Calgary had an amazingly successful annual CIBC Run for the Cure for Breast Cancer on Oct 3. My beautiful Peruvian/Canadian friend Elvira Z ran for me and I am very grateful to her. This year they have raised $1.7 million to date. Elvira ran with a team from her employer, the Calgary Herald. We are so fortunate in Calgary to have so many sponsors and community supporters of the cause. Why can't we find a cure for this awful disease? It is coming, but not fast enough for some of us.
I attended an all-day workshop on BC last Sunday. Great progress is being made, especially in the pathology. We have a new auto- miscroscope in our path lab at Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary, the only one of its kind in Canada - the HistoRX. It gives precise measures for identifying tumors, and screening for optimal therapy.
As pathologist Tony Magliocco described it - "amazing technology." His last slide showed his two young daughters - he aims to help find the cause of this awful disease to prevent them ever having to worry about it. Great people working in this field. It improves our prognosis no end.
The HER2 cell discovery was made in 1987 and it took 15 years to create the antibody. I am now reaping the benefit of that research as my cancer is HER2 positive, being treated for a year with immunotherapy, an artificial protein. A message of hope for me indeed.
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