All across America and around the world. This
is veterans radio. This is veterans radio And
now your host for today's program Dale Throneberry
Hey and welcome to veterans radio, my name is
Dale Throneberry a cw2 helicopter pilot in Vietnam
1969 Wow, that's a long time ago. I can't probably
stop that introduction I keep thinking it adds
to my credibility a little bit if we're doing
this program. So anyway, welcome to our monthly
benefits program. Really excited to have you
all listening in. So if you have a question for
our experts, you can give us a call here at 734
-822 -1600. That's 734 -822 -1600. We are gonna
be talking with a doctor. Imagine that. Dr. Jason
Vasse, who was with the VA at VA Boston Health
Care System. And we're gonna be talking about
prostate cancer and what the VA is doing and
some of the research that he has been involved
with. We've also got... General Falzone, Carol
Ann Falzone will be here to answer any of your
benefit questions. If you have any, just call
that number I just gave you. And of course, if
you have any questions about anything going on
on our program, we really appreciate your contacting
us and letting us know what is happening. A couple
of announcements that I did wanna get in before
we talk about prostate cancer. Anyway, all right.
Two big events coming up. Number one is here
locally in the Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Michigan
area is Thunder Over Michigan. Thunder Over Michigan
is coming up on June 20th to 22nd at the Willow
Run Airport in Ypsilanti, Michigan. For those
of you that have been around this area for a
while, this is a really, really great air show.
And this year it's highlighted by the US Navy.
Blue Angels are going to be there putting on,
I think it's four performances. on the Saturday
and Sunday. Obviously, if you like airplanes,
this is the place to be on that weekend. They've
got the Blue Angels. They've got the C -130 Fat
Albert. They've got Air Force. What is it? The
F -22 Raptor Demonstration Team, C -17 Globemaster,
KC -135 Strato Tanker. They've got a guy who
does sky riding called Ghost Rider Air Show.
They've got Skip Stewart and what Skip does is
he's an acrobatic pilot and he does things where
he defies gravity with airplanes. And all of
these things are available to you. All you've
got to go to is ThunderOverMichigan .org to get
the tickets and find out all about the arrangements
that need to be made. But this is a great, great
opportunity for you to see some vintage aircraft.
They have always a nice, great static display
of aircraft out there. And I think it's really
worthwhile. This is one of our great local attractions
for veterans that I really encourage you to write
it down in your calendar. Again, that's June
20th through 22nd, thunderovermichigan .org.
Check it out. The other thing that I want you
to be aware of, of course, is to save the date.
Save the date. Here we go. Save the date for
Radio on the River. It's our fourth fundraiser
for Radio on the River, and it's going to be
Sunday, September 28th. And it's going to be
out at Freedom River this year. So if you want
to find out more about Freedom River, it's freedomriver
.org. And it's a great organization. They have
a beautiful facility out in Pinkney, Michigan
where we've got space for everything. Lots of
space. It's going to be available to everybody.
We're going to have music. We're going to have
storytellers. We're going to have food. Food's
always important, right? And we've got raffles
with all kinds of gifts that we're going to be
raffling off and speaking of airplanes we're
going to have the UH1 Huey from the Michigan
Flight Museum is going to be there for giving
you a chance for rides and the tickets for the
rides are separate, but it's going to be out
there as a static display for a while too. So
all of this is going to take place on Sunday,
September 28th. of this year. This is our only
fundraiser of the year and we encourage you to
go to our website. The information is there for
you and as we get closer we'll start talking
about how you can get tickets and so on and so
forth. But we really want you to do that. So
you've got an opportunity here. You've got airplanes
going off all over the place on June 20th to
22nd. Here locally in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and
then September 28th. We're gonna be out at Frieda
River And you're gonna be able to get a ride
on a Ui who knows maybe they'll let me let me
at the controls That would be really cool. So
That's all I got for coming attractions so before
we get into the program we got to thank our sponsors
because again without our sponsors and without
you we could never be on the air like we do keep
telling these stories we've been doing this now
since november of 2003 wow 2003. It's a lot of
stories, but there are so many more to go. All
of you veterans out there, you all have a story
to tell, and we want to help you tell that story
and get as many of them out there as we possibly
can. So in order to thank these people, we start
off with Legal Help for Veterans. Legal Help
for Veterans specializes in veterans disability
claims. Give Legal Help for Veterans a call at
800 -693 -4800. or go to their website, legalhelpforveterans
.com. The National Veterans Business Development
Council, better known as NVBDC, is the nation's
leading third -party authority for certification
of veteran -owned businesses. For more information,
go to their website, nvbdc .org, or give them
a call at 888 -237 -8433. We talk about NVBDC
quite often on this program, and there are two
reasons. Number one, they are great. supporter
of Veterans Radio. And the second thing is, if
you are a veteran -owned business, you need to
be certified in order to do business with the
federal government or with many contractors out
there. And that means that you have to certify
that you are really a veteran -owned business.
So these are the folks to do that. Again, that's
MDBDC. PuroClean, known as the paramedics of
property damage, East PuroClean office is independently
owned and operated. In fact, PuroClean is one
of the nation's leading restoration franchise
programs and they give a 25 % off fee for all
veterans. So pretty cool. So for more information,
go to PuroClean .com. The Charles S. Kettles
VA Medical Center here in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
For more information, go to va .gov slash Ann
Arbor Health Care. And finally, the Erwin Prescorn
American Legion Post 46 and the Charles S. Kettles
Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 310, both
of Ann Arbor, Michigan. If you'd like to support
Veterans Radio, and we hope that you really do
like to do that, we'd like you to go to our website,
veteransradio .org and click on the donate button.
Thank you in advance. We really appreciate your
ongoing support. So joining me now, as I mentioned
earlier on, is we're going to talk. Now, we talk
all about this research and things that the VA
does. And this is just kind of a quick aside
on my part, is that we've got great medical facilities.
We've got great benefit programs. But one of
the main things that the VA does is research.
We got to make sure that we keep the funding
coming in so we can keep doing all this research.
So joining me on the line right now is Dr. Jason
Vasey. Dr. Vasey is a doctor and medical researcher
with the Harvard Medical School and the VA Boston
Health Care Center. According to this document,
it says he cares for patients as a primary care
physician, studies how to use genetic information
to improve medical care for the past 10 years.
He has led the the Genome to Veterans Research
Program, I'm going to get into that one, which
looks at how genetic testing can help doctors
choose safer, more effective treatments for individuals
and provide a more accurate understanding of
someone's disease, disease risk. Dr. Vassey also
worked with patients in large studies like the
Million Veteran Program, and is a lead researcher
for the VA's All of Us research program. So without
further ado, Dr. Vassey, welcome to Veterans
Radio. Well, Dale, thanks so much. It's an honor
to be here and get to talk to your audience about
some of the work we do. Well, I'm really excited
to talk to you because some of the chaos that's
going on out there and misinformation is that
we want to make sure that the VA does keep getting
their research funding because of all the wonderful
things that they do. I know if you're up in the
Boston area, I know that's a you know, a world
-class institution much like ours here in Ann
Arbor with its affiliation with the research
that's done at the University of Michigan. So
yeah, so let me tell me what it is that you're
up to up there. It sounds really interesting.
Yeah, so in general, I wear two hats. One, I'm
a primary care doctor for veterans. So I have
a primary care clinic at the Jamaica Plain campus
of the VA Boston Health Care System. So I see
veterans in my primary care clinic there. But
as you mentioned, I'm also a researcher. And
both of those hats kind of inform the other.
So me taking care of patients on the front lines
day to day informs the research I do. And then
I think the research I do also then helps me
bring some of that insight back into the clinic
and how I take care of veterans also. So it's
kind of a nice, it's kind of a hand in hand,
one informing the other. So it's a really privileged
place to be and very exciting too. The overall
theme of my research is we've heard a lot about
kind of the genetic revolution or the genomic
revolution. We've learned a lot about the human
genome over the last 20 years, but I think many
patients are still probably wondering when is
that going to trickle down to the way my doctor
takes care of me. When is that gonna, where does
it make a difference in my healthcare? And when
am I going to start seeing maybe some of the
benefits of that? So I wear my kind of excited
in genomics research hat, but also my really
practical where the rubber meets the road primary
care doctor hat to kind of figure out how do
we design the studies to figure out where genetic
testing is appropriate to actually improve outcomes
specifically for veterans since that's where
I work. And so I'm here today primarily to tell
you about a prostate cancer clinical trial that
we're doing, but I've, for the last 15 years,
I've been working in this area of bringing genetics
or genomics where appropriate to primary care
and specifically the care of veterans. Could
you explain that a little bit to me, you know,
what the Genomes to Veterans Research Program
is? Yes, that's the, it's essentially the team
I lead that, that conducts these studies that
I've been in charge of. So one of them is the
progress study that we'll talk about. There have
been others. So there's been, I do some work
in the Million Veteran Program, which your audience
might be familiar with. And I'll tell you more
about that because that has actually informed
our prostate cancer study. I've also led clinical
trials of pharmacogenetic testing. And so you
might be able to guess from the name. Pharmaco
is medication and genetics. So that means how
does your body's own DNA influence how a particular
drug might work or not work for you, which might
be different from the general population based
on your genetics. So I've led some clinical trials
in that work, other types of screening studies
for other genetic diseases, all of this with
the theme of how do we take these ideas from
very kind of cutting edge, but ivory tower, perhaps
ideas and actually bring it to the real world
of primary care. And so prostate cancer is just
one of those examples, the Genomes to Veterans
Research Program is my team of other scientists,
research assistants, data analysts, project managers
who helped me run these studies, all of them
within the VA. Wow. Again, it's kind of I don't
think that the public and many of the veterans
out there probably aren't aware of all the research
that is going on in the various VA hospitals
across the country. Yeah. Well, and that's why
I'm grateful for this opportunity today to come
to share with your audience about one study that
we're doing. But you're right. I think you might
be aware that the VA just celebrated its 100th
year anniversary of its research program. phenomenal
when you think about that 1925 is when VA began
realizing we not only do we need to take care
of veterans, but we are uniquely positioned to
do the research to help take care of them better.
So things like the nicotine patch, the first
successful liver transplant, hundreds of other
medical innovations occurred because of VA research
actually in funded by VA done. VA research facilities
by VA investigators. So it is, I don't know,
I don't know if it's our kind of the US is best
kept secret or not. But, you know, here, I'm
here to get the word out at least about this
one clinical trial that I'm leading. But I'm
one of hundreds of others of investigators in
the VA doing similar work. All right, let's let's
get into your your latest research project then.
Sure. Well, so Prostate cancer is a big concern
for the VA. Prostate cancer is the most common
cancer among men. The prostate is a small organ.
It doesn't really do much except just sit there
under your bladder, but it is prone to developing
cancer. There is kind of run -of -the -mill,
low -grade prostate cancer that is very common
and that we often say people will die with instead
of die from because it's not serious, it doesn't
spread, but if you looked at the cells under
the microscope, technically they're cancer cells,
but they can be very quiet and stay dormant for
years. Then there's really aggressive prostate
cancer that can spread really quickly to other
parts of the body, cause a lot of pain, cause
a lot of disability, and ultimately lead to death.
And right now, even in 2025, we don't have great
screening tests to be able to identify which
men are at risk for going on to develop prostate
cancer in the first place, let alone which men
are likely to go on to develop this high risk
kind of aggressive prostate cancer. So that's
different from other cancers that we screen for.
Colorectal cancer, for example, we know that
starting at age 45, Everyone should be screened
for colorectal cancer either with a colonoscopy
or with an annual blood stool test or another
similar technology. We have pretty well -established
guidelines for that. Similarly for breast cancer,
annual or biannual mammograms we routinely recommend
for women. Prostate cancer we don't have a great
screening test for. We have the PSA blood test.
And so that's the most common, that is the test
we have to screen for it. But a lot of men who
go on to develop prostate cancer might have normal
PSA values or a lot of men who don't have prostate
cancer have a high PSA value in their blood.
And they end up going through unnecessary tests
and procedures, maybe even a prostate biopsy
to show that no, they didn't in fact have cancer.
So we don't have great ways of identifying men
who are at high risk for prostate cancer, and
we don't have a great screening test for it.
So that's kind of the problem here in primary
care when we're talking to men about how to manage
their risk of prostate cancer. So as I said,
my interest is when we've invested a lot in the
last 20, 25 years in the Human Genome Project.
So now we've learned a lot about the genetics
of what makes an individual more or less at risk
for prostate cancer. And so now we actually can
put some of those even hundreds of genetic markers
together to calculate a score, someone's genetic
risk score for how likely or unlikely they are
to develop prostate cancer in the future. and
the million veteran program, which is a landmark
achievement for VA research and has enrolled
1 million veterans plus across the country to
voluntarily donate DNA specimens, complete surveys,
answer questions about their medical history.
Because of that, we now know a lot about the
genetics of which men go on to get prostate cancer
and which ones don't. So it was time for a clinical
trial to see, all right, what if we could take
men who are eligible for prostate cancer screening
and prospectively, kind of proactively, give
them their risk score. Tell them whether they're
low risk, average risk, or high risk for developing
prostate cancer. And maybe that will help them
and their doctors make more specific, tailored,
personalized decisions about the right screening
program for them. So hopefully what that And
so that's the clinical trial that's ongoing now.
And the hope is that the men who are high risk
based on their genetic score get screening, get
it regularly, ideally identify cases of prostate
cancer early on so it can be treated before it
becomes aggressive. And then maybe the low risk
men on the other side of the spectrum. will,
if they have one PSA value that's a little higher
than normal, maybe take it with a little grain
of salt, repeat it in a few months, see that
it's normal, and they could actually avoid getting
unnecessary biopsies. So really helping a more
kind of moving from a one size fits all approach
to hopefully a more personalized risk prediction
for these for these men. Oh, I mean, that's,
that's kind of interesting. So what, what are
some of the markers that that you're looking
for? So all of these markers are in a person's
DNA. So our DNA is the genetic code of our body
that tells our body how to make proteins and
cells and how they all come together. And we
now know that there are hundreds of markers,
each of them associated with a very tiny increased
risk of prostate cancer. But if you add them
up, and in fact, the score that we're using in
this study has has more than 600 different markers.
Each of these one markers alone doesn't say,
oh yes, you will for sure get prostate cancer
or not, but you can kind of add them up and essentially
put someone on a bell curve of risk based on
these markers. So, and a lot of, you know, it's
in many, many different genes across the genome.
Some of them we don't fully understand why. why
they are associated with prostate cancer. But
we know that in big studies, when you look at
cohorts of millions of people, those who have
prostate cancer are more likely to carry this
particular change than that one. And so we were
able to add up a score like this. And as I mentioned,
we developed it in the Million Veteran Program,
but then partnered with other large studies that
had biobanks of DNA and they knew who developed
prostate cancer in that group and who didn't
just to replicate the findings to make sure the
score also predicted prostate cancer in those
groups outside of the million veteran program.
And the score works there too. So that gave us
more confidence to move forward with this clinical
trial that we're now enrolling. This stuff is
really interesting, obviously. To me and to any
other male who happens to be listening out there
is you know, what what are some of those markers?
That that you were mentioning of the 600 that
you know that our primary care First you have
to you know, if we do our blood tests or PSA's
and they go. Oh Okay, let's move on to this test.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know as a primary care
doctor myself I I make sure I design kind of
the tests and the the information around them,
where the primary care doctor doesn't need to
remember 600 different markers to order. So the
way this is, it's described as a single genetic
risk score, and they order that single test.
Turns out you can do a DNA test from blood, but
you can also do a DNA test from saliva, which
makes it a lot easier. So for this clinical trial,
if veterans are interested, they can go online,
learn more, and we can send them a saliva kit
to spit in at home, and it mails it back to us
in the lab. So the primary care doctor doesn't
need to keep 600 different genetic markers in
their heads and know which ones mean what. The
end result is the report will be based on all
those markers. Are you low risk? Are you average
risk? Or are you high risk? And so it's like
I said, it's not a crystal ball. It is an additional
risk factor that you may or may not have been
aware of before getting the test. And hopefully
that allows, because right now the current recommendation
by the national guideline writers and that the
VA follows is every man should have an individualized
decision with their doctor about whether screening
is right for them. But that's pretty hard, right?
You know, like, so they would, first of all,
you know, That's an in -depth conversation. And
I don't know if you've been to your primary care
doctor lately, but they're pretty busy and they
have a lot of other things. They have a lot of
other things to talk about in a pretty short
visit. So having a real in -depth conversation
about the risks and benefits of prostate cancer
screening and whether it's right for you and
really sussing out your risk factors, even though
it's what we should be doing, a lot of times
that happens. A lot of times it gets kind of
short attention in an otherwise really busy primary
care visit. So this helps that conversation along
a little bit more. OK, you're at high risk. For
you, I recommend screening. I strongly recommend
it. It's a blood test called a PSA. Let's order
that today. And for the low risk individuals,
it could be, well, you know what? You're at low
risk. You've told me today that here are the
other 10 things you wanna talk about. Let's talk
about prostate cancer screening another time
because it's safe to put that off until your
next visit. But this is, it's not a crystal ball.
It's not gonna say you for sure will, you for
sure won't. But it's just, it's a more precise
risk factor than we otherwise have in clinical
care. But the PCP doesn't need to know all 600
genetic markers. They can just order the test
and they'll get a result that essentially says,
high average or low risk. And then if they want
to read kind of the fine print of how that was
calculated, that's provided too. But the take
home message is we try to make that very clear
about what that means. Dr. Vasi, I've got a question
being a nurse. And you just said something really
critical for me that the physicians are really
busy. And you are very in being in the VA system.
I know how extremely busy you are. So a part
of your team, do you have a nurse or a clinical
nurse specialist or a PA that, you know, my husband
is getting these results and you know, trust
me, when you go for a mammogram and you're waiting
for the results, there is high tension, you know,
and is there anything that... these men could
do as they're going through the genomics and
the studies. And we can't get to you to get reassured.
Could I call in and ask to talk to a member of
your team? Yeah, well, so the I should say the
clinical trial that we're doing is still a research
study. So absolutely not only so they can always
call me and my team, which not only has me, but
also has three genetic counselors. on staff who
actually are the ones who deliver the results
when they get back. So we are including the primary
care teams. We're letting them know that their
patients are participating in this study, but
we are doing, because it's a clinical trial,
we are taking care of ordering the test, giving
the results back to the patient and telling them
what it means, and then also providing that information
to the PCP. And then we're on standby if the
PCP has follow -up questions for us about what
that means. If this moves into more routine healthcare,
I think we absolutely have to think about some
of those kind of team -based models. Right now,
a lot of the nurses I work with in primary care,
they are having those first conversations. They're
the ones who are ordering the fecal occult blood
cards when they see that a person is due. As
a part of this research, we're also doing some
interviews with primary care doctors and their
nurses. And right now, they're all saying, I
didn't learn anything about genetics in medical
school or in nursing school. I don't know how
to talk to my patients about this. I would need
a lot of help. I'm not ready for this. So that's
why we want to first do the clinical trial that
shows, does this actually work? Does this improve
outcomes? Does this actually help us identify
high risk men? and get them appropriately screened.
And if it does, then there's a lot of those implementation
questions about how do we get doctors, patients,
nurses, the whole team ready to bring this into
routine care. That's excellent. And I'm sure
you're... teaching the patients this and counseling
them is the right word along the way. So I'm
going to give you a question because it's really
pertinent when we get the calls at Legal Help
for Veterans and Veterans say, okay, I'm in this
study, I'm doing this trial, could I apply for,
I have prostate cancer? And we're saying, okay,
sure, we could put in a claim, we could help
you. But Then they sometimes say, well, you know,
I've been I get a negative result, which is good.
Do I still proceed with my claim? How would you
encourage us out in the field to take care of
these veterans? Should we? put in a claim because
you never know what's going to happen down the
line. And that's what I guess as the nurse in
me, I would tell them, yes, let's file a claim.
And then in a year, you've got a year to touch
it. If something else comes up, we've got an
active claim and then we could proceed. So that's
one question. So what is your advice? Well, so
if someone is diagnosed with prostate cancer,
inside like in the setting of this clinical trial
or outside it's prostate cancer so that and they
should they should file the claim as they would
whether or not they had participated in this
research study so that's the um now if they got
a if they if their genetics said they were at
high risk for prostate cancer and they get a
screening test it's normal they get a psa a year
or two later that's normal then they don't have
prostate cancer um but it might it might mean
that in the future they're at risk there they're
still at risk for getting it um and so you wouldn't
file a claim for prostate cancer unless you actually
have been diagnosed with prostate cancer you
wouldn't file a claim for kind of being at risk
for it um you know we saw a lot of this we still
see a lot of this with Agent Orange right but
even even then for prostate cancer being a presumptive
condition with Agent Orange, you still have to
have the diagnosis of prostate cancer before
you file that claim for prostate cancer, even
if you've been exposed to Agent Orange. So my
follow -up is a veteran has prostate cancer or
lung cancer, whatever. They go in for the surgery
and they've had, let's say there's follow -up
or pre. I know a couple patients right now are
having the radiation for a period of time. They
do have prostate cancer. They're thinking the
best way to treat it is do the radiation and
then after the radiation, get another CAT scan.
and then go immediately into chemotherapy. So
with one, he's at the latter part of the chemo
and they're seeing good results. Now a claim
has been filed because he has prostate cancer,
but then we've seen some that have had the prostrate
removed. and then their claim is dropped from
say 70 or 80 down to zero because they remove
the prostrate. Do you have any advice for that?
It doesn't make sense to me. Anytime patients
start to ask me about the benefits and claims
process, I have to... make sure I connect them
with the experts because it's not me. The situation
described does not make sense to me, but I don't
know the particulars of that particular patient.
Well, thank you so much because I wasn't putting
you on the spot, but this is what we see and
we go back and say, wait a minute. We're told
that if I have breast cancer or lung cancer,
you need a five -year window. So why are you
taking away my benefits after a year and a half
yeah i i do not know i don't i don't know the
details there that's a question we have to find
another source i think on that one i've had some
friends that have been done that we've been talking
with dr jason vassey about the research he is
doing into the genomes of prostate cancer and
it's kind of really interesting to me how this
thing is working and how it's going to work.
And you mentioned a little bit ago about DNA
testing. Yes. And that people could send you
the samples. Could you tell us how we go about
doing that? Sure. So the study that we've been
talking about is called the PROGRESS trial. funded
by the VA, and any veteran who is eligible for
prostate cancer screening by our current guidelines
is eligible for the study. So that currently
means between the ages of 55 and 69, because
that's right now the patients that we usually
talk to about prostate cancer screening, and
you cannot have previously had prostate cancer.
or a prostate biopsy. Or if you've had your prostate,
having had your prostate taken out. But otherwise,
veterans who receive VA healthcare between the
ages of 55 and 69 are eligible. And they can
go directly online to learn more about the study.
And so that is at progress -study .org. So progress
-study .org. And there they can read all about
the study. There's a link to where this clinical
trial is registered on clinicaltrials .gov, which
is a requirement of clinical trials. There's
the contact information for the VA IRB. So they
can call the IRB and make sure we're a legitimate
study and that we're real and that we are authorized
to do this. And then they can read more step
by step about what the process is. And the process
is very easy. through that website. If they're
interested, there's a button that says, get started.
And that's where they answer a little bit about
their history to confirm that, no, they've never
had prostate cancer or a biopsy and that they're
interested and eligible. There's a way of signing
an informed consent document there through the
website. And then if the veteran decides to enroll,
after completing a survey, we mail to their home
address a saliva kit. So we have now successfully
enrolled. Our goal is to enroll 5 ,000 veterans
into this trial. We've already enrolled more
than 1 ,600 from every state and three U .S.
territories. So we really can come to you. And
then it takes about a month for the laboratory
to process those results. And then, as I said,
essentially it is the... We give kind of the
fine print nitty gritty details in some of the
subsequent pages of the report, but the real
headline on the first page of the report is,
are you low, medium or high risk for prostate
cancer? And then what does that mean? And what
are some talking points that you could take to
your PCP about? And similarly, we have a version
of that that we also then send on to the primary
care provider themselves too. And then that is...
So the trial does not require people to get MRIs
or biopsies or surgeries or treatments or medications
because then we just observe what the veteran
and their healthcare providers decide to do that
information over. On average, it's going to be
about a five -year study. So we're not requiring
If we tell you you're at high risk, you're not
required to get prostate cancer screening. We
hope that you and your doctor will have that
discussion and maybe decide that you do want
to proceed with prostate cancer screening, but
it's not mandatory. And similarly, if we tell
you you're at low risk and you say, I don't know,
my neighbor had prostate cancer and I saw that
it didn't go well for him, I definitely still
want to get screened. you're allowed to do that
also. But we do think that this risk information
will help veterans make more tailored decisions
based on their own circumstances and risk levels
and preferences. Wow. This is just one example
of what's going on at your local VA. Well, it's
national. Yeah, and it's national. Yeah, we're
a we're a Boston based team. But like I said,
veterans across the country are eligible to participate
in this and we can we can send out a kit to you.
We can get this these results into your hands
and into your primary care doctor's hands wherever
you're getting care across the US. I think that's
great. This is awesome what you're doing. And
as I think we've said, numerous times, the VA
has the greatest and the best research departments
around the country, everything that you're, you
know, you're analyzing and trying to diagnose
and help our veterans, but you're also helping
the normal citizen because when, when you get
these findings and they're being published, you're
helping other primary physicians and surgeons
take care of our, our patients. And so does it
matter? Well, Thank you for the great care our
veterans are getting, but we're helping all Americans
with some of these disease processes. So thank
you very much for what you're doing. Well, it
really is my privilege to be able to take care
of veterans and they help inform the research.
And then the research I do helps me take better
care of them. It really is just a privileged
place to work. Um, well, you know, one other
comment as a nurse, if you step back and if the
audience could see you, I love the emblem on
your chest that says, I care because most that's
our mantra with nurses, you know, we go out there
and as my husband would say, we're caring and
sharing all the time. So I love that emblem you
have on. So I did, I know, I know the audience
can't see me, but I did decide to wear some VA
swag today for the energy. There you go. All
right that website again is is progress study
org Progress dash study. Yeah, there's there's
a hyphen there dot. Okay. That's right Make sure
that yeah, any of you that are in that age group.
I'm too old But if you're in that age group,
why not? Yep, and if you prefer if you prefer
phone, we do have a toll free number So that's
okay eight three three six zero seven five two
eight one And that's also on the website, but
that's 833 -607 -5281. Wow. Well, you know, this
has been very, very informative, Dr. Vasian.
I greatly appreciate you taking your time out
of a Sunday afternoon to come on and talk to
us. If you have anything in the future that you
want to share with our audience, please let us
know. We'd be more than happy to help out. This
has been great. Well, absolutely. Yeah, my pleasure.
Yeah. And keep up the good work you're doing
too. Thank you. We'll get that word out together.
All right. Take care, everyone. Thank you very
much. Bye. We are going to take a quick break
when we come back on we're going to be talking
a little bit about what's going on in the world
of VA benefits. So stick around. You're listening
to Veterans Radio. The Medal of Honor is the
highest award for valor in combat given a member
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Eugene Obregon pulled a fellow Marine to safety,
then shielded his body with his own. Details
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experts in handling cases before the U .S. Court
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again, 1 -800 -693 -4800. While serving as an
ammunition carrier for machine gun squad that
was temporarily pinned down by North Korean fire,
Obregon observed a fellow Marine fall wounded.
Armed only with a pistol, he unhesitatingly dashed
from his covered position to the side of the
casualty. Firing his pistol with one hand as
he ran, he grabbed his comrade by the arm with
the other hand, and dragged him to the side of
the road. Still under enemy fire, he was bandaging
the man's wounds when hostile troops of approximately
platoon strength began advancing toward his position.
Quickly seizing the wounded Marine's carbine,
he placed his own body as a shield in front of
him and lay there firing accurately and effectively
into the hostile group until he himself was fatally
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The Medal of Honor series is a production of
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VeteransCrisisLine .net, a message from the U
.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. We're back
here on Veterans Radio and joining me right now
on the line is our benefits expert, retired Brigadier
General Carol Ann Faustone, Air Force nurse,
and now strongly affiliated with Legal Health
for Veterans. Well, Carolyn, that was really
interesting, I thought, to be able to finally
talk to a researcher from the VA. I just think
it's so important that our veteran community
especially realize what's going on. That was
excellent. I was so excited because, you know,
this is what our monthly benefits program does.
We try to get the word out there to our men and
women who have served to talk about what is out
there for their health care. And for me, once
again, as a nurse, that was great to hear, you
know, the team approach, trying to diagnose and
get things. I didn't ask Dr. Vasi this, but I
think their goal with the genetics, the DNA testing,
doing all of this is to get it early enough so
that you know you're you're not that high risk
anymore. As we talked about friends, he's got
a great prognosis because they caught it in stage
one. They caught it so early. But when it gets
to stage four and it's down the line, it's harder
then to go through the radiation and then the
chemo and to get a good outcome. when we hear
things like this that are going on, it is great
for our audience to share. I certainly agree
with that, and I'm hoping that we get an opportunity
to talk to Dr. Fassi in the future, find out
more about, and maybe he can refer us to some
other folks that we can get on. Just let people
know what's going on. And I thought that your
question was really interesting, since we're
kind of in a short portion of the benefits thing.
that if you do have prostate cancer, then you
can get benefits. But as soon as they remove
that, you're done. And the idea is that there's
a five -year window on most cancers that I'm
familiar with. So it doesn't seem to make any
sense that they would just, no pun intended here,
just stop. Just because it's not there anymore.
We do see it for lung cancer, some of the breast
cancers. Yes, you know, they remove part of the
lobe, and then you're out there with radiation
and chemo. And then they say, Okay, you're cured.
Well, you haven't gone to that five year period.
And, and to be honest, I know some women with
breast cancer that have gone beyond the five
year and guess what? comes back it comes back
and so um when that happens for our veterans
we tell them let us know because sometimes you
get the letter before we do um and they said
they're reducing us they're reducing mine from
70 to nothing or 100 to nothing um but if we
get those results quickly we hear from our veteran
we put in and a stop reduction. Why are you doing
this? So that you're not, you know, pulled out
of the system. It's dramatic to go from 100 %
to zero. Right. And, and speaking of that, you
know, I don't know that we brought this up. But
if you're being represented by whether legal
help for veterans, a county counselor, a VSO,
and you're going in for surgery for that Part
of your claim that you have a disability. Let's
say a 20 a 40 percent when you're going Under
undergoing surgery and then the recovery period
whether it's rehab Or just that convalescent
period you should notify your representative
Because there's forms we fill out and you then
go to a hundred percent during surgery in your
convalescent period And so then they could drop
you back down, you know, knees is a good example.
And then our veterans will say, well, why was
I dropped? Well, this is the convalescent period,
the surgery convalescence. And we explain that.
But sometimes they believe you're cured and they
will reduce you totally. So it's it's always
and I'm not going to say it's going to happen
in all the cases. But, you know, we're all individuals
and It depends on the person that's reviewing
our case. So you got to veterans communicate
with your representative what's going on. And
we try to keep our veterans really in tuned.
Oh, we're going to apply you for convalescence
or we're going to do this. But we got to stay
in touch with one another. Yeah, I have heard
that from many veteran friends who have had have
had cancers that have been removed and so forth.
And once they're diagnosed, evidently it jumps
right up to 100%. And then as soon as it's gone,
it comes back down to zero or can't go lower
than zero, but it seems like they do. But I think
they have to be aware of that. And I was not
aware of the idea, if I had to have a... a knee
replacement or a hip replacement or something
that's caused as a service -connected disability,
that they would bump that up temporarily while
I'm going through the surgery and my rehab? Right.
But you have to apply for it. It just doesn't
happen automatically. It's just like anything.
I can't read your mind. But if you don't apply
for it, you know, if the veteran passes, the
spouse has one year to get the substitute in.
And that was what, you know, all the rumor that
or the the saying when the veteran dies, your
claim dies. Well, that's not true. If you handle
it the right way. and you do the substitute within
a year. So we found out find out a veteran dies.
I had one in preparation this afternoon got a
call from the daughter. And so, you know, so
there's there's ways to keep the claim going.
And that's what I would encourage. And if you
don't know, just call your representative and
try to find out what's going on. Wow, absolutely,
absolutely. Is there anything new that you have
heard on the benefits side of what's going on?
I mean, is it taking longer? I don't think they've
cut back on personnel yet, but it sounds like
they're going to. Well, I think they're trying.
I think I saw last week a note from the secretary.
of the VA secretary Collins that they have reduced
the amount of times in with claims development
by like something like twenty six twenty seven
percent. But please be excused there might be
errors so we're being very cautious we're being
very cautious when we get an answer to make sure
that. everything equals equals one plus one equals
two, not four. And that you got the proper award.
Some things are being deferred. This is interesting
because if you put in for two or three things,
one might be deferred, but we don't want that
deferred to get lost. And so we peg it for a
certain period of time that we will go back and
And say what happened to this part of the claim
so you know there's there's many. I don't wanna
say. tricks, but there are many things that we
need to follow up on. We owe that to our veteran.
And if the veteran has questions, we try to get
them those answers. Good one, why did my disability
rating drop in a certain area? Or when am I going
to get an answer? But I would just say we're
trying to be proactive and look at everything
that comes in to make sure our questions got
answered with your opinion that's being given
to you. I think that's really important for people
to realize, you know, we keep, we keep talking
here, especially during our benefits program
about keeping in touch with your agent, whether
it's, you know, whether it's a legal help for
veterans or it's a, your local VSOs, county,
you know, facility, whatever it is, but you need
to keep in touch with them, because there are
changes going on. And there is some, you know,
right now, there's a little confusion out there.
And I think the comment that he made, you know,
there may be mistakes is that maybe they're handling
some of these claims a little bit too fast. And,
you know, we have to go back and, you know, you,
luckily, we have people like you out there that
can go back and find out what happened. And that's
so important, I think. Don't give up. Don't give
up. But another area that we're seeing, it's
interesting, an increased process of what's happening
with exams, okay? So the other day, we send you
in for exam, I'll just use a simple one, your
knees. So you're going in for your knees, you
would expect to see an orthopedic, surgeon, an
area like that that's going to evaluate your
needs. So we get a response that it was reviewed
by a primary care physician. And we're scratching
our head to say, wait a minute. So it was the
veteran who called us and said, I went in the
room. I was maybe there five minutes. It didn't
seem like what I answered. You know, I have pain,
I can hardly walk. Walk for me and okay, we're
done. And you know, is that an adequate exam?
And so now, I'm glad they reported it to us.
You make a few calls, but then we wait for the
decision. So if the decision comes back, well,
we denied your knees, then it's our responsibility
to look and see. Okay, was it the appropriate
physician or provider that examined that case?
And so now we're going back and saying we need
another exam because we don't think this was
the proper way to do it. So is that time consuming?
Yes. Dale, we all have the recipe, who's supposed
to examine what part of your body's when you're
going in. And I think those are some of the things
that are a little frustrating. If you know you're
supposed to have an oncologist, maybe to review
some of the cancers, or a pulmonologist, we were
talking lung earlier, then I don't think a primary
care physician is going to be able to tell the
correct story. We're watching some of the stuff.
And I saw the quote the other day that I think
we all know. Let's do it right the first time.
And I think that's where it gets into some frustration
for our veterans. Yeah. What a concept. Get it
right the first time. We keep working on it.
We keep working on it. We're not giving up. We
greatly appreciate the effort that your organization
and so many of these VSOs across the country
are are doing the same thing they're really dedicated
to what they are doing and so we want to make
sure that um you know talk to your VSO out there
if you have a question give them a call that's
what they're there for to VSOs county counselors
My colleague wasn't able to be here today from
Washtenaw County, but that's a great organization
to call. And Dave is always there to help the
veterans in the Washtenaw area. So great. We
got a minute to go. And thank you very much,
Carol Anne, for being on the program today. Thank
you, Dan. And I hope it was most informative
to you out there as an audience. I wanted to
just remind people that next week's program,
Jim Falzone is a host. He's going to be talking
to a United States Navy vet, David Brown, about
going through the BUDS program and the Navy Seal.
I think that's going to be cool. And also, Air
Force veteran MD with that was at the Pentagon
in 9 -11. These are two great stories I encourage
you to tune in next week every Sunday or if you
listen to us in a podcast You're going to be
finding it there every week. So I'm really interested
in hearing Jim's stories and I get to go out
West next week for the weekend I'm going to California
for my brother -in -law's 90th birthday So we
got 10 seconds to go. So next week, tune in.
Until then, this is Dale Thromery for all of
us here at Veterans Radio, and you are dismissed.
and guide her through the night with a light
from above. From the mountains, to the prairies,
to the oceans, white with foam. God bless America,
my home sweet. Oh God bless America, my home.