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Weddings, travel plans,
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music festivals, graduations,
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dental cleanings,
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pretty much everything has gotten put on hold
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during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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That includes health care
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stuff like preventative medical care has gotten pushed to the back seat
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as the virus has taken the wheel.
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So what have these delays
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meant for overall health,
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especially when it comes to something
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like cancer?
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For some context,
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my partner at the time was diagnosed
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with lymphoma in early 2019.
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This is pre-pandemic.
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We spent about six months
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basically living in the hospital,
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and after that experience, all I could think about during
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the pandemic was how much harder
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that all would have been if we'd had to go through it
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during COVID-19,
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especially at the beginning,
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at the point of diagnosis. Because it was difficult enough
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to get seen by a doctor in pre-pandemic times.
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But regular checkups and cancer screenings
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drastically dipped during the early months of the pandemic,
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as health care systems contended with the virus
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and folks wanted to avoid high
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risk locations like hospitals.
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-What oncologists
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worry about is that these delays in screening
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will cause more patients
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to be diagnosed at later stages,
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where treatment is more difficult
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and complicated and potentially
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takes more away from a patient's quality of life.
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-And the area of
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sharpest decline in cancer screenings
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was for women from underserved
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communities where COVID-19 already
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has an outsized impact.
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And that's on top of an existing information gap
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that has always been there.
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Like, many people don't actually know how often
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they should be screened for things like breast and cervical cancer.
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And this knowledge is even less
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common in communities of color.
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And that's really concerning.
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-One of the reasons that mortality from cancer
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has been declining in the United States is because we've been
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continuously improving some of our cancer screenings.
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The best example of this is in cervical cancer.
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Once widespread pap smear screening
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became available in the United States,
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cervical cancer went from being one of the leading
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causes of death in women
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to a relatively rare disease.
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Recent studies
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show that some cancer screenings,
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but not all and not in all places,
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have bounced back to pre-pandemic levels. And catching any cancer
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early is absolutely essential to ensure a better outcome for the patient.
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But it's especially true in the time of COVID.
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And especially true
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for those who have a blood cancer like leukemia or lymphoma.
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And this is because those diseases
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actually don't have screening options like a mammogram
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for breast cancer or a pap smear for cervical cancer.
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You just have to go to the doctor
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if something doesn't feel right.
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Plus, these cancers
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impact the white blood cells.
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-The white blood cells fight
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all pathogens, bacteria, funguses, viruses,
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anything that can attack your body and make you sick.
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When you are a patient with leukemia or lymphoma,
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both the disease itself
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and the treatment can impact
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the number and function of those white blood cells.
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-Recent research
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has shown that those with blood cancer in particular,
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are at much higher risk of longer and more severe COVID-19
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illness than people with a kind of cancer
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that presents with solid tumors.
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-The B lymphocytes are the exact cells
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that are able to produce the proteins
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we call the antibodies in response to infection.
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So patients who either the malignancy itself
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involves those cells
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or the treatment for the malignancy knocks down those cells
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are less able to make the antibodies
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both to primary infection
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or when they get an immunization.
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-So what does this mean for blood cancer patients
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when it comes to getting the COVID-19 vaccine?
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Luckily, researchers have been studying exactly this.
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Several studies have found that even
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in immunosuppressed cancer patients
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an mRNA vaccine can produce
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at least some antibody response, just not one
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as strong as we'd see in someone with a healthy immune system.
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In a study from The Leukemia
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and Lymphoma Society of more than 1,400 blood cancer patients,
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there were some who,
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depending on their cancer type,
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were less likely to produce antibodies
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in response to a full mRNA vaccine course.
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But this research has been extended to look at a small number
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of those patients who went on to get a booster shot.
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And there's good news here.
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-We were able to show
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that almost half
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of these patients, albeit small numbers
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who were seronegative, or didn't make the antibodies
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before, half of them
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got a boost and were able to make antibodies from a third shot.
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-But at this already complex intersection
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of cancer care and COVID immunization,
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health inequalities across
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class, race and ethnicity,
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and gender need to be taken into consideration too.
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Like who has access to cancer care,
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who has access to the vaccine,
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who is able to get their cancer
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diagnosed and treated in time?
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And how does social identity play a role in all of this?
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-Women tend to have a different immune system than men.
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There are different receptors
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that are targeted by various
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immuno-oncology agents,
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which are newer ways of treating cancer.
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These drugs have been very, very successful
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in treating certain malignancies.
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But because women have an overall stronger
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immune system than men,
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men get more of an advantage
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from these drugs than women do.
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And so we are still trying to understand
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all these differences between the immune systems of men and women
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and how they interact in cancer
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care to lead to differences in outcomes.
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-So like always, we need more research.
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And the National Cancer Institute
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is conducting a study of 2,000
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cancer patients who have contracted COVID-19
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and is following them over the course
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of two years to monitor their COVID immunity
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during their cancer treatment and recovery.
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Another study will be looking
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at how COVID-19 susceptibility and immunity changes
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in cancer patients, depending on the stage of their disease.
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And work like this is how the medical community is able
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to give solid, science-backed
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advice to cancer patients on how to navigate things
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like the COVID-19 pandemic
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and vaccination as safely as possible.
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There's so much noise out there about what's healthy
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and what's not, what you should do and what you shouldn't,
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which makes it all the more essential and empowering
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to have access to solid,
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credible information.
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-And I really, really believe
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that clinical trials are the path forward
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for helping keep cancer patients safe.
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I really want to thank
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the now almost 12,000 patients
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who agreed to be part of this registry
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because we could not have done this
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without patients saying,
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'I want to help myself, but I want to help other people.'
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If you are someone you know is looking for support when dealing with
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blood cancer, then check out The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
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They provide patients with free
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one-on-one support and opportunities to speak
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with highly trained oncology professionals.
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So to learn more about them,
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check out the resources we've left in the description below.
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Thank you all so much for
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watching Seeker's Body Language.
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If you have another topic like this you want us to cover in this series,
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then let us know in the comments and I'll see you next time.