The Cancer History Project

About The Cancer History Project

A podcast of oral histories and interviews with the people who have shaped oncology as we know it. The Cancer History Project is an initiative by The Cancer Letter, oncology's longest-running news publication. The Cancer History Project’s archives are available online at CancerHistoryProject.com.

Publisher

Cancer History Project

Category

health & fitness

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

9 Feb 2022

Latest episode

30 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

57 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   30 Oct 2026

   Facing stage 4 cholangiocarcinoma, Keaton Herzer moved mountains to take off-label therapy, get a transplant

   When 34-year-old Keaton Herzer was diagnosed with cholangiocarcinoma, a rare bile duct cancer, he didn’t want to settle for anything less than a cure. “I remember so vividly, the surgeon said, ‘This is actually a very good treatment, we've seen people live up to five years with this device,’” Herzer recalled. “And I remember thinking, ‘Man, you're saying that to me like it's a good thing? I'm supposed to be happy about five years? I'm hoping for 40 more years or more.’” He had a 16-month-old little boy and didn’t want him growing up without a father. Throughout his treatment, he was given bad news time and time again: your tumors aren’t shrinking; this drug is not covered by insurance; you are not a candidate for a liver transplant. But he didn’t take no for an answer. When chemo wasn’t working, he found a treatment that targeted his mutation. He fired his oncologist after repeatedly feeling dismissed and unseen. He challenged insurance denials. “[My wife and I] spent probably four hours or more on the phone with insurance every day for a month,” Herzer said. “Do I wait or do I deplete my entire life savings and pay for these infusions out-of-pocket? I don't want to wait because time is not on my side with this cancer. Anytime I spend waiting, it could mean my cancer grows, it spreads, and then a transplant is off the table completely. “We drained our savings, we paid out of pocket.” One battle after another, Herzer fiercely advocated for himself. Today, Herzer is a liver transplant recipient with no evidence of disease. His son is now 3. In this episode of The Cancer History Project Podcast, Deborah Doroshow, associate professor of medicine at Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai, sits down with survivor Keaton Herzer in honor of cholangiocarcinoma awareness month. The Cancer History Project Podcast is sponsored by City of Hope, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. A transcript of this podcast is available, along with an archive of related articles, on the Cancer History Project website: https://cancerhistoryproject.com/article/keaton-herzer-cholangiocarcinoma/

2. 

   11 Sept 2026

   Michael Crane on how 9/11 first responders have fought their lung cancer risk—by stopping smoking

   Michael A. Crane, the medical director of the World Trade Center Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence at Mount Sinai, thought he would be seeing a lot of cases of lung cancer coming into his clinic. “My greatest concern was that they were gonna get lung cancer,” Crane said. He remembers treating 9/11 first responders during the immediate recovery. Workers would put on a mask and the filter would clog up within 30 minutes. The air was thick and impossible to breathe. But 25 years later, an uptick in lung cancer hasn’t really panned out in the data—so far. “Fingers crossed, fingers crossed, it might be off the table,” he said. “But of course, there's no guarantees in life, as in anything else.” In this episode of the Cancer History Project podcast, reporter Sara Willa Ernst sits down with Michael Crane to talk about the surprising twists and turns of treating 9/11 first responders over the past 25 years. He also offers his theory behind why the incidence of lung cancer didn’t spike as expected—an achievement, perhaps one of Crane’s proudest, that the program was able to accomplish. The WTC Health Program was able to reduce smoking among first responders from 20% to just 3%, according to Mount Sinai data. “When I die, and God asks me: ‘What did you do with your life?’ I'm gonna give them that statistic and demand to get into the doors. ‘Open the doors, buddy! Look what I did here,’” Crane said. The Cancer History Project Podcast is sponsored by City of Hope, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. A transcript of this podcast is available, along with an archive of related articles, on the Cancer History Project website:  https://cancerhistoryproject.com/article/michael-crane-911/  (https://cancerhistoryproject.com/?p=46656)

3. 

   31 Aug 2026

   Fran Visco tells the story of NBCC: “Women have declared war on breast cancer”

   Fran Visco, president of The National Breast Cancer Coalition, sat down with Paul Goldberg, editor and publisher of The Cancer Letter for a special armchair discussion at the NBCC Advocate Leadership Summit in 2022. They discuss the history of NBCC and breast cancer activism, including one of the organization’s top accomplishments: the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program. This came after the “$300 Million More” campaign in 1992, which drew in advocates from all across the country. “We need to do for breast cancer what the AIDS activists are doing for AIDS. Maybe we should all take out our prosthesis and march topless to Congress,” Fran Visco recalled co-founder Susan Love saying in the early days of creating NBCC. “We were really inspired by the AIDS activists.”In the eyes of Visco and her fellow activists, NBCC had waged “war” against breast cancer. “When this administration decided to wage a war, you found $7.5 billion to fund it,” Visco said in a 1992 address to Congress. “Women have declared war on breast cancer and you had better find a way to fund that war.“We will no longer be passive. We will no longer be polite. We can no longer afford to wait while Congress gets around to significant decent funding for breast cancer. We implore you. You must find a way to appropriate the additional $300 million for breast cancer research now. We can accept no less.”The Cancer History Project Podcast is sponsored by City of Hope, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.A transcript of this conversation, along with an archive of related content, is available on the Cancer History Project: https://cancerhistoryproject.com/article/fran-visco-tells-the-story-of-nbcc/

Who has been a guest on The Cancer History Project

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Richard Pazdur
• Mary Pazdur
• Melvin J Silverstein

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 25 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

26

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

60