The Conversation About Cancer Everyone Needs to Hear
7/23/20261 hr 2 min
Why is cancer on the rise amongst the younger generation? Oprah sits down with world-renowned oncologist, New York Times best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize winner Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee to find out. In this powerful and deeply personal discussion about the new edition of his groundbreaking book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer Dr. Mukherjee shares why it was important for him to update his seminal book with four new chapters and what has changed in the science of cancer in the last fifteen years. He explores possible reasons behind the rise of cancer in younger people today including genetic factors, environmental triggers, chronic inflammation and the “sleeper” cells that may lie dormant in the body until activated. Joining the conversation is actress and breast cancer survivor Olivia Munn, wife of the late Chadwick Boseman, Simone Ledward Boseman and a 28-year-old woman from Texas who battled stage 4 endometrial cancer after years of dismissed symptoms. She passed away just weeks after her conversation with Oprah.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsOprah Winfrey· Host0:00
I'm joined by world-renowned oncologist, Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee. So we're seeing younger and younger people diagnosed with cancer.
Siddhartha Mukherjee· Guest0:10
So you're getting a spike in cases, and you're getting a- Spike in deaths ... a spike in deaths. So that is real. You cannot really, you, you can't turn your eyes away from that. That is a real number.
Oprah Winfrey· Host0:19
Joining us now is, uh, actress Olivia Munn. You learned you had breast cancer at what age?
Simone Ledward Boseman· Guest0:25
42.
Oprah Winfrey· Host0:25
42.
Simone Ledward Boseman· Guest0:27
I was then diagnosed with multifocal multi-quadrant bilateral breast cancer.
Oprah Winfrey· Host0:32
When Chadwick Boseman died after colon cancer, the world was stunned.
Simone Ledward Boseman· Guest0:38
Yeah, Chad was 38 when he was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer.
Oprah Winfrey· Host0:44
He was at an age where normally he wouldn't have even been getting a colonoscopy. You can live a healthy lifestyle. You can eat well. You can exercise. What is going on?
Siddhartha Mukherjee· Guest0:55
That it turns out there are lots and lots of sleeper cancer cells in everyone's body. The new theory, or one new theory, is that they need to be woken up, and the sleeping beauty wake-up potion is, at least one of them, is chronic inflammation. This is very new research.
Oprah Winfrey· Host1:13
Hi, everybody. It's great to be with you here on the Oprah Podcast, and I am really glad that you joined us for this episode because we're talking about a health issue that I know has impacted