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Cancers including leukemia,

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lymphoma,

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and myeloma make them about 10% of all new cancer diagnosis.

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That's according to the National Foundation for Cancer Research,

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and that is today's Health Watch.

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Yeah,

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so here with us today is Dr. Tara Gregory,

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hematologist,

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oncologist and medical director at the Colorado Blood Cancer Institute.

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We are so excited that you're here with us today.

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Thank you so much for having me.

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I really appreciate it.

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Absolutely!

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Well,

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first of all,

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how is blood cancer different than other cancers?

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Blood cancer is very different than other cancers in

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terms of the way that we screen for it.

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First of all,

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many cancers you have routine screening like colonoscopies,

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mammograms,

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as you know,

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blood cancer is one of those insidious 

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diseases.

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Either people are diagnosed just happenstance by

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seeing their primary care doctor,

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getting some blood count,

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something looks a little bit off,

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or they can become very ill and end up in an emergency room in an urgent care center.

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Yeah,

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talk about those symptoms real quick.

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What are the symptoms that people can look out

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for and are there any early warning signs?

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Sure,

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definitely. I think in blood cancer it's important to know your body

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how you normally

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feel. We're specifically looking at people who are losing a lot of weight rapidly,

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20 

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pounds without trying in a month.

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It 

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can be severe sweats and I know a lot of us sweat at 

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night.

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However,

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we're talking about drenching sweats,

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changing our clothes,

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changing the 

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sheets,

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those are some of the big things.

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Fatigue,

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not being able to get out and do the things that you enjoy,

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or even,

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you know,

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used to be able to mow the yard,

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no problem,

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have to do that and go in and take a nap.

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Okay,

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great,

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yeah,

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it's great information.

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What's 

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the treatment for those who have blood cancers and what's the survival rate?

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Our treatments have

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just been exploding over the last couple of years.

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What I do today is not what I did 2 years ago,

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and 

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each of those different cancers that

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you mentioned have very specific different treatments.

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I would see the newest thing that we're doing in blood cancer

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is that we're looking at how to involve own immune systems

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and recognizing our cancers and fighting them off.

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And so, we're calling that immune effector cell therapy,

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and that's become one of the most

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high growth areas in treatment right now.

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Now for those that have been diagnosed or

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perhaps people that want to prevent this from happening,

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is there may be like a recommended diet that people

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can use or for even for treatments?

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That's a great question.

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Right now we have about 1.5 million patients in the

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United States living with some form of blood cancer,

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either 

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active or in remission.

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What we do know in terms of diet,

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both 

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for prevention and then for

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maintaining your health

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while 

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you're in treatment is as close as you can get to the Mediterranean diet.

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So, rotating proteins,

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lean proteins,

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whole 

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grains,

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really 

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moderate or reduced 

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on

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wine intake,

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that 

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sort of thing.

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Very interesting.

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Where 

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can we find more information about blood cancers?

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The Leukemia Lymphoma Society has a fantastic website.

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They 

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also have a program where they can connect patients

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with 

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other patients who have gone through treatments similar to

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what they'll go through and match them up together

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so that they have that personal resource as well.

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Very insightful,

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Dr. Gregory.

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Thank you so much for joining us.

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Thanks so much for having me.

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I appreciate it.

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Of course.

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And if you want to see this interview or other Health Watch interviews,

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you could always go to our website CBSCOLORADO.com.

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We'll be right back.