Our family doctor asked my wife and I to come into her office. She sat us down, looked over Gloria’s chart. When she spoke, there were tears in her eyes, and she said those words you never want to hear your doctor say:
“I’m sorry.”
Gloria had pancreatic cancer, the third most dangerous cancer in America, and it had spread. (1)
One reason for the deadliness of this particular kind of cancer is the location of the organ itself; it “hides” behind the stomach. When detected, it may be too late.
We tried several medications,, with no good results, until Gloria said “No more”. She asked to be put “on hospice”, which means the nurses just try to make the patient comfortable.
Six weeks later, the hospice nurse said: ”Your wife is actively dying now.”
Our daughter Desiree was out jogging just then, when she got the strongest urge to rush home. Fast as she could, she raced in the house and up the stairs. We held her mother’s hands, told her that we loved her, one more time.
Then Gloria slipped away.
Almost certainly, someone you know has cancer. Maybe it’s operable; maybe not.
I am neither doctor nor scientist; but I know we all want cure.
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) my home state’s magnificent stem cell program, is fighting to bring an end to all kinds of cancer.
But no one source of funding is enough. Above all, we need the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to put the nation’s strength into this battle. We need to massively increase the amount of NIH funding.
Unfortunately, the current occupant of the White House does not seem to share our sense of urgency. When it comes to the budget for cancer research, the Trump Administration has proposed major cuts:
“Specifically, the proposed budget for the National Cancer Institute (NCI) was slated to be reduced from $7.2 billion to $4.5 billion, a decrease of $2.7 billion.”
As the American Cancer Society put it:
“The President’s proposed cut…is devastating to the fight against cancer.” (2)
How important is this? Survival rates for those with pancreatic cancer may be as low as six percent. (3)
To fight this widespread disease, we need an all-hands on deck approach — especially the National Institutes of Health (NIH) the world’s largest source of research funding.
Fighting cancer without the NIH’s full involvement? That is like going to war — while leaving the Marines at home.