Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

The inspirational story of Lance Armstrong, who won the Tour de France after having received therapy for advanced testicular cancer, is now well known. Another well-known athlete, Brian Picollo, who's story was told in the movie "Brian's Song", also had testicular cancer. Sadly, Picollo died because our treatment options before the 1970s, when he developed his cancer, were more limited. He would have had a 90% chance of cure today. Indeed, we have made dramatic progress in the past 25 years for a number of cancers.

Why have we made progress? Research in the laboratory into the nature of cancer has helped us understand what cancer is, which in turn has allowed us to develop new approaches to cancer prevention and treatment. Clinical research exploring new treatments based on this laboratory research has allowed us to improve cancer care. Supportive care to help patients get through the effects of the cancer itself, and the side effects of treatment, have improved significantly, with nausea from chemotherapy being much less of a problem than it was just 10 years ago. Finally, there is a growing recognition that cancer care involves not just treatment of the disease, but also social, psychological and spiritual support for the patient and their family.

Obviously, we still have a long way to go. Has progress in our fight against cancer slowed or stopped? Absolutely not! In fact, we are making progress in all these areas faster than ever before. Research is allowing for the development of new treatments at an unprecedented rate. These include immune system treatments such as cancer vaccines, and development of medicines that interfere with cancer growth, but do not affect the rest of the body. Preliminary research suggests many of these new and exciting treatments will be more effective and have fewer side effects than current approaches.

Continued commitment and research is needed before we will know how to use these treatments most effectively in the future. Lance Armstrong benefited from research done in the 1980s, and our children and grandchildren will benefit from research that is taking place today.

In this section you will find information about cancer research, from basic laboratory research to clinical trials, including clinical trials available in the State of Iowa.