The For Your Health News Podcast explores the issues shaping health and healthcare in communities across the United States. Through conversations with experts, advocates, researchers, policymakers, and community leaders, the podcast breaks down complex health topics, examines barriers to health access, and shares evidence-based insights and solutions that put people first.
In this episode of the For Your Health News Podcast, Dr. Tom Beer, Chief Medical Officer of Multi-Cancer Early Detection at Exact Sciences, discusses advances in cancer screening and why detecting cancer earlier can make an important difference for patients.
Dr. Beer shares insights into the mission of Exact Sciences and discusses innovations that have helped change the landscape of cancer screening, including the Cologuard screening test.
The conversation explores why early detection matters, the screening tests currently available, and the importance of ensuring that new cancer detection technologies are accessible to communities across the country.
The episode highlights how continued innovation in screening can support earlier diagnosis and expand opportunities for patients to benefit from advances in cancer care.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn: • How Exact Sciences approaches cancer screening and early detection • What the Cologuard screening test is • Why detecting cancer earlier is important • What existing cancer screening options can offer patients • How innovation is changing the cancer screening landscape • Why expanding health access to early-detection technologies matters
Learn more about Exact Sciences: exactsciences.com
Learn more about NMQF’s Cancer Stage Shifting Initiative: shiftcancer.org
Learn more about the National Minority Quality Forum: nmqf.org
Read more health news: fyh.news
SPEAKER_00
Hi everyone, this is Queen Star Akron, the guest host today for your For Your Health News podcast. We are at the Cancer Care Equity Summit here in Washington, D.C. And we have a good group of guests that we are interviewing today to learn more about this important work. And so, first up, he was very kind to me to be the first guest of this podcast. So we have to give him a special shout out for that. Dr. Tom Baer. Thank you so much for being here with us. Would love to know more about why it was important for your organization to be here and then also learn more about the work that you do in Oregon.
SPEAKER_01
Thank you very much for having me. It's a real pleasure to be here. I work as Chief Medical Officer for Multi-Cancer Early Detection at Exact Sciences Corporation. And at Exact Sciences, we're really laser focused on early detection of cancer, as well as other cancer diagnostics designed to help us estimate risk of cancer, select therapy, monitor disease, and so on and so forth. But the flagship product is Colagard, which is an at-home stool-based colorectal cancer screening test that's really made it possible for people to access colorectal cancer screening right in their home and get answers efficiently and effectively. So we're very passionate about cancer early detection. We know there's work to be done on equal access and equity there, and we're very committed to it and happy to be partnering with NMQF to do that work.
SPEAKER_00
And just on that, where can people find ColGuards if they're looking for access to that?
SPEAKER_01
So COLGARD is uh is offered by prescription. So folks need to talk to their healthcare provider, doctor, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, get a prescription, and then the test arrives at home via UPS and is returned from the home. We have a lot of patient support to enable that, including support in 240 languages. So we're really working hard to make it accessible.
SPEAKER_00
Wow, I love that. And speaking of access and cancer, early cancer screenings, you talked a lot during the press conference about how that's an important part of bridging the equity gaps in health. And so would love to learn more about why early detection and cancer screenings are so important. What should people know about it?
SPEAKER_01
Well, uh we know that cancer outcomes when cancer is detected early are much better. For many cancers, that is, when cure is within reach, treatments are more effective, less toxic. So picking cancer up early is a critical step to reducing the burden of cancer. Right now, there are four cancers for which we have proven recommended cancer screening tests that cervical cancer, lung cancer, and smokers, breast cancer, and colorectal cancer. And so it's critically important that people are aware of those and take advantage of those tests when they're appropriate for them. At Exact Sciences, we're also working on new cancer screening tests that we hope will enable us to detect multiple cancers simultaneously with a single test and extend the reach of screening beyond those four common cancers.
SPEAKER_00
And for folks who want screenings for other types of cancers, how how can they find information about that? Is there even information about that?
SPEAKER_01
So for folks at average risk, those are the four cancers for which screening is routinely available and recommended. There's also uh testing for prostate cancer, uh, and that is available. Um it requires a discussion with one's healthcare provider about both risks and benefits to decide uh whether to pursue it or not, but but it is available. Beyond that, we just don't have screening tests for many of the common cancers. So we we live in a world today where two-thirds of cancers and two-thirds of cancer deaths occur due to cancers for which no screening tests are routinely available. That's what we're focused on at Exact Sciences.
SPEAKER_00
I love that. And so we both, I always like to leave guests with a fun question. We're both, we just found out right before here that we're both Beltway kids. You grew you grew up in Rockville, I grew up in Montgomery County. What was your favorite part about growing up in this area?
SPEAKER_01
Uh, you know, we lived close by to Congressional Plaza, and um going to this lovely outdoor shopping mall that has survived and thrived to this day was a favorite activity of mine. That and playing basketball in the at the park.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for making the time. I'm so glad that we were able to learn more about the work that Exact Sciences is doing, and thank you so much for your work in fighting for cancer equity across the nation and across the world. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01
It's my pleasure and an honor to be with you today. Have a good one. Thank you.
