Susanna 00:00
Welcome to The Cancer SIGNAL, a podcast presented by GRAIL where we discuss topics related to early cancer detection, including multi-cancer early detection, cancer genomics and risk, barriers to cancer screening, and much, much more. I’m your host, Susanna Quinn. Today we’re interviewing my friend Jody Hoyos, who is Chief Executive of the Prevent Cancer Foundation, the only US-based nonprofit organization solely dedicated to cancer prevention and early detection. Since taking the helm as CEO, Jody has led the foundation in revitalizing its mission and vision and creating a more strategic direction for the foundation’s next decade and beyond. As CEO, she has become the foundation’s lead spokesperson, championing the 2023 launch of the foundation signature campaign: Early Detection = Better Outcomes, which is what we are going to discuss today. Welcome to The Cancer SIGNAL, Jody.

Jody Hoyos 01:05
Thank you, Susanna, I’m very excited to be here talking with you today.

Susanna 01:10
Awesome. So tell me what is the mission of the Prevent Cancer Foundation and talk to me a little bit about your role as CEO.

Jody Hoyos 01:18
Happy to do that. I think the mission of the foundation is probably a lot easier to talk about than my role as CEO, but I’m going to do my very best for you today. The mission of the Prevent Cancer Foundation is to empower people to stay ahead of cancer through prevention and early detection. So really what we’re all about is taking the power from cancer and giving it to people. The best way to do that is through prevention and early detection. And I know we’ll talk a lot more about that. There are a few different ways we do that at the foundation. And really we focus on four different pillars. One is education. So we are what’s considered a patient advocacy group. So as you talk to different groups out there, there’s a whole group of us that are out there to talk and represent the patient voice. We are a little bit different in that we are a people advocacy organization, because we are representing the voice of the general public. We’re talking to people, before they even have a diagnosis. We want them to go and get screened. We want to talk to people before they even get into a hospital or healthcare setting. So education, that’s one, public education. Two is research. We are a funder of research. And we’re working to move forward the field of prevention, early detection, new ideas, innovations that can really be a catalyst in this space. Three, advocacy, so we work to advance federal legislation to make sure that there’s access to screening and prevention, that there’s funding going to the space that is often underfunded. And four is outreach. So we actually want to make sure that the people who need to do the work at the local level have the resources and funding they need to do that. So we operate at a very high level, federal level, and then we’re working at the grassroots level, at the community level. My job as the CEO is to keep all of those different initiatives aligned, so that we are working across multiple fronts to address the same issue, increasing screening, increasing awareness, increasing funding. There’s a lot of moving parts, a lot of different stakeholder groups. And so I’m here to just help our amazing team coordinate and address barriers.

Susanna 04:03
Wow, you fill a very big role, you’ve got a lot of responsibility. The Prevent Cancer Foundation recently launched a powerful campaign called Early Detection = Better Outcomes. What led to this specific focus on early cancer detection?

Jody Hoyos 04:23
You know, it’s interesting that the foundation as you know, the Prevent Cancer Foundation has been around for 39 years, and our, the founder of the foundation Bo Aldigé was very forward thinking when she set out then to say, why aren’t we talking about prevention and early detection? Why are we not addressing this very upstream aspect of cancer because that was back when there was really treatment was what everyone was clamoring around – as they should be that, it’s an important, treatment is very important. But prevention wasn’t there. And still to this day, each of us individually know that early detection matters. We know that it’s important. But it really doesn’t get the funding, it doesn’t get the level of attention as everything else. So that’s where we come in. That is why we are focused in the space, it really this campaign and where we’re focused and making sure that there’s dedicated education and information going into this space happened during the pandemic, when it was very clear that there was going to be a reduction in people getting their cancer screenings, a reduction in people going and seeing their care providers and getting routine health care. We also know that that issue, and people missing their routine screenings was happening way before the pandemic. And it’s happening for many reasons other than because of the pandemic. So, when we started, we started collecting data to find out exactly what was happening. Why are people missing their routine screenings? What do we need to do to really make change here? And there was really fantastic information that we could use, and making sure that we’re addressing this effectively within, at the community level. And so that’s why Early Detection = Better Outcomes was born.

Susanna 06:34
So this is an issue which affects everybody who is likely listening to this podcast.

Jody 06:52
And that’s right. And what we found through our survey is that seven in 10 Americans are behind on at least one routine screening. So seven in 10. That’s the vast majority of people are behind on at least one routine screening and the number one reason why people cited as being behind and this is across all demographics was they simply didn’t know they needed to be screened. So we have a lot of work to do.

Susanna 07:20
And we all know that early detection does equal better outcomes. So that’s really terrific. Jody, what do you think the common myths, what do you think some of the common misconceptions or barriers that people face when it comes to cancer screening and early detection? And how are you addressing these changes through your work?

Jody Hoyos 07:41
The barriers are interesting. And that’s, that’s why it is so important to collect data, and then to actually use the data. I mean, all of us are seeing data all over the place, but then what actually happens with it? So there’s a couple of interesting findings that came out of the work that we did. One was that, on the misconception side, one was that, that people reported that they weren’t getting their screenings because they didn’t have a family history of cancer, which we hear a lot about family history. Family history is important. It is important to know if you have access to that information and to share that with your provider if you have that information. However, the vast majority of people that get cancer do not have a family history of cancer. About 10% of cancers are considered hereditary. So that’s a barrier you know, for not, you know, I’ve got my Zoom filter up so high, I don’t think anyone can see it. But there’s, I have a big scar right here right now. I just went in for my routine screening, skin cancer screening, because the team here puts out so much information on making sure we had skin cancer screenings. I went, I had a little skin’s cancer spot. Basal cell carcinoma, they took that off. And what I, what I heard, even from the provider when I got there is oh, well, you don’t have any family history of skin cancer. But that didn’t matter. I mean, you know, that’s, that can be the harm of the misconceptions that we need to pay attention to. The second one is that people think they don’t need to be screened if they don’t have any signs or symptoms. So if they’re feeling well, no need to get screened. I feel great. I’m not going to go in for my appointment. So those are two that we make sure and emphasize in all of our messaging that… um, that people go in and get their screenings, regardless of family history. And when you’re feeling well. That is the time to get your cancer screening.

Susanna 09:51
Exactly. Exactly. And I interestingly, I’m one of those 10% of people who I have the BRCA gene, so my cancer was actually hereditary, and I still I had the means to do it. But I still wasn’t getting regular cancer screenings, so that let that be a lesson to all of us. Um, the campaign emphasizes the importance of routine cancer screening tests. Can you discuss the standard of care cancer screenings that exist today and we’ve talked a little bit already about why regular cancer scanning is essential.

Jody Hoyos 10:28
Yeah, so the standard of care screenings are really the, it emphasizes that point of going in and getting screened before signs or symptoms. So you want to do that when you’re feeling well, and those are routine screenings that can either be guideline recommended or available. So we have five guideline recommended cancer screenings at this point. We have – and even I have a hard time remembering these. So we have breast, we have cervical cancer screening, lung cancer screening, colorectal cancer screening, and prostate cancer screening. So those are guideline recommended. So you know those recommendations on when you start, how often you should be getting screened. There are also screenings available for oral cancer, which is what should be happening when you’re at the dentist office, skin cancer screening and testicular cancer. So, you know, it’s considering there are hundreds of types of cancers, we don’t have a lot of routine cancer screenings, although it can feel like you do when you having to make appointments for yourself or your family. I also want to mention when we’re talking about standard of care – vaccinations, because there are two vaccinations that we don’t want to forget about when we talk about routine medical care to prevent cancer. One is the human papilloma virus vaccination. So that can prevent up to five types of cancers. And then the hepatitis B vaccine, which hepatitis B is strongly correlated to liver cancer. So those are vaccines people want to make sure that they’re aware of.

Susanna 12:12
Oh, great. Thank you so much for that reminder, Jody. We really need to make sure to keep up with our vaccinations. One of the things that I wanted to talk to you about was how multi-cancer early detection testing aligns with your broader mission of early cancer detection.

Jody Hoyos 12:29
Yeah, it’s a great question. So the multi-cancer early detection tests are really of huge interest to us at the Prevent Cancer Foundation. It is our, our whole purpose is to make sure that people can live longer, healthier lives, through the prevention or early detection of cancer. And you and I talked about that we don’t have routine screenings, we don’t have screenings available for all the cancers. In fact, we have over, about 70% of cancer deaths are due to cancers that you do, that we don’t have a routine cancer screening for. So that’s a huge number of cancers and really suffering for people and their families. Multi-cancer…

Susanna 13:18
Including my cancer, ovarian cancer, which is the silent killer, we don’t have any sort of screening for it.

Jody Hoyos 13:25
Exactly right. And it’s, frightening for people. Having an opportunity to detect those cancers earlier is a big deal. And so we as a foundation, who is entirely focused on this space, think it’s a very big deal and a very big opportunity. So it fits very nicely in our mission. And especially because we don’t have a single tumor type or body part that we focus on. We are whole person. And again, tests like this, where you’re able to address more than one cancer, detect more than one cancer at once is very much in line with where we think the future of healthcare is going.

Susanna 14:05
Right, yes. And just a point of clarification, multi-cancer early detection tests detect a cancer signal, as in the name of this podcast, and it lets us know that we need to go for a diagnostic workup. And you know, full disclosure to our audience. I am a sustaining board member of the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Having been diagnosed with late stage ovarian cancer, the idea of early cancer detection and testing – it was so important. I wanted to join this mission. I had a family history of cancer and as I said earlier, I wasn’t getting any sort of regular screening and was diagnosed with a late stage cancer, which I’m very, very lucky to be sitting in this chair and to have survived and to be cancer free.

Jody Hoyos 14:55
That’s right. And we’re Yeah, we’re very grateful for that. I mean, it’s, because those stories are what help drive change.

Susanna 15:04
Right. Equal opportunity is such an important aspect. So can you tell me a little bit about how the Prevent Cancer Foundation collaborates with health care professionals, advocacy groups, and communities to promote early cancer detection awareness and encourage screening participation?

Jody Hoyos 15:24
That’s a big part of what we do. So one of our strengths is as a convener, because we, because we represent so many cancer types, and we’re looking at this space where there’s tremendous innovation happening right now. We have to partner. And in order for anything that we do to benefit the actual people or public, we have to make sure that we partner there too. So there’s many different ways we do that. It’s through different coalition’s that we’re on. It’s when we are convening groups, or we’re convening meetings that we’re pulling together, people from all of those different stakeholder groups you mentioned, particularly at the community level, providers, the people who would be impacted by anything by any changes that were made, legislators. So convening groups and being a part of coalitions and activities that are multi, multi stakeholder groups is a big part of how we do our work.

Susanna 16:28
Right, great. What else are you focused on, on getting done and what else is coming up this year for the Prevent Cancer Foundation?

Jody Hoyos 16:38
I feel nervous even beginning this laundry list. But there are a couple of things I think that might be interesting for people. On September 11, we’re hosting our dialogue conference, it’ll be virtual, on innovations and what’s happening with prostate cancer screening. It’s free to attend, it is virtual. So if anyone has an interest in that in the prostate cancer screening space that they should register and take the time to do that. They also get continuing education credit, if that’s important. And then as you know, on September 25, we have our big beautiful, annual gala at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. So we’re very much looking forward to that.

Susanna 17:28
And yes, I am looking forward to it as well. I am one of the chairs of that dinner, as well as my friend Jennifer Griffin from Fox News. And we are working really hard to get participation with that event.

Jody Hoyos 17:41
Yeah, it’s a lot of fun. And it’s you know, it’s obviously for a great cause. But I think in this space, it is important for people. It can be heavy. I mean, there’s a lot of very, what we’re doing is serious, and we take it very seriously. And there’s also a need for us to come together as a community. The gala represents people from all different industries, many people in the cancer space, and it’s really heartening to see people come together and say “we’re in, we think this is important.” And so that’s what the night is all about. Just so everyone knows we are launching next week our community grants cycle. So for those people doing work at the community level, who could use some support in doing that, who are actively trying to get people in for cancer screenings, we will be issuing, I think it should be later on this week, grant application process. And it will be themed around patient navigation and screening. So if that’s you take a look at the at the application that we’ll be posting.

Susanna 18:51
Great. So how can individuals, how can people who are listening to this podcast, how can they get involved with the mission of Prevent Cancer and with the efforts to promote early cancer detection and improve outcomes? What can individuals do?

Jody Hoyos 19:00
I would reach out, go to preventcancer.org. Take a look at the resources we have. So we have customizable screening charts that people can print out and take with them. We have a quiz people can take and find out exactly what they should be doing. That’s a fun way to share information. We have the ability of people to schedule doctor’s appointments right there on our website. Take a look what we have and share it. Make sure you share it with your friends and family. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us, and myself included, if you have ideas. If you want to be involved, if you’re interested in a board position, you’re interested in being a grant reviewer, community grants applicant, talk to us. I mean, that’s a big part of how we get better. And we want to hear from you, so. And of course donate, that is always, always welcome and always helpful to have as well.

Susanna 20:05
Terrific. Well, you have a very important mission and you’re doing an incredible job. And I’m so proud to be a sustaining board member of the Prevent Cancer Foundation. And not only have I enjoyed work working towards helping with the mission, but I’ve also learned a tremendous amount. And I’m so grateful for that. So thank you for joining us today, Jody.

Jody Hoyos 20:31
Thank you very much, Susanna.

Susanna 20:33
You are so welcome. This is The Cancer SIGNAL presented by GRAIL. I’m your host Susanna Quinn. Please subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss an episode. See you next month.

Voiceover 20:46
The Galleri test is prescription only. The Galleri test is recommended for use in adults with an elevated risk for cancer, such as those age 50 or older. It is not recommended for individuals who are pregnant, 21 years or younger, or undergoing active cancer treatment. Galleri should be used in addition to routine cancer screening. Galleri does not detect a signal for all cancers. False positive and false negative results do occur.

For more information, including Important Safety Information, please visit Galleri.com.

Important Safety Information
The Galleri test is recommended for use in adults with an elevated risk for cancer, such as those aged 50 or older. The Galleri test does not detect all cancers and should be used in addition to routine cancer screening tests recommended by a healthcare provider. Galleri is intended to detect cancer signals and predict where in the body the cancer signal is located. Use of Galleri is not recommended in individuals who are pregnant, 21 years old or younger, or undergoing active cancer treatment. Results should be interpreted by a healthcare provider in the context of medical history, clinical signs and symptoms. A test result of “No Cancer Signal Detected” does not rule out cancer. A test result of “Cancer Signal Detected” requires confirmatory diagnostic evaluation by medically established procedures (e.g. imaging) to confirm cancer.

If cancer is not confirmed with further testing, it could mean that cancer is not present or testing was insufficient to detect cancer, including due to the cancer being located in a different part of the body. False-positive (a cancer signal detected when cancer is not present) and false-negative (a cancer signal not detected when cancer is present) test results do occur. Rx only.

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GRAIL’s clinical laboratory is certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) and accredited by the College of American Pathologists (CAP). The Galleri test was developed, and its performance characteristics were determined by GRAIL. The Galleri test has not been cleared or approved by the Food and Drug Administration. GRAIL’s clinical laboratory is regulated under CLIA to perform high complexity testing. The Galleri test is intended for clinical purposes.