By Maddie and Ava
On Wednesday, March 6th, Emma Shtivelman came to talk to us about the importance of the organization that she works for, Cancer Commons. Emma Shtivelman is a scientist for Cancer Commons, doing her best to help patients with treating their cancer.
Cancer Commons gives people with cancer that have nowhere to go and can’t find a cure, a place for support and help. Not that long ago, cancer was even more unknown than it is now. The only thing that they knew to treat it was chemotherapy. Chemotherapy kills the cancer but it can also kill normal cells which is not good because you need your good cells to keep your body going while you are fighting cancer with the help of drugs. That’s when immunotherapy was invented. Instead of killing the cells itself, it helps your body get stronger and fight off the cancer itself. This new drug would never have been possible if it weren’t for clinical trials. Clinical trials are test drugs given to small groups of patients in lower doses and if they work safely then they get approved and can help a lot of people.
Cancer Commons helps cancer patients find the best clinical trial for them and navigates cancer treatments one patient at a time. They provide free service to any cancer patient who submits their case. They have four scientists one of which is actually Emma Shtivelman! She told us that if someone goes to Cancer Commons asking questions, they will be answered. While Emma Shtivelman was here she shared some pretty cool things that we didn’t know before:
- Mutations control growth and division
- Immunotherapy helps your body fight against cancer
- The most common cancer is lung cancer due to smoking
- The most common cancer in women is breast cancer
- The most common cancer in men is prostate cancer
- Clinical trials are the only way to get new and effective drugs before they are approved
- Cancer vaccines are for fighting cancer, not preventing it
- An Oncologist is the type of doctor treats cancer
If you want to help Cancer Commons keep treating patients you can help by spreading their information to families in the Bay Area with a member who has cancer.
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This is wonderful! Great job, as always, fearless journalists!
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Cancer Commons seems like such an amazing organization. I had never heard of it before. The facts that Emma shared were things I had never thought about.
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I think that adding those facts really make people think more about cancer and was a very great idea to help spread awareness. This will also catch people’s eyes because they can read the bullet points and then get into the blog post.
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Do you know what any of the clinical trials that they can get you into are? Or what type of cancers they help people deal with?
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I’m confused about what types of cancer they are helping people deal with. I also really like this cause because every type of cancer is awful and no one should have to deal with cancer alone. So this seems like a really important NPO.
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I think that cancer is a hard thing to fight and it is important because we can not save the world if we all die from cancer first.
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I wonder why I haven’t of Cancer Commons before. I would be interested to learn more about how they can get someone into a clinical trial.
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Does Cancer Commons help treat all types of cancer or just some in specific? I assume the equipment needed to take care of lung cancer and breast cancer vastly differ. How do they manage to do that? Also, I was just wondering why they didn’t come back to speak at Brandeis this year?
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I think that this is a really important organization. Reading the entry made me feel more aware of cancer.
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I wonder why I have not heard of this organization and if it plans to expand in the future.
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It said that an oncologist treats a patient’s cancer. Is there anyone else who is there at Cancer Commons either helping or supporting that is a doctor of some sort (not a family member, or friend)?
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