Dr. Christina Annunziata of the American Cancer Society breaks down the latest cancer advances: new multi-cancer blood tests that can detect cancers earlier (including types we currently can’t screen for), why these tests are complementary to — not replacements for — standard screening, and how targeted therapies (like treatments for RET-mutated lung cancer) are extending survival. She also explains the impact of prevention (HPV vaccine for cervical cancer) and why continued research and equitable access are critical to making these breakthroughs benefit everyone.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Three, two, one. Joining me now is Dr. Christina Annunziata of the American Cancer Society. Dr. Annunziata, it’s great to see you again. Thanks for joining us on the program this morning.
Christina Annunziata, American Cancer Society
Sure, thanks so much for having me.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And we’re gonna cover a lot of different topics, at least for the audience’s benefit. I wanna start off with detection because I can’t help it. I’m sure you watch television or you watch streaming.
I see ads for colon cancer detection, for other cancer detections. Where are we with the ability to detect this horrible disease sooner rather than later?
Christina Annunziata, American Cancer Society
Yes, so we certainly have standard screening tests like you were mentioning for colon cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, cervical cancer, and even lung cancer. I think the exciting new research that was just presented last week at our national cancer meeting in Chicago was that there are new tests coming out that are blood tests that can detect a lot of different cancers. So several different types of cancers at the same time.
And what that study showed, it was actually a very large study. It showed that when used in addition to the standard screening test, it could detect some cancers that we don’t have screening tests for, like ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, kidney cancer. And what it showed also was that it can detect the cancers at stages where they’re still treatable.
So while some cancers were detected very late, most of the cancers, probably about two thirds of them were detected in a treatable stage. So that’s very exciting news. But what the important point is here though is that it does not replace standard screening tests.
So people still need to get their regular annual screening or recommended screening tests, but this might be an option in the future. Another exciting thing about this is that the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, which is our advocacy arm, has done a lot to support bipartisan legislature that will allow for insurance coverage of this test in the future.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you. I was gonna ask you, how can, you know, it’s great that we were able to detect these things. Obviously, if you detect a disease sooner rather than later, you have the ability to treat it earlier and prevent it from metastasizing and spreading.
But in terms of accessibility, let’s talk about that because cancer isn’t just for one group, doesn’t attack one group of people, it attacks everybody. So you mentioned the bipartisan legislation that I think is out there. Would someone like, you know, of average income like myself be able to access these tests at a reasonable fee?
Christina Annunziata, American Cancer Society
Right, so that’s the purpose of our American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network efforts in the legislative arena is that the idea is that we do want these tests to be accessible. We don’t want people to have out-of-pocket costs because that will, as you mentioned, lead to even greater disparities in this cancer detection. So we want everybody, all Americans in the country to be able to access the test and to be able to have insurance coverage at a reasonable cost.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, and look, I’m not part of the Cancer Action Network. I’ll just advocate and say, everyone talks about preventative medicine. This is an example where you, and how that reduces healthcare costs.
My personal opinion is that if you can have this test once a year or whatever the frequency is, hey, that would really bring down healthcare costs. All right, you don’t have to comment on that, but I think that it just makes a lot of, I’m sorry?
Christina Annunziata, American Cancer Society
Yes, I said sure, yeah.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
So doctor, obviously a lot of great work being done and we’re gonna talk about some of the research in a few minutes, but let’s talk about how cancer is treated today and how it could be treated or can be treated in the future.
Christina Annunziata, American Cancer Society
Right, so cancer today, Jeffrey, is treated with surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy, but there’s newer drugs actually coming out for specific diseases that can target driver mutations or changes that are causing the cancer to grow. And one of these, for example, is lung cancer. So lung cancer, it has known mutations like EGFR, ALK, and now RET, changes in the RET gene.
And that allows treatment with specific targeted drugs to actually prolong survival. So we did find out about a study that was presented at the cancer meeting that people who have this RET mutation can undergo surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and then when they’re done, they can go on a maintenance treatment with this drug that specifically targets RET. And that allowed people to actually live longer compared to people who didn’t take the drug.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, and obviously extending life is what it’s all about. And you wanna protect against a relapse of the disease, right, that’s the purpose of the maintenance course of the drug.
Christina Annunziata, American Cancer Society
Mm-hmm, absolutely, absolutely.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Let’s kind of dovetail. I wanna talk more about the latest research because you guys, you meaning the American Cancer Society, you’re working on a lot of fronts. And there’s, my understanding is there’s a tremendous amount of research being done across the globe in the treatment of cancer.
I know we had a guest on, I was telling you earlier before we got on live that, or to record the show, it’s not live, but to record a show that pancreatic cancer is something that, there was a study I think that can treat that very deadly disease. But there’s a lot of great research going on by a lot of great institutions around the, on the planet. Tell us a little bit about the evolution of research.
Christina Annunziata, American Cancer Society
Yeah, so research is so critical. We would not be where we are today without decades of research. That pancreatic drug took several decades of research to be able to understand what was driving the cancer and to develop drugs to treat it.
So absolutely, we have, we would not be where we are today without the decades of research. We know that in 2026, over 2 million people will be diagnosed with cancer. But the good news is that 70% of those people will live long-term, will live five years or more after their cancer diagnosis.
There would not be that many, this many people alive today without having invested in that research decades ago. And that’s research certainly on new treatments, but also on causes of cancer, on risks of cancer, on ways to prevent cancer, and also on how to get the cancer care to people who need it, to all Americans, no matter what neighborhood they live on. So yeah, so absolutely, research is so critical to where we are today in our advances.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
And we’ve come, you talked about this, in so many decades, we have, you know, it used to be that you got pancreatic cancer and it was a death sentence, or you got one of these, they were very tough to treat, or they came back over time. You know, do you ever see a point, maybe not in our lifetimes, where, you know, you just get a drug or get a vaccination, not a drug, a vaccination of some type, and it just prevents you from getting cancer. And then that malady is completely crushed off, you know, kind of like, I mean, it’s not analogous, but like a measles or a mumps or one of these horrific diseases that had so much of an impact on earlier generations.
Christina Annunziata, American Cancer Society
I mean, so we actually do have that, right, for cervical cancer. Again, that was based on research in order to understand that cervical cancer is caused by a virus, and that we can vaccinate people against, we can create a vaccine against to prevent the infection of the virus and then prevent the cancer. So yes, so I do think if the more we know about cancer, the more we can develop it.
The cervical cancer vaccine is very, very effective, and we’ve seen rates in our country drop dramatically in cervical cancer because of that vaccine. The next step of that is cervical cancer is still a worldwide problem. So it needs to be, we need to find ways to get the vaccine into countries that need it.
Jeffrey Snyder, Broadcast Retirement Network
Yeah, and also gotta be able to detect it in those places to make sure that you can detect it and detect it earlier, back to the earlier part of our discussion. Dr. Annunziata, we’re gonna have to leave it there. Thanks for making a few minutes for us.
I’m a lay person, so I’m obviously not qualified to be a doctor, but you broke it down very nicely. I understood everything, and I’m sure the audience did as well. Thanks for joining us, and we look forward to having you back again very soon.
Christina Annunziata, American Cancer Society
Great, thanks so much.