Johnson & Johnson’s Biljana Naumovic On The 5 Things Everyone Needs To Know About Cancer

An Interview With Savio P. Clemente

…Within the next decade, we will send chemotherapy to museums. It served us well half a century ago, but the days are nearing when we can have better, more efficacious, and more patient-friendly treatment options…

Cancer is a horrible and terrifying disease. There is so much great information out there, but sometimes it is very difficult to filter out the noise. What causes cancer? Can it be prevented? How do you detect it? What are the odds of survival today? What are the different forms of cancer? What are the best treatments? And what is the best way to support someone impacted by cancer?

In this interview series called, “5 Things Everyone Needs To Know About Cancer” we are talking to experts about cancer such as oncologists, researchers, and medical directors to address these questions. As a part of this interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Biljana Naumovic.

Biljana Naumovic is President, U.S. Solid Tumor and a member of the Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine North America Leadership Team. In this role, she leads one of the company’s fastest growing therapeutic areas and advances the organization’s solid tumor portfolio and pipeline, spanning prostate cancer, bladder cancer, and lung cancer, as well as multiple novel tumor pathways. Biljana is a passionate leader with significant global and regional leadership experience across therapeutic areas. She is a physician by training and leverages her medical expertise and commitment to talent development to drive better outcomes for patients.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?

I was a curious, open, and very driven child. I was born in a country that does not exist anymore, but one with endless possibilities, rising middle class, openness of borders, and a melting pot of cultures and religions. We lived the American Dream in Europe. Under that surface however, discontent was brewing that I was not aware of as a child, which ended in dreadful war, loss of too many lives, destruction of a once promising economy, and the creation of seven smaller states that are trying to figure out their place in the world to this day.

For the past 30 years, I have been in and out of my home country, Serbia. I consider myself a global nomad, finding home where my heart lands, and absorbing the greatness of people and cultures from Far East to Far West, incorporating parts of the world that resonate with me into my own phenotype.

A few strong beliefs formed throughout this experience, and they are the lighthouse of who I am as a person and a leader: I seize every day like there is no tomorrow, I never take anything for granted, and I am grateful for all the incredible things that are put in front of me to shape the future.

What or who inspired you to pursue your career? We’d love to hear the story.

I’m a physician first and foremost, in love with science, and driven to improve people’s lives. In the early 2000s, I started working in a Serbian hospital at a time when you couldn’t do much for patients, apart from bringing them in and trying to book some tests in a less-than-ideal timeframe. This format was not very world-changing — which is why I got started in medicine in the first place. So, when there was an opportunity to do a substitute at Roche for six months I jumped at it, and immediately knew I found my calling. It was so rewarding using data to change the minds and beliefs of my colleagues, and my career took off from there. I worked in sales, medical, marketing, and everything in between — from general management to the role that I’m in now as President of U.S. Oncology, Solid Tumor at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine. Across three continents and three companies, it’s been such a fulfilling journey.

This is not easy work. What is your primary motivation and drive behind the work that you do?

I’ve always felt that if there is clear purpose in my work, I’m more likely to view complex challenges as meaningful assignments, rather than burdensome tasks. What could be more purposeful than helping to solve the world’s most complex diseases?

So, the motivation for me is clear — to bring our innovations to life, to deliver better therapy options to patients and to work towards a future without cancer.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?

Without overstating it, we are experiencing a revolution in the way we treat cancer, particularly in solid tumors. Take lung cancer, a field where we have seen little innovation in the last decade and where patient outcomes remain desperately poor. We believe this is unacceptable and are working to change this narrative through the introduction of chemo-free, life-prolonging options for patients with a particular form of lung cancer, where the average patient is a woman, non-smoker in her fifties.

We are also on the verge of transforming the treatment of non-muscle invasive bladder cancer with a unique, targeted releasing system that has the potential to delay or prevent life-altering surgeries like radical cystectomy. The investigational treatment stays in the bladder for almost a month, and we have presented data showing unprecedented complete responses to-date. This is the type of work we do at Johnson & Johnson — transformative, life-altering medicine.

For the benefit of our readers, can you briefly let us know why you are an authority about the topic of Cancer?

I have worked in oncology for over two decades, starting when the first targeted therapies came to market and changed the way we treat breast cancer. Whether in strategy roles or in markets supporting the patients directly, oncology has been my focus, launching targeted therapies, biological therapies, and cell therapies. In my current role, I am responsible for the U.S. team’s work to transform outcomes for people living with lung, bladder, and prostate cancer.

I am always eager and passionate to do more. We are likely on the verge of something miraculous across many forms of cancer, and that fuels my passion to use all my experience and knowledge to discuss and debate the current state of oncology.

Ok, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Let’s start with some basic definitions so that we are all on the same page. What is exactly cancer?

In simplest terms, cancer is a disease in which some of the body’s cells grow uncontrollably in one organ or tissue and then spread to other parts of the body. It is a devastating diagnosis that is highly specialized in each case and requires a deep understanding of the complex nature of each specific case.

What causes cancer?

We are made up of trillions of cells that over our lifetime normally grow and divide as needed. When cells are abnormal, we usually have a functioning immune surveillance system that eliminates them. But as we grow old, or when there is a genetic aberration that causes abnormality, this process becomes dysfunctional. There are many causes of cancer, some preventable like smoking or obesity, but some genetic. It is important that we put as much effort into prevention — that includes healthy lifestyle choices and vaccinations — as we do into finding the best therapies that will lead to a cure.

What is the difference between the different forms of cancer?

The overarching difference between forms of cancer is the different tissue or fluid in which it originates, or the location or part of the body it affects. For example, hematologic malignancies are cancers of the blood cells, including leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. Solid tumor cancers are cancers of body organs or tissues. The most common solid tumors are breast, prostate, lung, and colorectal cancers.

I know that the next few questions are huge topics, but we’d love to hear your thoughts regardless. How can cancer be prevented?

There’s no absolute way to prevent cancer, though we can do a lot to reduce the mutation burden that causes it. This includes what I mentioned previously — not smoking or ceasing to smoke, healthy lifestyles that reduce obesity, and vaccination for common viral carcinogens like human papilloma virus.

Beyond that, we can do a lot with medicine. At Johnson & Johnson, we are working tirelessly every day to get in front of cancer through therapies and treatments so that the disease will one day be behind us all. The good news is that we’ve made remarkable progress in recent years, particularly in solid tumors including lung, bladder and prostate cancer.

One strategy we are exploring for lung cancer is targeting the complex nature of the disease by interfering with multiple disease mechanisms. This involves several distinct approaches: targeted therapy with small and large molecules and bispecific designed with two halves that affect two different targets on a single cell in addition to inducing immune responses.

In bladder cancer, we are focused on meeting a challenging form of the disease with limited treatment options, specifically non-muscle invasive disease — an early stage of disease where the standard of care ultimately is removal of the organ. The removal of the organ is a ‘blunt instrument’ strategy. We have invested heavily to better understand the drivers of urothelial cancer, leveraging targeted therapies and localized targeted releasing systems to fundamentally improve outcomes and save bladders.

In prostate cancer, we are committed to treatments for earlier stages, especially where disease remains localized to the prostate. We are seeking to intercept early cancer, prolonging and preserving the quality of life. We envision a treatment paradigm that avoids the need for surgical or toxic chemotherapy options.

While there is still a lot to do, the progress that we’ve made in recent years is incredibly exciting and it provides enormous hope. Treatments are becoming smarter, more targeted and more effective — and that means better outcomes for patients.

How can one detect the main forms of cancer?

The most common methods to detect cancer are lab tests, genetic tests, and tumor biopsies, among other methods. I always recommend speaking with your doctor regularly to set up screenings.

Cancer used to almost be a death sentence, but it seems that it has changed today. What are the odds of surviving cancer today?

We know survival rates vary based on what stage the cancer was detected, the form of the cancer, and the patients’ general health factors.

In solid tumor cancers, the five-year survival rate is still not as promising as we would like. In non-small cell lung cancer, despite the progress of the past decade in immune and targeted therapies, the five-year survival is barely over 20 percent. This means that 1 in 5 patients with metastatic lung cancer seen by a doctor is not expected to survive past their fifth year of diagnosis.

At Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, our aim is to shatter the expectations of what it means to live with the disease and to break the barriers of these unacceptable survival rates. We are leveraging our expertise each day to develop therapeutics that disrupt the treatment paradigm.

Can you share some of the new cutting-edge treatments for cancer that have recently emerged? What new cancer treatment innovations are you most excited to see come to fruition in the near future?

As the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide, lung cancer is an area with tremendous opportunity for transformational innovation. We’re pleased to have co-discovered and developed the first bispecific antibody for patients with EGFR-mutated NSCLC and are building a portfolio of regimens that can be used across multiple lines of therapy, including a chemotherapy-free regimen that has demonstrated longer progression-free survival versus the current standard of care.

There is also promise in exploring therapeutic combinations and immunotherapies that can help the immune system recognize and attack cancer cells. This research is in the early stages and we are excited to continue meaningful progress in this field.

From your experience, what are a few of the best ways to support a loved one, friend, or colleague who is impacted by cancer?

We all want to be there for our loved ones in times of sickness, but it’s not always easy to know the best way to support them in such tough times. It can be incredibly daunting to be diagnosed with cancer.

It’s important to remember in these situations that we, as loved ones, are there to give them strength and to help support them through this process. That could mean anything from listening to their fears, validating their feelings, or being a shoulder to lean on. It can also mean finding ways to celebrate small, everyday victories over cancer.

Those small things add up, won’t be forgotten, and can make a world of a difference. Optimism and a fighting attitude are critical in managing cancer and cancer diagnosis.

What are a few of the biggest misconceptions and myths out there about fighting cancer that you would like to dispel?

There isn’t one specific myth, but the ease of access to information in today’s age can cause premature or unnecessary concern. While it is so important to be informed as a patient, sometimes it is too easy to Google your symptoms or diagnosis and find frightening information that dims hope for many patients.

We must not forget that cancer is uniquely different for each individual diagnosis, and the best sources to seek information from are your medical providers and patient organizations that have a wealth of knowledge not only about the disease, but also how to navigate the complexities of the health care system.

A misconception does exist regarding the perceived “inevitability” of some forms of cancer — like colorectal cancer or small-cell lung cancer. These cancer types have been causally correlated to ultra-processed foods and smoking, respectively. We can absolutely do so much to lower the incidence of these tumor types by adhering to a lifelong healthy lifestyle. Vaping’s rise in popularity over the past decade does concern me a lot, and we have yet to see the consequences of this unhealthy habit on society.

Thank you so much for all of that. Here is the main question of our interview. Based on your experiences and knowledge, what are your “5 Things Everyone Needs To Know About Cancer?

1. Within the next decade, we will send chemotherapy to museums. It served us well half a century ago, but the days are nearing when we can have better, more efficacious, and more patient-friendly treatment options.
2. The key to good cancer management of the future will be a combination of therapies. Once we say goodbye to chemotherapy, it will be combination regimens of targeted and/or immunotherapies that will attack multiple mechanisms of cancer resistance which take its place as a preferred treatment. Through this, we will make cancer a chronic, and in some causes curable, disease within our lifetimes.
3. Collaboration is key to finding the right therapy, for the right patient, at the right time. No one single company or individual will be able to do everything on their own. We will only get in front of cancer if we all work together.
4. Early detection can be a key component to cancer treatment and prevention. For example, most patients with lung cancer are diagnosed for the first time when the disease is already metastatic or not curable. In my lifetime, I want to see this number decrease significantly. If we can catch cancer early, we have a better chance of curing the disease.
5. A healthy diet and exercise are key components to boost our bodies in the fight against cancer. Fortunately, these elements are largely within our control, but more can be done from an education and access standpoint.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

What a great question! Look, the world is certainly better today than it was 50 years ago in terms of cancer treatment, but it is nowhere near as good as we need it to be. Inequalities in health care are vast, and across the globe and in our country the health care system is overburdened, with too little staff and bureaucracy that stifles innovation. There are also grave inefficiencies in health care delivery and outdated health technology assessments. One can build so many worthy movements based on these topics! I wish I had more time.

One thing I believe would aid with these many burdens would be the administration of medicines in outpatient settings and leaning on digital tools for monitoring and support. This would allow for better distribution of care and alleviate the immediate congestion in hospitals and of healthcare staff. However, this requires legislation and system-wide support to recognize the treatment taking place, which is a global challenge.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Readers can follow me on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/biljana-naumovic-82525a32/

Thank you so much for these insights! This was very inspirational and we wish you continued success in your great work.

About The Interviewer: Savio P. Clemente, TEDx speaker and Stage 3 cancer survivor, infuses transformative insights into every article. His journey battling cancer fuels a mission to empower survivors and industry leaders towards living a truly healthy, wealthy, and wise lifestyle. As a Board-Certified Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC, ACC), Savio guides readers to embrace self-discovery and rewrite narratives by loving their inner stranger, as outlined in his acclaimed TEDx talk: “7 Minutes to Wellness: How to Love Your Inner Stranger.” From his best-selling book to his impactful work as a media journalist covering resilience and wellness trends with notable celebrities and TV personalities, Savio’s words touch countless lives. His philosophy, “to know thyself is to heal thyself,” resonates in every piece.