The Power of Cancer Research
Sunday, December 13, 2009
By: Michael Wosnick

Is cancer research really making any difference? You bet!!

Although I am no longer personally "active" in the lab, as the Vice-President of Research of the Canadian Cancer Society, I am in the enviable position to have a bird's eye seat to know all about the tremendous advances that are occurring in cancer research. I fight cancer every single day by helping to ensure that the donor dollars that are entrusted to the Canadian Cancer Society find their mark in the most impactful, world-class research that changes people lives for the better every day. Research is the foundation of most of the uplifting and inspirational stories being shared on this website.

And it's a good thing, since like all of you; my personal life has been touched by cancer. I lost my father to colon cancer in 2006. He was just a couple of months short of his 80th birthday and there is not a day that goes by that I don't think about what might have happened if he had paid more attention to the early warning signs and allowed himself to go for screening that we all now advocate for routinely.

But then, there is also my sister-in-law, one of the finest people I know, who has been battling chronic lymphocytic leukemia for 10 years now. She had the opportunity, after failing first line chemo treatments, to enroll earlier this year on a brand new experimental research protocol on a clinical trial being conducted by one of my colleagues at Sunnybrook Hospital here in Toronto. The new regimen that was made available to her was a combination of 2 established PLUS 2 brand new drugs and I am happy to say that after 6 rounds of the new regimen, her oncologist has declared her to be in full remission. This is the power of cancer research right up close, very personal and very successful!