by JOHN-MANUEL ANDRIOTE
Rein Saral, MD, was a new researcher at the National Institutes of Health when President Richard Nixon signed the National Cancer Act (NCA) on Dec. 23, 1971. At the time, a cancer diagnosis was terrifying—and with good reason. Only Rein Saral
about half of cancer patients survived five years. There simply weren’t many treatment options. Chemotherapy and radiation were promising, but were still blunt instruments, effective in only a small number of cancers. That’s changed over the ensuing 50 years. With a stroke of the president’s pen, the “war on cancer” was underway. The NCA infused record amounts of federal dollars into research labs around the country—and helped transform cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment and survivorship. TODAY, CANCER CAN STILL BE FRIGHTENING. But
for an increasing number of patients, it has become a disease that can be managed—and even cured—through methods that would have seemed unthinkable 50 years ago. Now, the body’s immune system can be harnessed to kill some types of cancer. Blood biomarkers help tailor precise treatment for individual patients. Cutting-edge imaging technology can detect cancer sooner. And aggressive prevention efforts are helping many to avoid cancer altogether. Most importantly—more cancer patients are living longer. [ Winship Magazine
Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University has helped drive that progress. As Georgia’s NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, it has led the way on patient care, research and education. Saral was recruited in 1991 to direct Emory’s Bone Marrow Transplantation Program and has witnessed an “explosion” of new discoveries in the decades since then. “I think it’s unmatched for any other disease afflicting mankind,” he says, “except, perhaps, some of the vaccine developments we’ve seen here recently.”
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PHOTOS BY: A. WINSHIP CANCER INSTITUTE, B. RICHARD NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM, C. DR. ELLIOTT WINTON
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