Cannes, France – Matt Anthony from Y&R has had an incredible career; one that earned him a spot on the Cannes stage. But that’s not why he was there today. Instead he introduced Ronald A. DePinho, M.D., President of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, with a story of his own.
Anthony said, “most of us will face cancer head on in our lives. We will either be taken by it or take it head on.” He lost his brother to brain cancer and fought stage 4 cancer himself. Today, he raises money for research at MD Anderson, in part through a foundation created in his brother’s name called Head for the Cure. Over 80,000 people have participated in their 5ks, together raising $6 million.
DePinho has his sights set even higher. He’s heading up MD Anderson’s Moon Shot To End Cancer:
DePinho said that we’re at a major inflection point for impacting the human condition. “We are in a position for the first time of bending the arc of major diseases and the first to fall to the axe of science will be cancer.”
He believes the next 5 to 15 years will be historic. And, they have to be. Because we’ve essentially doubled life expectancy worldwide in the last 70 years and the single biggest risk for cancer is aging. Today, the lifetime risk is 1:2 for men; 1:3 for women. It will touch all of us.
The advances we’ve seen in the last year have been the biggest in the last 50. Immunotherapy reawakens immune systems that have been asleep at the wheel. It produces Lazurus results for people with cancer.
The Moon Shot program wants to go farther. And it started with a simple question: Is there knowledge today that if applied would change the treatment for cancer? The answer is, of course, yes. But it’s going to take resources to do it.
MD Anderson is bringing 2000 people and $600+billions of dollars to the fight. Vice President Joe Biden is giving it even more national reach.
A couple of other interesting statistics from the presentation:
- 28% of cancers are misdiagnosed; 30% of cancers are mis-staged. Where you get treated matters.
- 1:2 cancers are preventable. With the right education – and, that has to start at a very young age with education about sun exposure, tobacco use and vaccines.
- There’s a 7 year knowledge gap between a community oncologist and an academic oncologist.
- MD Anderson launched 165 immunotherapy trials last year. If they had the money, they would have launched 500 more. “Ideas aren’t limited right now. It’s the resources,” DePinho said.
