Dear MSK Community,
If you ask the 21,000 people who work at MSK what inspires their tireless commitment to our mission of ending cancer for life, you will hear remarkable responses.
Stories about the courage and resilience of the people we care for, an epiphany early in a young scientist’s training that shaped the course of their life’s work, and the personal heartbreak that results in a vow to improve the lives of others.
- Our cover story is about unforgettable 4-year-old Sienna, who was diagnosed with a rare kidney cancer on Christmas Eve 2024. Her cheerful resilience inspires her MSK care team, whose devotion to their patients inspired her family to help others by raising money to study rare cancers through Cycle for Survival.
- In these pages, you will learn how, more than a decade ago, MSK laboratory scientists and clinicians encountered a handful of ovarian cancer patients who had an exceptional response to a certain therapy, while others did not. Energized to understand why the responders survived, researchers kept at it, which led, in May of this year, to a new FDA-approved treatment — and a new lease on life for a retired kindergarten teacher and mother of three.
- You will also read about MSK’s innovative and ongoing pursuit of better ways to eradicate hidden cancer cells that would otherwise be missed. This approach, called “theranostics,” uses radioactive drugs that can both find cancer cells and simultaneously destroy them with incredible precision, resulting in fewer side effects and a better quality of life for patients.
- You will discover how an MSK surgeon used a first-of-its-kind surgical implant that would avoid amputation of a patient’s leg after a serious infection, healing her body and helping her return to her own practice as a physician.
- At MSK, inspiration begins with the crucial one-to-one relationships that are the foundation of our cancer care. As you’ll see, these deeply personal connections led a group of MSK radiology nurses to develop recommendations to help patients deal with “scanxiety” — the fear felt by so many patients undergoing an imaging test.
- This kind of compassionate, innovative care embodies what makes MSK nurses the best of the very best. It’s why MSK was recently recognized for the third time with Magnet™ designation, one of the highest honors a healthcare organization can achieve in nursing excellence.
Yes, fighting cancer is often sobering and difficult work, but it is also full of hope. We believe you’ll be inspired by the people in this issue and their relentless determination to improve the lives of cancer patients everywhere.
Sincerely,
Selwyn M. Vickers, MD, FACS
President and Chief Executive Officer