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Causes or Cures
"For the Nerds and the Nerd Nots"
Causes or Cures is a health podcast hosted by Dr. Eeks—an independent, grassroots show driven by curiosity and a passion for breaking down complex health topics into bite-sized, easy-to-understand insights. Dr. Eeks (ErinKate Stair, MPH, MD) works as a senior consultant and contractor in the realm of public health, epidemiology, and health communication. She's all about making science relatable and often uses a blue-collar sense of humor to drive the message home.
On this podcast, Dr. Eeks talks with experts from around the world (doctors, researchers, public health pros, and more) to dive into the latest hot topics in health and research, all in a down-to-earth kind of way. She also includes people with compelling stories of healing and "characters" because life is too boring and short to leave out characters. ;)
DISCLAIMER: Some topics are more controversial than others, so keep in mind that this is information only and not health advice. If you are battling an individual health issue, always check in with your doctor & don't run with anything on podcast as advice. Dr. Eeks doesn't endorse any of her guests' views, and despite a strict health routine, nor does she endorse any products, supplements, oils, magic socks or potions. (If an episode is sponsored by a company she likes, she will say so in the show notes.) She does not practice medicine (only public health) so she does not give out medical advice nor should you treat anything on this podcast as medical advice.
Causes or Cures is not a "news site." It's about having conversations, and Dr. Eeks is confident that she can have a respectful conversation with anyone, even people who think far differently than she does. (At least that's been her experience at hole-in-the-walls & on the NYC sidewalks.) The point is to not take anything here as Gospel. Sometimes Dr. Eeks' dog Barnaby makes his opinion known, but the good news is that he's a smart dog. Most importantly, she hopes this podcast encourages folks to stay curious, empathic, hopeful, compassionate, honest, open-minded, and engaged. Freedom of discussion is a beautiful thing, delightfully messy, and one that many take for granted.
*The views on this podcast do not reflect the views of anyone she contracts with or consults for on various public health projects.
You can contact Dr. Eeks through her website, bloomingwellness.com.
If you are interested in sponsoring an episode, write erin@bloomingwellness.com.
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Causes or Cures
They Received an Experimental Vaccine for Advanced Breast Cancer Decades Ago. They’re Still Alive Today—Dr. Zachary Hartman on the Science
What if cancer didn’t have to be eradicated, but could be remembered, monitored, and controlled by the immune system itself?
In this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks speaks with Dr. Zachary Hartman, the lead researcher who revisited an extraordinary breast cancer vaccine trial conducted over 20 years ago. The trial involved a small group of women with advanced breast cancer. Women who, remarkably, are all still alive today.
By analyzing their blood decades later, the research team discovered that these women still carried immune cells capable of recognizing their cancer, suggesting durable immune memory lasting more than two decades. (Study link here.)
We discuss:
- The original breast cancer vaccine trial and what it was designed to do, in plain language
- What it was like to discover that the women from the trial were still alive more than 20 years later
- How the immune systems of these women continued to recognize cancer cells long after the trial
- What CD27-positive immune cells are and why they matter, explained simply
- Why helper CD4 T cells may be just as important, or more important, than killer CD8 T cells when it comes to cancer
- What happened when researchers combined a CD27-boosting antibody with a cancer vaccine in mice
- What surprised the research team most
- The challenges of translating findings from mice to human trials
- Whether cancer could someday be managed long-term by the immune system
- How generalizable this immune memory might be across different cancers
- What this research could mean for how we think about vaccines in a post-pandemic world
- The one key message the researcher hopes the public takes away
- What’s next in this line of research
Guest Bio: Dr. Zachary C. Hartman is an Associate Professor at Duke University in the Departments of Surgery, Pathology, and Integrative Immunobiology, where he also serves as Director of the Center for Applied Therapeutics and is a member of the Cellular and Molecular Biology and Genetics and Genomics programs. He earned his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University and completed his PhD at Duke University, followed by postdoctoral training in tumor immunology and breast oncology at Duke and the MD Anderson Cancer Center. In 2012, Dr. Hartman returned to Duke to establish a research program focused on tumor immunology and the development of cancer immunotherapies, including therapeutic vaccines, immune agonists, checkpoint inhibitors, antibody-based therapies, and strategies to stimulate anti-tumor immune responses.
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