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0:00
Hello, everyone, and welcome
to our presentation.
My name is Flavio Somanji,
and I'm currently a senior
scientist with Novartis.
I am Rebecca Macy, an
instructor of health psychology
at the Massachusetts College
of Pharmacy & Health Sciences.
We are pleased to
discuss the role of
cognitive behavioral
therapy or CBT in oncology.
We hope that you find the
presentation insightful
and implementable in your
studies or research programs.
0:28
To begin, let's understand
what cancer is.
The term cancer is the
Latin word for crab,
and it describes the
protrusion features of
the tumor mass as it
grows out uncontrollably.
The onset of cancer
encompasses multiple variables
including but not limited to
lifestyle factors
such as smoking,
environmental factors
such as poor air quality,
and the interactions
between such factors and
underlying genetic
predispositions or mutations.
Genetically, cancer pathology is
most often attributable
to mutations in
proto-oncogenes like KRAS
and/or tumor suppressor genes
like TP53 amongst
other culprits.
Cancer is a global health issue.
It may be categorized by
various research institutions.
This stems from the fact that it
impacts individuals
across the globe and
is the second leading cause
of death worldwide with
over 1.8 million
cases and more than
600,000 deaths annually
in the US alone.
It's interesting to frame cancer
as a global health
issue, Flavio.
How would you say
it is typically
characterized by
research institutions?
And what is the
value in shifting
these appraisals toward
a global health model?
Inventionally, researchers
view cancer as
a biological pathology
happening on
the cellular level within
a given individual.
It does vary, but generally
from an epidemiological
perspective,
a global health issue is
defined by assessing
the prevalence,
incidence, and distribution of
health problems across different
regions and populations.
By this definition, global
health tends to lean more
towards tracking and addressing
infectious diseases which is
quite different from cancer.
Nevertheless, due
to the prevalence
and incidence of cancer
across the globe,
cancer does fall under
the global health category
because it calls for
substantial efforts by
intergovernmental bodies
to understand
epidemiological trends,
and develop novel treatments
within regulatory pathways,
and these technologies at scale.
I see. In other words,
a global health issue is
one that is produced by
multifactorial transmission
processes across
a range of complex systems
like environment and economics.
As with several other of
the most common and
burdensome chronic diseases
in modern society,
for example, Alzheimer's
disease or diabetes,
we can understand cancer as
one potential output
of intersecting
complex systems that shape
a person's experience of health
throughout the lifespan.
The complex systems of
physical environment,
socialized behaviors,
and individual biology
comprise some of
the core variables that set
the foundation for
cancer development.
We will return to
this idea throughout
the presentation as
we consider the role
of psychosocial
factors specifically
in optimizing clinical outcomes.
