Day One recently screened a new documentary film called Seeing a Different Future. It tells the remarkable story of kids with cancer, their parents and doctors, academic researchers and drug developers who, together, persisted on a long and winding road to advance a treatment for a common brain tumor to a patient population who desperately needed it. Even after 25 years in the biopharmaceutical industry and 35 years as a physician, investigator and drug developer, I am inspired by the tenacity and commitment of our community to make a real difference in the lives of children with cancer and their families who usually wait too many years for new medicines that make a difference.
Which is one of the reasons I’ve joined Day One. I am excited to be part of an organization that has translated its passion for patients into developing meaningful medicines for patients who, let’s face it, have been at the back of the line for far too long.
My career as a hematologist/oncologist began at a time when “white space” constituted the treatment paradigms for most cancers, meaning effective treatments were either inferior to the task at hand, or often non-existent. Fortunately, through substantial public and private investment, discovery innovation, commitment, passion, and fortitude, the treatment landscape for many diagnosed with cancer today is vastly different than the early 1990s. Today, not only do we address screening, diagnosis, and treatment, but we now include post-treatment survivorship in our lexicon with patients, their families and caregivers. That’s progress!
But there’s so much more progress to be realized. The whole notion of cancer screening is being revolutionized through genomic-based testing. Diagnosis is increasingly sophisticated to inform recommendations for targeted therapies; we are now regularly parsing a histologic diagnosis to the specific molecular-defined subset in order to tailor a patient’s treatment accordingly. In parallel, either through precision medicine, or simply better medicines, or both, short and long term treatment side effects have lessened. While the immediate past three decades of advancement on each of these fronts may feel to some like a long time for too little, I am energized about the outlook for the future when I consider the three decades that preceded them, and the three before that. Think about it: nearly one hundred years ago, in addition to hope and prayers, our routine cancer armamentarium existed solely in the hands of our surgical colleagues, and only anecdotal success was achieved. Now, through improving screening and multimodality cancer treatment, we’re winning, as evidenced by a steady, year-over-year decline in cancer mortality in the United States since the turn of the century.
My years as a physician scientist have taught me how to meet the challenges of a cancer diagnosis, whether the patient is a child or an adult, employing the tenets of the scientific method, optimal clinical acumen informed by careful listening and observation, and a large dose of empathy. These tenets also drive my approach in the biopharmaceutical industry.
As an industry, we strive to make a meaningful difference in the lives of patients, keeping them at the center of everything we do. When we succeed, patients, families, doctors, investors, and society win. However, how we do so matters. In addition to the tenets above, a physician’s professional ethos of Primum non nocere, or “first, do no harm,” is equally crucial. It’s a simple phrase, with profound impact, whether in the clinic, on the wards, or in the work we do at places like Day One. If it’s adhered to in an inviolate manner, we will always stand on firm ground. Across our industry, whether a physician is in the midst of a particular organization, or not, keeping the patient at the center, acting with empathy to test our hypotheses, and doing so as keen observers and listeners with the mantra to first do no harm is a foundational recipe for immeasurable success.
People of all ages with cancer need the ongoing, relentless efforts of our entire community. And I firmly believe our fate is absolutely in our hands, which I find compelling and reinforcing to the sense of urgency and the criticality of our mission. I see this commitment to boldness and ingenuity at Day One. Every day that we ‘flip the script’ on traditional drug development gets us closer to delivering solutions to patients of all ages and their dedicated doctors for both rare and more common cancers. We also have what it takes to finally meet with equal intensity the long-standing challenges of developing medicines for children and adults.
When I think about what success looks like, it is a vision in which the impact is driven by the talent and leadership of absolutely everyone in this field, and the resilience of every child and adult with cancer and their families. As Seeing a Different Future shows, this is a journey of unleashing potential, and the journey is well underway.
