Understanding Biomarkers in Modern Medicine

Transcript Generated by AI.

Announcer: 0:00

Welcome to the MedEvidence Monday Minute Radio Show hosted by Kevin Geddings of WSOS St. Augustine Radio and powered by ENCORE Research Group. Each Monday morning, Dr. Michael Koren calls in to bring you the latest medical updates with insightful discussions. Medevidence is where we help you navigate the real truth behind medical research, with both a clinical and research perspective. So sit back, relax and get ready to learn about the truth behind the data in medicine and healthcare. This is MedEvidence.

Kevin Geddings: 0:30

Dr. Michael Koren, of course, medical doctor, cardiologist, research scientist, and directs the show at ENCORE Research Group . Go to EncoreDocs. com. We're going to talk about MedEvidence, which he leads the effort with that as well, in just a moment. We wanted to talk, though, about biomarkers. So that term gets thrown around, and we probably have even seen it referenced on TV shows, but what are we exactly talking about when we talk about biomarkers?

Dr. Michael Koren: 0:54

Yeah, biomarkers is something a lot of people have heard but maybe don't completely understand, and it's basically simple. Bio is biological, it's something that's alive, and a marker is something that marks something, something that shows you where something is. So when you put those two words together, we refer to this concept of being able to do a blood test or something that reflects biological activity that marks a disease. So a simple case that everybody's probably familiar with is the concept of a PSA, or prostate-specific antigen, which is a protein that is associated with diseases of the prostate and is sometimes used to help people understand if they're at risk for prostate cancer. It's not the best marker, because people that have an enlarged prostate for benign reasons may have elevations of their PSA. So it's not specific for cancer, but nonetheless it is a test, a blood test that looks at a biological concept, ie a protein that circulates, and it marks or shows us that there's something going on in the prostate. So, again, a biomarker, but people are interested in making this concept much more specific. So we want to come up with biomarkers that are really, really good at identifying bad things like cancer, hopefully at the very earliest stages.

Dr. Michael Koren: 2:17

And this is a little personal for me, Kevin.

Dr. Michael Koren: 2:19

I have to admit that One of my best friends in fact my best friend growing up in grammar school and junior high school, was a fellow who recently died of lung cancer.

Dr. Michael Koren: 2:31

And unfortunately he was posting on social media and sharing with my close group of friends, who I've known since I'm a kid, that he was quote in the best shape of his life, living in South Florida, walking on the beach and just loving life. And unfortunately, six months after posting this picture he was dead from complications of lung cancer. And obviously there's a very strong likelihood he had lung cancer when he was posting these pictures but just didn't know it. So one of my missions is to be part of an effort to come up with a better biomarker so people like my friend would be able to identify whether or not they have a problem. And again, my friend was a lifelong smoker, so it's not a huge surprise. But as far as he knew, at age 65, he was doing great and he was somebody that thought that they had many years to live and maybe if we had a biomarker that identified his problem, we would have picked it up in the early stage and be able to cure it.

Dr. Michael Koren: 3:33

So that's the goal and in fact, we're about to start a study that's looking exactly at that situation.

Dr. Michael Koren: 3:40

So we are very excited to be part of this program that will be looking at a very sophisticated biomarker looking at circulating DNA in the bloodstream to determine if somebody has early signs of lung cancer, and this is focused on helping people who smoke or have recently quit smoking to determine whether or not they're at risk. And, by the way, biomarkers are often used to distinguish a medical test from an x-ray or from CAT scan, so we call those type of tests that look for things like lung cancer as imaging tests. So biomarkers are going to be chemical tests of biological activity rather than imaging tests.

Kevin Geddings: 4:22

Interesting. Well people I guess will have that opportunity over time to participate in that kind of research and also all sorts of other types of studies ENCORE Research Group does here locally in Northeast Florida, correct.

Dr. Michael Koren: 4:33

Absolutely, and again, this is our whole concept of research as a care option. So, for example, if you smoke, or you have stopped smoking but have a smoking history and are interested in this program, we could screen you for it, but that might not be the best fit for you. There may be other things that we're doing that would be a better fit. For example, we have a study of people who cough and are not sure why they're coughing, and we have a medicine that may help that. We have studies looking at protecting people against lipoprotein little a, which is a form of very bad cholesterol that is now treatable with new investigational products, and we have studies looking at other biomarkers that are related to heart disease rather than lung cancer. So when a patient comes in, we look at that patient holistically and help that patient figure out which program may bring the biggest value.

Kevin Geddings: 5:26

Very good. Well, if you'd like to learn how you can participate in some leading-edge clinical research, you can get compensated for your time. You'll also get all the health care benefits that Dr. Koren was talking about, and much of this research is done right here in St. John's County at the Whetstone Building right next door to UF Flagler Hospital. Go to EncoreDocs. com. That's EncoreDocs. com. Want to put a plug in there too for MedEvidence, right, Dr. Koren?

Dr. Michael Koren: 5:52

Yeah, it's growing rapidly. We have probably over 100,000 people with exposure to mid-evidence at this point and we're excited about that. We had a big launch in the Chicago market recently and so far, so good there. So people are finding more and more that this is a place to get really objective, interesting information about health care, and it's a unique experience because many of the programs are two very knowledgeable physicians speaking to an issue.

Dr. Michael Koren: 6:21

They may not agree exactly, Kevin, but they'll help people understand what we know about a particular area, what we don't know about a particular area and how to learn about the things that we don't know. So a great example of that is this debate about alcohol use. I heard a discussion over the weekend about this and we know that alcohol use is associated with increased risk of breast cancer, and GI cancers such as esophageal, stomach and colon cancer, but there's also some data showing that it may be helpful in heart disease, as long as you keep your use of alcohol to low to moderate amounts. So where's the trade-off? And we're super interested in this concept and certainly it's an area that we hope to do more research in the future. So check out MedEvidence and hopefully learn more about what we know, what we don't know and how we learn about the stuff you don't know.

Kevin Geddings: 7:10

Yeah, just go to MedEvidencecom. Medevidencecom information available on all sorts of different platforms, very easy to access and you can trust it, unlike just Googling something or looking at a video on Instagram or whatever. This is data that you can trust and, of course, Dr. Korn and the team stand behind all that information that's out there. If you'd like to learn more about how you can participate in clinical research trials right here in St. Augustine and St. Johns County, call them here locally at 904-730-0166. That number again 904-730-0166. Dr. Michael Koren. Any closing thoughts before we let you go?

Dr. Michael Koren: 7:50

It's getting hot out there, Kevin, wear your sunscreen.

Kevin Geddings: 7:53

There you go. Thank you, Dr. Korn, take care.

Announcer: 7:55

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