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It’s hard to overstate just how important oxygen is to life on earth. Almost every living thing on the planet needs it to convert fuel into energy. We can’t survive without it. Not even for a handful of minutes. Fortunately, our bodies know this. And they’ve developed several (easier to say) rapid response systems to keep us going when oxygen runs low. 

A few cancers have found a bug in the system, a way to sound a false alarm and make the body think it’s low on oxygen when it’s not. And then to hijack the body’s response to feed hungry tumors. It’s a complicated process, and a fascinating one. And it earned one Dana-Farber doctor the biggest prize of all.

This podcast features David Livingston, MD. A few months after the release of this episode, Dr. Livingston died at the age of 80. He was a mentor to many and a giant in the field of cancer research.

Published

August 13, 2021

Created by

Dana-Farber