CARE SCV Returns

Transcription:

Melanie Cole (Host): Welcome to It's Your Health Radio with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital. I'm Melanie Cole. Joining me today is Dr. May Lin Tao. She's a Clinical Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology and the Co-Medical Director of the Keck Medicine of USC Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital Cancer Program, and she's here to tell us today about the Cancer Awareness and Resource Expo in Santa Clarita. Dr. Tao, it's a pleasure to have you joining us again today. Can you tell us about CARE SCV, or what I just said, Cancer Awareness and Resource Expo in Santa Clarita? Tell us about the support of two top tier healthcare providers, Keck Medicine of USC and Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital as sponsors of this Cancer Awareness and Resource Expo. What is it? Tell us a little bit about it.

May Lin Tao, MD, MS (Guest): So this is our comeback year. Like a lot of things, this was something that was going on before the pandemic, conceived some years before between folks from Henry Mayo as well as a professor actually at the College of Canyons to really bring a symposium or an expo to the community; speaking to the community about topics related to cancer that the community either should know about or is asking about.

So this is 2023. It's going to be on April 22nd, which is a Saturday from 8:00 AM to 1230. The theme for this year is again, thinking about the community, empowering the community people with knowledge about cancer. So we're really talking about, and it's, it seems like a very broad topic, and it is, but it's really talking about how we can give knowledge to people in the community about all the aspects of how cancer is even detected, how you should be detected, who's at risk to it, all the way to things how you as a patient, can advocate for yourself in various aspects of self-care, how you can really think about how exercise and lifestyle, all the things that surround the active treatment that lead to a better outcome, as well as what kinds of programs and resources do we have available now for those in what we call the recovery phase. So those who are let's say, beyond very active treatment and now are more in the surveillance period of treatment. However, still a period in which there's a lot of worry and anxiety and an opportunity to take care of yourself better, for a better outcome.

Host: What an excellent expo and so important. Tell us about where it's held. Is it easy to find?

Guest: Yeah, so it's going to be at the College of Canyons in Santa Clarita, which I think most people are very familiar with. It's kind of in their main auditorium. There will be handouts and lots of flyers. In terms of exactly exactly where it is, but if you go to the College of Canyons, there'll be lots of signage directing you to exactly which auditorium it is, but it's in the main auditorium in the College of Canyons.

Host: Since this is about empowering the community about cancer, what can attendees expect Dr. Tao? Tell us about that wealth of information on cancer prevention and detection, treatment, recovery. Tell us how is it laid out?

Guest: So we have what I call experts in sort of a whole arena of things. So not only medical experts, that are going be talking about what I think of as more kind of medical information about like how do you know what you're at risk for? What do you actually do to go through a process of detecting certain common cancers?

The focus being on breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancers, which are the four most common cancers that we see in the United States of America. But also experts in terms of those who have actually gone through the process. So, patient survivors themselves will open after my remarks with a patient testimonial from a professor who actually is from the College of the Canyons, and one of the original conceivers of this expo some years back.

It will lead into an outside actually invited keynote speaker, Dr. Colin Champ from the Allegheny Health Network in Philadelphia, who's done many decades of work looking at how patients can empower themselves in this health journey with regards to cancer through exercise and lifestyle issues like nutrition and mind body connection, specifically for patients who are undergoing treatment, but also in the aftermath. So this is not something that we often think about we can actively do as patients during the process of undergoing treatment, but it's something that he's actually brought into his own practice as well conducted research studies and developed institutions for bringing this kind of work and care into the cancer journey. And then there are going to be panelists, all of whom are Keck Medicine of USC providers working in this arena. So we have Dr. Amanda Woodworth from breast surgery. We have Dr. Ted Forsyth from urology speaking about prostate cancer detection and screening. We have Dr. Duldulao from colorectal surgery talking about the colorectal aspect. We have to Dr. El- Masry, who's our Medical Oncologist at Keck, talking in general about these things and myself, moderating the whole process, given my role as having oversight over the cancer program. And we also have folks who are experts in the community that we work with on a day-to-day basis.

Dr. Date, who's a well-known breast imaging expert at the Sheila Veloz and Dr. Tabassomi, who's an interventional pulmonologist, who also has a special interest in lung cancers. So that's going to be kind of more of a conversation where we have a panel and we'll be going through aspects that we think that patients are going to have questions about, as well as taking questions from the audience.

So again, who's at risk? How do I know how to know if I'm at risk? Is it more than just knowing if it was in my family. What do I have to go through to actually be screened for this? How do I qualify for being screened? And then what active participation can I have in this whole surveillance process?

And then we're going to finish with talking, again, other experts, so getting nurses and registered dieticians involved, talking about nutrition and diet for not only during the process of when you go through care, but for prevention and recovery. So the pre beginning, if you will, and the end part of things. And then, we're going to finish with our new oncology nurse navigator talking about our Henry Mayo Cancer Recovery Program, which is a cancer survivorship program for which we just got funding for.

And it'll be available for free for any patient who's just coming out of the active phase of treatment. And that will also preview a cancer survivor who's actually a prior patient of mine who's taken her experience, as someone who's a high level professional in the retail space and formatted her own next professional stage, which is a shopping and wellness website for patients who've undergone this experience geared towards them.

So it's a way of showing, as I often like to say, there's a silver lining to this. And she really took that in a meaningful way to the next level. So that's kind of an overview of what's going to happen that day.

Host: How cool. And I think the best part, like this podcast where we get to interview, I get to interview you amazing doctors and it's free, quality information that you can trust, for listeners, this is like that. So the attendees really get to meet with these doctors and hear you all speak and other medical professionals and it doesn't cost a thing, right?

Guest: That's absolutely right. This, when it was first conceived, was always meant to be something that would be readily and freely, of course, available to the community. So it's really meant to educate the community. And we didn't want there to be any barriers to that. So financial, of course, no barriers, and we wanted it to really be not only an educational experience, but in some ways an inspirational experience, right? So it's not an inspirational talk in the sense that we're looking to rah rah people out there. But knowledge itself and hearing from people who not only have medical expertise, but also personal expertise in terms of having gone through that journey in itself, I think is very inspirational for you to think about how to take care of yourself; both for prevention of something bad happening or early detection, but also, if you are part of the caretaking team for someone who's actively going through treatment or treatment yourself.

Host: So there's also vendors, right? And I also understand that there's even a free breakfast.

Guest: There's a free breakfast. Of course, we got to feed people. If we're going to be talking about nutrition, we got to make sure we have a breakfast that's not only healthy, but will definitely be yummy. So there's that. And then there will be vendors.

Not necessarily vendors to talk about, like, what can I sell you? But again, to be resources, for those in the community about how to educate yourself about things like surveillance. There will be some institutions that provide medical care that will be represented there again, so you can know what kind of providers are in our area and who are they're affiliated with, and what programs do they have associated with that.

So, yes, that will be there as well. So there'll be some time for people to mix and mingle, stretch and do a couple of simple exercises too, that kind of thing. So we want to make it a very interactive, and frankly, enjoyable as well as educational morning.

Host: Well, that's what I'm hearing from you, Dr. Tao. And people don't think about cancer as being something upbeat at all. You know, it could be a devastating diagnosis, but this sounds like not only an educational, but a fun event where you also feel empowered and be able to be your own best health advocate by learning, and that's really what it's all about.

What would you like to leave us with when you're telling us about the Cancer Awareness and Resource Expo? Tell us anything that you think we missed.

Guest: So I think this is only the beginning of what we really see as an ongoing process of educating and as you said, empowering. I love the word empowering because it speaks to more than just education. It speaks to inspiration. It speaks to pushing people to advocate for themselves. Because having knowledge helps you to advocate for yourself.

It speaks for you understanding what you can personally do to affect your health journey, whether it's with cancer or anything else. A lot of this information is relevant simply for just general wellbeing. Who says it's not good to eat well, in general, right? Of course there are things that can be specific to cancer.

But it's good to be attending to your nutrition, not only for health, but for enjoyment reasons, as well as exercise. All of these things that are what we call more lifestyle issues. And then your mind as well as your body, in terms of these things. So this is one of what we consider a series that we're going to be making available to the community, but this one is actually really devoted primarily to those in the community that aren't necessarily healthcare professionals, but just citizens of our world, if you will.

Host: That's great. Dr. Tao, thank you so much for joining us. The Cancer Awareness and Resource Expo, SCV held at the College of the Canyons on April 22nd, 2023. This event is open to all ages, so everyone's welcome to come and learn about cancer prevention, detection, treatment, and recovery.

Don't miss this great opportunity to learn more about cancer and take advantage of the resources available. That is how we get to learn from our experts at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital and Keck Medicine of USC together. They are giving us quality information we can trust. And what a great opportunity to really give yourself that knowledge that can, as Dr. Tao said, empower you to live a healthier lifestyle. And thank you again, and you can visit our website at henrymayo.com/carescv for more information. You can also get free health information at library.henrymayo.com. Tons of great podcasts and information there. And that concludes this episode of It's Your Health Radio with Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital.

I'm Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for joining us today.