Unraveled

By: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
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  • Summary

  • Unraveled is Dana-Farber’s science podcast that explores the mysteries of the science of cancer. Veteran broadcaster Ken Shulman digs into the cutting-edge science that is transforming cancer research, and providing hope for scientists, and for cancer patients.
    Copyright 2021 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215
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Biological Sciences Chemistry Hygiene & Healthy Living Physical Illness & Disease
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Episodes
  • Season 2 Episode 6: Big Data, AI, and Cancer Research

    Season 2 Episode 6: Big Data, AI, and Cancer Research
    May 17 2023
    As our universe of knowledge expands, sometimes incrementally and more often, exponentially, its new dimensions create new challenges. The more we know, the better our tools are, the more choices we have. And that's great, but it's hard to distill mountains of patient data, clinical trials, therapies, discoveries, and a boatload of externalities. Hard to distill all of these into the best possible research and care. Oh, and don't forget the human genome in its almost infinite complexity. It can be overwhelming when you try to think about it absent, sort of having some help. But what kind of human mind could provide that help? Could it be that the help we need, the intelligence we need isn't human at all.
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    28 mins
  • Season 2 Episode 5: With a Little Help From My Friends: Combination Immunotherapy

    Season 2 Episode 5: With a Little Help From My Friends: Combination Immunotherapy
    Apr 26 2023
    If there is such a thing as a holy grail in cancer research, a secret spell or golden ring that can ward off any and all forms of the disease, it probably lives somewhere in the realm of immunotherapy. A new category of immunotherapy drugs, called checkpoint inhibitors, take the brakes off the immune system and let the T cells do their job: attack cancer. They've been approved for more than 25 different types of cancer.  However, the average response rate for checkpoint inhibitors is 20 to 30%, which means that it's not working for 70% of the people who take it. So that's the project now: to extend the benefits of immunotherapy to all cancer patients, instead of to just a few. And the best way to do that, it seems, is by doubling down, by pairing immunotherapy with other therapies so patients can benefit from both. Sound logical? Sure. Sound easy? Not on your life. It's called combination immunotherapy, and it's what this episode of Unraveled is about.
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    32 mins
  • Season 2 Episode 4: Making it Personal: Targeted Cancer Therapies

    Season 2 Episode 4: Making it Personal: Targeted Cancer Therapies
    Apr 5 2023
    By the early 2000s, researchers at Dana-Farber and elsewhere knew that a certain protein appeared in many tumors taken from lung cancer patients. Based on that data, doctors started treating those patients with a drug that inhibited that protein. Unfortunately, for reasons that weren’t clear at the time, most of the patients didn’t respond — but there was a small percentage of patients, about one out of ten, who did. People called it a "Lazarus-like effect." So how can doctors know which of their patients is Lazarus? How can they know which ones will respond to a drug and which ones won’t? In other words, how can they interpret data so it makes sense? That's the subject of this episode of Unraveled about precision medicine and the EGFR discovery. It's an episode that begins with a riddle and ends with a roadmap. 
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    31 mins

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