The Book: Making Cancer
History - Disease and Discovery at M. D. Anderson
Cancer Newsline Audio Podcast Series
Date: June 08, 2009
Duration: 0 / 13:29
Dr. Ray Dubois:
Welcome
to Cancer Newsline a weekly podcast
series from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson
Cancer Center in
Dr. John Mendelsohn:
Well,
this is a very exciting book from my point of view. It's a biography of an
institution, it's about 65 or 70 years old, and it's a history of what happened
in the field of cancer during the past 65 to 70 year when the whole field
changed. How does this book and how does this history contribute to our culture
today? We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. We are what we
are because of our history which is specially emphasized taking science and
translating it into new diagnostic tests and treatments for patients. I think
that's what where special at and you go back to the 90s and 60s and 1970s in
this book and you'll see the germ of that already occurring.
Dubois:
Do you
have a favorite passage or story from the book?
Mendelsohn:
Well, I
enjoyed reading the whole book but I guess the most exciting period for me was
the period between about 1965 and '70 when Lee Clark who was a skilled surgeon,
a very well-known surgeon actually did two things. First of all, he recruited fabulous
people here, mostly not surgeons, chemotherapists, radiation therapists,
experimental therapeutic specialists, and then set up the paradigm that
surgeons and medical oncologists and radiation therapists who'd worked together
collaborator--collaborating a multi-disciplinary approaches to cancer rather
than a surgeon doing what they wanna do and then
handing it of to the medical guide to do what he wants to do or she and then
handing that of to radio therapists. And that culture of sharing from the beginning,
the planning and care of the patient has carried us forward.
Dubois:
Dr.
Olson, do you have a favorite passage in the book? You obviously wrote the
book.
Dr. James Olson:
I've got
a number of favorite passages. I started off with one of my favorite passages,
and that was the story of Freddy Steinmark, the
Dubois:
So as a
cancer survivor this must been a quite personal experienced for you to write
and considering the time that you spent here as a patient at M.D. Anderson,
what do you think that people would be most surprise about this book?
Olson:
I think
one thing I hope is that people will see how complicated the disease has been
and how difficult to struggle against it. But I think sometimes people who,
like me, before I start looking at this, you know, kinda
view to this--in conquering cancer can be like dealing with polio and yeah,
we're gonna nail it down one day and that's it. It
turns out to be much more stubborn, much more complicated.
Dubois:
So, you
experienced M.D. Anderson as both as an author and as a patient. Was it hard
for you to draw the line between objectively looking at the history and telling
the story and also, you know, your experience that you had first hand as being
a patient that was treated here, was that difficult?
Olson:
But it was
a challenge at times. I came at this having had a very, very positive
experienced at M.D. Anderson personally even though I have my arm amputated
here. The treatment I got was just I think superb. So I came to the project
already biased. And at times, I had to kinda make
sure that I step back a little bit when I might needed to take more critical
look at something. Another problem, believe it or not, is that in the history
since I the people that treated me, I tended to give them or wanted to give
them more attention than others, okay. So I had been little more detached.
Dubois:
It's paid
back time.
Olson:
That's
right, yeah! And then I got--when this brain cancer developed, I had to deal
with some depression in my own life about it and had a hard time for a while
there dealing with the disease myself and then reading and writing about it all
day long. That was tough for a while though.
Dubois:
So, I
have a couple of questions for Dr. Mendelsohn. First,
you know, the obvious question is why do you think it's important for M.D.
Anderson to tell this history, but secondly it would be wonderful if you could
give us, share us with us a little bit about your vision for the future given
that we have this 65 year history, where is the cancer field going and what is
the next book can you tell us about that's gonna be
written in the future?
Mendelsohn:
Well,
those are great questions! First, let me say that there's been a lot written
about cancer and what I think is special about this book for the public and for
the people that are in the field is it really shows how people have to work
together to solve problems and how surprises occur and the science of
developing new treatments is a very exciting area that isn't talk about very
much. There's a lot to talk about on how to discover a double helix or how to
clone genes. There's very little written about how do you decide what's the
right therapy, and how do you do the experiments to find the right therapy, and
in this book it's just chockfull of stories about that, about people working
together and failing sometimes and making breakthroughs at other times and the
impacted has on the lives of the people that participate in the experiments,
the patients. So, it gives a view of what cancer research is all about that I
think is very exciting for the public. Now, the question of, what is the future
hold? It's always fun to speculate. But I think, most people in the cancer
field today are ready to predict that whereas, let's say in pneumonia and tuberculosis
were the most common causes of death when our grandmothers were alive and our
age and our grandparents. Today, cancer and heart diseases are the two most
important diseases to worry about in terms of our longevity. I think we're gonna make enough progress in cancer so that it's gonna drop down on a list. We'll never get rid of it. Now
has that gonna happen? Well first of all, we're gonna take the knowledge we already have and apply it. One
third of all cancer deaths would go away if we all quit smoking. I have to say
that over and over again 'cause it's so simple to say. You don't have to build
any more hospital beds or train any more doctors if we all quits smoking. One
third of all cancer deaths would go away and it would infect heart disease and
emphysema and whole lot of other things too. So, prevention is gonna become more and more important as the public begins
to take accountability for their own health and then early diagnosis is getting
better and better. Finally, treatments are getting better and the kinds of
treatments we're developing that Dr. Olson just referred to are targeting the
genes in the molecules that are abnormal in the cancer cell. The way
antibiotics target which abnormal in a germ, and antibiotics have been very
successful. So, we predict in the future that we're gonna
have better therapies, chemotherapies but in new kind of chemotherapy that
targets the molecular and genetic abnormalities that are causing the disease
and it will achieve even greater speed in curing the disease.
Dubois:
That's
exciting. Dr. Olson, what is the history of M.D. Anderson communicate to our
patients and their families and the healthy community that may need cancer care
in the future as just has John talked about?
Olson:
I think
one thing I wanted to convey on the book is a little unusual as a history book,
and that my own personal experience has woven into it in different places. But
I--in my experience here has been, you know, when I was first diagnosed, 1981,
with a soft tissues sarcoma. I was treated for--the surgery and radiation that
recurred in 1984. I came back for more surgery and more radiation therapy.
Recurred again the next year and I had an excision by--little excision of the
tumor but it came back in '87 and I had more treatment and the amputation. And
then brain cancer came in 2000. I had radiation and chemotherapy and surgery
and so on. So, I've have been at this for 28 years now as a patient here on and
off many times. And--
Dubois:
That's
incredible.
Olson:
--well, I
think, the story here I think is there is optimism in being a cancer patient
and at being at an institutional like, you know like M.D. Anderson. And I think
the message with M.D. Anderson is hope. Okay, personally for me and for
everybody else who's gonna come here in the future.
Dubois:
So for
both of you guys, we're about ready to wrap this up and just--if you have any
thoughts that you like to leave with the audience, you know, about the history,
about the future, or about the culture that we have here. I think M.D. Anderson
is a very special place and what I hear over and over again when people step
into the building, get in to the elevator, they feel like they're immediately
at home and at the right place to get their treatment for cancer?
Olson:
So I
think you said it all. I think we very much feel and talk about here treating
the cancer and caring for the patient and patient's family and they're both
very important. And we'll leave no stone unturned looking for a way to improve
a patient's chances. So when standard therapy fails, we're very proud and we
have the largest clinical research program in the world making available.
Experimental therapies, if a patient is interested. And since one third of
patients don't even live with 5 years with cancer, that means one third of the
people in this country to get cancer are gonna reach
a point where experimental therapy might become important and we're very proud
to have that available.
Dubois:
Well,
thank you so much both of you for speaking with Cancer Newsline
today. Making cancer history is a terrific read and a great reminder of how far
we've come in our knowledge and understanding of cancer. If anyone is
interested in purchasing a copy of "Making Cancer history," please go
to amazon.com or visit one of our M.D. Anderson gift shops. Thank you for
tuning in today to Cancer Newsline this week and be
sure to check out another new edition next week. This is Dr. Ray Dubois,
Provost and Executive Vice President for
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