The Cancer Letter

About The Cancer Letter

The Cancer Letter, an independent weekly news publication, has been the leading source for information on the issues that shape oncology since 1973. With a dedicated audience of oncology’s leaders, The Cancer Letter stays on top of breaking news and advances in oncology, providing authoritative, award-winning coverage of the development of cancer therapies, drug regulation, legislation, cancer research funding, health care finance, and public health. This weekly podcast features interviews, discussions, and more to dig deep into the issues that shape oncology.

Publisher

The Cancer Letter

Category

health & fitness

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

12 Feb 2025

Latest episode

28 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

116 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   28 Oct 2026

   Cancer breakthroughs hit the clinic, cancer policy hits the ballot box

   In this episode of The Cancer Letter Podcast, Paul Goldberg, editor and publisher of The Cancer Letter, and Jacquelyn Cobb, managing editor, discuss promising developments in cancer research and the growing prominence of cancer as an election issue in Iowa. Jaqcuelyn’s conversation with Kevan Shokat, the pioneering chemist whose work helped transform the once undruggable KRAS protein into a therapeutic target, took the stage in this episode. “[Kevan Shokat] was very much like a celebrity to me. He made KRAS druggable… He made the undruggable druggable, so it was this big exciting thing. And then I talked to him, and it was such a great, awesome, cool conversation,” Jacquelyn said. “So, I'll dive into more details about that, but he won the [Stephenson] prize, and so that basically gave me an excuse to give a roundup of what the state of RAS, KRAS specifically, research is looking like right now, which is blown up ever since daraxonrasib had the really great results.” It was when Shokat and his team looked at the KRAS problem as a chemistry problem rather than a biology problem, they were able to crack the code. “He has a really cool quote there where he's like, ‘Once we figured out that it was a chemistry problem, I knew it was going to work. We just had to figure out how,’” Jacquelyn said. Meanwhile, cancer is becoming an increasingly prominent political issue. Iowa has ranked second in the nation for new cancer cases for three consecutive years, and incidences are rising faster than in any other state, and politicians and policymakers take notice. “It's kind of that political cliche, as Iowa goes, so goes the nation,” Paul said. “Unfortunately, it's not true when it comes to cancer statistics, because as national cancer numbers are receding slowly, Iowas are increasing for whatever reason. And the interesting story here is that cancer suddenly became a huge political issue. It's the first question asked at political debates during the midterms, and that's really the story. What does it mean? People care about oncology, they do. Well, nationally, look, the administration tried to cut NIH budget severely, including NCI budget, and it failed, and it seems to have kind of recognized its failure, so perhaps hands off.” Jacquelyn and Paul examine how cancer is shaping electoral conversations in Iowa, and what that could mean for cancer policy.

2. 

   21 Oct 2026

   As USPSTF falters and FDA ignores clinical benefit, “the idea that screening is always good is probably gaining traction right now”

   With the pope’s lung cancer diagnosis jumpstarting conversations about lung cancer screening, and the constant buzz surrounding multi-cancer detection tests, evidence-based evaluation of screening tests is more important than ever, Paul Goldberg, editor and publisher of The Cancer Letter, and Jacquelyn Cobb, managing editor, discussed in this episode of The Cancer Letter Podcast. “This idea that screening is always good is probably gaining traction right now for the lack of places that can evaluate these tests,” Paul said. “If you trust FDA on this, well, FDA is not going to tell you if you're going to benefit, if you stand to benefit. NCI will tell you—if NCI has the resources to do this trial, which it should. We're not entitled to opinions on many issues, but a clinical trial is better than no clinical trial.” Also, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is currently at risk of losing the expertise, evidence-review infrastructure, and institutional culture that has made it a trusted model for evidence-based medicine. “Right now the task force is in the process of being destroyed,” David Ransohoff, a gastroenterologist and clinical epidemiologist in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at University of North Carolina School of Medicine, said in a conversation with The Cancer Letter published in last week’s issue. “And if we lose the task force, we lose an important institution that was the exemplar of evidence-based medicine.” Ransohoff predicts a “Wild West” era without evidence-based screening guidelines. “Right now, it's not the Wild West,” Paul said. “We're still in the prairies of the Midwest and the Wild West comes a little bit later. We're in the cornfields of Iowa. The Wild West is when you cross the Mississippi. “So, we're crossing the Mississippi.” Stories mentioned in this podcast include: VCU’s Baskin and UNC’s Ferris weigh oncology’s looming dilemma—MCDs Center directors are strategizing for likely FDA approval of GRAIL’s Galleri  (https://cancerletter.com/podcastc/20261016_1/) As trust in USPSTF erodes, cancer screening is in peril David Ransohoff predicts a “Wild West” era without evidence-based screening guidelines  (https://cancerletter.com/conversation-with-the-cancer-letter/20261016_2/) Rachna Shroff, accomplished GI oncologist and “tireless mentor,” dies at 47 Her endowed award will live on  (https://cancerletter.com/obituary/20261016_3/) The lung cancer diagnosis of Pope Leo—believed to be a never-smoker—sparks conversations around screening (https://cancerletter.com/news-analysis/20261016_4/) A transcript of this podcast is available: https://cancerletter.com/podcastc/20261021-uspstf/ (https://cancerletter.com/podcastc/20261021-uspstf/)

3. 

   16 Oct 2026

   The Directors: VCU’s Baskin and UNC’s Ferris weigh oncology’s looming dilemma—MCDs

   As the Galleri test is advancing toward becoming the first multi-cancer detection test to secure FDA approval, cancer care providers are coming up with strategies for using these tests responsibly. How will cancer centers counsel patients who walk through the doors with MCD test results? Under what circumstances can cancer physicians rely on this technology? What role will they play in determining the potential of these tests to affect health outcomes? These burning questions were front and center on the October episode of The Directors, a monthly series on The Cancer Letter Podcast which focuses on the problems that keep directors of cancer centers up at night. “I think there’s room for us to have some caution, because we still don’t know what [a Galleri result] is actually saying,” Monica L. Baskin, director of VCU Massey Cancer Center, said in the October episode of The Directors. “It sort of signals that something is there, but the key is really in the follow-up. How can we really go in and have the diagnostics to understand?” Baskin appeared on The Directors with Robert L. Ferris, executive director of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and chief of Oncology Clinical Services for UNC Health. The podcast is moderated by Paul Goldberg, editor and publisher of The Cancer Letter and sponsored by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. VCU and UNC are among the sites of the NCI Vanguard trial, which seeks to gauge the impact of the Avantect and Shield tests (not the Galleri test) and the patient benefit they can provide. The tests are called alternatively the multicancer detection tests—called MCDs for short—or multicancer early detection tests—or MCEDs. Read more and access the full transcript: https://cancerletter.com/podcastc/20261016_1/ (https://cancerletter.com/podcastc/20261016_1/)

Who has been a guest on The Cancer Letter

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

• Nancy Goodman
• Otis Brawley
• Gardiner Harris
• Roy S Herbst
• Ellen Sigal

Reach and audience

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

YouTube views

53,710

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

6 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 53 / 100

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

Quality

62

Social presence

0

YouTube

76

Engagement

32

Contact The Cancer Letter

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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