Immunotherapy has changed the cancer treatment landscape – and if you’ve ever felt like the terminology (and the pace of new developments) is moving faster than you can keep up, you’re not alone.
In this APTA CSM 2026 Preview episode, I’m joined by Scott Capozza, PT, MSPT, Amanda Giarratano, PT, DPT, and Stephen Wechsler, PT, DPT, PhD to unpack what every rehab clinician needs to know about the world of immunotherapy – from the “cibs,” “mibs,” and “mabs” to the real-life implications we’re seeing in rehab settings.
Whether you’re working in oncology rehab every day or you’re a generalist who occasionally sees patients on immunotherapy, this episode will help you feel more confident and more prepared – especially if you’re heading to CSM and deciding which sessions to prioritize.
If immunotherapy still feels like a lot after this episode, I’ve got you:
I created a MedBridge course called “Immunotherapy: What Every Rehab Professional Should Know” that breaks it down step-by-step. You can access it (and support my work) here.
Mark your calendar for ON-24021: “Cibs, Mibs and Mabs, Oh My! Demystifying Challenges and Identifying Opportunities with Immunotherapy in Rehabilitation
ON-24021: Cibs, Mibs and Mabs, Oh My! Demystifying Challenges and Identifying Opportunities with Immunotherapy in Rehabilitation will take place on Thursday, February 12, 2025 at 10:30am.
This session will be available on-demand.
About Scott Capozza, PT, MS
Scott Capozza, PT, MS serves as the physical therapist for the multi-disciplinary Smilow Cancer Hospital Survivorship Clinic at Yale Cancer Center and is also Yale New Haven Hospital’s first dedicated outpatient physical therapist in oncology rehabilitation. Scott was among the first class of board-certified clinical specialists in oncologic physical therapy in the country, and serves as a CCE for the oncology specialization exam through the ABPTS. He previously served as the Membership Engagement and Leadership Development Chairperson for the American Physical Therapy Association’s Academy of Oncologic Physical Therapy, and currently is a member of the APTA national Media Corps. Scott is the adjunct professor in Oncology Physical Therapy for both Quinnipiac and Sacred Heart Universities in Connecticut. He is also the co-author of the chapter ‘Young Adult Survivors’ in the textbook Oncology Rehabilitation: A Comprehensive Guidebook for Clinicians, and he has presented on both the national and international level on the rehabilitation needs of Adolescents and Young Adults with cancer.
Connect with Scott on LinkedIn.
About Amanda Giarratano, PT, DPT
Amanda Giarratano PT, DPT works as a physical therapist at the Simmons Cancer Center at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas. Amanda graduated from Ithaca College with her Doctorate of Physical Therapy in 2022. She first started working at Good Samaritan Hospital, initially treating both in the outpatient clinic and in acute care. She then switched to the outpatient clinic full time, seeing orthopedic, neurological, and oncology patients. She worked to grow the outpatient oncology rehabilitation program by establishing a standardized referral process for patients receiving chemotherapy. Amanda is active in APTA Oncology, serving as a Co-Director of Professional Growth and Educational Resources and SNP Chair Liaison on the Mentorship Program Committee. She has also reviewed articles for the Clinical Practice Guideline for Treatment of Cancer Related Fatigue. Amanda is passionate about oncology care and is pursuing the Board Certification in Oncologic Physical Therapy. She plans to take the exam in 2026.
Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn.
About Steve Wechsler, PT, DPT, PhD
Dr. Wechsler, PT, DPT, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at Simmons University in Boston, MA. A Board-Certified Specialist in Neurologic Physical Therapy, Dr. Wechsler developed clinical expertise in cancer rehabilitation while working at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City before returning home to Boston to complete a PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences at MGH Institute of Health Professions (IHP). His PhD and subsequent postdoctoral fellowship in the Cancer Rehabilitation (CaRe) Lab at MGH IHP focused on cancer-related fatigue, exercise self-efficacy, and exercise behaviors among survivors of cancer. His research agenda aims to develop and test behavioral rehabilitation interventions to optimize function, quality of life, and exercise behaviors among survivors throughout the cancer care continuum. Dr. Wechsler has previously served as Social Media Chair and Secretary for APTA Oncology, and currently serves as a member of the Editorial Board of Rehabilitation Oncology, the official journal of APTA Oncology. He has presented locally and nationally on the topic of cancer rehabilitation.
Connect with Steve on LinkedIn.
Transcript
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (00:19)
Hey, Onco PT and welcome back to this episode of the Onco PT podcast. And with this episode, we are kicking off our APTA CSM 2026 preview series. If you’re new to the podcast,
This is what we do in every January and February of the new year. We preview episodes where we interview speakers who are presenting at this year’s upcoming CSM conference. So that way you have a little idea of what you’re getting yourself into. What are the sessions that you absolutely do not want to miss and what you can kind of expect and who you can maybe expect to meet and potentially network with at the CSM conference, which we know and we love here on the Onco PT podcast.
And so I’m so thrilled to be kicking off this series with some amazing repeat guests and a new guest to the Onco PT podcast. So let me go ahead and introduce them and then we will dive into our first session topic. So first and foremost, Scott Capozzo, welcome back to the Onco PT podcast.
Scott Capozza (01:21)
Thanks for having me, it’s always great talking with you.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (01:24)
So next up we have Steve Wexler who has been on the podcast, it’s been a while. Steve, welcome back.
Steve Wechsler (01:31)
It’s been a minute at least, but honored to be back. Thanks for having us.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (01:35)
And then we have a new guest with us. So excited to welcome first time ⁓ guest and then speaker at the CSM conference, which is Amanda Giordano. Welcome, we are so excited you’re here.
Amanda Giarratano (01:49)
Thank you so much. It’s an honor from going from a young OncoPT podcast listener to a guest on the podcast. I couldn’t be happier.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (01:58)
Now y’all are speaking on a really exciting topic. So if y’all are looking for it in the CSM app or on the website, it is in the oncology section. It’s oncology 24021, CIBS MIBS and MABs, ⁓ my, chef’s kiss, demystifying challenges and identifying opportunities with immunotherapy and rehabilitation. So let’s kind of break it down a little bit. So if you’re listening right now and you’re like, what the heck did I just?
here. ⁓ Scott, could you tell us what do the SIBs, MIBs, and MABs refer to in this case?
Scott Capozza (02:36)
So the symptoms of Mavs is the tail end of the multiple drugs that we see now in immunotherapy. And I think that part of the inspiration for doing this talk at CSM is that…
It seems like there are new immunotherapies that are coming out, you know, on a very regular basis, almost seems like they almost come out daily. And so it can almost be overwhelming, especially as an OCO PT, when you’re trying to do a chart review, you know, we’re pretty used to.
chemotherapy agents. We’re used to seeing Dr. Rubison and Vin Christine in our patients’ notes. So chemotherapy’s been around for a long time. We recognize what chemotherapy agents are, and we know what their side effects are. Because immunotherapies are a little bit newer, and because they are being developed so quickly, we’re going to see these on our patients’ chart, and we’re going to say, well, what the heck is that?
And what is it? Why is the doctor giving that particular immunotherapy to this patient? You know, why is that a part of their oncology plan of care? But then also we need to know what are the adverse effects, the potential adverse effects of what is that immunotherapy and how is that going to impact our patient and how that going to impact our patient care as a physical therapist? So my inspiration really was
you know, to look at these names, which can be kind of confusing and to say, how can we demystify that? And to really break it down and to say, you know, what is immunotherapy? ⁓ What does it do to the body? ⁓ You know, and then, you know, the bigger question is, you know, how does that affect, you know, what we do as physiotherapists? I will say to Elise that I have been kicking around the idea for several years now that I’ve always wanted to do.
a CSM presentation with colleagues from Ithaca College, ⁓ which is the finest physical therapy institute in all the land. ⁓ And ⁓ so that’s why I reached out to both Steve and Amanda to say, hey, we all graduated from Ithaca. We graduated from Ithaca at different times, maybe even different decades. But I thought that this would be a really fun opportunity also ⁓
Steve Wechsler (04:47)
Yeah.
Amanda Giarratano (05:01)
Yeah.
Scott Capozza (05:06)
you know, for all of us to also represent where we went to school, ⁓ you know, just an opportunity to collaborate with the two of them. So, really excited that we get a chance to do this.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (05:19)
If y’all don’t wear matchy matchy outfits at your presentation, I think you’ve really missed an opportunity. So I’m just gonna say that’s an identifiable opportunity I have seen in this presentation. I will let you do what you want with that. But going back, yeah, go ahead.
Steve Wechsler (05:23)
Thank
Is
face paint ⁓ encouraged or discouraged as CSM?
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (05:42)
I don’t know that there’s a rule. you could set the standard. I mean, like talk about groundbreaking, you know, really leaders in the field for better for worse.
Steve Wechsler (05:46)
Let’s write the rule.
Scott Capozza (05:50)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Steve Wechsler (05:53)
It would at least explain the my part of our title.
Amanda Giarratano (05:57)
You
Scott Capozza (05:57)
Yeah,
I would explain that, oh my, as room monitors, there’s all kinds of things that we have to talk to people about and warn people about. But I’ve never once seen anything about face paint. So we could have the blue and gold out there.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (06:11)
We’re just saying it’s an opportunity. I would be remiss for not bringing that up. So just saying. Now going back to the title real quick, because Scott, like you mentioned, most oncopetes at this point are probably really familiar with the language of chemotherapy, right? We identify that, this agent is in this class of chemo’s. And so I can kind of…
predict or anticipate certain side effects. And with immunotherapy at face value, it can be really challenging to do that. When you spend a little time with it, you start to identify patterns in that language. And for those who are still like completely lost, let me give you the quick pharmacology behind it. There is a reason behind every drug medication’s name. There is a very specific purpose behind the different like,
parts of the words and whatnot. so SIBs, MIBs, and MABs, those all help to identify what kind of basically immunotherapy agent we’re talking about here. So that’s all the further I’m gonna get into it, but that’s what like SIBs, MIBs, and MABs are referring to. And so I imagine in your presentation, you’ll get into a little bit of the commonalities of the language, but also side effects like you mentioned, Scott, and I’m really, really excited to hear more about that. So pivoting now to Steve.
Scott’s kind of teed us up with, generally what can we maybe expect from this presentation? Why is it so important for attendees to go to this session to learn about SIBs, MIBs, and MAPs MI?
Steve Wechsler (07:44)
Yeah, so the immune-related adverse events or side effects, that is truly the my part of our title. And as Scott shared, there’s been a rapid expansion of immunotherapy use in the world of oncology. And that means that more patients are going to be receiving immunotherapy. And that unfortunately means that more patients are going to be seeing adverse events and side effects of immunotherapies.
And so I appreciate what you just said that ⁓ at this point, PTs, especially those who are ⁓ directly involved in treating patients with an oncologic history are well familiar with the chemotherapy side effects, radiation side effects, ⁓ post-surgical side effects, hormone therapy side effects, the list goes on. ⁓ But this is kind of a new little bit of a curve ball immunotherapy. And so it’s kind of like…
same, same, but different. It’s some similar side effects, but then some different side effects. And the pathophysiology is a little bit different. I won’t, we don’t want to put everybody to sleep, so we’re not going to go too deep into the pathophysiology. But ⁓ this is multi-organ system impact that we’re seeing from immunotherapies. ⁓ And so one of the things that we’ll talk about and that I really sort of like to use as a
A grounding point for this discussion is the human movement system. It’s not just muscles, bones, and tendons and ligaments. It’s all the organs that make up the human body. And we as physical therapists are human movement system practitioners and experts. So we need to be ready to evaluate for dysfunction in all these multiple organ systems and develop a plan of care that accommodates or considers or maybe treats some underlying dysfunction in those organ systems.
⁓ For how many years have we been preaching, it’s not a matter of if you’re going to see patients with cancer in your practice, it’s when. It’s getting to a point now where it’s not a matter of if you’re going to see patients who are being treated with immunotherapy, but when. So we want to spread this word and of, rising tide or rising tide raises all ships or something. Yeah, we want to bring everybody up to the level playing field.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (09:55)
100%.
Yep. Yep.
Scott Capozza (10:06)
Yeah, and Steve, think those are all amazing points. I think too, another important reason why people might come to this talk is because, again, our patients, again, they probably know what chemotherapy is to some extent, but immunotherapy, again, because it’s new, so they may be asking us questions, So us as the clinicians, well, what does that mean that my immune system is now turned on?
by this new drug. ⁓ And so we have to be prepared to be able to answer those questions, not just for us as clinicians, but we have to be prepared to answer those questions for our patients as well. ⁓ And again, because the landscape is constantly changing, we do have to be on top of that. So ⁓ it’s not just about educating clinicians to be a better clinician, but it’s also hopefully people who come to our talk.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (10:47)
Mm-hmm. ⁓
Scott Capozza (11:04)
⁓ will, will have, you have the verbiage, ⁓ you know, and the terminology that they can then turn around and use that when they have a conversation with their actual patient.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (11:15)
So going back to something, so Steve, had, you know, talked about immune related adverse effects. One of the things that because we’ve now been talking about immunotherapy long enough in cancer rehab, like we know it’s a thing. It’s a matter of when not, if you’re going to see a person treated with immunotherapy.
I’ve been going back into the literature a little bit and like some early stuff on immunotherapy. And one of the things that’s really interesting to now with 2025, because we’re recording this in 2025 y’all, with the lens of 2025, 2026, it’s crazy that some of these papers were published with the statement of, it’s likely that these patients aren’t going to experience side effects or aren’t going to experience.
that many side effects because immunotherapy is so much more gentle than chemotherapy, et cetera. When in fact, again, that is not our understanding today. And so there might be somebody who’s listening or maybe is going to share this with somebody who maybe is still operating under that mindset of immunotherapy doesn’t cause side effects or immunotherapy doesn’t cause that significant of side effects. Can you just speak to that briefly? Cause I know you’re probably gonna get into that more in your presentation.
Steve Wechsler (12:34)
Yeah, I guess that’s not true is what I say first and foremost. ⁓ But again, ⁓ it’s, you know, the good news and just to sort of let some of the air out of the room is that most often immune related adverse events are mild to moderate, ⁓ but they can also be severe. They can also be life threatening. ⁓ So, you know, part of the challenge, think, with thinking about
Scott Capozza (12:39)
Yeah.
Steve Wechsler (13:03)
immune-related side effects or immunotherapy-related side effects is they’re wildly variable ⁓ in their timing of onset. Some happen after the first dose, some sort of wait around and don’t happen until a couple months down the road or even a year down the road. But some of these changes can be lifelong. And then there’s variability and severity and variability in whether patients are reporting it or not or whether doctors are reporting it or not. you know, it’s ⁓
I think this area of research is a little bit still in its infancy, ⁓ but it’s picking up speed and I think we all have to sort of have our finger on the pulse clinically ⁓ as we wait for more research to come out.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (13:53)
Very diplomatic answer, Steve, with I feel like there’s some breadcrumbs of a trail that are gonna be talked more about in the session. So I appreciate that. ⁓ Amanda, we’ll pivot to you. What will attendees take away from this CSM session?
Amanda Giarratano (14:08)
Yeah, of course. So I think the beauty of a session like ours, and of course this goes for a lot of CSM sessions, is that it’ll have really good information for not only seasoned physical therapists that are really experienced in oncology care, ⁓ also therapists that are getting into oncology care, you know, are familiar with these treatments. I feel like it’ll have good information as well for them. ⁓
But also just if somebody came in that doesn’t treat specifically oncology patients all the time, right? Like Steve was saying before, and he kind of stole my punchline, even though it’s your punchline, Elise, it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when you’re gonna see a patient that has been an oncology patient or has been treated with immunotherapy because of the rise in popularity of it. So I think it’s going to be…
a great session for physical therapists in all walks of life, oncology focused or not. ⁓ Because like we said, a lot of patients are going to be having these treatments and whether it’s a part of their medical history or it’s a part of the reason why they’re coming to physical therapy, it’s good to be aware of this type of treatment. So I’m really glad that Scott brought us all on to do this. ⁓ So as far as what people will be taking away, we’re gonna definitely go into ⁓
the history of immunotherapy, where it started and then where it’s going. As Steve said, it’s still in the infancy there. And there isn’t a whole lot of physical therapy focused information on immunotherapy, except for this one really good MedBridge course that somebody put out there. not gonna name names. Actually, I will.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (15:57)
It’s a little
outdated, I hear.
Amanda Giarratano (16:00)
In preparation for this talk on CSM, I watched it and I was like, this is great foundational information. A lot of it still holds true. So if you’re looking for a precursor on our talk, definitely go take a look at that. So we’ll go into what is immunotherapy? How is it different than chemo? What kinds of immunotherapy there are? What the side effects are? And then of course, how is it relevant clinically? What are the considerations for exercise?
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (16:09)
Well, thank you, Medha.
Amanda Giarratano (16:29)
What type of red flags are you looking for? And then we’re definitely gonna go into a few case studies as well because I have a patient that I just saw that I’m really excited to talk about in this talk.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (16:43)
Okay, that teased me up perfectly, Amanda, because I was going to, I know I didn’t prep y’all for this question, but what are some examples of immunotherapy or patient cases that y’all are seeing right now in your practice where immunotherapy is part of the treatment plan? Just so listeners can kind of get a frame of just how common this really is.
Amanda Giarratano (17:05)
Yeah, so I can start with that. I’m seeing a lot of patients right now that are going for CAR T therapy. So that’s really common with ⁓ hematologic malignancies. But also, I think I saw a patient that had a head & neck cancer that was going in for CAR T and I was like, interesting. So we, ⁓ I work at UT Southwestern and we have really awesome pre-hab programs.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (17:13)
Mm-hmm.
Interesting.
Amanda Giarratano (17:33)
So we see patients for CAR T and BMT before they go in for admitted to treatment. So I had this patient and he wasn’t a pre-hab patient. He came in after the fact because he was having some suspected neurological response to the CAR T. ⁓ So I’ll be interested to talk about him.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (17:41)
Outstanding. Outstanding.
exciting stuff. Scott, Steve, what about y’all?
Scott Capozza (18:02)
Yeah, I remember years ago, I was working with a young woman ⁓ with a history of breast cancer, and she was getting immunotherapy and she developed almost like a hepatitis. And so the immunotherapy went after her liver. And so she actually ended up missing some of our physical therapy appointments because she was trying to manage that.
And so that’s what I have run into. And I’ve also, you know, I’ve worked with patients ⁓ who have colorectal cancer. ⁓ And because of the immunotherapy that they’re getting, ⁓ it also contributes to diarrhea and constipation. And so again, sometimes patients aren’t able to actually come into rehab because they’re experiencing these adverse effects. So sometimes what I’ve had to do is I’ve had to pivot.
Steve Wechsler (18:52)
We’ll be back.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (18:55)
Mm-hmm.
Scott Capozza (18:59)
with those patients to say, okay, if you don’t feel that you can get in the car and drive 20 minutes one way and be in the clinic, maybe we need to switch this up. Maybe we can do a telehealth visit or maybe we can reschedule to later in the week. So those are some of the things that I have seen. Not necessarily that I have to adjust in the moment of my PC sessions, but how they can impact
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (19:11)
Mm-hmm.
Scott Capozza (19:29)
the patient is getting to our appointments. And again, because if they are having these ⁓ adverse effects from immunotherapy, then they’ve got to address those things first.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (19:42)
100%. 100%.
Steve, anything you’d like to share here? We’ve had some great case examples so far.
Steve Wechsler (19:50)
Thanks
Yeah, well, okay. So I have to show my cards that I actually, don’t work clinically right now. So I teach and do research and that’s sort of where I’m living. But I think what I’ll do just to highlight sort of a point is ⁓ share one of I think the more sort of fascinating ⁓ immune-related adverse effects in that it can impact the endocrine system. ⁓ It can impact the thyroid gland. So it can result in hypothyroidism or it can result in hypothyroidism.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (20:04)
Yeah.
Steve Wechsler (20:21)
birth thyroidism. ⁓ And so, you know, if your patient is exhibiting symptoms of fatigue, which of course is impossible to disentangle from cancer related fatigue and fatigue from other treatments or post-surgical fatigue that they might be experiencing, ⁓ or weight gain or weakness or weight loss, ⁓ any of these sort of like difficult to explain symptoms, I think in big picture rehab, like your patient
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (20:36)
Mm-hmm.
Steve Wechsler (20:50)
isn’t progressing as you would think they should. ⁓ If you weren’t aware to screen for one of these immune-related adverse events or side effects, ⁓ you might be left sort of scratching your head. ⁓ So I think, again, just sort of more knowledge of the widespread and variable impacts that immunotherapy can have gives you a leg up as you’re ⁓
developing differential diagnoses and progressing your patients as best you can through plan of care.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (21:27)
100 % and one thing I want to make sure that the listener takes away from this because again These are some really great mini case studies that I know as Amanda mentioned y’all are going to go much more in depth when you get to your presentation it’s not just for a place of Recognizing side effects and then kind of letting it like watching as they float by There’s opportunity to potentially intervene in this case and even if we’re maybe not working directly with those
side effects. have a patient I’m working with right now who’s on an immunotherapy and she came in and she was telling me she’s having a lot of GI symptoms. And so in talking with her, it became apparent that this was as a result of the immunotherapy. And so I was able to encourage her to advocate for herself at her next oncology appointment to ask if there was an opportunity to adjust the dose. Now I’m not the pharmacist, right? I’m not the oncologist. I’m not doing this. But in identifying the side effects like sieve,
and Amanda and Scott were talking about, we can potentially have an impact on that person’s functional mobility, their independence, their quality of life, and helping them ultimately achieve our goals in physical therapy while also meeting their treatment goals and whatnot. And I think that’s a really powerful role that we also play as physical therapists. And I think a lot of this is going to come together really beautifully in this presentation that y’all have curated so wonderfully that I’m really looking forward to. And with that,
When is your CSM session taking place?
Scott Capozza (22:58)
So we finally got it all figured out that our session is actually right after yours, Elise. ⁓ We are Thursday at 10.30, so 10.30 to 12. ⁓ So yes, so one of the first ones, but we’re not hitting lead off like you, Kelly, and Alex are.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (23:19)
man.
Steve Wechsler (23:20)
Tough act to follow.
Scott Capozza (23:22)
Yeah, it is. Yeah, it’s going to be a varied self-fact to follow.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (23:22)
but a great.
But this session y’all, mean, talk about the, okay, the title by itself. Okay, I had I need to ask, who came up with the title? Because it’s genius.
Scott Capozza (23:40)
Guilty.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (23:40)
Scott, seems
Steve Wechsler (23:40)
Mr.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (23:40)
like they’re pointing to you.
Steve Wechsler (23:41)
Composer gets credit for that one.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (23:44)
⁓ my gosh. I feel like half of the draw of CSM sessions is the title, which I do love a good title. It really pulls me in. But following that up with, you know, the demystifying challenges and identifying opportunities with immunotherapy and rehabilitation, it’s like a one-two punch on the super fun, but then the also, I need this. I need this in my practice right now.
Scott Capozza (23:53)
Yeah, well, we’ve, yeah.
Yeah, I’ve learned at least over the years that like, if you can come up with a catchy title, that’s like three quarters of it right there. So yeah, I mean, I think I honestly think I was, I think I was in an airport somewhere. I think I was actually coming back from CSM and I’m like, all right, we’re already like trying to think about like, what can we do for next year?
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (24:17)
Absolutely, absolutely, for real.
Nice.
Scott Capozza (24:35)
⁓ You know, it’s like, okay, what about this? What about that? And so like, you know, it goes through like 10 or 12 iterations before you actually like get it and you’re like, okay, that’s it. And then you just hope that your colleagues like it too and they don’t look at you like, what?
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (24:45)
That’s it.
Amanda Giarratano (24:52)
you.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (24:54)
Okay, chicken or the egg, which came first, the title or the team?
Scott Capozza (25:02)
think we assembled it to kind of together. think I had like the majority of the title. Like I knew I wanted to do the play on, know, Lions and tigers and bears, oh my. I knew I wanted to do a play on that. I think Steve was the one who kind of threw in, you know, the more professional aspect of demystifying the challenges, you know, because he’s the professor here.
So I think I started with the fun part and you added in, Steve, you added in more of the serious part there.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (25:26)
Make sense? Make sense?
Steve Wechsler (25:34)
Leave it to Steve to be too serious.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (25:37)
It’s a good balance. It’s a good balance, right? Oh man. So, yeah, Amanda.
Amanda Giarratano (25:42)
What I’m wondering is,
Scott, if you knew that these sessions were going to be cut in half or drastically shortened this year before you decided to do this, did you know that before you decided to present on Amino? Because I feel like we could talk for so long. And then when I figured out it was only an hour and a half, I was like, this is a good thing and a bad thing because we have so much we could talk about. But for my first presentation, I’m happy it’ll be shorter.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (25:52)
I mean, right?
Scott Capozza (25:54)
Shortened, yeah, definitely shortened.
I think.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (26:06)
Ha
Scott Capozza (26:08)
Yeah, I don’t know. I’m
trying to think, Elisa, like when we left last year, when we left in 20, when we left Houston, I know it was up for debate. I don’t know that they had, yeah, right.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (26:20)
I heard rumors, I didn’t hear anything confirmed.
that’s it. Honestly, it could go either way, depending on your timeline.
Scott Capozza (26:28)
I don’t even think we knew when
we submitted, right? Did you know, Elise, when you submitted? I don’t think that we… Yeah.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (26:33)
No, we didn’t know.
Listen, Alex Hill is the brainchild. She’s the one who absolutely keeps us in line when it comes to submissions like this. I would have to ask Alex for total confirmation. I bring the vibe sometimes of like, I’m here, yay, thanks for having me. So I’ll have to confirm with her before I give a official word on that.
Steve Wechsler (26:59)
Every presentation
needs vibes, vibes first.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (27:05)
I bring the vibe.
Scott Capozza (27:08)
And I totally see that too, that Alex is the one that’s like.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (27:13)
This, it, I’m like, oh, God love her for it because we need it. Back to y’all’s presentation, because we can talk about my presentation another time. So we’ve already established it is Thursday, day of the, first day of the conference, y’all. Like what an outstanding presentation to roll along to and just continue an amazing day of sessions on, after coming to ours, of course. Thursday, 10.30 AM. Is your session going to be available on demand?
because one of the things that I struggle with every year is I don’t have a time machine to be able to go back and visit presentations I missed or I can’t watch replays. like, what’s the situation on that?
Scott Capozza (27:58)
Yeah, so we are on demand. ⁓ And you’re right. And Amanda, you were alluding to this before, especially as a student or a new grad or the first time going to CSM, it’s always overwhelming. And you can’t split yourself in half and go to two things at once. And that’s even if you are staying within our academy. You could be a PEAS therapist and say, well, I really want to go to this other.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (28:19)
Right.
Scott Capozza (28:25)
presentation that the Academy of Pediatric PC is putting on, but I want to go to this other one here. So what do you do? So yeah, so ours is on demand as well.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (28:32)
Mm-hmm.
Thank you for doing that. I really do appreciate it. ⁓ There’s just so many things to see. So I know there are listeners who are saying, thank God that I also can go back. And not just to be able to watch it for the first time after the fact, but to also be able to revisit this topic. Because especially when it comes to immunotherapy, I mean, it can be really beefy. I think we’ve established that pretty well in this interview.
There’s a lot to learn about immunotherapy and there’s only going to continue to be things to learn about immunotherapy. But having a foundation that you can then come back to and review on as you’re starting to bring that into your clinical practice with your patients, I think is only going to help people be able to better implement this information into their day-to-day practice. With that in mind, what is one thing that you are looking forward to about your session at CSM?
And then what is one thing you are looking to at CSM not related to your session? And we’ll go in the same order. So Scott will start with you, then I’ll go Steve, and then I’ll go Amanda. So Scott, you’re up next. One thing you’re looking forward to about your session, one thing you’re looking forward to at CSM, not your session.
Scott Capozza (29:48)
Well, again, I am looking forward to presenting with my fellow bombers because it’s a great day to be a bomber. So that’s what I’m looking forward to for our talk. And then, I mean, I mean, you could go micro. I actually know I saw that there’s actually a talk on testicular cancer on Saturday morning. So, you know.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (30:15)
Nice.
Scott Capozza (30:18)
kudos and I can’t remember who the presenters are off the top of my head shame on me but kudos to them to you know be able to do a presentation like that because you know selfishly I feel that that needs to be
you know, brought up as well. ⁓ But on so that’s on the micro but on the macro, I’m just looking forward to seeing all my friends and all my colleagues, you know, this is the one time of year that we all get together and we all get to hang out and collaborate. And, you know, I always I always leave CSM with my cup full. So that’s that’s what I’m looking forward to.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (30:51)
Love that. All right, Steve, you’re up.
Steve Wechsler (30:53)
Good answer.
Good answer. Okay, with our session, I’m hoping, I’m anticipating that we’re going to have a lot of therapists in the audience with experience who are willing to share what they know and what they’ve seen. ⁓ Because, you know, as we’ve all indicated, this is a huge topic. It’s a new topic. It’s a rapidly expanding topic. ⁓ I certainly don’t know.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (31:19)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Steve Wechsler (31:22)
everything there is to know about this topic. So looking forward to hopefully a rich discussion and sharing of ideas ⁓ within the session. I think that’d be really, really cool. ⁓ I’ll do a shameless plug. I’m also looking forward to my other session that I’m presenting. ⁓ It’s about my current research. So I’m particularly excited to present about ⁓ what we have done in terms of equitably implementing and exercised
⁓ oncology program. We’ve expanded from Boston down to Atlanta and now we’re back in Boston at another site. So it’s an exciting project. So I’m excited to get up on stage twice for the first time.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (32:04)
And dear listener, don’t worry, we already have him booked for another podcast interview that we will be doing. So stay tuned. It’s coming. Right. More bread crumbs. I love it. OK, Amanda, take us away.
Steve Wechsler (32:10)
I just like to dry drop little seeds and then we can water them as we go.
Amanda Giarratano (32:18)
All right, what I’m most excited to about our session ⁓ is my first time presenting, which, you know, public speaking is a little nerve wracking for people in case nobody realized that. ⁓ But I am really excited to be working with this team, you know, Go Bombers, Ithaca, and I think it’ll be great. So if anybody sees me get nervous, don’t say anything about it because it’s gonna happen.
I feel like I’m here among the very seasoned people. So I’m very excited to be presenting this information. I think it’s going to be great. And I’m so excited that I got pulled into this opportunity. And I am also surprised that I’m the first one saying that I’m excited to work for the Celebration of Life. That’s not our session. That has been one of my favorite things to go to. I have been going to CSM every year since like 2020.
Steve Wechsler (33:08)
I mean.
Amanda Giarratano (33:16)
I want to say and I remember I was messaging with Scott and he was like, okay, the thing you have to make sure you go to is the celebration of life and I said sounds good. I’ll be there. So I’m really excited to go there to honor our new specialist. One of my coworkers is a new specialist and I’m really excited to just honor her and then it’ll be my last CSM. Hopefully if everything goes well.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (33:25)
Mm-hmm.
Nice.
Amanda Giarratano (33:44)
as not a clinical specialist myself because I’m taking the exam in February. So honor my coworker there and then hopefully next year will honor me.
Steve Wechsler (33:50)
Hug. ⁓
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (33:57)
I do feel like as a former person who went to CSM and then went and took the exam shortly after, it was a nice kind of light review for a lot of the exam. And if nothing else, it gets you out of your study bubble for a little bit. So looking forward very much to also next year’s CSM for that reason to Amanda. Well, y’all, thank you so, so much. Just to recap real quick.
So Scott, Steve and Amanda’s presentation is called Oncology 24021, Sibs, MIBs and Mabs My! Demystifying Challenges and Identifying Opportunities with Immunotherapy and Rehabilitation. It takes place on Thursday morning at 10.30 a.m. You can find all of the information in the app. I don’t know where the room is because I don’t know what the room is yet. You can find that in the app. It is also available on demand so you can attend live and then you can also get the review.
to view again at your own pleasure after the conference is finished. This is going to be an outstanding session. I’m so thrilled that this was our lead off episode for the CSM preview series. So thank you, Scott, Steve and Amanda once again for coming on the podcast. At this point, I’ll turn it back to y’all. ⁓ Is there anything you’d like to leave my listeners with and where can people connect with you if they want to continue this conversation leading up to CSM? So Scott will go first and then Steve, Amanda again.
Scott Capozza (35:21)
All right, well again, Elise, thank you so much. And this is really so cool that you’ve made this an annual tradition, this kind of preview ⁓ of what’s coming for CSM. I mean, this is great because you’re right, it gives people an opportunity to listen to the podcast and they can kind of figure out, right, I really wanna go to this one or this one really sounds interesting. Or maybe they might say, ⁓ yeah, it sounds like I have a pretty good handle on this particular.
presentation. So then I don’t have to flip myself in half and you know and I can go to something else. So for me I am primarily on Instagram and LinkedIn at Scott Capoza and so that’s where you can connect with me there and but at least least knows how to get a hold of me as well.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (36:14)
Yep. Yep. All right, Steve, you’re up.
Steve Wechsler (36:17)
⁓ I’m such a dork. I just opened up ⁓ X to try and remember what my handle is. And the fact that I had to do that made me realize I shouldn’t give it up. I would say professionally I’m on the grid, but otherwise I’m pretty off the grid. ⁓ But I’m sure I’m findable on LinkedIn. I’m an assistant professor at Simmons University in Boston. So if you go to Simmons and look for my name, you can find
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (36:29)
Right? Let it go.
Perfect. We will absolutely link to that, Steve. Don’t worry. All right, Amanda, close us out, please.
Amanda Giarratano (36:55)
All right. Well, also, I will send Elise my email and you can put that underneath in the notes. And also I am on LinkedIn, Amanda Giordano. Look for how to spell it in the notes as well. And also another shameless plug is that I am on the oncology mentorship committee and I’m also a part of the students new professional SIG for APT oncology. So ⁓ please come to our networking session.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (37:08)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Amanda Giarratano (37:23)
It is on Friday morning at 930 a.m., Friday the 13th, spooky, unless that has changed, but it should be called the SMP networking session. It’ll be a great time to meet new professionals. Sometimes we have some really seasoned professionals join us too. I think Scott was there last year. And also our mentorship committee.
for ABT Oncology has been going really well with our kind of revamped first cohort. So at CSM, it’s our big event also to recruit some mentors and then gauge some interest from mentees as well. So you’ll see us at the booth and we’ll have some QRR codes to sign up to be a mentee and also to sign up to be a mentor. So be looking out for that information.
Dr. Elise K. Cantu (38:16)
Very cool. Scott, Steve, Amanda, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Once again, we will link all of your contact information in the show notes for our listeners to find, especially if they want to start the conversation leading up to CSM and hopefully they get to meet all of you at your incredible session. Once again, happening Thursday, 1030 AM. You can find more information about their session in the oncology section of the conference. So be on the lookout for that.
Thank you so much all. I’m really, really excited for this session. I know it’s going to be a really, really good one. And I cannot wait to see all of your amazing faces once again at CSM in Anaheim. So get pumped. I can’t wait to see you there. And until next time, this is Elise with the Onco PT. And remember, you are exactly the physical therapist that your patients with cancer need. So let’s get to work.