On the joys of reporting on art as a tool for cancer education

April 30, 2026

The intersection of art and education is well established, but its application in oncology remains limited.

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Last week’s issue of The Cancer Letter featured two stories about the role of art in cancer outreach and education—one about a comic book designed to increase cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination in Nigeria, the other about a film festival comprised of films directed by cancer survivors.

On this week’s episode of In the Headlines, Paul Goldberg, editor and publisher of The Cancer Letter, and Jacquelyn Cobb, associate editor, discuss their approach to reporting on art in the world of oncology.

“The cool thing about this job, which is why it’s great to be a journalist here, is that you’re doing a police beat, you’re doing investigative, you’re doing lifestyles, you’re doing just pretty much everything. And that’s during just any week. Oh, regulatory beat. Just name it all. It’s all there,” Paul said. “And art is a big part of our lives, and a big part of how we communicate. And so, whenever somebody gives me an art story, I go nuts.”

Dr. Obi Cancer Chronicles, Vol. 1: Cervical Cancer and the HPV Vaccine,” is the first iteration of a series of comic books developed by a nonprofit called Global Oncology that is focused on equitable cancer care in resource-constrained areas. The comic book was disseminated in Nigeria, where cervical cancer is a major public health crisis, and the response has been very positive.

Nearly all of the 350,000 cervical cancer deaths in 2022—94%—occured in low- and middle-income countries.

“This story in particular was interesting because we had been covering these recent advances in the cervical cancer screening and HPV screening space,” said Jacquelyn. “This is a preventable cancer, like 99% preventable with screening, vaccination, and follow up, and yet people are dying every hour in Nigeria.”

Cervical cancer experts insist that outreach and accessibility strategies are the most important lever to improve outcomes. In theory, cervical cancer could be almost entirely eliminated with prevention and screening efforts, thanks to a quirk of the disease’s histology: Virtually all cases are caused by high-risk human papillomavirus, for which there is both a vaccine and an effective screening test.

“What I loved about that story was, first of all, there was no way it wasn’t going to get done because the art was amazing,” Paul said. “Because comic book art is always amazing. Comic book art and a comic book that is really calibrated to address, to communicate with people in Nigeria is incredible.”

According to the book’s afterward, Dr. Obi is modeled on Olufunmilayo I. Olopade, a native of Nigeria and a leader in the global oncology space. Olopade is the Walter L. Palmer Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and director of the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics and Global Health at the University of Chicago. She is also a past winner of Global Oncology’s Visionary award.

“So, it was just really fun to see that also, the role model of Funmi Olopade. My God, she’s awesome,” Paul said. “The really cool thing about this is that we’re not bored. I hope our readers aren’t bored.”

“How can you be bored with Dr. Olopade in comic form?” Jacquelyn said.

Stories mentioned in this podcast include:

This episode was transcribed using transcription services. It has been reviewed by our editorial staff, but the transcript may be imperfect.

The following is a transcript of this week’s In the Headlines, a weekly series on The Cancer Letter Podcast:

Jacquelyn Cobb: This week on The Cancer Letter Podcast…

Paul Goldberg: The cool thing about this job, which is why it’s great to be a journalist here, is that you’re doing a policy beat, you’re doing investigative, you’re doing lifestyles, you’re doing just pretty much everything. And that’s during just any week. Oh, regulatory beat. Just name it all. It’s all there. And art is a big part of lives, our lives and a big part of how we communicate. And so whenever somebody gives me an art story, I go nuts and then I either do it myself or try to pawn off on you guys or send it to you and you pawn it back off on me or something.

Jacquelyn Cobb: Yes.

Paul Goldberg: But this time you actually took one. So, why did you take that one while you rejected so many other excellent stories that I sent you away?

Jacquelyn Cobb: I’m being an editor, Paul. That’s what you want.

Paul Goldberg: You’re listening to the Cancer Letter Podcast. The Cancer Letter is a weekly independent magazine covering oncology since 1973. I’m your host, Paul Goldberg, editor and publisher of The Cancer Letter.

Jacquelyn Cobb: And I’m your host, Jacquelyn Cobb, associate editor of The Cancer Letter. We’ll be bringing you the latest stories, groundbreaking research and critical conversations shaping oncology.

Paul Goldberg: So, let’s get going.

Jacquelyn Cobb: Hello, Paul. How are you?

Paul Goldberg: Hi, Jacquelyn. How are you? I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Jacquelyn Cobb: I did. I just want to apologize to anybody listening if I am screaming in your ear. I am holding my microphone today in my hand, so I’m doing my best to make sure that we don’t have any weird noises, but if you do hear anything, that is why.

Paul Goldberg: Are you going to sing?

Jacquelyn Cobb: See, that’s what… It really feels like I should. I’m holding it like a pop star. I am going to save our sweet listeners from that torture, but instead I can take us through the headlines. So last week, our cover story was an episode of The Directors, which is the other segment of The Cancer Letter Podcast. This time we had John Byrd from UPMC and Andrew Chapman from Jefferson, or Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Jefferson Health.

And they talked about catastrophism, avoiding catastrophism and using bridge funding to keep labs open in this uncertain funding moment. And we’re going to talk about that a little bit more, but let me just go through the headlines in completion. So, our second story was our coverage of NCI director Anthony Letai’s talk at AACR, the annual meeting, and he described a new screening initiative project and prevention project. So I’m going to let Paul talk a little bit about that in more detail because I actually haven’t had the chance to really catch up, so I will be learning along with you. And then we had some really-

Paul Goldberg: You edited the thing.

Jacquelyn Cobb: No, I did. I haven’t edited that yet. No.

Paul Goldberg: Oh, so I was the one who edited it.

Jacquelyn Cobb: That was not what I did.

Paul Goldberg: Okay.

Jacquelyn Cobb: Yeah, that was you. That was just you and Sara.

Paul Goldberg: All right.

Jacquelyn Cobb: But the next two stories were really fun. These were the ones that I focused on more last week was the HPV and Cervical Cancer Awareness comic book that came out of Global Oncology. Global Oncology is a volunteer organization that looks to improve outcomes globally, Global Oncology. Yes. Makes sense. But yeah, the story that we wrote was about specifically the HPV vaccine and screening. And they are still in the works of creating other comic books for other cancer types and in other countries. This one was geared toward Nigeria specifically, but it’s really lovely. It’s just such a… I don’t even know if I can do justice to it, but the art in that story is really cool because obviously it’s a comic book. So, definitely would check that out visually. And then our next story was a guest editorial about a film festival that features only survivorship stories or stories from films from survivors.

So, that was really, really wonderful. There was such incredible moving still photos from the films. I want to watch them so badly, but it’s called the Remission Film Festival, and it was in New York, April 17th. So, check that one out as well. And then we had a guest editorial by Robert Peter Gale about what the data shows about the impact of the Chernobyl accident on cancer incidents globally. So, he said that based on a review of the literature, he finds that there really hasn’t been sufficient evidence to show that. And that if that is the reason to deter people from using nuclear power as a way forward in… And now I’m going into energy world, so that is not my beat at all. But if as a way forward, or cancer incidents from nuclear accidents shouldn’t necessarily be the biggest concern.

Now, let’s take a quick break to hear from our sponsors. Life moves fast. It’s fierce, persistent, determined. At City of Hope Cancer Center, they are too. Their groundbreaking research and discoveries have impacted millions of lives globally. They’re moving science forward with the hope, passion, and speed every diagnosis deserves for a cancer-free future. City of Hope, pursuing cancer cures at the speed of life. Learn more at cityofhope.org. So that is the issue from last week. Paul, I know that we talked earlier this morning about what was interesting about The Directors. I’m going to let you do it for a little bit, but as always, I’m going to keep you a little short just because I do want people to actually listen to The Directors itself. So only sneak feats.

Paul Goldberg: No spoilers.

Jacquelyn Cobb: No spoilers. Exactly.

Paul Goldberg: Yeah. We won’t tell you how it comes out. So I thought to me, this was a really interesting episode because it validates the original idea for starting this, for starting The Directors. Well, you might argue that the Webby nomination was another, and this is after really a year of this at last. So what I was talking to Andrew Chapman and John Byrd was, they both confirmed something I’ve been hearing for the past three or four months. And by the way, this is the whole reason we started this is that we can talk to cancer center directors and ask them, what is it that’s keeping you up at night? And then stuff comes up.

And this is a way of broadening the coverage of the National Cancer Program from just the NCI director or just NCI or division directors to just the entire universe, which actually is really massive amount of NCI money. I think 80% goes through cancer centers at one point. So it’s huge. And so these are very important people who, when they see something and they tell us that’s something we should hear. So for the past three or four months, I’ve been hearing from directors that they’ve been resorting to bridge funding to keep the labs open and I’m starting to think, huh, that’s really interesting. And the story’s growing on me. I’m keeping in the back of my mind and whatever. And then it just occurs to me that, wait, did you ever do this before? And they both said no.

So it’s, or not very much at least. So there’s this picture that’s emerging that cancer centers are doing this and it obviously cries out for a survey to find out just how much of that is being done. It’s also part of a broader story that a lot of the payments are late and well, they haven’t been made. And that from NCI on grants and contracts, what does that mean? That means that institutions are basically lending money. It’s not institutions and they’re… Yeah, institutions, which by the way, Tony Letai is saying the reason for that is the government was shut down. And another reason might be, and that’s me, not Dr. Letai. The other reason might be is that a lot of people got Doged who shouldn’t have been.

And that whole thing is… And I guess it’s also new structures for review, like them or not. They’re going to take a little bit of time, not review, but actually disbursement of funds. Where is it slowed down the payments? But in any case, I have no idea. We are on it. We’re trying to actually, and we’re not just trying to, we’ll succeed at covering this thing fairly, which is just look at the events as they are occurring and not really going catastrophizing about it. But the results are, a lot of institutions are deciding whether to lend money essentially on short-term basis to NCI and essentially, or to offer bridge funding. Planning is a little bit difficult because I’ve been hearing from my friends at cancer centers saying that they especially have a hard time now with K grants. So training grants are really like, how do you plan? But I do believe that everybody will get paid. That’s my opinion. And it is based on reporting, but it’s still opinion. So opinion is not always a dirty word.

Jacquelyn Cobb: Not for podcasters, for journalists.

Paul Goldberg: No.

Jacquelyn Cobb: No.

Paul Goldberg: That’s our currency. That’s our gold standard.

Jacquelyn Cobb: It’s opinion.

Paul Goldberg: Opinion. No, but actually I don’t think we’re trafficking an opinion or catastrophism. No, I do believe that in this case, it’s keeping stability is important.

Jacquelyn Cobb: Yeah.

Paul Goldberg: Yeah.

Jacquelyn Cobb: I think, I mean, sorry to interrupt you, but I just think it’s important. A way to think about it is less about catastrophizing and more just facilitating a big conversation, like a group conversation across these leaders and across, not even necessarily leaders, just like people in the cancer centers as we’re publishing these directors being like, “Hey, this is weird. I’m noticing this.” And then Letai can see it potentially.

Paul Goldberg: Sure.

Jacquelyn Cobb: And it’s just a feedback loop. It doesn’t have to be this catastrophizing lens. It can just be, “Hey, this is…” Because regardless of Doge did make an impact. And so it’s like we have to figure out How to either get back to normal or just get back to good in this new system, in this new world. And it wasn’t, like you said, the longest government shutdown in American history was within these last six months that Letai was there. And yeah, I’ve heard him talk about this too, where he’s talked about a normal 90-day delay, a lag time that has just been accustomed to… Everybody has been accustomed to that. And now that things have been disrupted, it’s just this weird kind of domino effect with these normal bureaucratic delays being extended. But like you’re saying, and I think it was Andrew Chapman who said it. It’s like, that’s all true and fair and good, but also we don’t want labs closing because of poor timing. So it’s a feedback loop is my point.

Paul Goldberg: So, the training. The training is really important. And that’s another one of those important issues. And the cooperative groups are being paid. I mean, I was told that the checks are in the mail as it were, not quite like that, but transfers of money are being initiated. So I think it’s going to come through. I think a lot of the coverage by people I generally respect has been a little more catastrophic because that sells papers, but I think it actually does harm to somebody who’s trying to do a good job of it.

Jacquelyn Cobb: We have certainly been spreading his message of stability for sure. And also, and the messages from the cancer center said, “We need our payoffs.” It’s both.

Paul Goldberg: No, you just have to be fair about the entire thing. And that’s the only way I know how to do this job and I haven’t had another job ever.

Jacquelyn Cobb: Well, technically not never. Yeah.

Paul Goldberg: As a journalist. Yeah. I’ve never not been a journalist-

Jacquelyn Cobb: Gotcha. That’s true.

Paul Goldberg: Not since college. Some of the times I was working for a moving company or selling ice cream out of an ice cream truck, I’ve always been a journalist.

Jacquelyn Cobb: Love it. Well, and a novelist, writer.

Paul Goldberg: Yeah. I’m a novelist as well, but that’s… Yeah.

Jacquelyn Cobb: Well, speaking of art and shifting to those types of conversations, I would love to talk a little bit about the comic book story and the film festival story, maybe even just kind of together talk about why… Because I don’t know if we’ve ever talked about this on the podcast, our philosophy when it comes to having more artistic stuff in the rag to pull from your vocab, Paul. I know that you’ve always talked about that. So you brought this global oncology story to us. And it was a while ago, so I don’t want to put you on the spot, but I would love to hear why you were excited about the comic book angle and… Yeah.

Paul Goldberg: Well, I’ll have to go a little bit broader than that. The cool thing about this job, which is why it’s great to be a journalist here, is that you’re doing a police beat, you’re doing investigative, you’re doing lifestyles, you’re doing just pretty much everything. And that’s during just any week. Oh, regulatory beat. Just name it all. It’s all there. And art is a big part of lives, our lives, and a big part of how we communicate. And so whenever somebody gives me an art story, I go nuts and then I either do it myself or try to pawn off on you guys or send it to you and you pawn it back off on me or something. But this time you actually took one. So why did you take that one while you rejected so many other excellent stories that I sent you away?

Jacquelyn Cobb: I’m being an editor, Paul. That’s what you want. No, no, no. Well, this story is actually, it has an interesting answer. Maybe it would only be interesting to me, but this story was… I mean, I think the comic book is just, like you’re saying, I think anytime we get to do a more artsy story, we jump on it just because, like you’re saying, having this diversity of topics I think makes us a lot stronger and it’s more enjoyable, both for the writers and the readers, I think. So having this, I’m fully in agreement. But this story in particular was interesting because we had been covering these recent advances in the HPV screening space, sorry, cervical cancer screening and HPV screening space. And yeah, we were going to do this as a B story that week, and that felt like appropriate and nice, like complimentary.

And then it was just, I forget exactly what happened, probably just too much work. And so it got pushed to the next week, and that’s great as well, whatever. But it was just, I don’t know, as I was writing it just changed from being a complimentary story to the larger HPV story to its own thing. And it just, I don’t know, writing it took me forever, Paul knows, but I just ended up feeling really connected to the material, I guess. And I think the one thing about the HPV story from the previous week that Claire did was that it gave me that background to appreciate how important this comic book is and how it fits into the cervical cancer space, I guess, because I’m not really familiar with that area of oncology as much, definitely not as much as Claire.

And so for me to come in and read Claire’s story and be like, ‘Oh, okay, this is a preventable cancer or nearly 100%, like 99% preventable with screening, vaccination and follow up, and yet people are dying every hour in Nigeria. It really just hit me for some reason. I don’t know exactly what happened. So, I ended up being really moved by it.

And the same thing happened with the Remission Film Festival story actually. It’s a guest editorial, but I ended up just getting really involved and interested in the editing process of that one as well and the photos and thinking through how we were going to present the story. So, I don’t know, all that rambling to just say that it was fun. And I think it just, yeah, maybe… And this is something that happens anytime I tell people what I do.

I’m like, I’m a journalist and I focus on oncology and people are always like, “Ooh.” And I’m like, yes, oncology is very serious and patient stories are devastating and we do those and we want to do honor to those and all of these things. But that’s really not, like I would say the majority of our job is to cover patient stories all the time. We are really more on the trade side, like the business side. So, I find that anytime we can do things that are a little bit more like on the human side, I think I get excited in general.

Paul Goldberg: What I loved about that story was, first of all, there was no way it wasn’t going to get done because the art was amazing. Because it’s just comic book art is always amazing. Comic book art and a comic book that is really calibrated to address, to communicate with people in Nigeria is incredible. And then as you started reporting, you told me that there’s a doctor character in there who is Funmi Olopade, which was really said, “Oh my God, that’s so cool.” And then you called her and she said, “Yeah, yeah, it’s great.” c

Jacquelyn Cobb: I know.

Paul Goldberg: She’s just awesome.

Jacquelyn Cobb: I know. And the comic of her is so cute. It’s such a little… She comes in and she’s like, “None of your ideas are correct” to these kids who don’t understand it. It’s just so sweet and good.

Paul Goldberg: It’s like talking to her, which is always fun. She’s great. So yeah, and it’s just this… I don’t know. It was a very smart, sophisticated comic novel essentially, or comic book, whatever you want to call it. And just seeing that it’s being done is incredibly cool. So I love that story. Actually, I was actually, what I also liked is that it took you forever to write it.

Jacquelyn Cobb: Forever, forever.

Paul Goldberg: Which was great because that means you really cared and then everywhere it left almost no work for me as an editor. It was like, “Oh, okay, that’s perfect. Thank you so much.”

Jacquelyn Cobb: Well, at least I delivered that.

Paul Goldberg: Oh, you totally did. It was just the beauty of the story.

Jacquelyn Cobb: I just sat there being like, I need to… With the first four paragraphs, I just sat there for hours being like, I need to get this. I know there’s a puzzle ready to be solved. I know it’s going to happen, but it just had to make it through the insanity of my brain first.

Paul Goldberg: Well, but I mean, the really cool thing about this is that we’re not bored.

Jacquelyn Cobb: No, no, we are not. We are not bored.

Paul Goldberg: Yeah. We’re not bored. I hope our readers aren’t bored.

Jacquelyn Cobb: How can you be bored with Dr. Olopade in comic form? That’s the point.

Paul Goldberg: That’s it. That’s it. That’s it. Yeah, no, it’s really an incredible thing to see. And just so much else happened this week that was just an ordinary week. We don’t really have a total, “Oh my God,” story this week. And most weeks we really don’t need them, because there’s so much that happens that’s so interesting and it’s a great, great time to be a journalist.

Jacquelyn Cobb: Indeed, it is, Paul. Thank you for being with me today. And listeners, I will see you next week.

Thank you for joining us on The Cancer Letter Podcast, where we explore the stories shaping the future of oncology. For more in depth reporting and analysis, visit us at cancerletter.com. With over 200 site license subscriptions, you may already have access through your workplace. If you found this episode valuable, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and share. Together, we’ll keep the conversation going.

On the joys of reporting on art as a tool for cancer education

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