Early Onset Cancer Program at Smilow Cancer Hospital
March 28, 2023Information
Director of the Early-Onset Cancer Program, Dr. Veda Giri, explains what the program is and why it is important.
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- 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.