SARC's Podcast SARCTalk Continues to Inform and Inspire the Sarcoma Community
ANN ARBOR, Mich., May 8, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The Sarcoma Alliance for Research through Collaboration (SARC) proudly celebrates the ongoing success of its groundbreaking podcast, SARCTalk. This vital platform is dedicated to advancing knowledge, raising awareness, and promoting research in the fight against sarcoma. With multiple engaging seasons, SARCTalk has become a trusted resource for patients, caregivers, researchers, and medical professionals seeking the latest insights into sarcoma diagnosis, treatment, and innovation.
SARCTalk brings together leading oncologists, researchers, patient advocates, and survivors to discuss key topics ranging from groundbreaking clinical trials and emerging therapies to the personal journeys of those affected by sarcoma. 'SARCTalk plays a vital role in bridging the gap between scientific research and patient outcomes by fostering open dialogue and sharing sarcoma experts' knowledge with both lay and professional audiences,' said Scott Okuno MD, originator and host of SARCTalk and Chief Medical Officer of SARC. Dr. Okuno is a medical oncologist at Mayo Clinic.
Each season of SARCTalk has expanded its impact, covering diverse topics such as:
Cutting-edge research and clinical trials
Patient and survivor stories of resilience
Advances in precision medicine and immunotherapy
The role of advocacy in driving change
Expert guidance on treatment options and supportive care
Mentorship and career development
'We created SARCTalk to bring the latest advancements in sarcoma research directly to those who need it most,' said Steven Young, President and CEO at SARC. 'The response has been incredible, and it's clear that this platform is helping to educate, empower, and connect the sarcoma community like never before.'
Listeners can tune in to SARCTalk (for audio only) on Spotify & Apple Podcast and (plus video) YouTube & SARC's website https://sarctrials.org/resources/sarc-podcast. Stay connected with SARC for the latest sarcoma research and advocacy updates at https://sarctrials.org/.
About SARC
SARC (Sarcoma Alliance for Research Through Collaboration) is a US-based, non-profit public charity sarcoma research consortium solely dedicated to fostering progress in the prevention and treatment of sarcoma to improve patient outcomes and ultimately find a cure.
SARC was formed in 2003 by the sarcoma research community to bring together the best cancer centers in the world supported by centralized infrastructure for the conduct of multi-institutional collaborative sarcoma research.
SARC has successfully established itself as a leader in providing a unified platform for sarcoma experts to collaborate and fast-track more dozens of Phase I-III clinical trials (with SARC as regulatory sponsor) across close to 100 medical centers with specialized sarcoma programs in the United States and globally.
What Is Sarcoma?
Sarcomas are cancers of the bony skeleton (the skull, vertebrae, ribs, and extremities), and the so-called soft tissues, including muscle and fat. Sarcomas are disproportionately common in children and young adults but occur at all ages. There are many different types of sarcomas, leading to diagnostic and therapeutic challenges. SARC and our collaborators are working to advance the science and treatment of sarcomas.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
4 hours ago
- The Star
Is all of this self-monitoring making us paranoid?
Sarah Hills was worried about her heart. Her Oura Ring, a wearable device that tracks users' biometric data, including body temperature, heart rate and blood oxygen levels, was telling her something might be off. The ring provides some of its data in the form of scores, like a 'readiness' score that uses 'sleep quality, body signals, and activity levels to show how prepared you are to take on the day', according to Oura. Since receiving the ring as a Christmas gift, Hills had begun to compulsively check her stats. If her scores weren't good, the 22-year-old said, she would ruminate. When her stats wobbled this year, she tried to see a doctor. When she couldn't get an appointment soon enough, Hills, a recent graduate of Providence College in Rhode Island, and a friend drove to a pharmacy where she spent US$50 (RM212) on an at-home blood pressure cuff and monitor to put her mind at ease. 'At that point I was, like, 'Oh my gosh, this thing is literally destroying my mind',' she said. Eventually, Hills was able to see a doctor who told her she was healthy. The doctor did have one recommendation: Consider ditching the ring. In the eternal human quest to know thyself, it's tempting to seize on every bit of information we can glean. If you could know, for instance, not just that you slept 6.5 hours last night but also that 12% of those hours were spent in REM sleep and that your overall 'sleep efficiency' – time asleep versus time awake – was 85%, as many pieces of wearable tech can tell you, why wouldn't you? At least that's the attitude of many people in our age of the quantified self, in which collecting sheaves of data about our bodies every day seems to hold the promise of bringing about a happier, healthier life. But what if all of that data is also heightening our stress? Is there a metric for that? While some Oura users say they enjoy the ring as a screen-free way to keep tabs on their bodies, several Oura owners, including Hills, described feeling increasingly anxious after using their devices. Rather than helping them feel more in control of their wellness, the data only made them fixate on potential – and often nonexistent – problems. You could call it Oura paranoia, though the phenomenon is hardly exclusive to any one product: As wearable health technology, including Apple Watches and Fitbits, have become more popular in recent years, some users have struggled with the unintended psychological side effects of the devices. Eli Rallo, a 26-year-old author and content creator, said she was checking her heart rate '24/7' after receiving her ring as a gift in 2023. When she raised concerns about her seemingly elevated heart rate with a doctor during a routine checkup, she said she was told not to worry and that she was fine. 'They were like anti-Oura Ring,' said Rallo, who lives between Houston and New York City. 'They were like, 'This is just not necessary information for a healthy, able-bodied person to have'.' (Rallo noted that she has been diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, which she said was not well managed at the time. She felt her condition was worsened by wearing her ring.) Eventually, a therapist recommended she stop using the device entirely. She took that advice. Hannah Muehl, a physician assistant and dietitian in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said she found that the quantified knowledge that she wasn't sleeping well made it even harder for her to get rest. She purchased her ring after having a baby to track her sleepless nights nursing. 'It puts action behind things that should be innate, like reminding you to rest, reminding you sleep, all these things that shouldn't be innate practices,' Muehl said. 'Making them things that you're trying to hit as a goal – which inherently, if you're working hard toward resting, you're not actually resting." 'I just felt like I couldn't do anything right to make the ring happy,' said Abi Caswell, a bakery owner who lives in New Orleans. She got her ring a little over a year ago to use the device's temperature-tracking feature for family planning. She liked the idea of not having 'to remember to take out a thermometer every morning,' Caswell, 29, said. She described become disenchanted with the device while opening her second bakery location. It was an intense period for Caswell, and the ring's regular reminders reinforced what she already knew: 'My body was in maximum overdrive,' she said. Seeing that spelled out in data only exacerbated her negative feelings, like giving an upset person the wildly unhelpful advice that he or she should just calm down . 'It was stressing me out more thinking about how stressed I was,' Caswell said, 'and how I was not able to give my body and my health the attention that it needed.' Not long after the release of the first Fitbit in 2009, and the first Apple Watch in 2015, the potential hazards of technology so closely entwined with the body's natural processes became apparent. Over the last decade, many have spoken out about how wearable tech has worsened their eating disorders and led to other obsessive behaviour. Still, the siren song of these devices remains strong for some people who might be better served by simply opting out of the latest smartwatch or ring. 'There's just a lot of crises going on,' said Deborah Lupton, a sociologist and the author of The Quantified Self: A Sociology Of Self-Tracking , and people are eager to get their hands on any consumer product that promises them 'at least some control over some aspects of their everyday lives and their health and well-being.' (Though she noted that having access to such an expensive piece of technology – the latest model of the Oura Ring starts at US$349 (RM1,481) – was a privilege.) The proliferation of technology designed to track our biology can also make it easy to forget that human beings are pretty well equipped to do that on our own, said Jacqueline D. Wernimont, an associate professor at Dartmouth College in the film and media studies department who specialises in histories of quantification. Wearable technology 'takes the authority and knowledge out of the individual and places it in some third party, in a device that then the individual has to consult in order to try to decipher or understand her own body', said Wernimont, who is the author of Numbered Lives: Life And Death In Quantum Media . 'That in and of itself produces a kind of anxiety ,' she added. Shyamal Patel, Oura's senior vice president of science, acknowledged that sometimes having access to so much data can be stressful for some users, including himself. Occasionally, he said, he take breaks from wearing his ring if he is feeling overwhelmed. 'I think it's on us as individuals and users and how we actually leverage this technology so the technology is serving us not the other way around,' Patel said. He also stressed that users should take care not to compare their biometric data with others'. Some have found that difficult, particularly as social media has amplified stories of people who they say their wearable tech tipped them off to serious medical conditions. 'I knew that I had cancer before I was diagnosed because of my Oura Ring,' Nikki Gooding, a 27-year-old nurse practitioner in Richmond, Virginia, said in a widely shared TikTok in March. Hunter Woodhall, a Paralympic track star, said his Oura Ring 'may have saved my life' after it helped him seek treatment for appendicitis. Gooding, who was later diagnosed with lymphoma, explained how the ring's daily updates alerted her to 'major signs of some sort of physical stress.' Her temperature was consistently higher than usual, she said in an interview. 'Please don't let this scare you!!,' Gooding later wrote in a comment on her video, acknowledging a number of people who said Gooding's story was the reason they could never wear an Oura Ring. 'I deal with a lot of patients who do have health anxiety, so I understood,' Gooding said. These days, Muehl said, she has taken off her ring for good. She's back to using an old-school pedometer to track her steps. Caswell is still wearing hers. She said she checks it only twice a day. Hills abandoned the blood pressure monitor at her parents' house. She still sleeps in her ring a few nights a week. Wernimont said she regularly has classroom discussions with students who are overly reliant on their quantified experience, focusing closely on data and trusting those metrics over their own firsthand experiences and physical sensations. 'They're like, 'The device said ...' or 'The monitor said ...,' and I'm like, 'But what did your body say?'' – ©2025 The New York Times Company This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
Malaysian Reserve
2 days ago
- Malaysian Reserve
NEDHSA to host JiggAerobics event
MONROE, La., June 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Northeast Delta Human Services Authority (NEDHSA) is hosting its seventh JiggAerobics event beginning at 6 p.m. June 12 at Monroe Downtown River Market, 316 S. Grand St. NEDHSA Executive Director Dr. Monteic A. Sizer said the event provides a fun and upbeat activity for individuals of all ages and fitness levels. 'Fitness plays an important role in mental health and, when coupled with proper exercise, is a strong predictor of positive health outcomes,' Dr. Sizer said. 'By hosting events such as JiggAerobics, we are providing an opportunity for citizens of northeast Louisiana to engage in healthy activities and learn about the interconnectedness of their mental and physical health.' The event is part of NEDHSA's #getfitHSA initiative, which supports NEDHSA's integrated care model by increasing access to healthy activities and informing communities about the importance of staying fit and active. Data shows that heart disease, obesity and other physical illnesses are correlated with various forms of trauma, stress and mental illness, Dr. Sizer said. The event will be led by JiggAerobics founder LaDonte Lotts, also known as 'Mr. Get Right.' The dance-based fitness program fuses jigging — an energetic Louisiana dance style — with Lotts' dance moves and numerous plyometric exercises. NEDHSA consistently works to understand the unique health care needs of the citizens of Northeast Louisiana. 'Once we understand the needs and wishes of the people, we actively put programs and services in place to help meet people where they are,' Dr. Sizer said. Register for free tickets at
The Star
2 days ago
- The Star
Keeping illness off our plates
Safety first: A food service worker wearing a cap, mask, and gloves at a restaurant in Petaling Jaya. — ART CHEN/The Star PETALING JAYA: With an average of 1.6 million people worldwide falling ill every day due to foodborne diseases, the need to focus on food safety has grown more important this World Food Safety Day. According to the World Health Organisation's World Food Safety Day report, at least 600 million people also fall ill annually from consuming contaminated food, with the cost to treat victims estimated at US$15bil (RM63.4bil). ParkCity Medical Centre Dietetics and Food Services unit head Ng Kar Foo said that weather and humidity play a role. 'Managing factors that allow germs to grow are key to food safety,' he said, adding that to prevent contamination, food also needs to be covered properly. He also backed Singapore's guidelines on food safety where cooked food should not be kept at room temperature for more than four hours. 'Those foods should be discarded after four hours. The four hours start from the time that the food is ready from the stove,' he added. Amid growing concerns, Malaysian eateries are also stepping up efforts to prioritise hygiene and food safety ahead of Visit Malaysia 2026 (VM 2026). Petaling Jaya Coffeeshop Association president Keu Kok Meng said its association members adhere to a check list of hygiene practices that prioritise food safety. This includes ensuring all their workers get the mandatory typhoid vaccination once every three years along with taking a food handling course. 'All stalls are also regulated to ensure cooked and uncooked food is stored separately at all times with the containers fully labelled so we know when a batch is cooked or prepped. 'We also mandate that all our members have pest control services visit eateries monthly to check for any rat or cockroach infestation. 'Despite our efforts, rodent infestation is still a frequent problem due to all the uncovered drains near eateries, and I hope the local councils can help to cover them,' he said, adding that staff are also instructed to clean their eatery toilets every few hours each day. He said that they were also hoping to encourage their members to reintroduce mandatory face masks for workers to further reduce chances of contamination of food. Malaysian Muslim Restaurant Owners Association (Presma) president Datuk Jawahar Ali Taib Khan said all restaurants under the association similarly adhere to strict hygiene protocols to ensure customers' health. 'Cleanliness is not only about hygiene – it's also about upholding trust. Our patrons, whether locals or tourists, must feel confident that the food they consume is safe and prepared under the highest standards,' he said. Jawahar said some of the hygiene protocols include the use of separate ladles and utensils for each dish to avoid cross-contamination, especially between vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. 'We also ensure that all restaurants have a weekly deep cleaning of kitchen equipment, exhaust hoods, storage areas and drains. 'Staff must wash their hands frequently and use gloves or utensils when handling ready-to-eat food,' he said. He added that Presma was looking to enhance its hygiene efforts ahead of VM2026, such as introducing the adoption of a voluntary hygiene grading system and eco-friendly and sanitary kitchen practices. 'This will be a crucial time to showcase Malaysia's hospitality and food plays a central role in that experience, so ensuring our restaurants are clean, safe and welcoming will enhance tourists' confidence and encourage repeat visits. 'Our aim is to position Malaysian eateries as models of cleanliness and quality as we prepare to welcome the world in 2026,' he added.
