Most people don’t know that you’re considered a cancer survivor at the moment of diagnosis. It wasn’t always this way. Sixty years ago, a cancer diagnosis was a death sentence. And if you did survive, you were left to figure out the rest of your life on your own.

But some survivors demanded something different, something better.

From OffScrip Media, this is The Cancer Mavericks, a deep-dive narrative into the people who fought for better treatment, forced doctors to listen, and pushed America to see the human side of the disease.

Episodes of this series will publish monthly through the end of December 2021 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the National Cancer Act of 1971. For more information, visit https://cancermavericks.com.

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Mary Lasker used to say that more money was spent on advertising campaigns for gum than was spent on cancer research. She’d seen the effects of that almost non-existent budget first hand: she watched people close to her die from cancer, including her advertising exec husband. She was outraged by the lack of money and research devoted to ending the disease. But with her own funds and influence, Mary Lasker rallied the public and lawmakers to take notice, ultimately leading to The National Cancer Act of 1971. This "War on Cancer" brought millions of dollars, but also harsh truths: there was no simple cure for cancer, and the remedies of modern science to control the disease took a devastating toll on patients. Rose Kushner was one of those patients. She questioned the treatments and surgeries that had become the status quo for medical experts. Her pushback helped start a massive change in the patient-doctor relationship as well as in cancer treatment. In Episode 1, we learn how Mary Lasker and Rose Kushner became two of the most important health policy advocates of the 20th century, putting cancer—and cancer patients—front and center.  For more information about this series, visit https://CancerMavericks.com

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By the 1980s, cancer was no longer a death sentence. But the question of what surviving actually meant was unanswered. Cancer survivors had to navigate issues around employment, relationships, and the emotional and physical side effects of treatment in a world that largely didn’t know what to do with them. (and they were still called “victims.”) In 1985, a young doctor named Fitzhugh Mullan wrote an essay called “Seasons of Survival” about his own experience with cancer. His piece helped popularize the term “cancer survivor” and resonated with a growing number of survivors, who were starting to form support groups around the country. Among them was Catherine Logan Carrillo, the founder of People Living Through Cancer in New Mexico, who asked Fitzhugh to help her convene an “alumni association” for cancer survivors. And they did, during one monumental weekend in Albuquerque. For more information about this series, visit https://CancerMavericks.com

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Advocacy can take many forms in the cancer community — from advocating for yourself or a loved one to receive the best possible treatment to calling your Congressperson or testifying on Capitol Hill to demand increased access to care. This episode explores different ways cancer mavericks have elevated survivors’ needs and improved their lives, including the pioneering patient navigation model created by Dr. Harold Freeman at Harlem Hospital, the story of Ellen Stovall’s fearless and collaborative approach to policy, shaped around a shared agenda to represent the needs of all cancer survivors, and the landmark 1998 March on Washington called Coming Together To Conquer Cancer. For more information about this series, visit https://CancerMavericks.com

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In just over 20 years, the number of cancer survivors in the United States has doubled to 17 million survivors, each confronting their new (ab)normal lives. From chemo brain to PTSD, medical debt to workplace discrimination, this episode follows survivors along with their unique—and often difficult—paths post-treatment. In this episode, we hear from some of the godmothers of the cancer survivorship movement like Dr. Patricia Ganz and Barbara Hoffman and “everyday mavericks” who are forging ahead into life after cancer. For more information about this series, visit https://CancerMavericks.com

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Facing a diagnosis of cancer at any age is horrible. But for young adults, it’s just plain different. Not better. Not worse. Different. Those diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 39 are on a planet all their own, often left to fend for themselves as lost voices sandwiched between pediatrics and adult cancer. The consequences of living with, through, and, ideally, beyond cancer carries with it a whole host of unique long-term issues, issues that had fallen under the radar and gone ignored by the system for far too long.

In this episode, we talk to a new generation of cancer mavericks like Tamika Felder, Heidi Adams, Doug Ulman, and Lindsay Nohr-Beck, who revived a dying national conversation on cancer survivorship in the earliest days of the Internet. They created edgy websites, forced doctors to listen by creating fertility preservation guidelines, and fought to bring the invisible and underserved voice of the young adult cancer community into the national public spotlight.

For more information about this series, visit https://CancerMavericks.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For decades, the portrayal of cancer in movies and television was grim. If a character was diagnosed with cancer, it was a near certainty they'd be dead by the credits. But, like cancer treatment itself, Hollywood evolved, and many storylines about cancer became stories of survival.

In this episode, we ask the question, "Who influences us and why?" From musicians to television stars, film producers to televised cancer screenings, when celebrities lend their voices to raising awareness and fundraising, that kind of star power can move mountains. Join us as we hear from voices such as actor Patrick Dempsey, StandUp2Cancer Co-Founders Katie Couric, Pam Williams, the late Laura Ziskin. Also appearing in this episode: Steven Hoffman (Professor of Global Health Law and Political Science at York University in Toronto, Canada,) Dr. Larissa Nekhlyudov (Director of Internal Medicine for Cancer Survivors at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute,) Kami Kosenko (Professor of Communication at North Carolina State University,) and Milton Kent (Former reporter and sports columnist for The Baltimore Sun).

For more information about this series, visit https://CancerMavericks.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A cancer diagnosis sucks no matter what — but factors like income, education, racism, geography, housing, and access to health care, known as "social determinants of health," can worsen the burden. When researchers zoom out from individual experiences and survey cancer survivors, they see patterns called social determinants of health. Individual circumstances such as economic stability, physical environment, racial bias, proximity to a provider, or fluency in that provider's language can influence a survivor's health outcome before any cancer treatment begins. In this episode, we share stories of cancer mavericks who rebelled against the foreshadowing of health disparities. 23-year survivor Mary P. Lovato started a support group at her pueblo in New Mexico that expanded to reach American Indian and Alaska Native tribes across the United States. After learning she had breast cancer at 31, Maimah Karmo made it her mission to advocate for young women, Black women, and those with metastatic disease — and to end health disparities in our lifetime. Finally, health disparities researcher Dr. Carmen Guerra shares how the University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center nearly doubled the number of Black patients in its clinical trials. For more information about this series, visit https://CancerMavericks.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.