Professor Tobias Arkenau: Navigating chemo and building trust with your oncologist

This week, What's Next host Nina Lopes welcomes Professor Tobias Arkenau, a highly-respected Consultant Medical Oncologist. Tobi specialises in the treatment of a number of cancers including gastrointestinal cancer and skin cancer as well as cancers of the liver, pancreas and bowel. Working at centres of excellence across London, he is known for his contributions to drug development and immunotherapy. Having led a number of clinical trials involving new anti-cancer treatments like immunotherapy and cellular therapy, Tobi has helped people like Nina find treatments which can extend their lives. As many cancer patients can attest, it is often challenging to feel fully in control of conversations with oncologists. This makes it an especially valuable opportunity for Nina to sit down with Tobi, where she can ask the questions she has not yet found answers to, as well as those sourced from her online cancer community. Such as... Why am I being offered this treatment over another? Do I have a say? How can I be a more empowered patient? And possibly the most pressing question of all, with one in two of us being diagnosed with cancer, how close are we to finding a cure? Nina asks it all in this unmissable conversation. In this podcast, Nina and Tobi discuss: -The difference between different types of chemotherapy, including preventative chemo, chemo with curative intent and palliative chemo -The reasons why you may need one chemo over another -The positives of chemo -The damage of chemo -Understanding palliative chemo -Changing the palliative chemo narrative -Quality of life on chemo -How to be an empowered patient -Building trust between oncologists and patients -Why patients should ask to be considered for clinical trials -Understanding your biology through genetic testing and molecular profiling -What triple negative cancer is -Hope as a mental strength in treating cancer -Nutrition and cancer -Exercise and cancer -The things that keep Nina going -Mental health and cancer -Coping mechanisms as an oncologist Follow Nina Lopes at instagram.com/frodayss tiktok.com/@frodayss patreon.com/NinaLopes Follow Cancer Platform at instagram.com/cancerplatform