If you watch the Spanish version of CNN, you may have seen Georgia Cancer Specialists physician Carlos Franco interviewed live about a recent genetics study that may help researchers understand how cancer cell growth is turned on and off.
Dr. Carlos Franco, of the Alpharetta and Northside clinics, has been a frequent guest on CNN En Español, where he is usually interviewed about new developments in cancer therapies and research.
Dr. Franco’s five-minute appearance on August 8 was one of the dozen or so times he has been a featured physician. He was spotlighted during the afternoon business show Economía y Finanzas, hosted by Alberto Padilla. Dr. Franco isn’t the only GCS doctor to be sought out by CNN. Dr. Rodolfo Bordoni, of the Cobb and Kennestone clinics, has also appeared four times on CNN En Español.
CNN En Español is seen in 12 million households and motel rooms in Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean, as well as 2 million households in the U.S. with an estimated viewership of more than 25 million people. Since 1997, CNN En Español has provided 24-hour news produced and reported in Spanish.
Dr. Franco, who is from Guayaquil, Ecuador, says he gets a lot of phone calls from friends and relatives back home after every appearance.
“My father always watches and always makes a copy,” he said with a smile.
Dr. Franco was asked to comment on a research study published August 1 in the European Molecular Biology Organisation Journal. Researchers at Monash Institute in Melbourne reported finding a master gene that appears to play a key role in switching on and off genes that kill cells, a discovery that could offer a new way to fight cancer. The scientists found that after deleting the molecule ETS1 from mouse embryonic stem cells, the cells were less susceptible to programmed cell death or apoptosis.
As a potential target for fighting cancer, drug companies could look to enhance the function of ETS1 to kill pre-cancerous cells. The cells in the experiments were not cancer cells, but embryonic stem cells in culture. According to researcher Trevor Wilson, to get the research from this stage to clinical trials would take roughly another five to ten years.
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