David Chism, Medical Oncologist at Tennessee Oncology, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“As I prepare for my talk, The Future of Cancer Research, I find myself reflecting on where my journey into oncology truly began.
Only my aunt sat beside my uncle in his hospital room. His son could not bring himself to enter. Fear, grief, and helplessness filled the hallway. When I reached my uncle’s bedside, that same fear ran through me.
A few weeks later, the phone rang. Kidney cancer. 1991.
It took years to understand what that moment meant. My uncle did not die from cancer alone. He died from a lack of options. Clinical research changes that.
Today, we have targeted immunotherapies, trials and survivor outcomes. —but only if patients can access it. Too many still cannot.
Clinical research is how we honor those we have lost and how we protect the families still fighting. The future must be faster, fairer, more inclusive, and more accessible—because every family deserves the options my uncle never had.”