Cancer YouTubers Spotlight: May 24, 2026

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:06]Hi everybody. Welcome to another episode of Cancer YouTubers Spotlight. Today I want to share with you a new YouTuber.

[00:00:16]Well, not really new YouTuber. This person's been on the scene for quite a while, but he's going cats. Anyway, he's going to be new to us. But first, I want to share some big news in the cancer industry. I want to read some news about pancreatic cancer and some new breakthroughs that are happening now. And I think it's going to affect other cancers as well moving forward.

[00:00:48]So, let me read that to you. And and I'm going to link this uh down below in the description, you know, near the like button. Just saying. Um, I only have excerpts of this that I took out to read to you. So, I'm going to link to the full version. And there's also a CBS 60 Minutes show that I also want to link for you.

[00:01:15]Okay. So, this uh story is focused around Vicky Stinson, and I'll tell you a little more about her. By the time the doctor uttered the words pancreatic cancer, Vicky Stinson's disease was at stage three. A doctor warned her that she had months to live, not years.

[00:01:37]Two years on though, Stinson is defying the odds.

[00:01:43]I have this drive and I want to keep it going, says Stinson, 65, a retired landscape architect with the National Park Service who married her college sweetheart and loves watercolor painting and hiking in Flagstaff, Arizona, where she lives.

[00:02:01]Luckily for Stinson, researchers are breaking through with pancreatic cancer, a disease notoriously hard to detect and treat. Stinson herself benefited from one of them. A new drug called Duraxon Razib.

[00:02:18]I don't know. That's the best I can do.

[00:02:20]Why do these things have to have names we can't pronounce? I'm still trying to figure that one out. Just saying. It's a medicine that works by targeting and killing cancer cells that have a common mutation.

[00:02:34]About 70,000 Americans are diagnosed annually with pancreatic cancer and about 80% of them are diagnosed at a late stage.

[00:02:45]Many companies are working on developing better ways to screen for the disease.

[00:02:50]But now, for now, the 5-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer remains at 13%. According to the American Cancer Society, by comparison, amunotherapies, genetics, and AI imaging have increased the 5-year survival rate for cancers overall by 70%.

[00:03:14]Sure, it's time for us to take care of business with pancreatic cancer. There's no doubt about it. It's long and coming.

[00:03:21]With similar breakthroughs underway for pancreatic cancers, researchers say treatment could transform within a couple of years. New genetically targeted drugs show promise. Last week, new clinical trial data for a promising new drug was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and it shows that Duraxen Razib is outperforming chemotherapy and enabling patients to live 3 to four times longer or 8 to N months without disease progression.

[00:04:01]On average, chemotherapy typically keeps the disease at bay for only two to three months.

[00:04:10]The drug is in a new class of genetically engineered medicines called RA inhibitors which target and kill the cells of certain cancerous mutations.

[00:04:27]Similar RA treatments have transformed colarctyl and lung cancer care.

[00:04:35]Researchers believe this could be transformational development for pancreatic cancers too because it gets closer to addressing the root cause of the disease. Now that's something, huh?

[00:04:49]Stinson participated in the Duraxen Razib trial for 13 months and says the big biggest benefit was ease. It's a single pill, not long hours infusion and it comes with fewer side effects than most chemotherapies.

[00:05:09]In the study, about a third of the patients experienced moderate to severe side effects like rash and diarrhea, though none discontinued the trial as a result. Former US Senator and terminal pancreatic cancer patient Ben Sass appeared on the CBS 60 Minutes and the New York Times while in the drug trial and appeared to suffer more severe sunburned or bloody spots on his face.

[00:05:42]It isn't lunchtime yet and I'm going to link yeah you'll find that in the description to at least to um the 60inut segment. In Stinson's case, she developed some minor acne on her face, neck, and back. kind of brought me back to my teens, she jokes, but it left her with energy to hike the Dolomite mountains in Italy and do her usual exercise classes.

[00:06:13]She said, I mean, I had a full year of normaly.

[00:06:20]Durax and Razib is so promising. The FDA allowed its maker Revolution Medicines to expand access to patients prior to approval.

[00:06:32]That actually Yeah, you don't just get that if it's it's promising. It's obviously promising. I'm sorry. I'm getting so excited.

[00:06:42]So they say that uh well they're hoping that means more patients will get the drug within a couple of weeks to months.

[00:06:52]This technology RA inhibition will likely be the backbone of future treatments which in combination with other drugs might result in longer life or even a cure. Okay, we'll leave that there. Make sure that you check those links out. And in the meantime, I want to introduce you to someone that you probably already follow. A lot of people have asked for this person to be covered.

[00:07:22]And you know, I have a a list and I was just waiting for it and and now we're there. So, let's talk about Don's Family Vacations or the Just Don channel. Don, the creator of the YouTube channel Just Don and Don's Family Vacations.

[00:07:40]He's a cruise news commentator and travel focused content creator.

[00:07:48]Don's Family Vacations has grown into one of the most recognizable independent voices in cruise news. Between both channels, Don has over a quarter of a million subscribers and he seems to be leading a leading authority on cruises and cruise news.

[00:08:09]Don is a Canadian based in Ontario. I believe he's in the Ottawa area. He's a travel agent in Canada as well as in the US. And not much has been said about his family. He mentions a couple of family members, but I'm not show sure that he's married. I don't think he's married, and I'm definitely not sure about a partner.

[00:08:33]So, if you all know, please share it with me in the comments because I know a lot of you follow him already. About 10 years ago, Don was first diagnosed with colon cancer that spread to his liver and lungs. And after multiple major surgeries and many months of chemotherapy and several weeks of radiation, three years later, he was declared with no evidence of disease. A few years ago, however, they found a lesion on the liver and he was diagnosed with recurrence.

[00:09:10]And most recently, he was having involuntary arm movements and they found a brain tumor.

[00:09:17]So, just to get us up to date to recent treatments, he had radiation and he started chemotherapy in oral form just a few weeks ago.

[00:09:31]That's where we're going to pick up as we follow Don through his journey.

[00:09:38]The Just Dawn channel is supposed to be more in the form of personal videos than the Dawn's Family Vacation, which is supposed to be more focused on the cruises. But since Don's passion is cruising, the line's a little blurred on both channels. Nevertheless, I will sift through it for cancer content. Not that I wouldn't enjoy some cruising.

[00:10:06]So, welcome aboard, Don.

[00:10:08]I know. Did you see what I just did there? I'm actually sorry to see you here, but welcome.

[00:10:23]All right. Now, I want to do the other one over again, but I should close this out.

[00:10:35]So, thank you all for joining me today.

[00:10:37]and I will see you in the next video.

[00:10:42]Bye.