The history and future of metastatic breast cancer

Cancer is actually an old problem that we can now combat with modern-day solutions. Breast cancer surgeon, Kristi Funk, MD, shares how chemotherapy came about, what we have learned, and what is coming in our approach to treatment.

Transcript

00:00

So many people think of the fight against cancer as a modern-day problem. And it definitely is in the sense

00:06

that many people today are still greatly affected by the disease. But in another sense, cancer is a very old problem

00:13

that's really being combated now with modern-day solutions. [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:24

Now, in a year, we're doing more in terms of approving new treatments and verifying new research than we

00:31

used to do in a decade or even a whole century. A lot of our findings used to be almost accidental. I mean, there's one story where a group of sailors

00:40

were exposed to mustard gas. And suddenly, their white blood cell counts plummeted. Hmm.

00:46

So maybe that same mustard gas would also kill abnormal white blood cells a.k.a.

00:53

lymphoma. And indeed, it could and it did, the birth of chemotherapy.

01:00

Nowadays, we don't wait for accidents. Our resources and methods are so sophisticated and focused

01:06

that you can just about set your watch by the progress being made. I work with those living with breast cancer. And it's an extraordinary time just within that cancer field.

01:16

We're interacting with parts of cancer cells that we didn't even know to look out for just a few years ago.

01:22

For example, in targeted therapy, we're doing the equivalent of aiming a laser at certain parts of the cells

01:29

and seeing how those respond to our inputs. Another weapon, immunotherapy, is quickly

01:35

becoming a standard of treatment which uses the body's natural immune system to work against the cancer.

01:42

In just the next year or two, the new methods we're able to talk about might be even more exciting and precise.

01:49

And I think it's also important to note that beyond the cancer-specific treatments, we're simply getting better at taking

01:55

care of patients as people. It's about time we're more holistic in our approach, which ties directly into our improved methods of offering patients

02:05

real relief from symptoms and performing what's known as palliative care, which is care designed solely

02:11

to improve one's quality of life at all stages of treatment. So yes, we have a long way to go in the search for the best

02:19

possible cancer treatments. But we're also moving faster than we ever have before. And that's great news.