(upbeat music) - Good evening and welcome to Horizonte, a show that takes a look at current issues through an Hispanic lens.

For nearly 20 years, you've heard me say good evening and welcome to Horizonte.

I'm your host, Jose Cardenas.

But there does come a time when there's a need to pass the baton, and so I'm honored to introduce you to our new host, Catherine Anaya.

Catherine is a friend, a familiar face.

She's been on this show a few times and an Emmy award-winning journalist who is a local news anchor here and in several other cities.

More importantly, she is a pillar in our community.

Catherine, I wish you the very best.

- Thank you.

- You're gonna be terrific.

- Well, this means a lot to me because you've built such an incredible legacy here at Horizonte and so to be able to build on that is really exciting for me.

- You're gonna be a great host.

- Thank you very much.

So shall we?

- Shall we?

Yes.

- Let's do that.

- Yes, because we go, we established, we go way back to the 90s.

- Yes.

- When we were babies.

(Catherine laughing) - Except you haven't changed.

- Oh, you're so sweet.

It's still look well.

- You look wonderful.

- Thank you.

- So we go back to the 90s community events and I was actually a guest of Horizonte back in 2015.

- You were.

You were.

- Yes.

- I think Latino Trailblazers, you were being honored.

- Yes, indeed.

And then we talked about me leaving news, retiring from news.

So it's just, it's great to be back in front of the camera with you to talk about your legacy here as I mentioned.

You started the show back in 2003, right?

- That's right.

- And you didn't have any on air experience at the time.

What was that like?

- And then when I auditioned for the pilot, that was it.

- Were you nervous?

What was that like?

- I was nervous and I was terrible, but.

- And here you are 20 years later.

- Yes.

- And still going strong and so amazing.

But now you're stepping away from being in front of the camera.

However, you're still gonna play a part in this show, right?

- As a consultant.

Yes.

Yes.

And I'm looking forward to that.

- We're looking forward to it.

- We'll then continue to talk to you.

- Yes, indeed.

And I'm looking forward to that too because you really are a pillar in the community and you've done so much to put this show on the map.

What would you say would be sort of your favorite highlights from the last 20 years?

- Well there were so many, certainly that first show and I was, as you indicated, rather nervous, I mumbled and stumbled through the name of my former law partner, Janet Napolitano, who was then recently elected Governor of Arizona.

We had Jeff Trent from the Translational Genomics Research Institute on this guest.

So we started off pretty powerful lineup.

So, and the Governor was always a great guest but other highlights include people like Edward James Olmos, the actor.

Turns out he was also a baseball star when he was a teenager.

Played on a Dodgers farm club for a little bit, then then was in a rock band.

I mean, who wouldn't have known that.

- Right?

- But we had a chance to get that out.

But there was also a lot of fun with people who were not famous in that sense but who were just exciting to be around.

I remember one dance instructor with young people, and she was so energetic, moving around that I'm moving around while I'm on the set.

So it was a lot of fun.

You met a lot of interesting people and people who like you really were contributors to our community.

- Well, I think that's what's so exciting about doing this show for me is to be able to give that voice and that platform to a lot of these wonderful so-called ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things in our community, wouldn't you say?

- Oh, absolutely.

And the other thing and I've been quoted about this a few times over the years, at least my conception of the show was an attempt to dispel the stereotypes of of Latinos and Latinas and show people for example, we had a, one of the top cancer specialists in the world who's now with Mayo but he was born and raised in Mexico City and went to school there before he went to Johns Hopkins and then ended up here.

Having people like that and we didn't necessarily focus on their being Latinos we just talked about all they've accomplished.

And I think we left a different image of of Latinos out in the community especially at times when there have been issues like SB1070.

- Right.

- That that would drive us apart.

We showed a kind of, in many respects a different image of Latinos that I think helped heal some of the divisions.

- Well and I think that's what a lot of us truly appreciated from you as the host for so long and this show in general, what was your reaction to the reaction to this show in our community?

Because people really love it and they love the opportunity of seeing people who reflect our community, wouldn't you say?

- Yeah, I think the reaction was mostly positive.

The only negative's, I remember walking across the street one time and and this woman said, you don't look as old in person as you do on TV.

(Catherine laughing) So that really hurt.

But beyond that, the reactions positive and it's thanks to people like Ebonye Delaney and Mike Sauceda and Laarni Fernandez, long time producer, behind the scenes getting' us the guests who would be of interest and addressing the issues of the day.

Without that kind of a team, it wouldn't have been the show that it was.

- Well, tell me a little bit about what you like to do then in your free time or what you will be doing in your free time because you are one of the busiest men I know.

I know you are very involved in the arts.

You have a love of the arts.

You still continue to do that, right?

- I will continue to do that.

I was, had the privilege of being involved in the creation of something called CALA Celebracion Artistica de las Americas.

We've had artists and people like Alana Hernandez, who's the current director on the show to talk about that.

I've been associated, my late wife and I with arts group that was created by Latino and an indigenous artist back in 1975, Chico.

And will continue to be involved with that.

And so yes, arts is one of my passions.

Thank you, my friend.

- Thank you.

- It's great talking to you.

- Likewise.

- And looking forward to seeing more of you.

- Okay.

- All right.

Tonight we are going to talk to a local doctor about his cancer screening test that is helping firefighters detect the disease sooner and the impressive cancer center he has established.

But first we hear from Phoenix Fire Chief Mike Duran talking about how cancer has emerged as the number one cause of on-duty firefighter deaths and what's being done right here in Phoenix and other cities in the state to reverse that dramatic increase.

- For us coming into this career, at least in my generation, probably other generations, is as you knew there was a risk out there, a risk of life safety, potentially dying or risking your life to save somebody.

But the prolonged exposures of the contaminants now being a safety factor and what we are seeing now and today are firefighters for line of duty deaths as a result of cancer and the exposure to contaminants and the prolonged and continuous exposure, it's very aligned with those.

And so the education that we are now providing in with our partnership with Vincere now to allow our members to have these screens, to get 'em the information that is accurate and the testing that we're doing today is, it's just tremendous.

Something that I never thought about in my career coming out early on, but today I know our firefighters think about it every day but I feel our firefighters in speaking personally because I've visited here and been through the screening process, it's comforting to know that we have this available to us - Joining me to talk more about the pilot program he developed and the partnership with the City of Phoenix to help diagnose and treat firefighters at an earlier and more treatable stage is Dr. Pablo Prichard, a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon and Co-Founder of the Vincere Cancer Center in Scottsdale.

It is so good to see you.

- Great to see you, Catherine.

- Thanks for being here with me.

- Thank you.

- So let's talk about Vincere.

First of all, you opened it in 2017 as a cancer care center treatment.

During that first year, you saw a lot of young firefighters.

What were they dealing with?

- Yeah, so 2017, Dr. Shukla and I opened Vincere Cancer Center.

And it was meant to be a treatment facility for kind of like later stage cancers, right?

Were cancers that were kind of on the edge of being hopeless, right?

And we started getting a rush of very young firefighters which was shocking to us.

I mean, literally in the young thirties, 32, 33, 34 with late stage, Stage IV diagnoses with cancer all over their body.

- Well, and you compared what you saw with the data from what the 9/11 firefighters and first responders were dealing with with a lot of cancers as well.

What did you learn from that comparison that shocked you the most?

- So the first responders responded to 9/11, right?

Over 15,000 of those first responders already have cancer that pointed to an en environmental ideology.

In other words, the toxins that they were exposed to on that site were responsible for the cancers they were getting.

And then it was very analogous to the cancers we were seeing in Phoenix from the firefighters.

They were exposed to all these toxins from the fires they were exposed to, not just breathing in because they have those breathing apparatus but absorption through their skin, through their mucus membranes, through everywhere.

And then even taking it with them because there was initially, you know, many years ago not the safety precautions that we have today of decontamination, even before they click off their breathing apparatus.

They actually call that the breath of death.

- Wow.

- That first breath you take because they were getting all these gases from the fire and that's the first breath they took which was, you know, incredibly harmful.

So the amount of toxins they were exposed to a tremendous at the same time they were at high risk because of all the stresses they were put under.

- And I think a lot of people forget exactly what firefighters and first responders are faced with on a regular basis.

So we're talking about on-duty firefighters and their deaths when we bring it back here to Phoenix.

- Yes.

- What you've discovered then is that the number one cause of their deaths is no longer heart disease, it's cancer.

- Right.

And you think about firefighters long time ago, maybe 20 years ago, the number one cause as you said was heart disease.

They're under extreme stress and that kind of takes it on their heart, right?

And then number two was trauma from either being in the fire and being burned or a structure falling on top of them.

Those are kind of logically, okay you think they're putting themselves in harm's way, that's what's gonna happen to them.

But it's actually much worse.

It's that insidious slow growing, you know, lethal process inside their body.

The cancer that became the number one cause greater than 60% of on-duty firefighters are actually dying of cancer.

- It's just incredible when you really put that into perspective.

We know that early detection is really key to diagnosing and treating cancer.

So why weren't these aggressive forms of cancer in firefighters that you say you saw being caught earlier?

- Well, because firefighters were basically being treated just like the general population.

The general population has these cancer screening criteria where say back then colonoscopies were at 50, right?

And now it's changed to 45, but even at 45, you're not catching those 30 year old and you know, early forties firefighters with Colorectal Cancer, right?

It does a no good.

So because of that, they were just being treated like a general population, low risk not the high risk population that they are.

We thought we had to change that.

- Okay.

So tell us how you've changed that and what kind of success rate you've seen so far.

- Sure.

So we went and partnered with the City of Phoenix, Dr. Shukla and I with Kara Kalkbrenner who was the Fire Chief at the time, Laura Pastor, the Councilwoman from the district.

And we came and brought this idea to them of, okay, let's aggressively screen a pilot program of firefighters, about 600 or so firefighters, and screen 'em from head to toe aggressively looking for any forms of cancer.

Because if you catch a cancer when it's Stage I or Stage II, it's very treatable, very curable.

If you catch it when it's Stage IV, likely it's a very poor prognosis.

And they're going to have a miserable couple years existence of tons of treatments and poisons and chemotherapies thrown at them.

So catching it early is paramount.

- And what kind of success have you had so far?

- So in those 600 firefighters that we screened, we caught 21 early stage, Stage 0, Stage I, Stage II cancers.

Again, incredibly treatable and curable There is a very big event that unfortunately we don't have enough time to talk about.

But I do wanna say there's an event that's happening that's tied into that very big football game.

- A tiny little game.

- You played here.

- A tiny game.

- Yes, in February.

It's going to be a fundraiser for Vincere Cancer Center.

- Yes.

- So that is going to help you continue to save these firefighters.

- Yes.

Continue in the treatment, research and early diagnosis of firefighter cancers.

- So real quickly, I just wanna let everyone know if you're interested in finding out more about that fundraiser or about Vincere and what Dr. Prichard is doing, we put the information on the screen for you, so please go to that website and learn more.

And thank you so much for what you're doing.

It's just so invaluable.

- Thank you, Catherine.

- Good to have you here.

- Thank you.

For Horizonte in Arizona PBS, I'm Catherine Anaya.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Have a great night.