Cancer Cancer Everywhere

It's everywhere.

I just got another e-mail from an old friend who has a friend whose young son was just diagnosed with alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma (ARMS)....large mass in the abdomen, undergoing chemo right now. A co-worker just told a bunch of us in the Department that she's been diagnosed with infiltrating ductal carcinoma. A friend of my husband just died in his mid- thirties from metastatic melanoma. I attended a gala fund raiser last weekend set up by parents who lost their child to Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Maybe it's an occupational hazard but I seem to be surround by cancer everywhere.

I guess I should be sad or frightened or mad at the fact that cancer is affecting so many people I know....I try to help everyone who asks for help by researching treatment options and by sending out good energy into the universe but I don't want to just see all the hopelessness and pain and suffering. I know that all that is there but there is also something else that comes out of cancer and this is what I choose to focus on.

I see my friend being supportive and caring to the mother dealing with the frightening reality of a child with cancer....I see the bravery and strength of my co-worker who still laughed at the bench today even though the cancer has not been removed from her body yet.....I see my husband and his friends climbing a mountain to celebrate a life well lived, sharing their feelings and grief together....I see the passionate belief and conviction flowing from parents who lost their son but who are determined to raise funds to make a difference for other children who have cancer...

There is so much good energy and kindness and sharing that happens around cancer. I feel like I need to focus on that to make any sense out of it all.

It's almost as if this thing that happens to people has so very little to do with the work that I do every day at the bench. I spend so much of my time and life energy looking at pathways in cells living in petri dishes in incubators. They seem so far removed from the feeling and experiences of all these people touched by cancer.

I do think the one thing that research gives people is hope. Hope has such value when you are talking cancer. Sometimes I get all depressed about the complexity of it all but maybe I have to remind myself that perhaps it's not about finding the cure but providing just a little bit of hope to those who really need it.