Ep. 51: Dr. James Allison & Dr. Padmanee Sharma - Winning the Nobel Prize for A Novel Cancer Treatment
Tricia and I are delighted that Dr. Jim Allison and Dr. Padmanee Sharma are with us today on Health Gig. Both are pioneers in the cancer world. One of them is a Nobel Prize winner and they are married. Their lives are so fascinating that we think there should be a movie about them -- but wait a minute -- there is.
In this interview you will learn how to tenaciously stand up for your ideas despite decades of skepticism and resistance within the status quo. By tenaciously pursuing a new path and a bold idea, a totally new form of cancer treatment (found within your own immune system) was discovered by Dr. Allison. By turning off the “off switch” of T cells (the soldier cells which fight disease) your own body can actually get these defense cells to keep fighting remnants of cancer until they are totally gone from the body. Plus these T cells are trained for any recurrence of this type of cancer (similar to the way a vaccine works in your body).
In addition to understanding the basis for Dr. Allison’s Nobel Prize and the hopeful future of cancer treatment, you will get the backstory of this hero's journey. We cover stories from the time Dr. Allison’s father was a country doctor getting paid for his house calls in tamales and the initial letter Dr. Sharma drafted to speed up their first scientific collaboration -- all the way up to the couple’s scientific collaborations and happy marriage.
More From JAMES ALLISON & DR. PADMANEE SHARMA
Website Dr. James Allison, MD Anderson
Dr. Padamanee Sharma, MD Anderson
Movie: Breakthrough
Books Mentioned in the Podcast
Becoming by Michelle Obama
The Right Stuff by Picador
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Show Notes
[02:20] And so my passion for science is what drove me over all the different years. I pursued my MBA and my PhD in immunology and oncology research to look at how the immune system be used as a therapeutic modality in the treatment of cancer.
[04:40] I was particularly moved by the children with leukemia when I was doing my work. Seeing children dying is a difficult thing. I wanted to do more in my PhD with immunology.
[05:16] My mother and two brothers died of cancer. I was pretty young and was seeing the ravages of radiation and chemotherapy. You’re sure there could be something better.
[05:51] We were thinking about it all wrong and all of the formal thoughts we had about it were not quite correct. And so he revolutionized the way we thought about T cells because he showed that the T cells, it was not just about being turned “on” - T cells have a pathway to turn them “off”.
[07:15] I think this is what you just explained, Dr. Sharma, is that Dr. Allison looked at them so differently than the way everybody was looking at them before.
[08:22] Eventually the T cells will stop before the cancers are completely eliminated in some patients.
[11:38] We’re going to now block and inhibitory pathway on T cells to try and treat patients. We were also seeing patients where the tumors are regressing and going away.
[16:03] I was lucky enough to have the work that I did. Again, I was mostly doing it because I just sort of wanted to understand how T cells work. The cancer stuff came second. I was really lucky to have a science that actually does something to help people.
[19:15] The Nobel Prize is absolutely wonderful. It provides us now with the foundation to take the work that’s really made a difference to another level. I think of it as the tip of the iceberg. How do we go deeper from here to help even more patients now that we have to get a better understanding of all of the different cell types?
[20:11] We understand that our work is just the tip of the iceberg and we
have to do a whole lot more work to really move the field in the direction that we wanted to go and to benefit more patients.
[23:39] If you smoke, or if you get a lot of sunburns -- those things cause mutations, you get a mutation of certain key molecules that can cause the cell to become cancerous.
[26:56] Immune checkpoint therapy agents are allowing for an immune response to recognize the cancer. If any of those cancer cells show up again, it will be eliminated before they have a chance to grow into a full blown tumor.
[27:54] This as a hopeful period of time in cancer treatment. So for patients recently diagnosed. Please, please, please have hope. [33:47] I really loved reading The Right Stuff. And I think back on a lot about a group of guys who were pretty rowdy. If you read the story the government kept telling, you got to do this way, this way, this way. Finally they just said, Nope we’re going to do it our way. And they prevailed.
[34:53] You don’t need to assume anymore that because you got a cancer diagnosis that it’s a death sentence. There’s a substantial chance of actually having a really long term response and cure.
Thank you for joining us on HealthGig. We loved having you with us. We hope you'll tune in again next week. In the meantime, be sure to like and subscribe to this podcast, and follow us on healthgigpod.com.
“This as a hopeful period of time in cancer treatment. So for patients recently diagnosed. Please, please, please have hope. ” – Dr. Padmanee Sharma
“What are we doing for others in life?” – Dr. Martin Luther King
“Don’t give up. Don’t ever, ever give up” – Dr. James Allison
“You don’t need to assume anymore that because you got a cancer diagnosis that it’s a death sentence. There’s a substantial chance of actually having a really long term response and cure.” – Dr. James Allison
Keywords
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