Inside Cancer Careers National Cancer Institute

In this episode, host Oliver Bogler speaks with NCI fellows live at the American Association for Cancer Researchers (AACR) Annual Meeting in San Diego, California. They share their science, career path, and thoughts on attending the AACR annual meeting.
 
Show Notes:
 
·      American Association for Cancer Researchers (AACR) Annual Meeting 2024
 
Wayne Lawrence, Dr.P.H.,M.P.H. , Research Fellow, Metabolic Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NCI Abstract Title: "Severe housing cost burden and premature cancer mortality by state Medicaid expansion status"  
Sonam Tulsyan, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Laboratory of Translational Genomics, Michael Dean Research Laboratory, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NCI Abstract Title: "A high rate of episomal HPV16 is present in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma tumors by long-read whole genome sequencing"  
Patricia Erickson, M.P.H., Predoctoral Fellow, Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NCI Abstract Title: "Carbaryl use and cancer incidence in the agricultural health study - An updated analysis"  
Katrina Jia, Postbaccalaureate Fellow, Oncogenomics Section, Center for Cancer Research, NCI Abstract Title: "Endogenous HiBiT-tagging of PAX3-FOXO1 reveals downregulation of the fusion oncogene by CDK inhibitors and has synergy with vincristine"  
Jazmyn Bess, M.S., Postbaccalaureate Fellow and iCURE Scholar, Clinical Genetics Branch, Trans-Divisional Research Program, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NCI Abstract Title: "Impact of delayed processing on cfDNA quantity and quality using STRECK cfDNA tubes: Connect Pilot Study" Connect for Cancer Prevention Study Intramural Continuing Umbrella of Research Excellence (iCURE)Program  
Deborah Tadesse, B.S., Postbaccalaureate Fellow, Occupational and Environmental Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NCI Abstract Title: "Interaction between solvent exposure and genetic susceptibility and risk for bladder cancer"  
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TRANSCRIPT
Oliver Bogler
Hello and welcome to Inside Cancer Careers, a podcast from the National Cancer Institute where we explore all the different ways people fight cancer and hear their stories. I'm your host, Oliver Bogler from NCI's Center for Cancer Training.
Today, we're doing something a bit different – we are talking to people at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. This meeting is one of the high-points of the calendar for people working to end cancer as we know it for all, and it is truly big tent – at the April 2024 conference in San Diego, over 22,000 people registered to attend.
AACR is a strong community of over 55,000 people and 53% are Associate Members who, according to the AACR website, are young laboratory scientists and physicians-in-training (graduate students, medical students and residents, and clinical and postdoctoral fellows). I’ve been a member since my postdoc days – and I am proud of the way AACR welcomes and supports early career individuals.
There is a lot going on at the AACR annual meeting – far too much to cover in this episode – check out AACR.org to learn more. We are going to focus in on one of the most important elements of a scientific conference – the opportunity it gives to scientists to present their work to their peers. And specifically, we will visit with NCI fellows at their poster sessions.
Because of this format we won’t have a Your Turn segment – Your Turn will be back next time.
Let’s start by meeting some of our fellows and hearing about their science.
So I'm speaking with Wayne Lawrence, who's here presenting his poster. You are a research fellow at NCI. Right, Wayne?
 
Wayne Lawrence
Yes, I am a research fellow.
 
Oli

In this episode, we hear from Dr. Khadijah Mitchell, an Assistant Professor of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center and a former NCI fellow. Dr. Mitchell discusses her research on lung cancer and health disparities. She highlights the importance of the menthol cigarette ban in reducing health disparities and shares her experience in advocacy work. Dr. Mitchell shares details on books she has co-authored that emphasize the significance of inclusive instruction and mentoring in science.  She provides advice for those interested in careers in cancer health disparities and more.
 
Show Notes:
 
Khadijah A. Mitchell, Ph.D. Fox Chase Cancer Center Office of Community Outreach What Inclusive Instructors Do? Principles and Practices for Excellence in College Teaching (book) Enhancing Inclusive Instruction (book)  
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NCI Laboratory of Human Carcinogenesis
NCI Sallie Rosen Kaplan Program
 
Your Turn Recommendations:
LEGO for Adults
For All Mankind TV series on Apple TV
 
TRANSCRIPT
Oliver Bogler
Hello and welcome to Inside Cancer Careers, a podcast from the National Cancer Institute where we explore all the different ways people fight cancer and we hear their stories. I'm your host, Oliver Bogler from NCI’s Center for Cancer Training. Today we're talking to Dr. Khadijah Mitchell, Assistant Professor in the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center and Temple University in Philadelphia about her work, her professional engagement and launching a research program in an academic setting. Listen through to the end of the show to hear our guests make an interesting recommendation and where we invite you to take your turn.
Dr. Mitchell, welcome.
 
Khadijah A. Mitchell
So thank you so much, Dr. Bogler, for the invitation.
 
Oliver Bogler
So you joined Fox Chase in July, 2023 to pursue your research on cancer health disparities. What prompted the move?
 
Khadijah A. Mitchell
Well, previously I was an assistant professor at a small liberal arts college and there I balanced my time with research as well as teaching. And it was just the natural evolution as my research program grew, I knew I had to shift to a research institution that would accommodate future directions that my research was going in. And so here, I'm really fortunate that we, because I'm at a comprehensive cancer center, designated by the NCI. We have an Office of Outreach and Engagement, and a lot of what I do engages underrepresented populations. And so to have that research and infrastructure to allow my work to go in any direction was really appealing to me.
 
Oliver Bogler
Please tell us more about your research.
 
Khadijah A. Mitchell
Oh, sure. So recently, I've focused my energy on lung cancer because I think a lot that we can consider lung cancer an underdog of the cancer community. We have a lot of stigma associated with this particular cancer type. So I think that there's not as large of a survivor advocate community as you may see with breast or prostate cancer. So more people actually pass away unfortunately from this type of cancer than some of those other ones can bind and we know a huge risk factor is smoking and so I have an interest in that particular type of environmental exposure but also radon which is odorless colorless gas that causes lung cancer and so right now I'm really interested in the environmental exposome and how that impacts our genome so thinking about these interactions. And, you know, I think that one powerful thing about the radon is we see that that is actually the leading cause of lung cancer in never smokers. And so I hope that these projects will help us to find either new smoking-related or radon-related biomarkers that could be risk factors and that we can change, for example, lung cancer screening guidelines and policies that will help a lot of people.
 
Oliver Bo

In this episode, we get insights from three guests - Dr. Brigitte Widemann, Chief of the Pediatric Oncology Branch (POB) and Special Advisor to the NCI Director for Childhood Cancer, Dr. Andrea Gross, an Assistant Research Physician, and Sneh Patel, a Postbac Fellow in the Pediatric Oncology Branch within NCI’s Center for Cancer Research. They share their perspectives on the unique challenges faced in treating pediatric cancers and why research on pediatric oncology is crucial for the overall treatment of the patient. They also emphasize the importance of collaboration and the role of patients and advocacy groups. They also share their career journey and advice for aspiring physician-scientists, and much more!
 
Show Notes:
 
·      Brigitte C. Widemann, M.D.
·      Andrea M. Gross, M.D.
·      Sneh Patel
·      NCI Pediatric Oncology Branch (POB)
·      NIH Clinical Center
·      My Pediatric and Adult Rare Tumor (MyPART) Network
·      Cancer Moonshot
·      Childhood Cancer Data Initiative (CCDI)
 
Ad: NCI Rising Scholars: Cancer Research Seminar Series
 
Your Turn Recommendations
·      Ologies: Ask Smart People Stupid Questions
·      The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness by Dr. Jerome Groopman
·      OncoDaily.com
 
TRANSCRIPT
Oliver Bogler
Hello and welcome to Inside Cancer Careers, a podcast from the National Cancer Institute, where we explore all the different ways people fight cancer and hear their stories. I'm your host, Oliver Bogler  from NCI's Center for Cancer Training. Today, we're talking about research on pediatric cancers and about combining medicine and research to make advances against these devastating diseases. Listen through to the end of the show to hear our guests make some interesting recommendations and where we invite you to take your turn.
 
So it's my pleasure to welcome Dr. Brigitte Widemann, Chief of the Pediatric Oncology Branch in the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute. She's also the head of the Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Section and serves as special advisor to the NCI Director for Childhood Cancer. Welcome.
 
Brigitte Widemann
Thank you. It's great to be here.
 
Oliver Bogler
I'm also very excited to welcome two members of Dr. Wiedemann's research team, Dr. Andrea Gross, former heme/onc fellow, now assistant research physician in the Pediatric Oncology Branch. Welcome.
 
Andrea Gross
Thank you.
 
Oliver Bogler
And Sneh Patel, who is currently doing a post-bac and is also on the research team in pediatric oncology. Welcome.
 
Sneh Patel
Thank you for having me.
 
Oliver Bogler
Dr. Widemann. Brigitte, what are some of the unique challenges in treating pediatric cancers compared to adult cancers and how does your team address these challenges?
 
Brigitte Widemann
Thank you. I think the challenges are multiple -fold, but we also have made a lot of progress. One of the challenges is it's a very small patient population. It's about 1% of adult cancers. There are only around 15,000 or so cancers that occur in children and adolescents per year. Biologically, cancers in children are very different from adult cancers, but pharmaceutical companies focus on the common cancers and that makes drug development and new clinical trial sometimes very, very difficult. There are many different types of pediatric cancers, some where the progress has been tremendous and we have very high cure rates, but others where unfortunately the progress has been really lagging for the last two or three decades even, and in particular for pediatric and young adult cancer patients that have metastatic disease that has spread or that have disease that has come back after frontline treatment.
At the NIH, we work in a space where we focus on areas that may not be done by the big cooperative groups. We want to complemen

In this episode, we hear from Dr. Jennifer Couch, Chief of the Biophysics, Bioengineering, and Computational Sciences Branch in NCI's Division of Cancer Biology, and Dr. Manu Platt, Director of the Center for Biomedical Engineering Technology Acceleration at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. They discuss the importance of integrating physical sciences, biology, and engineering in research. They highlight the benefits of collaboration and the formation of transdisciplinary teams. Drs. Couch and Platt also offer advice to those interested in pursuing a career in science and those who are early in their research careers. You can expect to learn all this and much more!
 
Show Notes:
 
Jennifer Couch, Ph.D. Biophysics, Bioengineering, and Computational Sciences Branch NCI Division of Cancer Biology Manu Platt, Ph.D. Center for Biomedical Engineering Technology Acceleration (BETA Center) National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NBIB) Physical Sciences - Oncology Network (PS-ON) NIH Clinical Center NIH Peer Review NIH Intramural Research Program Forum to Advance Minorities in Engineering, Inc. (FAME Inc.)  
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You Turn Recommendations:
·      NCI Cancer AI Conversations
·      The Importance of Stupidity in Scientific Research by Martin A. Schwartz
·      Do It Now by Steve Pavlina
·      The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
 
TRANSCRIPT
Oliver Bogler
Hello, and welcome to Inside Cancer Careers, a podcast from the National Cancer Institute, where we explore all the different ways people fight cancer and hear their stories. I'm your host, Oliver Bogler, from NCI's Center for Cancer Training. There's ample evidence in the history of science that connecting across fields can stimulate innovation and produce advances. One fruitful connection has been between biology and the physical sciences and engineering. And today we are talking to two leaders at NIH involved in this work.
 
Listen through to the end of the show to hear our guests make some interesting recommendations and where we invite you to take your turn.
 
With us is Dr. Jennifer Couch, Chief of the Biophysics, Bioengineering, and Computational Sciences Branch in the Division of Cancer Biology at NCI. Welcome.
 
Jennifer Couch
Hi Oliver, thanks for inviting me.
 
Oliver Bogler
I'd also like to welcome Dr. Manu Platt, Director of the Biomedical Engineering Technology Acceleration or BETA Center at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. Welcome.
 
Manu Platt
Great to be here with you.
 
Oliver Bogler
Let me start with the question of why and how different disciplines in STEMM can be brought together to accelerate progress. Jennifer, what are the strategies and goals of your branch and how do you accomplish them?
 
Jennifer Couch
Well, I think, you know, one of the key things about cancer is that it's complicated, it's multi -scale, it's impacted in many different ways and it has impacts on the body at many different levels. And so for that reason, I think cancer researchers are often adopters of new technologies and collaborate broadly. And we've seen over the past, you know, many decades that bringing physical sciences approaches and tools and  thinking into the cancer research space can really enhance the way that we address and develop ways to understand the basic mechanisms that underlie cancer initiation and progression and the way that it responds to therapies.
 
Oliver Bogler
So one of the programs in your branch is called the Physical Sciences Oncology Network, or PSON, I think people call it. Tell us about that.
 
Jennifer Couch
Yup.
 
Oliver Bogler
What does it do?
 
Jennifer Couch
So the Physical Sciences and Oncology Network has been around for about 15 years now, and it brings together explicitly partnerships between physical scientists, people with physi

In this episode, Dr. Chanelle Case Borden, an Associate Director of Training Programs in the NCI Center for Cancer Training, Office of Training and Education, interviews Ms. Sigourney Bonner, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge and CEO of Black in Cancer. They discuss the mission of Black in Cancer, which aims to increase the number of Black cancer researchers, provide visibility for them, and bring awareness about cancer to the community. Ms. Bonner emphasize the global impact of Black in Cancer, highlighting that the organization is not limited to the UK or US. The upcoming Black in Cancer Conference is discussed, along with opportunities for individuals to get involved with the organization. Ms. Bonner shares her career journey, interest in science, experience in industry, and much more. 

 

Show Notes: 

Sigourney Bonner 

Chanelle Case Borden, Ph.D. 

Center for Cancer Training  

Black in Cancer 

2024 Black in Cancer Conference 

 

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Cancer Research UK (CRUK)  

CRUK Black Leaders in Cancer PhD Scholarship Programme 

Paula Hammond, Ph.D.  

  

Your Turn Recommendations: 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot 

The Basement with Tim Ross Podcast 

Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less by Tiffany Dufu 

  

TRANSCRIPT
[MUSIC]
Oliver Bogler:  

Hello and welcome to Inside Cancer Careers. Before we get to the episode – a quick announcement. In the conversation between my colleague Chanelle Case Borden and our guest Sigourney Bonner you will hear about the Black in Cancer Conference which will be held at NIH in June 2024. At the time we recorded the interview a couple of weeks ago, the registration for this in-person event was still open, but in the meantime due to overwhelming support, it is at capacity and registration is now closed. You can join the waitlist – find the link on the Black in Cancer website. Now, let’s listen to the interview. 

 

Chanelle Case Borden: 

Hello and welcome to Inside Cancer Careers, a podcast from the National Cancer Institute where we will explore all the different ways people fight cancer and hear their stories. I am your host, Chanelle Case Borden from NCI Center for Cancer Training. Today we are talking to Sigourney Bonner, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge and CEO of Black in Cancer. Listen through the end of the show to hear our guests make an interesting recommendation and where we invite you to take your turn. 

 

Sigourney, for those listeners who may be unfamiliar with the organization, can you tell us a little bit more about Black in Cancer? 

 

Sigourney Bonner: 

Sure. So we started in the summer of 2020 as a result of a number of things, but we don't have to mention that there was lots of social justice movement during that time. But really it was an opportunity to bring together community. So when I started my PhD, I didn't know anybody who was a Black woman who'd done a PhD. 

 

And that visibility piece was really important to me. So in the midst of that, I was looking for community. I found my co-founder via Twitter and we connected and just had a really big chat about what it meant to be Black and a cancer researcher and kind of found that it was twofold. So there was the visibility piece in finding it difficult to find people to aspire to. But on the other side, it was being this font of knowledge for our community and having, you know, our parents or our friends be like, “oh, my uncle's brother's sister's got breast cancer. What should I do?” And I'm like, “I don't know. I work in children's brain tumors”. So wanting to bring a community together that meant I did have the resource to be able to point them in the right direction and give them the right information. I really, that's what we do. So we're twofold increasing the n

In this episode of Inside Cancer Careers, we hear from Dr. Ophira Ginsburg, Senior Scientific Officer and Senior Advisor for Clinical Research in NCI’s Center for Global Health. Dr. Ginsburg discusses the published article Women, power, and cancer: a Lancet Commission, which focuses on the social determinants of health and the power dynamics that affect women's access to cancer care. She shares the commission's key findings, which highlight the high incidence of cancer in women and the potential for prevention and early detection to save lives. Dr. Ginsburg gives her thoughts on the importance of women's leadership and representation in cancer care and provides recommendations for creating a gender-equitable cancer care system. She then discusses her career path and offers advice for those interested in pursuing a career in global oncology.
 
Show Notes:
 
Ophira Ginsburg, M.D., M.Sc.
NCI Center for Global Health
Women, power, and cancer: Lancet Commission
 
Ad: NCI Cancer Data Science Training
 
World Health Organization (WHO)
WHO Cervical Cancer Elimination Initiative
WHO Guide to Cancer Early Diagnosis
NYU Department of Population Health
Royal Society of Medicine
London Global Cancer Week
African Organization of Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC)
 
Your Turn Recommendations:
Ikigai
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Podcast: Night Science with Dr. Itai Yanai and Dr. Martin Lercher
 
TRANSCRIPT
Oliver Bogler
Hello and welcome to Inside Cancer Careers, a podcast from the National Cancer Institute. I'm your host, Oliver Bogler. I work at the NCI in the Center for Cancer Training. On Inside Cancer Careers, we explore all the different ways that people join the fight against disease and we hear their stories. Today, we're talking with Dr. Ophira Ginsburg, Senior Advisor for Clinical Research in NCI Center for Global Health and leader of a recent Lancet Commission on Women, Power and Cancer. Listen through to the end of the show to hear her make some interesting recommendations and where we will invite you to take your turn.
 
Dr. Ginsburg, Ophira, welcome.
 
Ophira Ginsburg
Thank you so much.
 
Oliver Bogler
So you've done a lot of things in global health, but I wanna start with one particular recent initiative that you led, which is this commission for the medical journal Lancet. And the commission was called on Women, Power and Cancer. It sounds like a lot more than simply looking at the incidence of cancer in women, for example. Why “power”?
 
Ophira Ginsburg
Yeah, it's a great question. And thanks so much for having me on the show. I guess I'll start by setting it up with a previous series we did in the Lancet. It was a three-part article, mostly reviews, with some recommendations called Health, Equity, and Women's Cancers, which I had the good fortune to lead with a 40, a compliment, 40 authors from 18 countries. We published online in 2016, in print 2017, when I was at WHO, actually, as a medical officer. Circle back to that if it's of interest. At that time we focused just on breast and cervical cancer, and we did try to dig in a little bit into the social determinants of health that we all thought were influencing, and of course there's enough evidence, there's more than enough evidence to support that we have much more to do to close this gap and reduce cancer health disparities for women at the national level and of course at the global level. Several years later we hadn't really progressed as far as we had hoped to. And I had a conversation with Richard Horton, as you know, the editor-in-chief of The Lancet in London 2019 just before the pandemic hit, and he asked me what did I think of progress. And I could say something about the emerging efforts on breast cancer, now part of the global breast cancer initiative at WHO and cervical cancer, of course, the elimination strategy that ma