In this episode of The Cancer Letter Podcast, Paul Goldberg, editor and publisher of The Cancer Letter, and Jacquelyn Cobb, managing editor, discuss promising developments in cancer research and the growing prominence of cancer as an election issue in Iowa. 

Jaqcuelyn’s conversation with Kevan Shokat, the pioneering chemist whose work helped transform the once undruggable KRAS protein into a therapeutic target, took the stage in this episode.

“[Kevan Shokat] was very much like a celebrity to me. He made KRAS druggable… He made the undruggable druggable, so it was this big exciting thing. And then I talked to him, and it was such a great, awesome, cool conversation,” Jacquelyn said. “So, I’ll dive into more details about that, but he won the [Stephenson] prize, and so that basically gave me an excuse to give a roundup of what the state of RAS, KRAS specifically, research is looking like right now, which is blown up ever since daraxonrasib had the really great results.”

It was when Shokat and his team looked at the KRAS problem as a chemistry problem rather than a biology problem, they were able to crack the code. 

“He has a really cool quote there where he’s like, ‘Once we figured out that it was a chemistry problem, I knew it was going to work. We just had to figure out how,’” Jacquelyn said.

Meanwhile, cancer is becoming an increasingly prominent political issue. Iowa has ranked second in the nation for new cancer cases for three consecutive years, and incidences are rising faster than in any other state, and politicians and policymakers take notice. 

“It’s kind of that political cliche, as Iowa goes, so goes the nation,” Paul said. “Unfortunately, it’s not true when it comes to cancer statistics, because as national cancer numbers are receding slowly, Iowas are increasing for whatever reason. And the interesting story here is that cancer suddenly became a huge political issue. It’s the first question asked at political debates during the midterms, and that’s really the story. What does it mean? People care about oncology, they do. Well, nationally, look, the administration tried to cut NIH budget severely, including NCI budget, and it failed, and it seems to have kind of recognized its failure, so perhaps hands off.”

Jacquelyn and Paul examine how cancer is shaping electoral conversations in Iowa, and what that could mean for cancer policy.