Welcome back to The Patients Speak, where we’re combining the business and science innovation of healthcare with the patient voice on how we need to accelerate their journey from diagnosis to wellness. Our guest today is Michael Sapienza, the CEO of the Colorectal Cancer Alliance.
We had a wonderful discussion on the CCA’s most recent Colon cancer campaign that was beautifully executed by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Brooks Bellpartnered with the Colorectal Cancer Alliance to launch LEAD FROM BEHIND to bring awareness to colon cancer, which happens to be preventable cancer!
Michael insists that patients should be more proactive and insist that they get screening, especially for this type of cancer.
Mark Stinson, host:
Welcome back to our podcast, The Patients Speak, where we’re combining the business and science innovation of healthcare with the patient voice on how we need to accelerate their journey from diagnosis to wellness. I’m so happy today to have as my guest, Michael Sapienza, of the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. Michael, welcome to the program.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Great to be with you, Mark. Thank you.
Mark Stinson, host:
First, I w- … I wanna congratulate you on a terrific campaign the Lead From Behind campaign, conceived by one of your board members, Brooks Bell, and, uh, so beautifully executed by Ryan Reynolds and, uh, Rob McElhenney. Uh, what a great campaign that is.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Uh, we’re, we’re, we’re just absolutely thrilled, you know, uh, you know, that Brooks came to us saying, “You know, as a survivor, I wanna make this disease famous.” You know, we’ve been talking for years at the Alliance about bringing cel- more celebrities into the colon cancer space because, you know, it’s one of those disease where people just don’t talk about it, you know? It’s the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States and, you know, we, we need to change that. And I, I felt really strongly when, when Katie Couric did her colonoscopy live on TV. It really made a difference. Almost a 20% increase in people getting screened. And, you know, I think this, with Ryan and Rob, really, uh, just from the metrics we’ve seen and the thousands and thousands of people that have reached out about, “Hey, now I’m actually gonna go get screened. I’m gonna go get my colonoscopy. I’m gonna go get a FIT test and Cologuard test. Um, no doubt, Mark, I think it will save lives for sure.
Mark Stinson, host:
Well, indeed. Well, in a moment, I wanna drill down a little bit on that campaign and how it worked and, uh, what it’s doing and some of the results you’re seen. But I think first, Michael, in the spirit and title of our podcast, The Patient’s Speak. Uh, your alliance has a terrific kind of model I saw of screen, care, and cure, these there areas that we need to address. Uh, speak to our audience that might be made up of companies and researchers and clinicians, other patient advocates, what do we need to hear from the patients when it comes to colorectal cancer in these three areas?
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Yeah. So first of all, I would just say from a screening perspective I think about my mom. My mom died of this disease on Mother’s Day in 2009 and she was 56 years old when she was screened. She had never been screened. And so, if she had been screened at now 45, age 50 back then, she’d be alive. She would’ve seen me get married and have kids. And, you know, obviously, I wouldn’t be doing this probably, but, um, you know, I think patients in terms of getting screened, you know, it- it’s a little hard because this is the disease that is the preventable cancer, you know? And so, um, you know, my mom felt really guilty about not being screened. She was a business … a busy business woman and had two thriving businesses, four children, and just didn’t get around to it. And so, you know, I think from a patient perspective around screening, all I could say is before you are a patient be proactive. Get screened. It literally will save your life.
Mark Stinson, host:
Mm-hmm.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Um, uh, and then, I would say, just from a care perspective, you know, having been a caregiver myself to my mom and now to, you know, tons of other, you know, people across the country and across the world, you know, people want two things. Patients. One, they want to live and they want to live longer, right?
Mark Stinson, host:
Mm-hmm.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
And two, they don’t wanna feel alone. And so, what we do is we have multiple programs in our care pillar which, number one, provide information about biomarkers, about surgery, about, you know, innovations in clinical trials. We also help with psychosocial pieces to make sure that, you know, if they are suffering from depression or anxiety or even just, you know, temporary feelings of loneliness, et cetera, that we support them through that. We have a buddy program where we matched about a 1,000 patients and caregivers last year one on one. So if, you know, somebody that is a caregiver can talk to another caregiver that’s going through it. We also have financial support and, you know, so many other, other things that … for patients will help them live, help them live longer, and help them not feel alone.
And then, from a cure perspective, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s really frustrating, I think, for patients all across, you know, the world even within colon cancer. You know, two years ago or even a year go, we had dozens of FDA approvals for leukemia and lymphomas, cancers of the … You know, leukemia and lymphoma, also with breast cancer. Colon cancer we had two.
Mark Stinson, host:
Mm-hmm.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Two approvals. And, you know, there still really are very, very limited numbers of treatments, especially for patients that are metastatic, meaning that their disease has spread past the colon or past the rectum. So, you know, patients, what they’re saying is, “How do we raise more money? How do we get more young investigators into the field? How do we make it so, you know, we can have 22 new FDA approvals?” You know, if you go to Andy Anderson, you don’t go to a breast cancer oncologist. You go to either a HER2, B-, you know, uh, BRCA oncologist. You don’t go to a breast cancer. When you to Andy Anderson for a colon cancer, you … for colon cancer, you go to a colon cancer oncologist. And it’s because we haven’t discovered all of those biomarkers that potentially can save patients.
Mark Stinson, host:
Yes. Well, and, and in light of this, uh, research gap, you know, some of it’s a numbers game. Where are the patients? You know? And do they know about the trials? Uh, can they access the trials? Do they meet the inclusion and exclusion criteria? I mean, our sponsor of this podcast, 83bar, is involved in this search. What … Where can we close that gap? You know, where can we really open more doors and, I guess, open more minds to participating-
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Yeah.
Mark Stinson, host:
… in these trials?
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Yeah. Well, we’re actually holding a clinical trial summit actually on November 10th here in Washington DC. Uh, the head of the Moon Shot will be giving our keynote speak … speech. And we have representatives from FDA, from industry, from NCI, from Pharma, patients, caregivers, et cetera, really looking at the different areas in which we can improve on in terms of clinical trial access and, and obviously, just uptake in general. So like, what is the marketing and messaging that needs to happen, right? So right now, it’s really like if I go to Georgetown and they don’t have a clinical trial for me, that doctor is literally getting on the phone or texting his friend at MSK or Andy Anderson. And I’m sorry, but it’s 2022 and that makes just no sense, right?
Mark Stinson, host:
(laughs)
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Makes no sense. And patients, you know, their perception often is this is a last ditch effort. This is something that if I’m, you know, I’m potentially gonna be a, you know, towards the end of life that I participate in. Not something that I should be learning about when I’m first diagnosed. And that’s where this medical, what we call medical advocacy, so knowing what your biomarkers are, knowing what drugs actually work for them, um, and, and, and moving that forward. And then, I would also just say in terms of the access piece, right, is figuring out how do we increase trust with communities that have lower access to clinical trials so that they actually want to participate in them, right? And, and, and there’s various ways of doing this, but, you know, oftentimes, that- that’s just not, not the case. We’re actually about to start a pilot study with Georgetown at the entire MedStar system in, in DC looking at all of those barriers to clinical trial participation. And try to, over time, to re- reduce those barriers.
Mark Stinson, host:
Yeah.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
And then, the last thing I would just say about clinical trials in general, we probably could talk about this all day, um, but is, you know, if you think about it in a community setting. So I live in a, it, it doesn’t matter. Rural America somewhere, and I’m going to a community oncologist. That community oncologist is a generalist, most likely.
Mark Stinson, host:
Mm.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
And, you know, they, their practice, et cetera, they’re not necessarily, um, incentivized at any level to get patients on clinical trials. So that’s another thing we’re trying to really tackle, um, you know, with some of the other advocacy groups, you know, how do, how do we get people and oncologists in America even to just increase uptake of sharing information about clinical trials.
Mark Stinson, host:
Yes. Well, I wanted to pause a moment on that trust issue, uh, before we get too far because I have heard this from other groups. Um, from Hispanic communities and from African American communities, and even rural communities that you mentioned, that there is … I don’t know, I don’t wanna be a guinea pig or I don’t want doctors practicing on me or I don’t know if the drug is gonna work. What if I get the placebo? You know, all these questions come up. But, what, what listening, uh, have you had that sort of underscores this trust factor. And you mentioned there might be some ways to overcome it. I’m curious to pursue that a little bit.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Yeah. First of all, there is no placebo in, in, in cancer clinical trials. I think that’s one of the big myths that there is at least in the vast majority of [inaudible 00:09:19]-
Mark Stinson, host:
Yes, that’s right.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
That- that- that’s just … That’s just not ethical, right? Um, the, the second thing I would say is I’m gonna give two just anecdotal, uh, uh, stories. Or maybe one, depending on how much time I have. So, um, there was a young woman, her name is Jacqueline Rush and she was diagnosed with colon cancer at the age of 19 years old because she had Lynch syndrome. And she, you know, was being treated in California and eventually, you know, unfortunately, the cancer, you know, grew to be such that it was really taking over, uh, you know, just her ba- basic, basic bodily functions, et cetera, and was close to end of life. She passed away.
Two months later, the immunotherapy drug Keytruda was approved for MSI high colorectal cancer. And if she had had that access, that trust in that potentially … The … That trial, it would’ve w- … I mean, I can tell you right now it would’ve saved her life. It would’ve cleared 100% of her cancer out of her body because I’ve seen it in another gentleman named Steven Astrada, who, you know, I met in 2014 and was literally like almost dead when I saw him. And he, he was emaciated. All … I mean, just, just horrible. And, and the cancer was all over his body. I introduced him to, uh, Wells Messersmith and Chris Liu at the University of Colorado Anschutz Cancer Center and immediately found out he had Lynch syndrome and they got him on that. Uh, got him on that clinical trial. He is now five years no evidence of disease. He is off the immunotherapy and he’s, he’s absolutely thriving. Now, they both had access, I will say this.
Mark Stinson, host:
Mm-hmm.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Um, Jacqueline a little bit had some trust issues in the medical system. And I think, you know, one of, one of those pieces is how do we make sure that we are bringing in more doctors. Whether they’re Hispanic, whether they’re people of color that look like you or me or whomever is gonna be participating in that clinical trial. And we’ve got to think about, like, the consent piece of it, right? So oftentimes, even for screening, people feel like if they go in, and this is very, very specific too to the African American community, that they’re signing away their life. Like, oh, if something happens I’m just … It’s o- … You know, like, there’s no liability. Well, that’s a huge trust barrier. And so, how do we, how do we kind of hone in on just that one trust piece and potentially make that a- an easier “sell.” I hate saying “sell,” but-
Mark Stinson, host:
No, but I understand-
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Uh-
Mark Stinson, host:
… what you mean. I mean, to communicate what the true parameters are of the study. You also mentioned a-
Michael Sapienza, CCA:[inaudible 00:12:02]
Mark Stinson, host:
… term that, that piqued my interest. Medical advocacy. Now, certainly, we want patients to be empowered. We want study participants to feel motivated and engaged. But is there a, a bigger role? Uh, uh, can that be defined that there are medical advocacy specialists that sort of take the, the average person like you and I under the wing and, uh, say, “Here’s what possible,” and kind of guide us through this maze of a system?
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Yeah, Mark. We do this every day. So we have navigators all across the country that talk to patients and caregivers. And again, y- you on- … You only know what you know. And oftentimes, you have 15 minutes with the famous oncologists of the world or at the, you know, the, the main centers and maybe even less in a community setting. And in that 15 minutes, they certainly are not gonna show you, you know, their, their biomarker report-
Mark Stinson, host:
Mm-hmm.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
… which is multiple pages long and has Xs and threes and As and Zs and … It’s a, it’s a foreign language to people. And so, you put your trust again into that physician, that oncologist, who’s there with you potentially for 15 minutes that you hope you have, you know, trust in. But what we define as medical advocacy is that, that patient or that caregiver truly understands what’s in that report. Whether it means the day that they’re diagnosed or two years later when they potentially need a clinical trial. But as you, as you … I’m sure you know, you know, sometimes if you start a certain treatment that makes you ineligible for a clinical trial. So, you know, we do our very best. We’re not … definitely not perfect and we really just, you know, started this, but we truly believe that at diagnosis every patient should understand what their biomarkers are.
Mark Stinson, host:
Mm-hmm.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
And I just … It- it’s hard because it’s ano- … It’s a, it’s a, it’s a reimbursement issue. You know, it’s a staffing shortage. It’s … There’s a, you know, just a communication piece. Um, but in telling patients that then allows them to ask the questions that are potentially relying on that physician.
Mark Stinson, host:
Oh, invaluable, I’m sure.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
So-
Mark Stinson, host:
Yes, absolutely.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Totally. Yeah.
Mark Stinson, host:
Well, I’d like to circle back to the beginning then and let’s talk about the Lead From Behind campaign. I mean, this, this, uh, video and this whole initiative has really, as you mentioned before, brought some celebrity status, uh, and maybe that’s helping get attention. What, what are some of the numbers and feedback that you’re getting?
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Yeah, so we’ve had 3.6 billion media impressions, 385 outlets in the United States and actually all over the world, um, cover it. Um, we had over 20 million views of the video, which for a colon cancer video (laughing) … I, I can tell you the number one viewed video, which was one that Katie Couric did for us maybe three or four years ago. It had 100,000 views. So that just puts it in a perspective the vast number of people that not only heard the message, right, through these, you know, these outlets, but actually watched the video. And we saw like a 25,000% increase in, you know, uh, Google searches around colonoscopy and colon cancer and screening for colon cancer. So, yeah, I mean, and, and, and just the part that makes me the happiest, and I sent, um, you know, the head of Ryan Reynolds agency, Maximum Effort and the whole team a text over the la- … I think it was last weekend or the weekend before. And it was, it was just somebody that I saw randomly on social media just say, “My friend went in today and say Ryan Reynolds is the reason why I came in to get my colonoscopy.” And, you know, Ryan said, “This is the best text I’ve ever received in my life.” Uh-
Mark Stinson, host:
Mm-hmm. Very powerful.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
And it really … It really, for me too, it just gives me goosebumps because, again, my mom was 56 and she never had it and it would’ve saved her life.
Mark Stinson, host:
Yes. Well, when Rob said to Ryan, “Look, there’s no way I could lose. If my polyps are bigger, if I have no polyps, if I have more polyps.” (laughs) You know, it, it would, uh, be a win-win for him.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Yeah.
Mark Stinson, host:
But, uh-
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
They’re both … They’re both awesome individuals, you know? And, and, you know, for them to do this, it, it just, you know … We, we paid them no money. They, they did this. They did it on their, their own, you know? And obviously, you know, the- their show Welcome to Wexham, I don’t know if anybody’s seen it, but there actually is a gentleman in the show, um, from, uh, the UK that had … has bowel cancer in, in the show. Um, but what we’re planning with Maximum Effort on doing multiple campaigns like this. Um, most likely, won’t be, uh, Ryan, but, you know, hopefully other people that are representative of the African American community, the Hispanic community, the rural community, and really just w- what it did is it got people talking about the disease, so-
Mark Stinson, host:
Yeah.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
It was [inaudible 00:16:56] success and we’re thrilled. And, and just really excited to continue, continue this.
Mark Stinson, host:
Well, I’ll love to look under the hood of this a little bit. Sometimes, you know, I think back to the campaign with the California raisins and, you know, dancing, uh, Heard Through the Grapevine. I mean, to some extent, these things get lucky. But the star power and the celebrity power, I know that other patient advocacy groups, you know, in many disease categories would say, “We really need to elevate.” And so, there’s a, a bucket challenge and there’s (laughs) all sorts of things to try to get, you know, uh, potential patients or participants or those at risk engaged, you know, and look at the screen and hear the message.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Yeah.
Mark Stinson, host:
What, what lessons learned … I mean, I know it’s a young campaign overall, but what lessons learned could you share?
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Yeah. Number one, what I would say is there’s no such thing as, as like lightning in a bottle from a strategy perspective. The ALS ice bucket challenge was not planned and it was a probably once in a lifetime thing for AL- ALS. This we did plan. But I would say that the genius of Ryan Reynolds and the genius of the folks that work at Maximum Effort and, you know, our support and partnership with them really made it a success. Like, we waited until we thought that it was the right time and that there was this connection with Rob and Ryan and their … both their personalities. And knew that it would … I mean, I guess we, we hoped that it would break through. But there … there’s certain things where, where it bumps along the road in terms of … in terms of getting us to that point.
You know, I would say to just partnership, um, with Maximum Effort has been just absolutely wonderful. I mean, they have been thrilled to work us. Um, their chief strategy officer lost his mom to, to breast cancer at a very similar age to my mom. The chief creative officer lost his dad to colon cancer. And, and, and we really, you know … I mean, I kept reminding the team, both our team and Maximum Effort team, Brooks, and, um, others. Chrissy, who worked, who worked with us, just that, like, “Why are we doing this?” You know? ‘Cause all day long these agencies all across the world and these celebrities are, you know, their making Deadpool movies or they’re, you know, helping Ford or Kraft or Pelotonia or who- whoever … Peloton. You know? But … And, and they do also do social good. But this, for them, one of the things I would just say, I, I felt really strongly about is that I had to bring it back to the mission every single time. And I really think that that’s why it was successful because they believed in it so very, very much.
You know, and, and, you know, Ryan is not our spokesperson. He won’t be the colon cancer spokesperson. He did this for his team. You know, but, but now we have other celebrities. We have other people that will potentially be talking about it. But the one think, you know, Mark, I just want to say about the Lead From Behind in general and the Alliance is that these campaigns alone will not move the needle. The work that we do and then taking those people on the ground in different cities across the county and actually helping get them to that screening. We call it navigation, right? Navigating them to get that actually screening. Providing funding through our health equity fund to actually get people in underserved communities to actually get screened. That is what’s gonna really, really move the needle. But you’ve gotta raise the awareness first. It’s like, you know, what we did with breast cancer and Pink and all those communities. Like, how, how did that happen? It happened with celebrity. It happened with large non-industry or we call the for-profit brands, like American Airlines and whatnot, putting 100s of millions, if not billions of dollars behind the cause.
Mark Stinson, host:
Yes. Well, and you mentioned this as a personal mission and I go back to your own story. And, and you had made the comment, “Maybe I wouldn’t even be doing this.” I looked down at the bottom of your LinkedIn profile (laughs) and I always love to scan down to the bottom of the resume. Uh, you’re, you’re degreed and, uh, professional in music. Uh, you’re in the symphony and now you’re called to, you know, uh, the nonprofit leadership work. In other words, this isn’t something you went to nonprofit school and say, “I think I’ll run a organization.”
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
No. I mean, I was really lucky. I went to the Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University, and then got my, uh, graduate degree at Rice University in Houston. And I moved back to Chicago. I performed at the Chicago Symphony, I was part of Chicago Civic Orchestra, Chicago Chamber Musicians. Um, I performed all over the world in Paris and in Asia and all, all over. And then, in 2006, I actually won a job in what- what’s called a training orchestra. It’s called the New World Symphony, um, formerly conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas who was the conductor of the London Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony. And actually, the first concert we had with him I was performing principle trumpet on Shostakovich Symphony Number Five. And my mom had been diagnosed that day.
Mark Stinson, host:
Mm.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
But they didn’t tell me. They didn’t call me. They waited until I did that performance and called me the next morning and said, “You know, Michael, we’ve hit a bump in the road.” And I mean, I just … I got just … I’m getting goosebumps still and it’s been, you know, however long? 2006, it was.
Mark Stinson, host:
Yeah.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Um, you know, just, uh, uh, it, it, it was clearly … First of all, I was like, I didn’t even know where your colon was at that point. And then, second of all, we hung up. I went online and I looked it up, of course, like people do, what’s the survival rate? And it hit me immediately. I was like … You know, and I started research on what are the largest advocacy organizations. Why is Susan G. Komen everywhere? Which is amazing, incredible what they’ve been able to do. Why couldn’t we do that in a colon cancer space? And, you know, throughout the next two years of my mom’s journey, I mean, it was … It was heartbreaking just seeing the … You know, my mom’s passing was, was truly hard, but the suffering of cancer patients. And it was just … It was debilitating. And I, I couldn’t help but say, “You know, if I had a million dollars I would start a colon cancer foundation.” Well, I didn’t-
Mark Stinson, host:
(laughs)
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
… unfortunately. But now, you know, we are a 63, uh, member team and we’re the largest colorectal cancer advocacy organization in the world. And so, you know, something i- in me, um, you know, allowed myself to be able to do that and to learn and to grow and surround myself with people that probably are smarter than me in, in, in different ways.
Mark Stinson, host:
Well, your leadership is, uh, commendable. And I couldn’t help but wonder, uh, the metaphor of a symphony to your network of people and navigators and funders and supporters and sponsors and so forth. What … Where do you see that analogy apply?
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Y- … I think two ways. So one is you were always taught as a musician to think outside the box. You, you are not contained in a box, right? Your, your artistry is supposed to speak from your soul, right? Whether you’re a singer or a conductor or a trumpet player, right? So you are always taught to draw outside the lines and think creatively. And I think, for me, that, like, allowed me, especially early on to think, okay, how do we really bring this disease to front and center of the stage. And do I have to say, Mark, that, like, this Ryan Reynolds launch and Maximum Effort Lead From Behind launch is a culmination since 2006 of me being so frustrated and our entire community being so frustrated about the fact that this was … This disease was not “famous,” right?
Um, and then the second analogy I would get … give is when you play in an orchestra or you perform an instrument, you have so many different jobs, right? You have a job of leading, especially if you’re a trumpet player because you’re sometimes really, really loud. You have a job of bringing your, your section, your, your fellow trumpet- trumpeters together. You have a job of working and listening to all the woodwinds, all the string instruments, and you have the job of following that conductor. So it really is … It is a like a perfect … You’re absolutely right. It’s like a perfect metaphor of, you know, we’re all on a ship together and if it’s sinking or it’s not, you know, (laughs) we’ve gotta be doing different things to make sure that those things go right. So, yeah, I mean, uh … And to, to say I haven’t learned a ton and to say I don’t make mistakes, I do all the time. But, yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s truly been, been my honor.
Mark Stinson, host:
Wow. We’re lucky to have you in the first chair of the CCO Symphony. (laughs)
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Thank you. Thank you.
Mark Stinson, host:
Well, Michael, what a terrific conversation. And, uh, we’re gonna put all the links and, you know, links to the, uh, uh, Lead From Behind campaign and links to your organization. But, uh, as you leave us here, yeah, give us a call to action, again, from the patients’ point of view. If we’re saying, “Look, people, listen to the patients speak.” So whether you’re at a company, whether you’re at a research site, whether you are an advocate yourself, what do we need to hear?
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Yeah. I think that’s a great question. So, you know, the first thing I think of is, you know, you go to school for something. And, you know, oncologists, surgeons, et cetera, no offense to them, I love many, many, many, many of them, but they have great degrees and that brings them ego and experience, et cetera. The first thing I would s- … The, the best thing I would say from a patient perspective or a caregiver perspective is, you know, having gone through cancer and having loved ones die from that cancer you always need to put yourself in that patient’s shoes. Now, yes, from a medical perspective you’re the doctor, but, you know, we really, really, really need to be listening to patients. Whether it’s quality of life, whether it’s quality of care, whether it’s cost of care and cost of care doesn’t have to be money. I use the example of playing the trumpet. If I was a trumpeter and I was on, you know, oxaliplatin, for example, it would cause neuropathy. I’d never be able to have my job again. So it’s thinking beyond potentially what you learn in medical school and, and really trying to put yourself in that patient’s seat.
Mark Stinson, host:
Ah, that’s for that insight and, uh, thanks for sharing. All the experience that you have, your organization has and, uh, the campaign. It’s quite motivating. Appreciate it a lot, Michael.
Michael Sapienza, CCA:
Thank you.
Mark Stinson, host:
And thank you, listeners. My guest has been Micheal Sapienza. He’s the CEO of the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. So come back again for our next episode. We’ll continue our conversations with executives and innovators at companies, at research, uh, providers, and at patient advocacy groups. To listen to the patients and see what we need to do to accelerate the patient’s journey from diagnosis to wellness. I’m Mark Stinson and this is The Patients Speak. Bye for now.
