The Legacy of Lisa Laudico
Lisa Laudico, who created and spearheaded the Our MBC Life podcast series, died on August 6, 2022 from MBC. In this episode, Lisa’s friends, family, and colleagues remember her amazing life and celebrate the many ways she fostered connection, resilience, and hope throughout the MBC community.
Psilocybin-assisted Therapy: One Patient vs. the DEA
Welcome to the third and final episode in our series on the potential of psilocybin-assisted therapy to relieve the existential distress of, and help us live as well as possible with, metastatic breast cancer.
In this episode, we speak with two women taking action to increase legal access to psilocybin-assisted therapy in the United States. The first is a patient living with MBC who, along with her doctor, have brought a lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Agency which is denying her access to psilocybin in the palliative care setting and under existing Right to Try laws for promising investigational medications for the terminally ill. The patient petitioner, Erinn Baldeschwiler, tells us why she joined the lawsuit, what she hopes to gain from psilocybin-assisted therapy, and what it’s been like to deal with all the legal proceedings on top of a progressing MBC diagnosis.
Our second interview in this episode is with the attorney who is leading the legal case to open access to psilocybin under Right to Try legislation, Kathryn Tucker of the Emerge Law Group. Kathryn explains why psilocybin should be immediately available to patients suffering from distress, anxiety, depression under FDA rules and state and federal Right to Try laws. But the DEA is continuing to block access and hold psilocybin on Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substance Act.
It’s confusing, but we explain it all here. Lastly, see the Episode Notes for a current petition to the DEA to step out of the way and grant access to psilocybin for anyone with a terminal illness.
This series has been led by series producer, Dr. Paula Jayne with assistance from co-host Lynda Weatherby, and senior producer and host Lisa Laudico.
Thanks for listening!
Psilocybin-assisted Therapy: Patient Experiences
Welcome to the second episode in our series on the potential of psilocybin-assisted therapy to help us live as well as possible with metastatic breast cancer.
In this episode, we talk to two women with breast cancer who had legal access to psilocybin-assisted therapy. Journalist and writer Erica Rex participated in a clinical trial at Johns Hopkins after being diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. Mari Singfield, a young Canadian woman living with MBC, gained access through an exemption to Section 56(1) of the Canadian Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, a process facilitated by the organization, TheraPsil.
Both women shared with us the process that they went through to gain legal access to psilocybin-assisted therapy, what the treatment was actually like for them, and what, if anything, changed in their lives afterward.
Healing our Distress: The Potential of Psilocybin-assisted Therapy
Welcome to our series on the potential of psilocybin-assisted therapy to help us live as well as possible with metastatic breast cancer.
In this first episode, co-host and producer of this series, Dr. Paula Jayne and co-host Lynda Weatherby interview Dr. Boadie Dunlop, Director of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program at Emory University. Dr Dunlop shares existing and emerging data on how psilocybin may help those of us living with MBC and discusses an upcoming pilot trial of psilocybin-assisted therapy at Emory University’s Palliative and Supportive Care Clinic.
Dr. Priya Kumthekar: Glimpses of Hope for Leptomeningeal Metastases
Co-hosts Victoria Goldberg and Dr. Paula Jayne sit down with neuro-oncologist Dr. Priya Kumthekar to talk about leptomeningeal metastases: what they are, how are they treated, and what research is upcoming, including a discussion on ANGled, the new Phase 3 trial for MBC patients newly diagnosed with leptomeningeal metastases.
Road to a Cure - Dr. Heather Parsons & Dr. Nancy Lin
The Road to a Cure series heads to Boston to have Senior Producer and Co-host, Victoria Goldberg and co-host Dr. Paula Jayne speak with Dr. Nancy Lin and Dr. Heather Parsons about the possibilities and the current barriers to considering a cure for HER2+ MBC. Dr. Parsons and Dr. Lin are medical oncologists and professors at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lin is also the Director of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Program and the Associate Chief of the Division of Breast Oncology at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. While an amazing gift, long-term survival among some HER2+ patients can also sometimes bring special challenges. Given the higher prevalence of brain metastases among HER2+ patients, Drs. Lin and Parsons also discuss current research on brain mets, along with areas of promising overall MBC research for each subtype.
Road to a Cure - what it means to us
The podcast team has embarked upon something quite ambitious. The members of the team have traveled virtually to speak with the leading clinicians and researchers in the field of breast cancer, specifically on the topic of where we are in terms of a cure for metastatic breast cancer. It is impossible to cover it in a neat single episode, so, instead, we created a very special series of episodes that we call “Road to A Cure.” In this premiere episode the members of the creative team share with the audience what it means to live with an incurable disease. We talk about a possibility of a cure, address the real fear of hoping, and tackle these and many other important issues.
Project Life and A Dash of Joy
“It is very important for us who are living with MBC to be able to go to a place where we know it’s safe to just be who we are.” This month’s Trailblazer is Project Life, a virtual wellness house that recently set up residence in cyberspace. The co-hosts Victoria Goldberg and Dar Finkelstein speak with the founder and the CEO of Project Life Leslie Glenn and its COO Jackie Seiner about the origin of the project, MBC wellness and survivorship.
The Magic of Palliative Care -Patients and Their Providers
This month we have focused on quality-of-life issues and this episode is part one of a two part series on the “Magic of Palliative Care”. At times the term “palliative care” is misunderstood and so we also use the newer term ‘supportive care’ to better explain how this care supports your quality of life as you go through MBC treatment. We first turn our focus to the medical providers who help us manage symptoms and treatment side effects and, by doing so, improve multiple aspects of our lives.