Live from Stage 4: MBC News for Us, by Us

Live from Stage 4: MBC News for Us, by Us

Could a cure for breast cancer be closer than you think? Welcome to "Live from Stage 4" — a bold, hopeful podcast where people living with metastatic breast cancer, clinicians, and researchers take center stage. We share real stories, decode the science, and spotlight the ideas and breakthroughs that matter — for patients, caregivers, and anyone who believes progress is possible. This podcast is for us, by us, and all about us.

Episodes

August 18, 2026 14 mins

In this Symptoms Spotlight episode, Abigail Johnston and Melanie Sisk are joined by Dr. Jill Tirabassi to talk about ascites, the buildup of fluid in the abdominal cavity that can occur with metastatic breast cancer and liver disease. Dr. Jill shares both her medical expertise and her personal experience, explaining what ascites is, why it happens, and how it shows up on scans.

The conversation covers symptoms to watch for, includin...

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This is a disease no one wants, but you meet the best people."

Twenty years ago, about 125 people gathered at a hotel outside Philadelphia for the first-ever conference just for those living with metastatic breast cancer, at a time when the community was rarely seen or heard. Today, it's a three-day national event drawing hundreds of attendees and a virtual audience.

In this episode, the host Victoria Goldberg sits down with three lo...

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Nobody wants to talk about dying. But what happens when we do?

On August 5th, 2025, New York becomes one of only a handful of states where Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) is now legal. For people living with incurable or terminal illness, this isn't an abstract policy debate — it's a deeply personal question about autonomy, dignity, and who gets to decide how life ends.

In this first episode of On Our Own Terms, Victoria Goldberg s...

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Triple negative metastatic breast cancer is one of the most complex and rapidly evolving frontiers in oncology, and this episode is your most comprehensive guide to understanding it.

Victoria Goldberg sits down with Dr. Sarah Premji, oncologist and clinical researcher at the Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, for a deep dive into what makes triple negative MBC so uniquely challenging and why the treatment landscape is cha...

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In this episode of Symptoms Spotlights, hosts Abigail Johnston and Melanie Sisk, a metastatic breast cancer patient and a registered nurse living with MBC, dive deep into one of the most serious yet underdiscussed risks facing cancer patients: blood clots (thrombus).

Melanie breaks down the science behind how blood clots form, where they can occur in the body including the lungs, brain, heart, and legs, and what terms like DVT, pulm...

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What if metastatic breast cancer didn't have to mean a lifetime of treatment? For a subset of HER2-positive patients, that question is no longer hypothetical.

In this episode of Live from Stage 4, hosts Victoria Goldberg and Dr. Ellen Landsberger sit down with Dr. Pedram Razavi, breast oncologist, translational researcher, and principal investigator at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, to discuss his groundbreaking Phase 2 cli...

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In this episode of Symptoms Spotlight, hosts Abigail Johnston and Melanie Sisk take an honest and personal look at one of the most common yet least talked about side effects of metastatic breast cancer treatment: vaginal dryness.

Both living with MBC, Abigail and Melanie share what has worked for them, from water-based lubricants and coconut oil to topical lidocaine cream and low-dose estradiol. They talk openly about the emotional ...

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We've always been told that metastatic breast cancer can't be cured, only managed. But what if that's no longer the whole story?

In this episode of Live from Stage 4, hosts Victoria Goldberg and Dr. Ellen Landsberger sit down with Dr. Lior Braunstein, a radiation oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, to talk about the ARCHER trial, a first-of-its-kind clinical study asking a bold question: can surgery and radiation, ...

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Last time, we had a front row seat to a vision. This time, that vision has a launch date.

On June 20th, CureWise officially launched, and for every cancer patient who walks into an oncologist's office with ten minutes and no idea what to ask, it couldn't come at a better time.

In this episode of Live From Stage 4, Victoria Goldberg sits down with Steve Brown (founder & CEO of CureWise) and Lisa Booth (metastatic breast cancer adv...

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The field of hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer is moving faster than ever, and in this episode, we go beyond SERENA-6 to map the full picture of what's changing.

Joining hosts Victoria Goldberg and Abigail Johnston is Dr. Sarah Premji, Assistant Director of Breast Cancer Research at Sarah Cannon in Nashville, for a comprehensive deep dive into the new wave of endocrine therapies reshaping treatment fo...

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In this episode of the Symptom Spotlight Series, hosts Abigail Johnston and Melanie Sisk are joined by Dr. Jill Tirabassi, this podcast's team member, to break down neutropenia. It is one of the most common and important side effects of cancer treatment.

Dr. Tirabassi explains what neutropenia actually means, why neutrophils matter, and how chemotherapy and CDK 4/6 inhibitors can deprive your body of these critical infection-fightin...

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Two weeks ago, we broke down the ODAC vote on camizestrant and SERENA-6 with seven patient advocates. This week, we go deeper — bringing in the clinical and regulatory perspectives from two of the most qualified voices in the field.

We're joined by Dr. Sarah Sammons, newly appointed Co-Leader of Breast Oncology at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center and former faculty at Dana-Farber Cancer Institu...

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After recording our earlier Symptoms Spotlight episodes on sleep and constipation, Melanie Sisk comes back with real-life updates that prove these topics hit closer to home than she expected. First, Melanie shares her surprising new diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea, discovered thanks to a sharp-eyed friend at a cancer conference. She breaks down the symptoms to watch for, why they're so easy to confuse with cancer treatment sid...

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The ODAC Vote on Camizestrant & SERENA-6: A Patient Advocate Panel Weighs In

When the FDA's Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted 6-3 against recommending approval of camizestrant in the SERENA-6 trial setting, the MBC community had questions and opinions. Host Victoria gathered six of the most informed patient advocates in the metastatic breast cancer space for an unfiltered, expert conversation about what the vote really me...

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In this episode of Life from Stage IV, host Victoria Goldberg sits down with Dr. Fátima Cardoso, Breast oncologist and president of the ABC Global Alliance, to unpack a landmark decade of progress — and confront what still needs to change.

The ABC Global Alliance's 10-year global report is out, and the findings are both encouraging and sobering. Survival rates have improved. Patient advocacy has grown stronger. Quality-of-life...

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For a long time, the word "cure" and "metastatic breast cancer" didn't belong in the same sentence. That's changing — and nobody is better positioned to explain why than today's guest.

Dr. Eric Winer is one of the world's leading breast cancer oncologists and researchers, former president of ASCO, and director of the Yale Cancer Center. In this conversation with Victoria Goldberg, he tackles the question he posed at the 2025 A...

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Every year, Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC) brings together hundreds of people living with metastatic breast cancer for one of the most anticipated events in the MBC community, the Thriving Together MBC Conference. This year marked a milestone: the 20th anniversary.

In this episode, the members of the podcast team Abigail Johnston, Dr. Jill Tirabassi, Dr. Ellen Landsberger, and Victoria Goldberg, all MBC patients themselves, sit ...

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Hair loss is one of the most emotionally complex side effects of cancer treatment — and in this episode of Symptom Spotlights, Abigail Johnston and Melanie Sisk are joined by Lisa Backus and Jill Tirabassi for an honest, practical conversation about navigating it.

From complete hair loss due to chemotherapy (multiple times) to gradual thinning from hormone therapy and targeted treatment, each woman shares her unique experience...

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What happens when breast cancer spreads to the brain — and what can actually be done about it? In this episode, host Victoria Goldberg sits down with Dr. Nancy Lin, medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and one of the country's leading experts on metastatic breast cancer and brain metastasis.

Dr. Lin breaks down the current treatment landscape for all subtypes — HER2+, ER+, and triple negative — coveri...

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If you've ever heard the words "palliative care" and incorrectly assumed it meant the end was near — this episode is for you.

Abigail Johnston and Amy Parliament sit down with Dr. Mary Busowski, a palliative care physician at Orlando Health, to bust one of the most persistent myths in cancer care: that palliative medicine is the same as hospice.

Dr. Busowski brings a rare perspective — she trained as a neonatal ICU nurse,...

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