Dear Colleagues,
Those of us who have devoted our careers to treating recalcitrant cancers know the heartbreak of walking alongside an individual facing an advanced diagnosis. We not only shoulder the clinical responsibility, but also the emotional weight that accompanies every step of that journey as each patient’s story becomes connected to our own.
We also know the pain that comes with failures in the scientific domain or when an early, promising finding fails to deliver on the promise for patient outcomes.
What we get to experience less often is the collective, spontaneous joy that comes from a major win. I am not just referring to the chance to share a practice-changing result, but the feeling of a mutual expression of relief to the point of catharsis, and unbridled hope.
