October 2000, New York
This is an exciting night for me and for the Cancer Research and Treatment Fund. In my career, I had been fortunate to be able to combine a practice and clinical research. I am grateful for the enlightened policies of the Weill Cornell Medical College, which have made this combination possible. Therefore, it is especially meaningful for me and for all of us at CR&T to be able to establish this new professorship for the perpetuation of clinical cancer research at Weill Cornell for many years to come.
After a hard day's work we don't want to be too tedious, but on the other hand, we must recognize why we are here, so please indulge me for just a few moments. For a long time, the treatment of cancer was notorious for being almost as bad as the disease itself. Radical surgery left people scarred and maimed, and radiation therapy produced disfiguring side effects.
We chemotherapists were hardly exempt. We followed the "blockbuster" approach, first discovering a drug that had some kind of anti-tumor activity and then applying it to all cancers in general to see on which type it worked best. This approach left patients with many side effects, owing to the fact that the drugs we used did not discriminate between the good and the bad cells.
What makes this such an exciting time for clinical cancer research is the fact that now, cancers are begining to be understood on a molecular basis. The dramatic example you saw tonight (STI-571 treatment of John LaSalla) is the result of dissecting the molecular abnormality of a certain type of leukemia with laser-like precision, to uncover the specific abnormal enzyme which causes this disease, and then to synthesize a drug which antagonizes or interrupts its activity. This stops the cancer process. The net-net result, in Wall Street terms, is a drug that is exquisitely selective and has virtually no toxicity on normal cells.
But tonight we honor Nancy Brinker, a courageous lady who has had breast cancer. What does a leukemia drug have to do with breast cancer? We view this drug as a new model with broad importance for developing agents against the more common cancers such as breast, prostate, colon and lung. Indeed, based on the leukemia experience you heard about tonight, the National Cancer Institute has committed more than a hundred million dollars for fiscal year 2000 to pursue this line of investigation. Moreover, other tumors, which have similar enzymatic abnormalities, are also being tested as we speak with this drug that helped John LaSalla.
A 40-year experience has made me cautious in evaluating the alleged reports of cancer research. Still, I can't help but believe that finally we may be far beyond that which we have achieved until now. Over the past decades, the public and private sectors alike have made a massive investment in biomedical research. The great challenge ahead will be to increase the collaboration between the laboratory and the clinic so that promising agents reach patients who need them as quickly and safely as possible.
An organization like the Cancer Research and Treatment Fund is especially valuable. With no bureaucracy, we can move swiftly in the direction which long experience tells us will lead to the best payoff in terms of patient care. The focus, however, remains on our patients.
The support of board members and others in this room tonight has and will continue to be indispensable. For that you deserve my thanks and those of my colleagues and of patients everywhere. Their lives have been made better and may be saved in the future through your continued support and generosity. Thank you.
For additional information, please contact:
Keith Muhleman, CR&T.
Phone: 212-288-6604
Fax: 212-288-7704 or 212-746-8246
e-mail: kmuhleman@crt.org
