In this month’s “What’s New” episode, we kick things off with some joy — catching up on life, sharing big updates, and celebrating JULIA AND MATT GETTING MARRIED! 🥂✨

From there, we dive into the latest breakthroughs happening across the cancer research world. Each of us covers a different area of emerging science, treatment advancement, or clinical insight — and as always, we break it down in a way that’s real, relatable, and rooted in hope. 🧬 Julia: Understanding Carcinoid Tumors, 💨 Leah: How Far Lung Cancer Treatment Has Come — Especially in the Last 2 Years, 🔬 Colette: Pancreatic Cancer Breakthrough — Cryptic Peptides Reveal New Targets

Sources Below:

Mayo Clinic Carcinoid Tumors

Cleveland Clinic Neuroendocrine Tumors

AACR Old New Borrowed and Blue, approaches for non small cell carcinoma

The Lancet - Lung cancer treatment: 20 years of progress

Pancreatic Cancer Breathrough

The full research paper is titled:

“Pancreatic cancer–restricted cryptic antigens are targets for T cell immunotherapy.”

Published in Science.

DOI: 10.1126/science.adk3487

Lead authors: Zackery Ely and Zachary Kulstad

Senior authors: Tyler Jacks and William Freed-Pastor

This was summarized in the MIT News article:

“Biologists identify targets for new pancreatic cancer treatments”

Written by Anne Trafton

Published May 8, 2025

When bestselling author Cara Lockwood was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer in 2023, she didn’t look for inspiration in solemn pamphlets or dusty medical books. She looked for laughter, swearing, and straight talk — the kind of encouragement you get from your funniest, most unfiltered friend. In "There’s No Good Book for This but I Wrote One Anyway: The Irreverent Guide to Crushing Breast Cancer" (Oct. 1, 2025), Cara shares the gritty, absurd, and often hilarious truth about treatment, recovery, and life after a double mastectomy, chemo, and reconstruction.

Part Memoir. Part Pep Talk. Part Screaming Into the Void.

For Patients, Survivors, and the People Who Love Them

Laugh, Cry, and Then Laugh Again

Fighting for a Cure — One Book at a Time

Get your copy Below:

https://caratanamachi.com/no-good-book-for-this

https://caratheauthor.com/

Find Cara on Social Media

https://www.instagram.com/cara.the.author/

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorCaraLockwood/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/cara-lockwood-563b5040/

https://www.tiktok.com/@caratanamachi

🌟 September is HUGE for cancer awareness 🌟

This month shines the spotlight on:

🩸 Blood cancers

🎗️ Childhood cancer

🌸 Gynecologic & ovarian cancers

👨 Prostate cancer

🦋 Thyroid cancer

In my latest What’s New solo episode, I’m diving into:

✅ Breakthrough drugs giving blood cancer patients longer remissions

✅ A 12-year-old’s inspiring story of targeted therapy success

✅ CAR-T therapies expanding into ovarian cancer

✅ New prostate cancer screening guidelines

✅ The rise of precision medicine & theranostics

✅ Futuristic innovations like synthetic drug factories inside the body 🤯

💪 Research is moving fast, and awareness saves lives. Tune in to learn, get inspired, and spread the hope.#LetsTalkFnCancer #CancerAwarenessMonth #CancerResearch #Podcast #CancerBreakthroughs

sources:

• Blood cancers: Eli Lilly’s Jaypirca helps CLL/SLL patients live longer without progression; CAR-T therapy delivers remission for aggressive lymphoma 【web†source】.
• Childhood cancer: A 12-year-old’s brain tumor stabilized after a targeted melanoma drug via the ZERO program in Sydney 【web†source】.
• Gynecologic & ovarian cancers: CAR-T therapy expands into solid tumors; Eli-002 cancer vaccine shows strong KRAS-targeted immune responses 【web†source】.
• Prostate cancer: Proposed guidelines could lower PSA screening age to 40, paired with MRI for more precise detection 【web†source】.
• Thyroid cancer: Theranostics—blending diagnostics and therapy—emerges as a precision medicine frontier 【web†source】.
• Broader innovations: New immunotherapies, remote clinical trials, synthetic drug factories, and research to prevent recurrence in breast cancer 【web†source】.

• Reuters — Lilly’s blood cancer drug meets main goal in late-stage study
• Daily Telegraph — 12-year-old Sydney boy’s inspiring brain tumour journey
• Fraunhofer — CAR-T cells fight solid tumors
• New York Post — Cancer vaccine may prevent recurrence of pancreatic/colorectal tumors
• The Australian — Prostate cancer guideline update
• Wikipedia — Theranostics overview
• Reuters — BioNTech/Bristol Myers immunotherapy trial
• Cure Today — New clinical trials launch as cancer studies advance
• The Times —