The Beljanski Cancer Talk Show

Episode 13 - Revolutionizing Cancer Care With Personalized Testing with Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC

• The Beljanski Foundation • Season 1 • Episode 13

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In this episode of The Beljanski Cancer Talk Show, Dr. Lauren Cohen discusses the revolutionary personalized cancer testing provided by RGCC, known as the Greek test.

Dr. Cohen explains how RGCC's integrative medical lab personalizes cancer care treatment protocols based on individual patient genetics and physiology. She shares her personal journey into the world of cancer care and advocacy following her family's battle with the disease.

The episode covers the practical aspects of obtaining RGCC testing, including how patients across the globe can access it, the costs involved, and the immense value it provides in offering precise, actionable information. Dr. Cohen also talks about the range of RGCC tests available, including pre-screening tests and monitoring tests, and highlights the importance of a holistic approach to cancer treatment.

Key Discussions:
🔍 What is RGCC?
📜 The unique journey of Dr. Lauren Cohen
💉 The process of liquid biopsy and its benefits
🌎 How to access RGCC testing globally and practical advice for patients seeking RGCC tests

Tune in here: https://www.beljanski.org/beljanski-cancer-talk-show/episode-13-revolutionizing-cancer-care-with-personalized-testing-with-dr-lauren-cohen-dc

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Stay connected with Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC:
🌐 RGCC North America: https://myrgcc.com/
🌐 RGCC International: https://rgcc-international.com/
✨RGCC North America’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554630098937

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Introduction and Welcome

Sylvie Beljanski: Dr. Cohen, thank you for joining us today. I'm so happy to have you finally. I think that what you are doing, what RGCC is doing is so important, and I'm delighted that you are going to have the opportunity to explain that to our audience. So, over the few several years we have had so many doctors and patients coming, coming to Maison Beljanski and asking what is OnKobel just because they found about OnKobel just by using the RGCC test and that has changed the life of so many people that we are extremely grateful for RGCC taking this product on their panel. So, first I would like to ask you to explain what is the RGCC about and how did you become the Managing Director of RGCC North America, because I understand that there is a story here.

What is RGCC?

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: Yes. So RGCC, in very simple terms is, a medical lab with a functional or integrative paradigm, and there's an understanding that each patient is a unique individual and what it does as a lab is we do testing for cancer that personalizes the results, so that each individual patient will get specific actionable results that their practitioner and providers can use to make personal and individualized protocols.

It takes away that, the common, the common practice of one-size-fits-all, which is the current paradigm in the medical oncology world, where, everyone that has the same diagnosis gets the same treatment. But, it's always been understood by Dr. Ioannis Papasotiriou, who is the owner and creator of RGCC International, and commonly known as the Greek test for those that may have heard that kind of terminology floating around, that, a one-size-fits-all model doesn't work.

We each have unique genetics, we have unique physiology, and therefore the treatment options need to also be unique to that individual, and the testing allows us to see what will be specific and what will, in fact, work for that particular patient. 

Personal Journey into Cancer Care

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: Now, the 2nd question you asked was, how did I come to this world?

And even though I am a doctor, and I am a practitioner. I am not a cancer provider or cancer care provider. I, my background is Chiropractic Functional Endocrinology and Emotional Healing. And I, I was thrown into the cancer world the same way as all of the patients in your audience were with a diagnosis for my mother and my sister with stage four cancers at the same time.

And it was very humbling for me as a, as a healthcare provider with all of my background and knowledge to suddenly find myself in a situation where I knew nothing. And I educated myself the same way everyone else did. And I got a Google PhD with all the research done. And in, my search, if you will, I found RGCC for my family, and slowly other patients came to me, to help guide them, not as a provider in their care, but as a patient advocate. And I became the doctor in the family for patients who didn't have one, to help them translate the doctor speak, to help them understand the different therapy modalities that were being offered to them so that they can make a better informed decision for themselves.

And I ultimately reached out to the lab to say, “How do I refer patients?” and I got a call from Dr. Papasotiriou and I ended up working for the company. 

How to Get the RGCC Test

Sylvie Beljanski: To be clear, you referred the test as a Greek test, but people do not need to be Greek or to go, have to go to Greece or travel to Greece to use the test. Our audience is mostly in North America, but we have also listeners all around the world.

How does it work for people who are interested in, in getting the tests done? Can they just reach out to you? Or do they need to go through their provider and work with their provider, to get the provider to agree to the test and then to follow the reasons of the test. How does it work, practically?

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: Yes, so there's several questions. So, I want to make sure that I answer them all. So, the reason it's called the Greek test is because the lab is in Greece. So, the processing of your blood samples will be done in Greece. However, we have branch offices. and providers all around the world. So, I'm a representative of RGCC International North America.

So, we have a branch here in the United States and we are the liaisons between the patients and the providers and the lab. And we have branches around the world in, in different regions that will also facilitate that connection. So, there's 2 ways to get connected to RGCC: 1, if you're, your current provider is an already registered RGCC provider within our network, then they can order the testing for you. If you are looking for an RGCC provider, then you would reach out to one of the branch offices, and they will send you a referral list and connect you to a provider who can order the test, who knows how to, who’s been trained to interpret the test, and then also do the... 

Sylvie Beljanski: How do you get, how do you get this list of providers? How do I find a provider next to me? Where do I get this resource?

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: Yes. So, there's different ways that you can do that. You can reach out through one of the contact forms on the websites, and we have 2 different websites. There's a patient oriented website called myrgcc.com that is based here in the North America region. So, if you reach out you fill out 1 of those contact forms there. We can direct you to either a provider within the North American network, but if you're in somewhere else in the world, we can direct you to another branch office who can assist you with getting connected with someone in your international region. We also have an international website, which is rgcc-international.com and there are contact forms there as well.

So, you can just go to the websites and reach out that way, and you'll get connected based on where you're located in the world. 

Sylvie Beljanski: Let's suppose I am just, afraid to have cancer. What can I do? Is it something, should I reach to RGCC for that and to have a resolution to my question?

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: So, let me ask a clarifying question because I want to make sure I answer correctly. Are you looking for, is the question about someone who is not currently diagnosed, but suspect they may have cancer? 

Sylvie Beljanski: So, I am trying to understand exactly, and have you explained what kind of test exactly you are providing? And I understand there are several tests so that could benefit to different profiles of patients. So, who are the patients who could and should reach out to RGCC, and RGCC will provide them with what kind of answer. 

Types of RGCC Tests

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: Yes, so RGCC is very unique in the cancer laboratory space because we don't just have one or two tests. We actually have an entire suite of testing that, that partners with both the patient and provider all the way through the cancer journey.

We have a newly released pre-screening test called Onco-D-clare that just came out on the market that, if you have not been diagnosed, but you're looking for a pre-screen or suspect that you might have cancer, you can start there. Once you do have a diagnosis, you would then enter into the remaining testing where we do baseline testing. We do specific specific personalized protocol testing, which is a much more comprehensive panel, but it truly personalizes all of the information to each individual patient, so that you're getting treatment protocols specifically for you. We also have monitoring testing. And then we, in, for those that ultimately go into remission, we have a remission recurrence prevention program, where you would then continue to monitor so that, should the cancer start to activate, you have the ability to catch it at its earliest stages.

So, that you can be proactive in your response, as opposed to waiting for it to get, like with traditional medical testing, you have to wait for the cancer to get big enough to show up on imaging. So, this way we work with patients from the pre-screen all the way through remission. 

Sylvie Beljanski: Absolutely. And that's, I think, that gives a lot of comfort to, to people to know that there are personalized screenings that they can rely on all the way during all this difficult journey. If I am, let's say I decide to get a test done, whatever, where I am, it doesn't matter where I am, in my, in this journey. How do I, how does that happen? I go to a nurse, how does the blood arrive in Greece? And how much do you need?

The Process of Liquid Biopsy

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: Yes. So, one of the really wonderful things about RGCC is it's based with liquid biopsy.

So, that all you need is a simple blood draw where, when you're doing a tissue biopsy, of course, it's, it's highly invasive, but it also is a bit of a time capsule, meaning that you get the, you excise the tissue. They do some testing on it, but then they take the remaining sample and they embed it in paraffin.

And they may take slices of that, that sample months or years later to do additional testing. However, cancer cells mutate over time. The information that you would get from that historical sample is no longer what is happening inside your body. So, utilizing liquid biopsy is inexpensive.

It's, it's a simple noninvasive blood job, but it also allows for information in real time. So, as you're progressing through your care, you have the ability to get updated information with a simple blood drop. And with RGCC, we do have special kits. This is a question that comes up a lot because we are shipping internationally because the lab is in Greece, but we have customized kits that are temperature controlled.

So, the provider has these specialized kits. The patient just does a simple blood draw. So, if they are in the provider's office, the provider would do that. If they are in a remote location we also have the ability to do blood draws locally, but it's again, just a simple blood draw procedure.

There's no special processing. It's placed into the kit with ice blocks so that it remains at the proper temperature, and then it comes with prepaid shipping labels, so that you don't have to want, worry about any of the shipping documents and all of the things that would go into shipping internationally.

It's all taken care of for you. So, it's really a very simple process. 

Sylvie Beljanski: And for people who have been diagnosed with cancer and are looking for the best treatments and by best, the most appropriate for their personal cancer, how does it work? You are testing this blood of, this drop of blood against the battery of products.

How do you get to choose those products that you are testing? 

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: So, the answer is yes, our Onconomics panels and we have several, we have an Onconomics, which the chemosensitivity testing that you're speaking of is part of, and that would look just at chemotherapeutics. We also have an Onconomics Extracts Plus, which is looking at the natural substances.

And then our Onconomics Plus is actually chemotherapeutically testing both chemotherapeutic agents and natural substances. But along with that test, we also do an entire series of genetic expressions and physiological expressions that are unique to each patient. And the 2nd part of your question was, how do we select which substances or, chemotherapeutic agents that the lab will stay current with, the most up to date treatment options, both in the chemotherapeutic and the natural world, and they will periodically update the listing of substances, but they utilize testing for fifty plus chemotherapeutic agents, 50 plus natural substances.

Integrative Cancer Care

Victor Dwyer: What are chemotherapy, chemotherapeutic agents? I'm not sure what that means. 

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: So, chemotherapeutic agents are, chemotherapy is simply. Within our network, we have patients that will do traditional medical oncology, we have patients that do strictly natural, and then we also have patients that integrate the two. They blend the two.

So, we have panels that are available for all, patient types in terms of how they choose to use, the, like the healing therapies, so you have all of that information available to you. And if you are more in the natural bent and you're not going to use the medical oncology chemotherapeutic agents, then we have a test that's called Onconomics Extracts Plus that will give you the full genetic expressions profile, all of the natural substances with that. You can actually customize the panel. We all know that there's thousands and thousands of substances that we could utilize. So, if there's something that you wanted testing on that is not in the standard panel, you can actually add those on.

Our tests include an additional five substances, but you can actually continue to customize that with additional substances beyond the five, if you so chose. So, depending on what you're looking to test, you can have, a test that is truly dialed in for you. 

Victor Dwyer: That's really interesting. And I'm curious, you obviously have a lot of data available to you of certain substance substances that may be high. Is there any trend that you see of people that have a lot of heavy lead poisoning or certain substance, substances that are reoccurring that are becoming a problem that you've been seeing? Is there anything that you could share there that you've been seeing from a trend standpoint?

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: Yes. Yeah, that's a, it's a great question. Cancer, there's no disease in the body, that happens in a vacuum in the body, it's only this. There's usually other underlying conditions that are there. And, some of the things that we do see, and many of our practitioners do, is that it's a, it's what I call a multidimensional approach where you're not just doing one treatment option. You're also doing nutritional, nutritional balancing. You're maybe alkalizing the system, you're doing some detox, heavy metal elimination, those types of things. And some of the things that we often see are, like you said, heavy metal poisoning or toxicity that might be there.

We see latent viruses and Lyme disease that are often under, underneath. So, that a, a cancer protocol might include identifying some of these other situations because what they're doing is taxing the immune system and they're taking away resources from the immune system. So, instead of fighting the cancer, it's fighting the virus or it's being suppressed by the heavy metals.

So when, especially in the, the natural and the integrative world, we see practitioners utilizing additional health modalities, if you will, like we said, like doing fasting or detoxing, eliminating the viruses, doing all of those different types of things.

We see things like that, kind of, that run the gamut because there are so many things that challenge our, our baseline health and our immune system. 

Sylvie Beljanski: You, yourself as a practitioner, how are you, often are you using our RGCC in your practice and how has that modified your way to practice with your patients?

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: So, for me, though, I'm not an active practitioner within the network. Again, I came in through the patient door and my, my foundation is patient advocacy. And my role initially, as you mentioned, was, was, in the Managing Director role to help build and modernize the branch office here in the United States, and now my role has actually been shifting because we've built a team who's now able to run the branch and they do it wonderfully. We have an amazing team.

So, if you do reach out, you'll love to connect because we all come from that patient advocacy standpoint. And now I am serving as a Brand Ambassador to get out into the world to educate patients and providers about RGCC. So, I can't answer directly, but this, but speaking to providers all the time, it transforms their practice, especially for…

Sylvie Beljanski: I know. There’s always a lot of interest for both, both from practitioners and from patients. Everybody wants to know more about this test. 

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: Yes, and from my background, I come from a functional background in terms of my philosophy and how I practice when I was in practice for 30 years. And I understand the unique, like that, they're the uniqueness of each individual patient.

There is no cookie cutter. You can't do the exact same thing for every single person. They're not going to respond in the same way. So, that personalization piece was, was huge for me. It's what drew me to RGCC and speaking to providers who were doing cancer care before they became part of the network and then now are doing cancer care with RGCC as, as a foundation in their cancer care protocols.

They tell me it is night and day. Because before it was like it was generalized where now there's precision, right? So, they're taking the protocols that they were using that, that were already somewhat effective and it makes it even better. So, it doesn't replace the protocol that they're doing. It enhances the protocols that they're doing.

Sylvie Beljanski: Of course. 

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: So the, the partnership and, and the blending of the testing along with these powerful protocols, like Beljanski, is it just elevates care. 

Sylvie Beljanski: What RGCC has done to our brand has been huge and I am extremely grateful because again, we have had so many people who came to us saying OnKobel is showing up as one of the most product I'm going to answer to my, I'm going to respond to that product. So they, they just want to learn more about what is in there. And that has really put OnKobel on the map. So, we are very very grateful for RGCC.

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: Yes and, again, with a product like that, it confirms that yes, it is effective. And having that confirmation that, yes, that this is part of the protocol and it's working for me and knowing that it's working. 

Sylvie Beljanski: Yeah, absolutely.

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: And coming from the patients. Yeah. Coming from the patient standpoint, there's a lot of investment that goes into different supplements and knowing what is going to work for you is huge. You're not guessing or hoping for the best. And again, it's wonderful that, that the product is as effective as it is, and that it shows up on the panel that way. 

Sylvie Beljanski: Yeah. And I said to so many people, you don't fail chemotherapy. Sometimes chemotherapy fails you because it's not appropriate for your tumor. You cannot just be a stats and receive a whatever protocol because, statistically, is that what some pharmaceutical companies have decided to push.

Do you want to get the best treatment for yourself or do you want to be a statistic? 

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: And that's, again, it, that's what drew me is I was not okay with just doing this, like, the one-size-fits-all protocols, medical or natural, I wanted to make sure that what we were utilizing as treatment options were things that were going to be effective, right?

It wasn't okay with me to do it the other way, and that's exactly, what this does is it really helps to dial that in for each and every patient and also each and every provider. 

Sylvie Beljanski: Absolutely. 

Cost and Insurance

Victor Dwyer: I do want to talk about cost. Like, how does the cost work? Is it covered by insurance? Is it not covered by insurance? How does someone pay for this? 

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: Yes, so as with many things in the integrative space there is not insurance coverage and that's always an unfortunate piece, but there is something called the Standard of Care, at least here in the United States that the oncology world and the insurance world need to follow.

And because RGCC testing is not part of Standard of Care, the insurance does not cover it. So it is an investment for each, for each patient, but I look at it differently. Like I do understand that there's a monetary cost. The however is, for me, there's a value in knowing that if I'm going to be investing my money into different treatment modalities, that I know that the treatment modalities that I'm investing in are effective for me, right?

So if you're having to invest, you want to make sure that you're putting your money towards things that will have some type of positive outcome for you. 

Sylvie Beljanski: The last thing you want when you are diagnosed with cancer is to waste your time and money in, in, with things that are not going to be effective.

And then you, the cancer continue to evolve and then they are telling you, basically, to go home and that's it. 

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: Yeah. And I, when I do teach, when I'm doing teaching about that is the, it's really, the testing is saving you time, money, and peace of mind.

Sylvie Beljanski: Absolutely. Absolutely. 

Victor Dwyer: That's super valuable.

And is there anything else about the test? I thought there's like, it was really, really interesting that how you test, sounded like the genetic components of potential genetic markers that might increase that. That was interesting. Also, the potential substance, substances that you, you can take in your environment that might be affecting you.

I think that's huge because we don't know, everyone has different environments, different ways they affect their bodies and things like that. But that was really interesting how you'd be able to test that as well. It seems like a very much of a no brainer for people that do have cancer to go through that process and just see what's happening, especially like what you're saying, like Lyme disease.

What if that's what's affecting you and causing the cancer? And then if you suppress your immune system, then there's a lot of things that could be happening. 

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: We do have, we do have a sister lab called Biocentaur, and they do look for for genetic expressions of and potential for other diseases. We do some testing for various viruses and Lyme disease as well.

But part of, what we find in, because we're in an integrative space are, the providers within our network are testing for a lot of things. In the heavy metals and things like that, those are not things that we test for, but we are aware that all of those types of health related components play a role in either the disease progression or, the person's ability to heal.

Again, that's, something very important to make sure that someone is looking at you as a whole person and not just, a specific disease, because it's, as we mentioned, it's a multidimensional situation.

Another way that I teach this simply to patients is that there's 3 buckets. There's the direct, the indirect, and then environmental. So, direct might be treatment protocols or modalities or substances that directly kill the cancer cells. Indirect is that it's altering, upregulating, downregulating some physiological mechanism that will either boost the immune system or slow down the growth of the cancer. And then there's environmental where, as we were speaking, like doing detox and you need to be more alkaline. If you're highly acidic, you're not going to heal, right? If you have, if you have viruses that are active in your system, you're not going to heal. You can be doing all the right things and, and just not be able to heal. And that's because the environment that's in your body needs to be healthier, needs to be balanced. 

Sylvie Beljanski: I know we're going where have to look and what you need to modify is good. Absolutely. 

Conclusion and Contact Information

Sylvie Beljanski: Tell us again how to reach RGCC. 

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: Yes, so you can actually go to the website. And I,

we also have a specific landing page. We have, an ebook that we offer to the patients as well that was also a part of my journey in terms of me finding RGCC. But the easiest way to reach out to us is through the websites and the contact forms on the websites.

So myrgcc.com or rgcc-international.com and both websites will have contact forms and if, you know, you reach out and you're interested in getting connected with a provider, our team will see which region of the world you're in and connect you to the correct branch office who will then guide you to an RGCC provider.

Sylvie Beljanski: Excellent. Thank you so very much. 

Victor Dwyer: Yes, thank you, Dr. Cohen. Thank you so much for joining.

Dr. Lauren Cohen, DC: Oh, thank you for having me. It's an honor. 

Victor Dwyer: Yes. Thank you everyone in the audience for getting this far. If you did make it to this point, thank you so much. We're very grateful. This is The Beljanski Cancer Talk Show and we'll catch you next time.



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Sylvie Beljanski

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Victor Dwyer

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