As the world faced the threat of a novel respiratory pathogen, SARS-CoV-2, in the first months of 2020, there was a great deal of uncertainty about its effect on people, especially those living with a diagnosis of cancer.
Can one be too smart? In some disciplines such as physics and mathematics the answer is clearly no. In medicine, the answer is not so clear.
Sometime in 1995, Edith Mitchell, a U.S. Air Force oncologist who at the time served as commander of the 131st Medical Squadron at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, first heard the name Jane Cooke Wright.
Imagine a future where cancer patients are able to receive the treatment they precisely need and not the treatment that is prescribed to all.
In January, after tumultuous weeks filled with unprecedented political tension and rising COVID-19 infections across the nation, thrilling news arrived quietly in my email inbox: official notice of the Abramson Cancer Center's five-year, $45 million Cancer Center Support Grant award from the National Cancer Institute, which had bestowed us with a merit rating of “Exceptional” Comprehensive Cancer Center last year.
Cancer patients and survivors should not get COVID-19. A three-time cancer survivor should definitely not get COVID. But I did. And it was not good. Here is my story and the lessons I learned that might be of value to others.
This story is part of The Cancer Letter's ongoing coverage of COVID-19's impact on oncology. A full list of our coverage is available here.
The recent historic election of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris provides an exciting opportunity for the cancer research and medical science communities during the next four years to dramatically improve the health of our nation and the world.
Over the past five decades, a marked shift in the number of women practicing gynecologic oncology has transformed the field. The specialty began as 57 men gynecologists, who saw an unmet need in the care of women with malignancies of the female genital tract.
The global coronavirus pandemic has torn the veil that dimmed the nation's awareness of the breadth and depth of health disparities, including cancer health disparities.
