title question is that you present a clinical trial that’s a game-changer for treating metastatic breast cancer. That’s what happened in June when Shanu Modi, MD, medical oncologist and attending physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, shared the results of the DESTINY-Breast04 trial at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting. MSK’s Dr. Shanu Modi, principal investigator on the DESTINY-Breast04 trial, talks with the Our Metastatic Life...

The biggest news out of the June meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) was the success of a relatively new drug called Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) in treating estrogen positive (ER+) and triple negative (TNBC) breast cancers that were also HER2 low. Results of the clinical trial presented at the meeting were so positive that in August the FDA approved the drug for patients with metastatic HER2 low breast cancer that has progressed on other treatments.Most of us like...

On August 6, Lisa Laudico, the creator and driving force behind the podcast series, died peacefully at the age of 56, surrounded by her family. It was an enormous loss for the MBC community, felt nowhere more keenly than among the Our MBC Life team and Share staff and volunteers. In this episode of our podcast, Lisa’s friends, family, and colleagues remember her amazing life—and celebrate the many ways she fostered connection, resilience, and hope throughout the MBC community.“Lisa was a natu...

Introducing Season 5 of the Our MBC Life Podcast. The podcast's senior producers and co-hosts Victoria Goldberg and Natalia Green join Anne Woodward in a conversation about the upcoming season 5 of the podcast and some new things the team is doing and exciting details for very special giveaways for the Our MBC Life merchandise.The podcast team is still grieving the passing of its founder Lisa Laudico, and this season is dedicated to her. It was her de...

The biggest cancer conference in the world, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2022 annual meeting, was back in person after 2 years online during the COVID pandemic. Some of the research highlights presented this year are “practice-changing.” and received a rarely given standing ovation. What is practice changing in MBC? Get the answer to this question and a lot more in the report back from ASCO.Just like the conference itself, the report back from ASCO ...

Welcome to the third and final episode in our series on the potential of psilocybin-assisted therapy to relieve the existential distress of, and help us live as well as possible with, metastatic breast cancer. In this episode, we speak with two women taking action to increase legal access to psilocybin-assisted therapy in the United States. The first is a patient living with MBC who, along with her doctor, has brought a lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Agency which is denying her acc...

Welcome to the second episode in our series on the potential of psilocybin-assisted therapy to help us live as well as possible with metastatic breast cancer.In this episode, we talk to two women with breast cancer who had legal access to psilocybin-assisted therapy. Journalist and writer Erica Rex participated in a clinical trial at Johns Hopkins after being diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. Mari Singfield, a young Canadian woman living with MBC, gained access through an exemption to...

Welcome to our series on the potential of psilocybin-assisted therapy to help us live as well as possible with metastatic breast cancer. Distress, including anxiety, depression, and loss of meaning, is a common side effect for those of us living with MBC. Psilocybin-assisted therapy has been tested and found effective in relieving distress among advanced cancer patients but is not widely available. Our new series provides an introduction to the potential of psilocybin-assisted ther...

How does one even begin to bring up the topic of metastatic breast cancer to a child? In this third episode of our MBC & Parenting series, we’ll talk to three experts that can give us some insight and guidance on how to talk with our children in the most open and safe ways. First up, Co-host Martha Carlson and Senior Co-host Victoria Goldberg speak with Dr. Leeza Park, psychiatrist, clinical researcher, and Deputy Director for the Comprehensive Cancer Support Program at the Universi...

What does a metastatic diagnosis mean for our children? In this second episode of our MBC & Parenting series, we talk to the kids of those women in our community who are thriving with metastatic breast cancer and those kids whose mothers have died because of it. Our interviewees range from ages 6 to 29, lending their diverse voices to the conversation and their unique perspectives on being a part of the metastatic community. Spoiler alert - we found out that the kids will be a...

Brain metastases are unfortunately an all too common and devastating complication of breast cancer. The blood-brain barrier has long been a key obstacle to developing effective systemic therapies; however, newer agents are showing signs of overcoming this challenge. Dr. Nancy Lin explains in this Road to a Cure episode, hosted by Victoria Goldberg.Thanks for listening!More info is available on our website:www.ourmbclife.orgGot something to share? Feedback? Email:ourmbcl...

Remember all those birth and parenting books we poured over as newly minted parents? Well, I bet if we checked, there would be nothing on how to parent while living with MBC. This episode is one of three in our series of “MBC & Parenting,” where we will address all things related to being a parent living with a metastatic breast cancer diagnosis. In later episodes, we’ll share some viewpoints of their children and information from a panel of experts that will provide insight into tackling...

About 80% of breast cancers are ER+, meaning that the cancer cells have estrogen receptors, and estrogen is likely to make them grow. Here’s the good news/bad news story for ER+ MBC patients. First, the good news: there are a number of effective medications that either reduce available systemic estrogen or block its ability to stimulate cancer growth. The bad news: over time, ER+ cancers develop resistance to these medications, resulting in cancer progression and signaling the need for a new ...

In the inverted language of MBC, “unremarkable” is something we all aspire to, and “progression” is something we dread. Progression means that our current medication regimen is no longer working and cancer is spreading and/or growing. It means that treatment is likely to change—bringing new drugs with new side effects. It also means that we’ve exhausted one of the available treatment options for our disease, leaving fewer remaining lines of treatment. In this episode, breast oncologist Dr. St...

This episode has been a long time in the making. We knew that to cover our varied perspectives on grief, loss, and end-of-life, a discussion on faith traditions would be an important part. The world around us infers that talking about death is not the same as talking about the joy of birth or the happiest of life's milestones. Certainly this unspoken “sweeping under the rug” of what is actually happening to all people and all families can feel so isolating. We wanted to hear some ...

Before our MBC diagnosis, many of us saw our doctors once or twice a year or even less often. And most visits were likely routine check-ups or focused on a particular issue with a relatively straightforward solution. But MBC changes all that. It throws each of us into an unfamiliar world--with its own language, new and complex information shared in high stakes appointments and a relationship with our oncologist that immediately becomes one of the most important relationships in our life.&nbsp...

How does one do things right at the end of life? There are many ways to answer this question, as varied as all of us. In this episode, we continue with our Grief, Loss, and End-Of-Life series. Co-hosts Shonte Drakeford, Ashley Fernandez, Natalia Green, and Lisa Laudico speak with Julie McFadden, aka Hospice Nurse Julie; Jennifer O’Brien, author of Hospice Doctor’s Widow; Cal Cates, Hospice Massage Therapist; and Sundari Malcolm, Birth, Death, and Grief Doula. More...

This is a new stop in our ongoing series Road to a Cure. From the start, our goal for this series was not only to educate and give hope to every listener but also to ensure that each of these special interviews feels like an intimate conversation with our smartest friend who also happens to be an oncologist researcher. Co-hosts Victoria Goldberg and Dr. Paula Jayne sit down with neuro-oncologist Dr. Priya Kumthekar to talk about leptomeningeal metastases: what they are, how a...

All of us have experienced a wide range of loss and grief from the last 2 years of life under a pandemic. In this second installment of our focus on grief and Loss, host Lisa Laudico speaks with leading social scientist, family therapist, professor, and writer Dr. Pauline Boss about all of her research and her latest book, The Myth of Closure: Ambiguous Loss in a Time of Pandemic & Change. Dr. Boss has extended the lens of her groundbreaking research to the world we live in to...

The future of personalized care for those living with MBC is already here, and it is happening in Kansas City, Missouri. Dr. Timothy Pluard, Medical Director of the Kansas City's Saint Luke's Koontz Center for Advanced Breast Cancer is with us today. We'll ask him how he and his team create an individualized, completely comprehensive plan for each woman.More info is available on our website www.ourmbclife.org Got something to share? Feedback...

Welcome to our premiere episode of Season 4! We wanted to bring you something very special and our guest, Lara MacGregor certainly delivers on that and more. Host Lisa Laudico spoke with Lara in November of last year. In 2012, Lara MacGregor founded Hope Scarves which to date has sent over 20K scarves to people facing cancer in every state in the US and 29 countries around the world. In 2014 when Lara was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer the focus of Hope Scarves broa...

Join Co-host Sheila Johnson for a very special panel in honor of Black History Month. Sheila speaks with Rev. Dr. Tawana Davis, Ricki Fairley, Kelle Southern, and Stephanie Walker. This wide-ranging conversation is one not to miss as we dig into what it is like to be a Black woman seeking medical treatment for breast cancer or metastatic breast cancer and what these incredible women are doing to improve health equity for black women and men. We believe that Black Hist...

Learn about the most recent information released at the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium regarding metastatic breast cancer research with Dr. Peter Schmid, Professor of Cancer Medicine at Barts Cancer Institute in London, England. Dr. Schmid will provide a comprehensive update and answer your questions about these new developments.More info is available on our website www.ourmbclife.orgBe sure to rate, review us, and sign up for our newsblast.Got something to share? Feedback? Email:...

Last year in October, SHARE and MBC advocate living with brain mets, Lianne Kraemer, hosted two brilliant, young clinicians from Moffitt for a discussion on the management of breast cancer brain metastases. Today, we are bringing you this webinar with additional commentary. AND we will let you in on a little secret...this episode is a small glimpse into how the work we are doing with our upcoming season of "Road to a Cure" where we will include more conten...

Musa Mayer is known to many in the art world as a steadfast manager of her father, Philip Guston’s foundation, and as the writer of two well-received books about his life and art. But for those of us in the world of tumor markers and CT scans, Musa is a legend for different reasons. Host Lisa Laudico speaks with Musa about her life as an advocate for individuals living with MBC before she retired in 2015. Joining Lisa are MBC advocates Christine Hodgdon and Lianne Kraemer.&n...

Welcome to the seventh stop in our series, Road to a Cure. Our goal is not only to educate and give hope to every listener but also to ensure each of these special interviews feels like an intimate conversation with our smartest friend who also happens to be an oncologist researcher. Co-hosts Lisa Laudico and Ellen Landsberger talk with Sarat Chandarlapaty, MD, PhD, a leading Physician Scientist in the Human Oncology & Pathogenesis Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Ce...

The Season of Giving is upon us. Purely by chance, we may be starting a new tradition here on the Trailblazer series - guests bearing gifts. This gift will be symbolically unwrapped during this interview with this month’s Trailblazer - national nonprofit United for HER and Susan Weldon, Founder and CEO.

This week the Our MBC Life podcast hosts a panel to discuss what it’s really like to be diagnosed stage 4 from the beginning of de novo MBC. Those of us diagnosed de novo don’t get an introduction to breast cancer at earlier stages and that presents some unique issues. OMBCL Podcast team member, Miranda Gonzales, moderates our panel of Shonte Drakeford, Deltra James, Lisa Laudico, and Anne Woodward. Miranda brings her passion for bridging the gap between individuals who hav...

This is the sixth stop in our series Road to a Cure. With this series our goal is not only to educate and give hope to every listener but also to ensure that each of these special interviews feels like an intimate conversation with our smartest friend who also happens to be an oncologist researcher. Co-hosts Victoria Goldberg and Lisa Laudico, sit down with the Director of the Breast Unit of the Champalimaud Clinical Center in Lisbon, Portugal, Dr. Fatima Cardoso for an...

The podcast Road to a Cure team meets up with renowned hematologist oncologist, Dr. Hope Rugo of USCF's Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center. Dr. Rugo is also co-director of UCSF's breast cancer clinical trials program. She is the principal investigator for several clinical trials of potential new therapies. She is also an investigator with the Bay Area's SPORE (Specialized Programs of Research Excellence) on breast cancer. Producer and Co-host, Victoria Goldberg, and Co-host Dr. Ellen La...

Our episode this week will focus on body image and diet culture, both within society and the breast cancer community, and how treatment can affect our feelings about our bodies. Co-host Natalia Green moderates a panel of women currently living with MBC who discuss and share their experiences, as well as our guests, Lor Scannell and Mariah Crenshaw, two women in the breast cancer community dealing with issues on body image from both ends of the spectrum. We also speak with Dr. Krystle Zu...

This week we are visiting Dr Stephanie Goff at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr Goff is a surgical oncologist and a senior member of a research team led by Dr. Steven A. Rosenberg, a man widely regarded as the father of immunotherapy. A friend, who knows a thing or two about this place. is joining us on this trip. Her name is Judy Perkins, and she is the first MBC patient who has been cured by a revolutionary immunotherapy treatment, known as adoptiv...

The Road to a Cure series heads to Boston to have Senior Producer and Co-host, Victoria Goldberg and co-host Dr. Paula Jayne speak with Dr. Nancy Lin and Dr. Heather Parsons about the possibilities and the current barriers to considering a cure for HER2+ MBC. Dr. Parsons and Dr. Lin are medical oncologists and professors at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lin is also the Director of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Program and the Associate Chief of the Division of Breast Oncology at Dana Farbe...

Join us for our annual We Remember episode where we have invited our listeners to share the names and stories of the people they have loved and who have died from MBC over these past 12 months. In addition, Senior Producer and Co-host, Lisa Laudico, interviews Dr. Andrew Silver, widower of the poet Anya Krugovy Silver, who died of MBC in 2018. Andrew speaks to us about her posthumous publication of her last book of poetry, St. Agnostica and we have our friend Abigail Johnston do a...

The Road to a Cure series gets on the redeye to LA to have Senior Producer and Co-host, Victoria Goldberg and co-host Kate Pfitzer speak with Dr. Sara Hurvitz. Dr. Hurvitz is the Medical Director of Clinical Researcher Unit of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Director of the Breast Cancer Clinical Trials Program at UCLA, Dr. Sara Hurvitz. Dr. Hurvitz is also the Associate Professor of Medicine at the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She talks with Victoria and Kate abou...

Our special series, Road to a Cure, makes its first stop at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, with an interview with Dr. Larry Norton. He is the Norma S. Sarofim Chair of Clinical Oncology, Senior Vice President in the Office of the President, and Deputy Director for Clinical and Translational Science in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Norton’s also the Medical Director of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at MSK and a founder of the Breast Cancer Rese...

In the middle of October, we are embarking on something quite ambitious. The idea of a cure for metastatic breast cancer - the only kind that kills - is complicated. But this is the season of virtual travel and not shying away from the hard questions. So Co-host Victoria Goldberg with Shonte Drakeford, Natalia Green, Paula Jayne, Ellen Landsberger, and Kate Pfitzer go to the leading clinicians and researchers in the field of breast cancer to find out where we are in t...

Grab those negative covid tests and passports because we travel around the world in this episode! Oh yeah, get your proof of vaccination and N95s too since this thing ain’t over yet sadly. We wanted to learn how others living with and advocating for MBC deal with it all in other places. So we travel virtually to Canada, Japan, Kuwait, Egypt, Australia, Portugal, Kenya, Nigeria, and the UK. Co-hosts Natalia Green, Sheila McGlown, Lisa Laudico, and Anne Woodward find out what ...

We begin the Season 3 Trailblazers with a twist. We’re taking Trailblazer on the Road! Our first stop will be the wonderfully, philanthropic city of Charlotte, NC. Join us as we speak with representatives of two truly grassroots organizations, dedicated to supporting the Charlotte breast cancer community in two very different ways. Interestingly enough, both organizations were started by women living with Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Welcome to the Season 3 Premiere episode! We missed you all! To start this season off right we have real conversations about the stuff we don't talk much about - relationships and intimacy while living with MBC. Co-hosts Lisa Laudico and Natalia Green speak with fellow Co-host, Deltra James about how she is looking for something new, with Tim & Dione who navigated their early dating when Dione was diagnosed with MBC, and with Brittney Beadle who was diagnosed with...

Need a dash of Joy in your day? Join Dar as she takes us on a joyful journey. Dar's Dash of Joy airs the last Friday of each month along with our Trailblazer episode. So on this final Friday of July we have a special bonus episode to share with all of you. And be sure to check out our all of Trailblazer episodes. Season 3 starts Sept. 20.