Cancer’s Final Frontiers: Prevention and a Cure this week on Full Frame

Full Frame

Dr. Eric Finzi's art

Full Frame this week looks at ground-breaking efforts in the fight against cancer.

Last year there were an estimated 1,600,000 new cancer cases diagnosed and 585,720 cancer deaths in the United States. The disease remains the second most common cause of death in the United States, and accounts for 1 of every 4 deaths.  And while more deaths are being prevented each year due to detection and treatment, the war against the disease has still not been won. This week’s episode of Full Frame takes a look at cancer and various methods of combating the disease. Fran 6

Tune into Full Frame on CCTV America at 7:00 PM EDT on Saturday, May 9, 2015. Or watch the live stream of the program here.

Fran Drescher: Prevention is the Best Cure

Fran Drescher is known worldwide for her portrayal of Fran Fine, the lead character (with a very distinctive voice) on the hit television series The Nanny.

In addition to her beloved role, Drescher has also taken on cancer, and won. Fifteen years ago, she started her battle with uterine cancer. After originally being misdiagnosed, it took two years for her to get the correct diagnoses and treatment. Drescher channeled her anger and feelings of betrayal – by her body and the medical community – into a healing process. In her New York Times bestselling book, Cancer Schmancer, Drescher describes how she battled cancer and took control of her health and her life.

Drescher believes that a doctor’s diagnosis is not infallible, that they are not “all-knowing” sages, and that their diagnoses need to be challenged. She is the founder of the Cancer Schmancer Foundation, which advocates shifting the movement from searching for a cancer cure to prevention and early detection.

Drescher shares her experiences in the acting world and her advocacy for cancer prevention and detection with Mike Walter on this week’s Full Frame.

Follow Fran Drescher on Twitter: @frandrescher

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Full Frame Panel: Cancer-fighting Crusaders

Our panel guests this week each contribute to cancer research in their own way.  One raises money, one is an innovator and one of them is benefiting from a new, developing treatment.

Vaccine Panel 2Dr. Brian Czerniecki, the Rhodes-Harrington Professor in Surgical Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania, has developed a revolutionary experimental breast cancer vaccine that enables a patient’s own white blood cells to fight cancer within the body.

Vaccine Panel 1Uschi Keszler is a former Olympic-athlete-turned-Olympic-figure-skating-coach and a two-time cancer survivor. She is also founder of Pennies in Action, a non-profit that has raised over $1 million for breast cancer research. She was introduced to Dr. Czerniecki during her treatment and, despite not qualifying as a candidate for the vaccine; she has raised funds for his research and treatments.

Vaccine Panel 3Joining them is one of Dr. Czerniecki’s patients, Melissa Nicholas. She is currently being treated in one of his vaccine trials. She gives her perspective as a cancer patient and how medicine and treatment for the disease has improved vastly.

All three crusades sat down with Mike Walter to discuss their efforts in the continuing battle against cancer.

Follow Uschi Keszler on Twitter: @ukeszler, @ukeszler1

Follow Pennies in Action on Twitter: @Penniesinaction


Cancer Treatments: One Size Does Not Fit All

For people with life threatening diseases, getting the right treatment at the right time could be the difference between life and death. No one knows this better than Dr. Robert Nagourney.

Dr. Nagourney is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Medical Oncology and Hematology as well as an instructor of Pharmacology at the University of California, Irvine’s School of Medicine. He founded Rational Therapeutics and has pioneered personalized cancer therapy using “functional profiling”, which gives each patient a unique treatment road map.

Dr. Nagourney authored the much talked about Outliving Cancer: The Better, Smarter Way to Treat Your Cancer where he describes his reasoning for this rogue approach to cancer medicine.

Dr. Nagourney says that diagnosis and treatment of cancer are not always accurate and can cause more harm than good if not implemented properly.  The failure rate of conventional treatments motivated him to innovate better solutions.

Dr. Robert Nagourney joined Mike Walters in the studio to discuss individual treatment for cancer patients and why he encourages everyone to always question conventional wisdom.

Follow Dr. Nagourney on Twitter: @RobertNagourney

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Full Frame Close-Up: A Modern Renaissance Man

Dr. Eric Finzi is a board certified dermasurgeon who spends his free-time creating beautiful works of art. For Dr. Finzi, his two passions are merely tools for making a difference in people’s lives.

On this week’s Close-Up, we visit Dr. Finzi at his medical practice, as well as his very unique art studio, to get a glimpse of how two very different worlds can collide to create meaningful works of lasting beauty.

Follow Dr. Finzi on Twitter: @ericfinzi

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