This past Saturday was a busy day of filming for the team at Visionalist Entertainment Productions.

We spent the entire day on the Beaumont Hospital campus in Royal Oak, Michigan filming at both the Rose Cancer Center as well as the Proton Therapy Center.

We had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Dr. Craig Stevens, Chief of Radiation Oncology. Dr. Stevens’ focus is on mesothelioma and other lung diseases which includes radiation treatment planning, predicting tumor and normal tissue responses to radiation and DNA repair. Dr. Stevens helped us understand how the new proton therapy system works. Beaumont is one of only 28 medical institutions to have this new, very direct type of treatment available to patients in America. With Dr. Stevens and Dr. Peyman Kabolizadeh, MD, PhD, Radiation Oncologist, we gained an understanding of just how this pencil proton treatment is changing the way cancer patients are treated with a much greater success of shrinking or eliminating the tumors with minimal tissue damage.

While filming, we were witnesses to the final proton treatment of 19-year-old Megan Ritz. After 31 treatments for a cancerous brain tumor, we captured the bell ringing ceremony that takes place after treatments are complete. This is a tradition celebrated at most of the cancer centers nationally. As Megan reflected in her very personal and emotional interview, she said “I was always counting down to this day.” Megan, a competitive dancer and student of Oakland University, has had a frightful cancer journey to say the least. After months of misdiagnosis, she would find out she had a rare form of brain cancer. “I was mad and upset that I was considering going into any profession other than medicine”, which is where her focus was at the time. She has endured a complex surgery where they removed a small “ball” tumor from her brain, went through the 31 treatments of proton therapy and is now on an intense regiment of long chemo therapy treatments. She shared with us the emotional rollercoaster of losing her hair as well as how she felt this was some form of Karma. When I asked if she ever wondered “why her?” She replied, “I eat healthy, I’m always active and I help others. Yes, I did ask ‘why me?’”

Since those early days, Megan has found a way to embrace this cancer journey with extreme poise and grace. “I have met so many wonderful people who have been there for me and my family.” Megan is also back on course, wanting to pursue a degree in medicine – quite possibly a field that would give her the ability to help others with brain cancers.

After filming with Megan, we were able to sit down with Dr. Dana Zakalik, whose focus is hematology, oncology, internal medicine and genetics. Dr. Zakali, who is based in the Rose Cancer Center, gave us an outstanding understanding of not only genetics but how this emerging science of being able to read a person’s genetics can assist in better understanding how to treat a particular cancer. Oncologists worldwide are now understanding that every tumor has its own characteristics and by going deep into the make-up of tumors, they can get better with prescribed treatments can have a far better targeted approach instead of one protocol/one size fits all approach, which we know has not worked for millions who did not beat their cancer over the years. “This is a really exciting time for us, we really feel we are winning battles against a wide range of cancers.”

When I shared with her Megan’s concern that her cancer was karma, Dr. Zakalik’s response was two pronged. First, we never know why a mutation takes place within someone’s genes to cause cancer growth. Someday we may actually be able to catch and turn these mutations off before they start. She did say that common sense lifestyle can play an enormous roll in a life that is less likely to have a cancer incident; the first and most obvious one is no smoking, then staying active, drinking in extreme moderation, eating a healthy diet of plant-based foods and low red meat consumption. Dr. Zakalik also mentioned the idea of drawing cues from the blue zones where people from regions such as Sardinia, Italy, Ogimi Villages in Okinawa, Costa Rica, Ikaria, Greece and Loma Linda, California regularly live into their 100s with very low rates of the many diseases that can take us out of the game of life – cancer being at the top of that list. When it comes to why a 19-year-old, extremely active, healthy young lady finds herself with brain cancer, Dr. Zakalik offers this: this is one of our mysteries of the body and how complex the system is when it comes to how our genetics work. Sometimes this is just predisposed and in Megan’s case and so many like her, she did nothing wrong and should, in no way, blame herself. We are certain Dr. Zakalik will be featured a great deal throughout our film as she offered so much depth to so many levels of our discussion.

We also had the privilege to meet and talk with Dr. Steven Katzman who specializes in Internal Medicine. He is affiliated with Beaumont Hospital, Farmington Hills. One of his areas of specialty is palliative and hospice care. Dr. Katzman is also the national medical director for Heart to Heart Hospice. He shared with us how uncomfortable patients as well as family members are to hear the word hospice in the course of a last stage cancer journey meeting with their physicians. This reality of “there is nothing more we can do” after a person has given all they have to fight a disease that takes the lives of some 600,000 a year, is an extreme disappointment – not only for the patient, but for the family. Dr. Katzman explained just how much hospice has changed over the years. “We often think of hospice as a service that is offered days before someone is ready to pass on. But that’s not the case.” Hospice has shown to help increase a person’s lifespan through catering to their needs while also providing support for the patient and his or her family. We are certain this conversation, while sometimes uncomfortable, it will, however, be imperative to this film’s story.

Also joining us for the day was Warren Rose, whose family have been supporting many community causes since Warren’s grandfather founded the Edward Rose and Sons Company 100 years ago, developing residential homes in our Michigan community. When Warren’s grandfather, Edward, passed on, it was his desire to have a portion of his estate go to Beaumont to help families who are dealing with a cancer diagnosis. That was several years ago. Warren, who now carries the torch for the family, is deeply passionate about the new strides in cancer treatment that the team of Beaumont are making. “Cancer is scary. Myself and my family are so proud we are able to help support the doctors, researchers and clinicians who are in the trenches each day fighting for all of us.”