NYT article about the War on Cancer

October 26, 2009

The front page of the New York Times yesterday (Sunday) was a length story about MD Anderson Center in Texas and the war on cancer. The story highlights a few cancer survivors who have or are currently undergoing treatment; however, the take home message is delivered in the last lines of the article by a doctor who was profiled for his work as an oncologist and as cancer survivor himself. He remarks that while "we have made a lot of progress" against cancer, we are "not even close" to erradicating the disease.

This means that survivorship must take an even more prominent place in the cancer care paradigm. Survivorship is living with, beyond, and through cancer, and if we are not close to stopping cancer before it starts, we have to focus on how to deal with it when it hits. While there is a huge body of research pushing us towards cures for cancer and 100 percent preventive techniques, we are probably decades away from those coveted endpoints. With survivorship services popping up all over the place (especially here in CT), we need localized infrastucture support to direct survivors to the appropriate services. That is why we launched the CT Challenge Network (click here to read about our Network); our goal is to direct survivors to the cancer survivorship services in the State of Connecticut. We are just getting started, so stay tuned, and keep in touch (click here and use the "Subscribe Today" box on the right sign up to hear from us on a regular basis).

Click here to read the NYT article