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Simply Oncology

John McGrane & Michael Rowe

Welcome to Simply Oncology. 
Cancer is daunting for both patients and for clinical teams.
Dr John McGrane and Dr Michael Rowe are oncologists who want to break down the complex parts of cancer care into clear and simple sessions.
We will dive deep into the world of cancer research, patient stories and the latest cancer breakthroughs. 
Simply Oncology will have patient focused episodes along with episodes that allow anyone with an interest in oncology to stay up to date.

We hope you join us as we unpick all parts of cancer. 

John & Mike

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  • 114 episodes
  • Updated Friday

Episodes114

Newest first
  • Jan 17, 2025 · 26 min

    Episode 33: In the Clinic - Discussing high grade brain tumours with Professor Anthony Chalmers

    Send us Fan Mail Join us today as we discuss high grade brain tumours with internationally recognised expert Professor Anthony Chalmers. Part 1 of 2 and we discuss implications of new molecular profiling on prognosis and treatment options in high grade brain tumours. We look at some recent changes in radiotherapy volumes and doses in brain tumours. We also discuss challenges in treatment of high grade brain tumours and the impact of steroids in high grade brain tumours alongside surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

  • Jan 10, 2025 · 31 min

    Episode 32: In the Clinic - Discussing Global Oncology with Dr Susannah Stanway

    Send us Fan Mail This week the Simply Oncology podcast goes global! Over 80 % of the world population is living in low or middle income countries. In this podcast, we're hopefully going to try and cover what is global oncology, what some of the challenges that low middle income countries are facing in terms of delivering cancer care. We also touch on how clinicians in the UK might be able to cooperate and contribute to improving Cancer care globally, and to do this, we are delighted to welcome Dr Susie Stanway to the podcast. The scale if the issues is HUGE and Susie talks us through some thoughts on what may help and how we can get involved. A truly humbling episode John & Mike

  • Jan 3, 2025 · 25 min

    Episode 31: In the Clinic - Discussing mCRPC with Professor Alison Birtle

    Send us Fan Mail Join us for our second discussion with Professor Alison Birtle on metastatic prostate cancer. This time we look at mCRPC. What are our choices after first line therapy. We discuss; -PARPi and BRCA testing -Docetaxel re-challenge -Cabazitaxel -Patient Support This is a real tour de force by Alison. We hope you enjoy. John & Mike

  • Dec 20, 2024 · 23 min

    Episode 30: In the Clinic - Discussing metastatic hormone sensitive prostate cancer with Professor Alison Birtle

    Send us Fan Mail Join us as we discuss the frontline therapy of metastatic hormone sensitive prostate cancer with Professor Alison Birtle. Alison has been involved in many of the key trials in urological cancers and shares her take on selecting patients for triplet therapy. We also look at the factors that affect treatment choices for our mHSPC pateints. This area has changed so much in recent years and Alison brings those changes to life in this episode. You hope you enjoy! John & Mike

  • Dec 13, 2024 · 34 min

    Episode 29: In the Clinic - Ovarian cancer with Dr Shibani Nicum & Dr Rebecca Bowen

    Send us Fan Mail Join us in this episode where we look at the treatment landscape in ovarian cancer. We talk to Dr Shibani Nicum and Dr Rebecca Bowen who both specialise in the treatment of ovarian cancer. They both lead the UK Gynae Trials Group (GTG) group and are involved in running the excellent UK Gynae-oncology Meeting (UKGOM). We look at the use of PARPi, Bevacizumab (Avastin) and new targets in ovarian cancer. This is a rapidly changing environment and this is an excellent overview by Shibani and Rebecca. We hope you enjoy. John & Mike ps- With exclusive update on the date of next years UKGOM meeting

  • Dec 6, 2024 · 33 min

    Episode 28: In the Clinic -Discussing Health inequalities in UK cancer care with Benson Fayehun

    Send us Fan Mail Join us as we talk with Benson Fayehun, a passionate advocate for addressing health inequalities. Benson is the Founder and President of the Relief for Human Suffering Foundation, a U.S.-based public charity, and the UK Head of Oncology Business Unit at MSD*. In this episode, we delve into how factors like poverty, socio-economic status, language, and more often have a greater impact on cancer care outcomes than the treatment itself. This thought-provoking conversation highlights some of the systemic challenges in healthcare and opens the door to critical themes we plan to revisit in future episodes. We hope you enjoy. John & Mike * This is not a MSD endorsement and we acknowledge that many pharma companies are interested in this area. This episode is not sponsored by MSD.

  • Nov 29, 2024 · 23 min

    Episode 27: In the Clinic - Discussing Endometrial cancer conference updates from ESMO and IGCS with Dr Gemma Eminowicz

    Send us Fan Mail After a great overview of cervical cancer highlights we now go back to gynae cancer specialist Dr Gemma Emminowicz for insight on endometrial cancer highlights. KEYNOTE B21- looking at adding pembrolizuamb in the adjuvant setting DUO-E - looking at durvalumab and olaparib in the metastatic setting The horizon for antibody drug conjugates in endometrial cancer. We hope you enjoy John& Mike

  • Nov 22, 2024 · 17 min

    Episode 26: In the Clinic - Discussing Cervical cancer conference updates from ESMO and IGCS with Dr Gemma Eminowicz

    Send us Fan Mail We talk again to Gynae-oncology specialist - the excellent -Dr Gemma Eminowicz from UCL hospital. Gemma also played a key role supporting Dr Mary McCormack in delivering the INTERLACE trial. We talk about updates from ESMO and IGCS on cervical cancer. Gemma discusses her Quality of Life data she presented from INTERLACE and of course we discuss the exciting KEYNOTE A18 data. We hope you enjoy. John & Mike

  • Nov 1, 2024 · 13 min

    Episode 25: Patient Fundamentals - Understanding non-smoking lung cancer with Dr Tom Newsom-Davis

    Send us Fan Mail This episode is hoping to show patients and the public that non-smoking lung cancer is a very real and very different type of lung cancer to smoking lung cancer. We discuss the great work that charities like Ruth Strauss foundation, Ros Wonders and EGFR UK do to support this patient group. Pollution may play a part, vaping may play a part. Dr Tom Newsom-Davis Chair-elect of the British Thoracic Oncology Group shines a light on this area of lung cancer.

  • Oct 18, 2024 · 30 min

    Episode 23: Patient Fundamentals - Coping with chemotherapy with Rachel Bryce, chemotherapy nurse

    Send us Fan Mail Chemotherapy is scary and we want to make it less scary for patients. Simple. We talk to senior chemotherapy nurse Rachel Bryce from University Hospital Plymouth - she is also Macmillan lead systemic anti-cancer therapy (SACT) lead and UKONS SACT representative - about what patients can expect and what to look out for expect on chemotherapy. We think this is great discussion that could be used for anyone new to or dealing with chemotherapy. We hope you enjoy. John & Mike

  • Oct 11, 2024 · 33 min

    Episode 22: In the Clinic - Discussing molecular profiling in endometrial cancer with Dr Angela George

    Send us Fan Mail In recent years we have seen a marked change in the landscape of treatment for endometrial cancer. This has been driven by understanding the different molecular subtypes of endometrial cancer. POLE - with an excellent prognosis MMR deficient - with good prognosis and option for immunotherapy No Specific molecular profile - intermediate outcome and work still to be done P53 mutant - with a poorer outcome Dr Angela George from the Royal Marsden Hospital has a specialist interest in genomics and shares her expertise and knowledge on this fascinating area of gynaecological cancers.

  • Oct 4, 2024 · 31 min

    Episode 21: In the Clinic - Discussing bone health in prostate cancer with Dr Xue-Yan Jiang

    Send us Fan Mail Approximately 1 in 10 metastatic prostate cancer patients develop osteoporotic fractures. Whilst treatment for prostate cancer has meant patient are living longer we have to make sure they are also living better. Testosterone removal, Androgen receptor targeted agents and steroids can all reduce bone strength. We talk to Dr Xue-Yan Jiang who is part of a group preparing guidelines for bone health through the Royal College of Radiologists and British Association of Urological Surgeons. We hope you enjoy.

  • Sep 27, 2024 · 23 min

    Episode 20: In the Clinic - Non-smoking Lung Cancer with Dr Tom Newsom-Davis

    Send us Fan Mail Approximately 15% of all lung cancer happen in non-smokers!! We talk to Dr Tom Newsom-Davis a medical oncologist who specialises in lung cancer about this very specific group of lung cancers. Tom is chair-elect of the British Thoracic Oncology Group and shares his experience of treating non-smoking related lung cancers and their driver mutations - EGFR, ROS-1 and ALK. This is a fascinating discussion and Tom is such an engaging person to talk to. If you have lungs you can get lung cancer. Enjoy John & Mike

  • Sep 20, 2024 · 17 min

    Episode 19: Patient Fundamentals - Breast cancer -Discussing CDK4/6 inhibitors in breast cancer for patients with Professor Mark Beresford.

    Send us Fan Mail In this episode we discuss CDK4/6 inhibitors with Professor Mark Beresford, Clinical oncologist and chair of UK Breast cancer Group. Mark shares his knowledge on why we are giving these drugs to patients with breast cancer and what patients can expect on them. This is a really big group of patients and we hope this is useful for supporting them. We hope you enjoy John & Mike

  • Sep 13, 2024 · 19 min

    Episode 18: Patient Fundamentals - Prostate cancer: Discussing 'The Big 3' side effects of hormone therapy with BAUN nurse specialist Debbie Victor

    Send us Fan Mail To day we focus on the big 3 side effects of hormone manipulation in prostate cancer: -Hot Flushes -The 5 Ps of Fatigue -Sexual Function We talk to British Association or Urological Nursing trustee and nurse specialist Debbie Victor on strategies to manage these side effects. This is aimed at helping patients help themselves so feel free to share with anyone you know having hormone therapy for prostate cancer. We hope this is useful. John & Mike

  • Sep 6, 2024 · 24 min

    Episode 17:Patient Fundamentals - Patient overview of hormone therapy in prostate cancer with Debbie Victor BAUN nurse specialist

    Send us Fan Mail Hormone therapy is a key part of prostate cancer treatment. Removing access to testosterone starves prostate cancer and can cause a 'manopause' or male menopause symptoms. We discuss this with clinical nurse and BAUN trustee- Debbie Victor. We look at the impact of this on prostate cancer patients and what positive steps patients can take to tackle these side effects themselves. We hope you enjoy. Mike & John

  • Aug 16, 2024 · 22 min

    Episode 14: In the Clinic - Discussing cancer in the older patient and frailty with Dr Nicolo Battisti -SIOG president

    Send us Fan Mail Not every older patient is frail and not every frail patient is old. The incidence of cancer goes up rapidly in the older age groups with a big jump in incidence in the over 75 age group. We are treating increasing numbers of older patients with increasingly complex therapy. This is often called a 'Silver Tsunami'. We talk to Dr Nicolo Battisti - A medical oncologist - who is Clinical Lead of the Senior Adult Oncology Programme at the Royal Marsden Hospital and president of SIOG - the Society of Geriatric Oncology. We discuss the impact of frailty on cancer therapy for older patients and how to assess frailty in patients. This is part 1 of 2 of an excellent session!! Enjoy Mike & John