One of the Deadliest Cancers in America May Have Met Its Match
5/5/202645 min
Hard to detect and almost impossible to treat, pancreatic cancer has long been one of medicine’s most ruthless killers. For decades, it’s been the cancer that science couldn’t crack. But that might be starting to change. Recently, cancer researchers have announced a series of breakthroughs that, taken together, sound almost too good to be true: a drug that targets the “undruggable” gene behind most pancreatic tumors, a personalized mRNA vaccine that teaches the immune system to recognize pancreatic cancer as an enemy, and, now, an AI program that can spot the elusive disease years before doctors typically find it. So is this breakthrough a real turning point? Or another case of medical hype outrunning reality? On today’s episode, Dr. Ajit Goenka of the Mayo Clinic joins Derek to walk through the science behind the latest advances in cancer detection and what they could mean for the future of health care. They discuss Dr. Goenka’s new research using artificial intelligence to detect pancreatic cancer earlier than ever before … and whether machines might soon see what doctors can’t. Subscribe to our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at PlainEnglish@Spotify.com. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Dr. Ajit Goenka Producer: Devon Baroldi Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
[drum music] A rich life isn't a straight line to a destination on the horizon. Sometimes it takes an unexpected turn with detours, new possibilities- Cheers. And even another passenger. Or three. And with one hundred years of navigating ups and downs, you can count on Edward Jones to help guide you through it all, because life is a winding path made rich by the people you walk it with. Let's find your rich together. Edward Jones, member SIPC.
Derek Thompson· Host0:34
This episode is brought to you by ServiceNow. Look, I have my dream job. I get to explain complicated ideas to folks who have better things to do than read white papers. But even dream jobs have not so dreamy parts, the stuff that gets in the way of the actual work. That's where ServiceNow's AI specialists come in. They don't just tell you what you should do about your busy work, they actually do it, start to finish, cases closed, requests handled, no extra work for you. That way you and your team can spend more time on what matters, which for me is finding that one elusive stat that just makes everything click. To learn how to put AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com. Today, one of the top scientific breakthroughs of the year is in the war on cancer. Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers we know.