Perspectives

Pondering those cancer circuitry maps such as the one from the updated classic "Hallmarks of Cancer: The Next Generation" by Hanahan and Weinberg (Cell, March 2011), one might be excused from a certain dizzying sense of awe, and a very real sense of terror at the complexity of tumor cells. And this complexity, rendered simplistic in the graphic, represents only a static snapshot. The temporal and contextual dynamics of cancer's heterogeneity and fluidity are not captured. So my reference to reductionist thinking in Part I of this piece is therefore not an indictment of anyone but the sobering realization of the practical considerations we have had to make in challenging Cancer (capital "C" here).

I have worked on multiple Rare Disease projects throughout my career in the Biopharmaceutical and Consulting industry but I am still blown away by the strength, bravery and hope of those impacted by these rare and devastating conditions.

Happy new year colleagues and friends! It is hard to believe this month marks the one year anniversary of our inaugural Health Action Community (HAC) event, focused on addressing unmet needs in metastatic breast cancer (MBC).

For many years, those of us within the oncology community screamed that “it’s all about the clinical data,” and for many years that was the focus…data, data, and more data.