• Big Think Cancer

    Promising Areas of Cancer Research

    February 21, 2011

    Big Think Cancer

    Cancer is responsible for 1 out of 5 deaths in the U.S., second only to heart disease. According to the American Cancer Society, over one and a half million Americans were diagnosed with some form of cancer last year, and more than 560,000 died from the disease. While there have been promising advances in cancer research over the past few decades, a definitive cure has not been found. Nevertheless, a new era of cancer research is dawning.

    Leading scientists are now looking at ways to supplement existing treatments-including the procedure of cutting or burning out cancer with chemotherapy and radiation-with more precise, less harmful and ultimately more successful therapies and prevention.

    In this short video, Dr. Harold Varmus, Dr. Doug Schwartzentruber, Dr. Deborah Schrag, Dr. Lewis Cantley, James Christensen and host Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee discuss how the metabolism of cancer cells and the role of the immune system in fighting cancer are two areas that could yield exciting results in coming years.

    Dr. Harold Varmus, Director of the National Cancer Institute

    Dr. Doug Schwartzentruber, a Surgical Oncologist at the Goshen Center for Cancer Care

    Dr. Deborah Schrag, a Medical Oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston

    Dr. Lewis Cantley, a Professor of Cell Biology at Harvard University

    James Christensen, Director of Oncology Translational Research at Pfizer

    Host: Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of the New York Times best seller ”The Emperor of All Maladies,” and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Columbia University

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  1. Boomer said:

    It will be exciting to see what research in the areas of metabolism of cancer cells and the role of the immune system in fighting cancer will bring us. Great stuff, great stuff.

    on February 23, 2011 at 4:05 pm