Over 200 prostate cancer patients and loved ones from across the Tri-State Area attended our Inaugural New York City Prostate Cancer Summit last year. The education and advocacy event was a collaboration among Manhattan’s top academic medical institutions: Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Local medical experts and national advocacy leaders came together to discuss topics including immunotherapy, screening, coping with anxiety and much more.
In case you missed the Summit, check out the video recaps below, and mark your calendar for our Second Annual Summit on Saturday, September 21, 2019.
We’re pleased to announce that the Genitourinary (GU) Oncology Program is expanding! Dr. Bishoy Faltas joined us on July 1st as an Instructor in Medicine and as an Assistant Attending Physician. He will see patients with bladder, prostate, testicular, and kidney cancers.
Dr. Faltas may already be a familiar face and name because he completed his Hematology and Medical Oncology Fellowship here at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in 2015. Additionally, he recently finished a one-year research fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Mark A. Rubin and the Institute for Precision Medicine.
As part of the Genitourinary Oncology Program, Dr. Faltas will focus his research on urothelial carcinoma, the most common type of bladder cancer, and specifically on genetic mutations and drug-resistance. He has presented groundbreaking work on genomic alterations before and after chemotherapy and the potential clinical implications. He will also be building upon his prior research examining how patients with bladder cancer respond to immunotherapies.
He has already received numerous research awards for his work, is a member of the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network, and we are very excited to officially welcome Dr. Faltas to the GU team!
On June 29, Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital joined more than 270 institutions across the country in holding a Moonshot Summit. These summits were held in conjunction with Vice President Biden’s Moonshot initiative to fight cancer. On this national day of action, cancer experts throughout our institution, survivors, and advocates came together to share their ideas for increased collaboration and cures.
The summit conversation started with a constructive dialogue about clinical trials and the unfortunate fact that for many cancer types, the “standard of care” chemotherapies are not good enough. At Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian, immunotherapies and precision medicine are opening new doors in cancer treatment, but sadly not all patients currently have access to these types of cutting-edge treatments.
A packed room at the Weill Cornell Medicine/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Cancer Moonshot Summit (photo credit: Ira Fox)
Clinical trials may have gotten a bad rap in the past, but they are a powerful tool to access innovative treatments. The speakers agreed that clinical trials should be easily accessible to all patients, but at times there are obstacles. These range from lengthy forms that deter enrollment, to bureaucracy that slows the timeline for opening new clinical trials, to disinterest and concerns about the treatments’ effectiveness. On a global scale, there has been a lack of adult participation in cancer clinical trials, while for children we actually see the opposite trend – very high enrollment. What can we learn from this information?
(L-R) Dr. Gail Roboz and Dr. Susan Pannullo speaking at the Cancer Moonshot Summit (photo credit: Ira Fox)
One of my colleagues Dr. Gail Roboz wisely stated, “I always tell my patients, be afraid of the disease, not the treatment.” She’s right in that we need to reframe the conversation to focus on making strides in increasing cure rates through new research that leads to new treatment breakthroughs across disease states.
We also talked about access to care. Not all patients are able to get a correct diagnosis quickly. This can be due to a variety of reasons including a lack of access to specialists, living in a rural area, or financial limitations. By increasing government research funding, as well as making it easier for patients to reach quality care, we can remove some of these barriers nationally. If we increase the number of people who are diagnosed with cancer early on, we can increase the cure rates. Additionally, as a country, we need to provide comprehensive care for patients and families and always put the interests of patients first. This includes offering supportive services beyond just the best medical care.
I felt so empowered by my colleagues and our patients’ great ideas about how we can overcome the challenges we face in cancer care. The Cancer Moonshot initiative is giving high hopes to many and will help ultimately change the world of cancer care as our country stands together with common goals and a renewed commitment to collaboration. By bringing everyone together at an event like this, we hear diverse perspectives and glean new insights. The fight against this terrible disease truly unites us all.
We’re pleased to announce that the Genitourinary (GU) Oncology Program is expanding! Dr. Bishoy Faltas joined us on July 1st as an Instructor in Medicine and as an Assistant Attending Physician. He will see patients with bladder, prostate, testicular, and kidney cancers.
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