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you waiting for? it's the w. von morning show with rufus williams on 1690 w. von. welcome back. small-cell lung cancer is one of the most aggressive forms of lung cancer. but a wave of research is giving patients new reasons for hope. the issue is many patients may not know how to ask about these clinical trials that provide these new treatments early enough. we are joining us this morning. dr ashish sakina who is an associate professor of clinical medicine at wild cornell medicine and sclc patient and advocate? wendy brooks to talk about these latest research advances and why patients should ask about these trials early in the process? we brooks. dr saxena, good morning and welcome to wn. good morning. good to have you d. let me ask you first. what's the potential life-saving question that many lung cancer patients don't know to ask when they're first diagnosed? and why can asking it early be so important? it's one of the really. important questions that a patient should ask is are there clinical trials available for me that i would be eligible for based on my type of cancer, and it's important to ask this upfront, because there are some studies that patients can only be eligible for if they haven't had any other treatment yet. and so they're sort of first line therapies, and those are often with our most promising drugs that we feel comfortable moving them to initial therapy. so it's very important for them to ask about them, because there are innovative. treatments for small cell lung cancer available. important, you say. they can only do this. some of these trials are only available if they have had no other treatment. first, which is why it makes it important to do it early. correct, that's right. now, wendy, let's talk about you and what's happening with you? why do you? why is it important for patients in this case to ask and how do you even know that you should ask about these trials before treatment begins? well, that's what we're here to help and. educate people so that you do know that there are trial therapies available. so when you do have a terribly bad diagnosis of small cell lung cancer, that you can have this conversation with your oncologist at your very first visit. and to continue that conversation at every skin, every other follow-up visit because. the treatments are being developed so rapidly. and what was available last week? was not available last week may be available this week. continue to have that conversation. it can really save your life. really important point. researchers are now talking about helping patients live. better not just longer. what does that mean for you personally, wendy, during your treatment journey? oh for me, rufus, it is. it just meant. the world, these new treatments. i'm actually on my second clinical trial, and both of these treatments have. given me a quality of life. that makes life worth living. when i had my chemotherapy and radiation, i felt poorly and i didn't feel i didn't, i didn't quite feel like i wanted to go do a lot of the things that i really enjoyed doing, and now with these new treatments. i'm able to live my best life. fantastic, dr kane. for years, success in small cell lung cancer was measured mostly by survival. talk to us about how this research is changing the focus to help patients live better during treatment. yeah, so we're really learning about. you know, the different treatments that we investigate. they really have to make patients also feel well. not just live longer, but be able to enjoy the things as wendy was saying that they want to enjoy. and so now a lot of our research involves things like patient-reported outcomes and things where we ask the patients directly. how they're feeling as they go through treatment, are they getting better or worse? which side effects are bothering them? and that helps us, as researchers and doctors, to know what side effects of a new treatment, to anticipate what we can manage and whether the treatment is really going to help the patient as a whole person overall. and whether it's worth? bringing forward. talk to us more about that. why is this so important for researchers to understand how patients actually feel and not just what they see on? yeah, i think. know because at the end of the day, we want to treat the patients and we want them to live well, and so for us to understand how that? is going to happen. we need the feedback of the patients, even when they're not on clinical trials, telling your dr. about how you're feeling and what side effects you're having, but, more importantly, also on a clinical trial, because those are important things that we need to know to maybe tailor the drug or give it at a certain dose, but we know a certain dose has got too many side effects, so maybe we need to have a different dose for the drug. so all of these things are important for us as researchers to know. but the only way. we can do. that is if patients tell us.