So this morning I decided to walk to work so I bundled myself up a little bit and took a nice 1.5 mile walk downhill from my house to the campus. On the way, I ran into Beth Beck, who runs the CBCC. She was out walking her dogs and we shared our excitement over the Lombardi/CBCC Avon Walk team being up to 27 people. So we’re getting closer to our goal of 50 members. Going from 23 last year to 50 this year is certainly a large increase, but it’s important for us to show our commitment to this important mission.
On Tuesday, I joined a meeting of the Men’s Event Kickoff Committee at Morton’s Steakhouse on Connecticut Avenue. I had a chance to describe some of our exciting work in prostate cancer. I was delighted to emphasize the work of Chip Albanese and colleagues to employ sophisticated NMR spectroscopy to characterize developing prostate cancers in appropriate animal models. Since this was a fundraising activity, I mentioned how expensive it is to maintain these instruments and replace them with state-of-the-art units to keep research on the cutting edge. Attendees immediately lost their appetites but were excited to know that we have world class research that will improve our ability to prevent and fight prostate cancer.
Last night I had the opportunity to attend the Friends of Cancer Research Cancer Leadership Awards Reception at the Hotel Monaco. Awardees included Senator Dan Inouye, Nancy Brinker, the new NIH Director Francis Collins, and Commissioner of the FDA, Margart Hamburg. Many cancer center directors attended this award reception and it was good to see old friends and to be inspired passion of so many people dedicated to the cause. Ellen Sigal, Chair and Founder of FOCR, and Marlene Marlek, President of FOCR (who was once an oncology nurse at Georgetown University Hospital), have been inspirational and highly effective advocates for cancer research and it has been a pleasure to be able work with them.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s 8th Annual Ian Peter Rennert Lecture by Richard Gorlick from the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore. He is an exceptional investigator and I’m sure his presentation on “Osteosarcoma: Its Biology Needs to Define New Treatments” will be of interest to a number of our faculty and staff.