they're just so fat. >> pudgey little hands. >> yeah. >> thanks for joining us. we'll see you back here at 8:00 eastern. >> sanjay gupta md starts right now for you. the program today, the richest physician in the world. he's an owner of the l.a. lakers, friend of kobe brinlt and now investing nearly bailon dollars of his on money to find a better way to treat cancer. but first, this flu season could be more severe and more hospitalizations and more deaths because of the mutation that occurred in most common strain of the virus that is circulating this year. today we're talking more about this is my producer and even find something of the most common questions people have. >> a lot of people want to know when it's coming. we got a really cool look at this new tool that predicts it like a meteorologist would predict the weather. >> it is really interesting. typically, they used mathematical models and used last year's data. now they use a model, they use real time data.

people searching for flu on google, things hike that, entering information. and then they assimilate that information. you get a sort of heat map. take a look at this for a second, get an idea of where flu is going to be particularly bad. hotter spots. flu is going to be bad. they can even go deeper than that. if you hook at a particular city, you can find when the flu is going to be worse. so new york city, if you live there, the prediction is the week of january 10th. that's when flu is going to be the worst. there is a website if you want to look at your own city. but the thing is i guess the value you might keep your kids home from school. cancel play dates, hospitals could have more capacity because they anticipate more cases of flu. >> a lot of people ask every single year, i do really need to get the flu shot? the people who don't get it swear they never get sick. the people who do get it say they don't get sick because of the flu shot. >> did you get the flu shot? >> yes. >> because everybody in our medical unit has to get the new shot. i get the flu shot as well. here's what people are talking about this year. there is a strain kld h3n2.

this is a guess. when they make the vaccine, she guess the most dominant strain that flu season. that's what you vaccinate against that season. this time the strain mutated a little bit. doesn't mean it's a completely different strain. it added a protein here and lost one another mace. the flu shot will offer a host benefit. not as much as if it was the exact match. it is going to offer a lot of benefit. to your question, it's not too late. you can still get it. as you saw, january 10th is the week in new york city where the flu is the worst. i don't know about you, when i was young, my mom said don't go outsi outside, you're going to get sick. the cold doesn't make you sick. we found there are reasons why this time of year is the time of year when most people get sick if the flu. i think every mom said that at some point. >> yeah. >> but you know, it's interesting. it's not so much this idea that you're going to go outside and catch a cold or catch the flu. but there are some reasons why it's worse. we spend more time indoors.

if one person has the new, then they can spread it to many other people. that may make it seem like there is more flu going around. also because of the season, you get less sunlight, you get less vitamin d, less melatonin, you get change in your immune function overall. there is correlation with the weather. colder weather, less humid. viruss can live longer if it's less humid. the virus just stays around longer am that's the three reasons it's more common. nobody knows exactly for sure. >> so mom may have been right but just not for the reason. >> moms are always trying to pass something over on us. they were trying to get us to wear a hat. you'll catch the flu. they knew you were not going to catch the flu. >> they just wanted you to wear the hat. >> i'm still here. appreciate it. thank you very much. hopefully that answered questions for you. up next, disrupting cancer. incredible doctor, he's turning some heads with unconventional ways of treating this deadly disease.

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cancer outwitted scientists for decades. 1500 people die of the disease every day in this country. but scientists will tell you they learned more about cancer in the last five years than ever before. and no one is more optimistic about what that will mean for patients than dr. patrick young. he's been called the genius, a showman, innovator and a hypester. he is also the richest man in los angeles, a doctor and entrepreneur who is worth $11 billion. he is a respected surgeon before making his name in the cancer world by developing a multibillion dollar drug that few initially thought would even work. he now wants to disrupt the conventional way we treat cancer. he is overflowing with ideas on how to do it. >> that was what i called feed the tumor. >> give dr. patrick young a white board and few markers and

like a mad scientists, he'll diagram how he thinks cancer can be beaten. he wants to attack on multiple fronts and it's confident there is a pathway to the cure. for 45 minutes, he outlined his vision from beginning to end. >> this is a crazy looking board. >> had is what goes in my head. it's like bursting. i have to get this stuff out. >> are we looking inside your head? >> i think so. >> how long before we get here? >> i'm incredibly encouraged to say that we are on the path and the technology to actually do all these things is not just hypothetical. >> technology is the main weapon he is deploying against cancer. in october at his company's headquarters in los angeles, final tests were being run on high speed tumor sequencing machine that's he is convinced will unmask the secrets to cancer. >> for the first time with this

technology, we can watch it, catch it, outsmart it and play chess at this multidimensional level. >> to understand the significance of what he is touting, it's important to know what cancer is. >> a cancer is not what people think cells growing. actual i had, a cancer is actually the inability of the cells to die. >> the key is figuring out the genetic mutation or glitch that prevents cells from dying a natural death. his hope is to provide patients with the precise genetic mutation that's fuel their cancer regardless of where tumors are found in the body. >> mutation that happens in lung cancer could the exact mutation that happens in breast cancer. you need to treat that patient not based on the physical location. >> that's a big idea. i mean, you know, the idea that breast cancer specialists are looking for breast cancer mutations and they may be missing the ball. >> absolutely. >> a lung cancer drug could work

on breast cancer, fins. if the mutation is the same. the concept of doing away with labelling the disease by where it's found is not unique to this doctor. but it is a shift in the fight against cancer. the notion of classifying a cancer by the mutation. >> imagine reclassifying cancer and having people conceive and understand that cancer is a slew of rare diseases. i'm very excited because we are going to create this revolution. >> what is it going to mean? >> it's going to mean that you have a better shot of having a better outcome and having a quality of life and actually turning this into a chronic disease. >> that is very optimistic. realistic as well? >> i think so. very much so. >> he has appointed himself to lead this revolution. cancer sequencing is not new. but what is difference about his project is the scale. he spent nearly a billion dollars of his own money to build a massive infrastructure run by super computers to find

every single general et uk mutation that could dry cancer. this is his plan. a patient anywhere in the world has his tumor biopsies. it is then created all the way down to the protein that's are produced. but only recently took months can now be done in a day. ultimately personalized information for each cancer patient would show up in the palm of his hand. >> this is a baby. >> that's it? >> that will be the world's first browser of the cancer genome. think about that. you'll be able to fly through to get to the single letter that is mutated. >> he teamed with blackberry that created a device that will identify what they need to make more informed decisions. >> at the end of the day, someone has a tumor. they can find out the complete analysis of that assumer and what the perfect drug is to treat it. >> correct. and that's not -- that's what's exciting. at the end of the day, this is

what we think we can bring to the world now. >> some in the cancer world fear he is getting ahead of himself, he's declaring victory before any of this has been proven to work consistently. >> it's show me the money. show me the data. show me that it's true. >> a renowned oncologist and researcher is president of the la veen cancer institute in charlotte, north carolina. >> he says if we can figure out which mutations are driving a cancer, we're going to be better able to find the drugs that can treat that cancer. is that a fair theory? >> yes, i think that's a fair theory. but to say i can throw a tumor into a gizmo and that gizmo will tell me answer in a few minutes and everything will flow from that, i don't think we're there now. i don't think we'll be there next year. i think there is just too much hard complex science that has to be done before this is state of the art. but it's a very cool idea for the future.

>> the vast majority of mutations are are actually not a threat. so to figure out which mutations are are dangerous, he is going back in time. >> this national treasure -- in the basement of the john wayne cancer institute in santa monica, california, decades of cancer tissues were stored by scientists in deep freeze vats. now he wants to use technology that didn't exist back then to map the gee nom genomes. >> so even after a patient died, samples were stored here. they can go back and say they have this mutation and now we're going to see if this leads to death and other mutations may not. >> that's exactly right. and ask the question why did this patient live and why did this patient die? why did this treatment work? why did that not work? >> to make any of this work, he believes you need to up end the way cancer drugs are developed. he started a biotech company to

try to dra mat beingly ramp up production. >> i know it sounds awe dags. you have to build 20 to 30 drugs a year to get ahead of this game. >> right now it takes a few years to create a single drug. and you're talking about 30 drugs in one year. is that really feasible? >> i think that's where we have a challenge in the pharmaceutical industry. we need to change the way we develop drugs now. >> he is impatient with the pace of drug approvals. in the earsterlrly '90s, he cre drug that treats breast and lung cancer patients. >> the problem is with cancer we don't have that time. you know, you have pank kree attic cancer, you have two months. the war against cancer is all against time. >> he is also frustrated with what he calls the trial and error cycle of cancer care. >> the truth of the matter, we treat cancer today. we guess. we take what we call the average

results, put it on the patient and see fit works. fit works, we use it. when you look back ten years ago, it is barbaric. >> the native of south africa can afford to be outspoken because of his immense wealth. he doesn't need to rely on the government or big pharma for funding. he is certain what he terms the dark age of cancer treatment is nearly over. and the enlightened age is about to begin. what would the average person note about the enlightened age versus the dark age? >> the treatment doesn't need to be painful. it doesn't have to be a death sentence. cancer can be a chronic disease and treated towards the cure. >> while the oncology world may cringe when he boasts as he's prone to do, patients see him differently. >> the established community doesn't like false hope. but if you have a terminal disease, like i do, you want

some hope. >> david roy was diagnosed two years ago with stage four pancreatic cancer. he was given four 1/2 moves to live. he called the doctor who he met on a plane years before. he recommended a uclaology ko-- ucla oncology that kbinld drugs. then he had roy's tumor genome sequenced. based on the results, roy has now taken part in a clinical trial involving another front in cancer treatment. >> that's the t cell. that is the cancer cell. >> it is called immunotherapy. he is not the only one working on it. he was anxious to show us why oncologists believe it's a promising field. a time lapsed demonstration of how t cells which immune system's naturally produce can attack cancer cells. >> this is a cell that is actually gobbling up the dancer

cell. this cell will grows in size and the cell will decrease in size. so there is the t cell gobbling it up. there is the cancer cell. >> that's amazing. >> so you're watching cancer cells die here. >> correct. >> you find the t cells and you're able to isolate them. is the idea then that you no he they do the job. you can come out and grow them proliferate them and put them back into the body? >> exactly. >> even though it's been two years now since david roy's original diagnosis, he's realistic about his chances of survival. but he's convinced this doctor and other scientists on track to dramatically decrease cancer death rates in the not too distant future. >> i'm not sure that it hall fast enough for me, but i have every confidence that my children and grandchildren won't be concerned about the things that i'm concerned about. we are on the edge here of going from the oil lamp to

electricity. and it is going to happen. >> his most provocative idea though centers on how cancers may become met static. he believes chemotherapy works best when administered in frequent low doses. and that in some cancer the traditional method of blasting a tumor with heavy doses of chemotherapy is counter productive because it could induce them to enter the bloodstream and find a new home. >> it's on move. >> it's on move. >> it's looking for another place to land. >> so circulating tumor cells in the blood is the next frontier. so those are the sick tumor cells. >> that's incredible. >> if cancer spreads, the hikelihood of survival decreases dramatically. so before individual rogue cancer cells fan out and form new tumors, he wants to detect them with what are known as liquid biopsies. a person's blood samples put through this bio chip that separates normal blood cells from heavier circulating tumor

cells. this is a view inside the biochip as the tumor cells are being funneled to the top. >> if we can now monitor the cancer cell in the blood, we then have the path to getting this and winning this war. we never had this path before. >> after pulling out the circulating tumor cells, scientists can take them back to the genome sequencer to look for new mutation that's made them resistant to the initial treatment and hopefully find a new drug to treat it. it's yet another angle he is taking to disrupt cancer. >> you have genomics, you have circulating tumor cells, death by t cell. why are you the one taking all this on? i mean these are lots of different types of things. >> you know, somebody once said to me, >> somebody said you are all over the place. i said you have to be all over the place because i'm trying to fight this war from all over the place. because you can't -- there is one single magic bullet.

still ahead, no it's not dr. pat or taylor swift or vladimir putin or even roger goodell. "time" magazine names ebola fighters its person of the year. you're down with crestor. yes! when diet and exercise aren't enough, adding crestor lowers bad cholesterol up to 55%. crestor is not for people with liver disease, or women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. tell your doctor all medicines you take. call your doctor if you have muscle pain or weakness, feel unusually tired, have loss of appetite, upper belly pain, dark urine, or yellowing of skin or eyes.

these could be signs of serious side effects. i'm down with crestor! make your move. ask your doctor about crestor. i was thinking about htaking this speed test from comcast business. oh yeah? if they can't give us faster internet or save us money, they'll give us 150 bucks. sounds like a win win. guys! faster internet?

i have never been on the internet and i am doing pretty well. does he even work here? don't listen to the naysayer. take the comcast business speed test. get faster speeds or more savings, or we'll give you $150. comcast business. built for business. watching goalie greg zucco block shots for the minor league gladiators you'd probably never guess he's 50 years old. just 16 years ago he couldn't move without severe pain. >> any movement was painful and restricted. >> greg started playing hockey as a kid. he played through high school and a little in college, but he knew he wasn't going to make the nhl so he moved on in his life. goaltending wasn't even a thought when he was diagnosed

with rheumatoid arthritis in 1998. he started taking medication and was feeling so great that being an nhl spectator motivated him to get back on the ice in 2002. >> one night it flipped a switch and it just went i want to go do this again. the very next day i take my stuff out of the attic. >> he caught the attention of some coaches who invited him to play with an elite group, and then came an invitation for a training camp in the east coast hockey league. that led to a spot as a backup goalie. in november of 2011 i dressed for my first professional game which was a profound experience. >> he no longer dresses for games but practices with the team when he is needed. he is a liaison to help players half his age appreciate. a perspective he has drawn on in his own experience. >> i never would have believed that i would have an opportunity like this. >> dr. sanjay gupta, cnn reporting.

they risked and persisted, sacrificed and saved. "time" magazine named its 2014 person of the year the ebola fighters, the doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers.

they spent the last year fighting to save the lives of family, friends, neighbors and complete strangers. the world health organization tallies more than 6,000 deaths among roughly 18,000 sick. what started off as a single case of ebola last december in guinea has grown into an epidemic of unprecedented proportions. >> i have seen the ebola fighters at work in west africa and here in the united states. as a doc when i take care of patients fundamentally i'm not risking my life to take care of them. it struck me spending time with ebola fighters in order to help somebody else they are literally taking their own lives in their own hands. they do this work every single day. they put on the garb and walk into the tents and hope and pray that they have done everything right so they don't get infected and don't get sick and possibly die. they are not sure. we have seen this over and over again. when the ebola outbreaks start it is always the health care worker teams that get sick

first. there has been no infrastructure for health care in many of the countries that we have been talking about. on a pragmatic sense unless the health care workers are able to fix the problem there it is not solved elsewhere around the world. that is what they are doing right now. that's going to wrap things up today for "sgmd." "new day sunday" continues after a quick break with christi paul and victor blackwell. feet...tiptoeing. better things than the pain, stiffness, and joint damage of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. before you and your rheumatologist decide on a biologic, ask if xeljanz is right for you. xeljanz (tofacitinib) is a small pill, not an injection or infusion, for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. xeljanz can relieve ra symptoms, and help stop further joint damage. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers have happened in patients taking xeljanz.

don't start xeljanz if you have any infection, unless ok with your doctor. tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz and routinely check certain liver tests. tell your doctor if you have been to a region where fungal infections are common, and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take. one pill, twice daily, xeljanz can reduce ra pain and help stop further joint damage, even without methotrexate. ask about xeljanz.

even without methotrexate. i was thinking about htaking this speed test from comcast business. oh yeah? if they can't give us faster internet or save us money, they'll give us 150 bucks. sounds like a win win. guys! faster internet? i have never been on the internet and i am doing pretty well. does he even work here? don't listen to the naysayer. take the comcast business speed test. get faster speeds or more savings, or we'll give you $150. comcast business.

built for business. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com don't panic, it's 8:00, you're not running late. i'm christi paul. >> maybe you are. i'm victor blackwell, good to have you this morning. breaking news overnight the senate has taken the threat of another government shutdown off the table at least for the time being in a rare bipartisan weekend agreement, lawmakers aproved the controversial $1.1 trillion spending measure and sent the bill to president obama, who is expected to sign it into law. >> erin mcpike is live in washington with the latest. do we know when the president will sign this? >> we don't know that yet. president obama signed that short term funding measure last