I'm Proud of Presidents who Preside over Progress

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Last week I went to a talk and book signing by Dr. David G. Nathan, who has written a book called “The Cancer Treatment Revolution: How Smart Drugs and Other New Therapies are Renewing Our Hope and Changing the Face of Medicine”.

Of particular note for anyone involved in the Pan-Mass Challenge, Dr. Nathan is the former president of our beneficiary, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is the predecessor of Dr. Edward Benz, whom you should recognize from his regular appearances in support of the PMC. Dr. Nathan is also one of DFCI founder Sidney Farber’s contemporaries. So he’s unquestionably one of the most authoritative sources to speak on the topic, and his talk was very inspiring.

The book recounts the technical details of the amazing progress made against all forms of cancer during his fifty years in oncological research, and the equally amazing and heartening prospects for the future, thanks to the ongoing development of improved methods of detection and less toxic smart chemotherapy drugs, which more specifically target the cells which cause the unchecked growth of cancer.

He does this through the actual stories of three typical patients: an infant with a variety of leukemia that until recently was considered untreatable, an older woman who beat a very aggressive form of breast cancer, and a man who turned to very early clinical trials of emerging smart drugs to treat a rare and almost certainly fatal intestinal tumor that had burst.

Having spent much of his professional life working with or for the DFCI, the book has a lot of specific detail about the work which the Dana-Farber has done in the fight against cancer: work which has been made possible largely due to the nearly two hundred million dollars brought in by people who have donated to DFCI through the Pan-Mass Challenge.

Dr. Nathan’s successor, Dr. Benz, was also on hand at the reading, and I was gladly able to speak with both of them briefly and offer my thanks for their work. I consider it a great honor that my copy of the book is signed by both the former and current presidents of the Dana-Farber, for whom I have raised over $25,000. These are men who have presided over a tremendous transformation in what we know about cancer and how it can be prevented, treated, and, yes: in many cases cured.

As a way to thank my most generous sponsors and spread the word about how far we’ve come in the treatment of cancer thanks to the work done at Dana-Farber and elsewhere, I plan to offer a free copy of the book to every person who makes a contribution of $200 or more* in support of my ride this year.

If you’re desperate to get your copy of the book ASAP, you can sponsor my PMC ride here. However, I’m planning on getting started on my fundraising in the next couple weeks, and I’ll be sharing a lot more news in my fundraising letter, which will also be posted here shortly.

 
* That’s before any employer match