Breastcancer.org Podcast

Menopause and hacks aimed at eliminating its symptoms seem to be everywhere. Tops among these solutions is what used to be called hormone replacement therapy, or HRT, now called menopausal hormone therapy. But what if you've been diagnosed with breast cancer or are at high risk for the disease? For many years, these people were told menopausal hormone therapy wasn't an option.

Today, things are changing. Dr. Kristin Rojas, breast cancer surgeon and board-certified gynecologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, who also directs the OASIS (Onco-Menopause and Intimacy Specialists) program, discusses breast cancer, menopause, and hormones.

Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Rojas explain:

• what menopausal hormone therapy can and can’t do
• who might benefit from menopausal hormone therapy
• the difference between local and system estrogen
• why menopausal hormone therapy for someone with a history of breast cancer has to be a nuance discussion

Actress Miranda McKeon was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer at age 19, just as she was starting her sophomore year of college. She talks about her experiences with diagnosis and treatment, as well as how she balanced presenting herself to her peers in a way that felt authentic when she was living an experience that was completely foreign to her.

Listen to the episode to hear Miranda explain:

• how she found community and support
• the trickiness of navigating menopause, sexuality, and sexual wellness symptoms
• why she decided to share her experiences
• why and how the Pink 365 podcast came to be

Julia Maués didn’t decide to become an advocate, but her passion for patients learning science and scientists learning patient experiences propelled her to talk about her experiences.

Listen to the episode to hear Julia explain:

• the breast changes that led to her diagnosis
• how she and her doctors decided on treatments
• why she and Christine Hodgdon founded GRASP Cancer

Eleonora Teplinsky’s oncology practice has focused on people with breast cancer for more than a decade. Her new book, Beyond the Pink: Navigating Life, Health, and Breast Cancer, explains breast cancer risks, screening, diagnosis, and treatment, as well as topics that may not be discussed by all doctors.

Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Teplinsky explain:

• what makes her book different from other breast cancer books
• ways to integrate menopause care and HRT into breast cancer care
• how to talk to your doctor about sex and sexual health

Dr. Luba Perry is the founder and CEO of ReConstruct Bio, where she’s working to develop bioengineered living tissue implants made from a person’s own cells that then integrate with the body as living tissue. The first goal is to develop natural implants for breast reconstruction.

Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Perry explain:

• how human tissue can be created in the lab
• why she and her colleagues decided to focus on tissue for breast reconstruction
• how living tissue implants could address the limitations of the two existing options: implant reconstruction and flap reconstruction
• the status of research

An advocate and communications expert with more than 20 years experience in international corporate marketing, Christina Wilhelm wrote It’s Breast Cancer, Now What? as a manual to help people navigate breast cancer treatment, return-to-work, and long-term follow-up care decisions.

Listen to the episode to hear Christina explain:

• what makes her book different from other breast cancer manuals
• how she maintained continuity of care while moving between several countries in Europe and the Middle East
• her journey from using only alternative therapies to transitioning to more traditional treatments

Barbara Edwards was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in 2013. In 2017, she started the Rose M. Turknett Cancer Network to honor her youngest sister, who died from breast cancer in 2009 at age 43. Today, she travels around the country with her bedazzled pink boxing gloves, helping people with cancer, especially people living in underserved areas, find the resources and information they need to navigate treatment and survivorship.

Listen to the episode to hear Barbara explain:

• why she had to advocate for herself to get a diagnosis
• how exercise, yoga, and meditation helped her through treatment
• her advice to people newly diagnosed with breast cancer

Studies show that rates of certain cancers, including breast cancer, are rising in adolescents and young adults, meaning people between the ages of 15 and 39. While the increase is likely due to a combination of factors, some explanations include obesity, more sedentary lifestyles, chest radiation, alcohol consumption, and genetics. Rebecca Johnson, MD, medical director of the Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Program at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, and colleagues published a paper suggesting yet another piece of this puzzle: increasing cannabis use among young people.

Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Johnson explain:

• why she thought cannabis might be linked to cancer
• the reasons why cannabis could increase the risk of being diagnosed with cancer
• her advice to young people about cannabis and cancer

After three silver and two bronze medals at the previous four Olympic Games, Elana Meyers Taylor won her first gold medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics at age 41. She’s joining Breastcancer.org as an ambassador for the Ultimate Teammate campaign, helping people understand how to lower their breast cancer risk and take charge of their breast health.

Listen to the episode to hear Elana talk about:

• how her grandmother’s breast cancer diagnosis affected her and her family
• steps she takes to keep her risk as low as it can be
• why having a team and teammates around you is important and how her team helps her

Oligometastatic breast cancer is breast cancer that’s spread to parts of the body away from the breast, like the bones or liver, but there are only a few small cancer lesions at the metastatic site. Dr. Jennifer Plichta, of Duke University, was the corresponding author of a paper looking at treatments for oligometastatic breast cancer, including surgery to remove the primary tumor in the breast and removing the metastatic lesion with surgery or treating it with radiation. The study found that removing the primary breast tumor was associated with better survival.

Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Plichta explain:

• how oligometastatic breast cancer is defined
• why it’s difficult to study oligometastatic breast cancer
• the results of her study and what they mean for people with oligometastatic disease

At the Living Beyond Breast Cancer 2026 Conference on Metastatic Breast Cancer, five members of the Breastcancer.org metastatic virtual support groups shared what they’d tell someone who’s just been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. They talked to us about the importance of having hope allowing yourself to grieve, seeking out support, and knowing that you’re never alone.

At the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting poster session, we asked four scientists to discuss their research.

Listen to the episode to hear:

• Peter Stanfield, of the University of Wisconsin, explains his research on cancer screening rates in transgender and gender-diverse people.
• Nico Gotera, of the University of Texas Health Science Center, explains research on GLP-1 medicines and rates of breast cancer in postmenopausal women.
• Anna Tanasijevic, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, explains research on how much cancer survivors exercise.
• Xianghui Zou, of NYU Langone Health, explains research on the timing of immunotherapy infusions for people with early-stage triple-negative breast cancer.

Felicia Marie Knaul, PhD, is a global health researcher whose work focuses on strengthening health systems, advancing gender equity, and improving access to care for those who need it most. She’s also lived through a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, and that experience informs her efforts to transform health systems around the world.

Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Knaul discuss:

• her experience with breast cancer
• why she founded Tómatelo a Pecho and what the organization does
• why she thinks cancer control can drive the creation of better healthcare systems

Eleonora Teplinsky, MD, is the head of breast and gynecologic medical oncology and Valley-Mount Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Center in Paramus, New Jersey, as well as an ASCO breast cancer expert. She explained the most compelling research results on breast cancer presented at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.

Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Teplinsky explain:

• the importance of the OPTIMA study, as well as her caveats about the results
• the latest results from the ASCENT-04 study
• what progression-free survival 2 (PFS2) is and how it helps doctors decide which treatments should be given first
• what we do and don’t know about GLP-1 medicines and cancer

At the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting, Dr. Jennifer Ligibel, director of the Leonard P. Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies and Healthy Living at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, presented early results from the Breast Cancer Weight Loss (BWEL) study. The findings showed that among women with early-stage breast cancer, losing weight led to better physical and mental health, and also helped ease fatigue.

Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Ligibel explain:

• the design of the BWEL study
• why the women in the study had to have hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative or triple-negative breast cancer
• the next steps for the study

Results from the OPTIMA trial suggest that people with early-stage hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer that seems to have a high risk of recurrence based on clinical features — like a high number of positive lymph nodes — may be able to safely skip chemotherapy if they have a low Prosigna risk of recurrence score. The findings were presented at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting.

Iain MacPherson, professor of breast oncology at the University of Glasgow, was chief investigator of the study.

Listen to the episode to hear Dr. MacPherson explain:

• the design and results of the OPTIMA study
• why he thinks the trial results are groundbreaking
• whether or not the results apply to men with this type of breast cancer

At the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, Megan-Claire Chase, known as Warrior Megsie on social media, was one of the speakers at the ASCO Voices session. In her talk, she explained how her views on clinical trials shifted after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Listen to the episode to hear Megsie explain:

• some of the reasons why the Black community distrusts the medical system
• why she didn’t want to be part of a clinical trial
• how her feelings changed after she suffered rare, debilitating side effects from treatment
• why she became an outspoken advocate

Dr. Michael Stubblefield is a cancer rehabilitation expert and Dr. Joseph Dayan is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who has pioneered techniques to ease lymphedema with surgery. They’re both very interested in how the GLP-1 medicines, like Ozempic, Wegovey, Zepbound, Mounjaro, Victoza, and Trulicity — just to name a few — could be used to manage lymphedema.

Listen to the episode to hear Drs. Stubblefield and Dayan explain:

• how common lymphedema is among people with breast cancer
• current lymphedema treatments
• how the new study using a GLP-1 medicine to treat lymphedema came about
• what we know right now about GLP-1 medicines and breast cancer treatments

Dr. Dipali Sharma and her team published two papers that found links between bacteria, including F. nucleatum, the bacterium that causes periodontal disease, and the development of breast cancer.

Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Sharma explain:

• her work to figure out how bacteria travel from the gut or mouth to the breast
• the changes the bacteria cause in breast cells
• why breast cells with BRCA1 mutations were more likely to have higher levels of bacteria in them
• how research to inhibit a specific enzyme may one day lead to a new breast cancer treatment

Dr. Brock Hewitt is a surgeon who specializes in treating cancerous and non-cancerous tumors in the liver and other internal organs. One of the techniques he uses is histotripsy. He’s published a number of papers on the procedure and its effectiveness.Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Hewitt explain:

• how histotripsy works and why it’s only used to treat liver tumors
• how doctors decide if histotripsy is right for someone with liver metastases
• the risks and benefits of histotripsy
• insurance coverage for histotripsy

Podcast image credit: