Developing Story: What Biomarkers Tell Us with Dr. Neil Vasan
Your medical records are full of letters and numbers—BRCA, PIK3CA, ESR1, PD-L1—but what do they really mean? These are biomarkers, and cracking their code could change your treatment and your prognosis.
In this episode, Dr. Neil Vasan breaks down the difference between prognostic biomarkers (how aggressive your cancer is) and predictive biomarkers (which treatments will work for you). Learn which biomarkers matter most for metastatic breast cancer, how germline mutations like BRCA and PALB2 open the door to targeted therapies like PARP inhibitors, and why somatic mutations like PIK3CA and ESR1 are reshaping treatment options in real time.
Developing Story: Your Cancer's DNA and the Trial Using It to Cure You with Dr. Pedram Razavi
What does it take to cure metastatic breast cancer? According to Dr. Pedram Razavi, it takes a blood test sensitive enough to find one cancer cell in a million, the courage to stop treatment when that signal disappears, and a trial designed to prove the paradigm wrong.
The HERizon-Breast Trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering is doing exactly that — and it's enrolling now.
This is one of the most science-rich episodes of Live from Stage 4 to date. We break down every term, every concept, and every implication in plain language so you don't need a medical degree to understand why this matters.