Dr. John Marshall: Cancer Treatment at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center - [Video Transcription]
- I've been diagnosed with cancer? Why has this happened to me?
You get the diagnosis of a cancer and your mind goes blank. You are thinking, what is going on in there? Is this some foreign invader in my body? The truth is that little tumor cells are probably forming in us every day. Generally speaking, our body can take care of them and get rid of them. Every now and then, one builds and grows. It is resistant to our immune response and is able to survive within us. So, it is not some foreign invader. It is our own cell. The reason that it is important to know that a cancer is our own cell comes back to how we treat them. Now with bacteria for example, we can give you an antibiotic. It is a foreign invader. It is somebody else's cell. It is some other kind of cell. To kill cancer cells in a patient and only those cells leaving the rest of you alone that is the trick.
- How has cancer treatment gotten better in the past decades?
Not too many years ago, cancer was a very simple discipline. One doctor could understand all there was to know about all the cancers out there. That is no longer the case. We recognize now that breast cancer is different than colon cancer. It is different than leukemia. It is different from lymphoma. It is different than brain tumors. Our research is taking us deeper and deeper into each one of those tumors. Our therapies and treatments have gotten more and more complicated for each one of those tumors. No one person can be an expert in all of cancer anymore. That is where a comprehensive cancer comes into play.
- Why should I explore clinical trials in my cancer treatment?
There is no standard of care in cancer medicine today where we are satisfied. Yes, we have some medicines that are working. The "Lance Armstrongs" of the world we are curing for almost two decades now. Still, it requires a crummy few months of chemotherapy, admissions to the hospital, and side effects. Even in those cancers where we have figured it out, we could still reduce the side effects. Let's face it, most of the cancers that we take care of we are far from solving it. How do we get from where we are today (yes better than we were but far from where we need to be) to the future where we really are taking care of cancer and curing the disease?
- What are the benefits of being in a clinical trial?
By going into clinical research, patients are getting true state of the art care. The benefits that they receive from the new medicines are palpable. They are clearly patients who live longer. There have been even patients who we believe are cured from some of these new medications and then going forward to figure out how to cure more people with these new medicines.
- Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Hospital is the only center to get official designation from the National Cancer Institute in the DC area. What does that mean?
An NCI comprehensive cancer center is sort of being like in the major league. There are 40 of them around the country. To get in, you have to have key elements. Lombardi and Georgetown University have all of the key elements. It involves outstanding clinical folks and research. It involves outstanding and broad basic science, discovery, and understanding what makes cancers tick. One that most folks don't think about is population science. Looking at populations as a whole and understanding what it is about our environment, our world, our diet that changes our risks for cancers and changes our outcomes. We have all three of those here at Lombardi.
- What does that mean to me in terms of programs available?
One of the other aspects of being a comprehensive cancer center is to take care of the whole person. A cura personalis is the angle or focus of the Georgetown University Hospital. The cancer center is really a great model for the cura personalis focus. Not only are we providing state of the art medical care but patients have access to nutrition support. We have outstanding dietary support. We have outstanding support from the chaplains. We have an art therapy program to die for. Patients come and get involved in all sorts of creative writing, the arts, and the like. Many patients kind of enjoy their day at the center because of this. I have one patient who calls it "chemocamp" because she has so much fun when she comes. We know that everybody at some point in their battle or many people in their battle are going to get into some trouble and feel uncomfortable or hurt. We have an outstanding program in palliative care that dovetails beautifully with our clinical program. You would be seen with the palliative care doctor with your clinical doctor to make sure we are covering all your symptoms on all the bases.
- What do you think sets Lombardi physicians and researchers apart?
I am proud to lead the division of hematology and oncology here at Georgetown. I am proud mostly because of the people that I work with everyday. If one looks at our physicians that we have within this group, you see world leaders on a clinical front in the areas of lymphoma, breast cancer, GI cancer, lung cancer, and head/neck cancer. These people are clearly the best and the brightest that are out there. That is not really the reason I like them so much. The real reason I like them and are so proud about them is because they are people. They understand about talking to folks. People are scared and coming in for information. To see the number of lives that we touch on a daily basis, it is quite a team and I am really proud of them.
