Future Tense event: Do we need to stop talking about "curing" cancer?

Future Tense Event: Do We Need to Stop Talking About “Curing” Cancer?

Future Tense Event: Do We Need to Stop Talking About “Curing” Cancer?

Future Tense
The Citizen's Guide to the Future
April 14 2017 11:34 AM

Future Tense Event: Do We Need to Stop Talking About “Curing” Cancer?

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Joe Biden delivers remarks on Cancer Moonshot during a special session on the eve of the opening day of the World Economic Forum, on Jan. 16, 2017, in Davos.

Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images

In 1971, Richard Nixon declared war on cancer. Five decades and billions of dollars later, cancer remains the second leading cause of death in the United States. But promising advances in immunotherapy and other cutting-edge research, plus efforts like Joe Biden's "cancer moonshot," have reinvigorated the battle and raised new hopes. Now the entire way we look at cancer is changing from monolithic condition to a wide range of different diseases requiring different approaches.

Throughout the ’80s and ’90s, fighting cancer meant using targeted therapies to attempt to wipe out compromised cells. But today iconoclastic cancer researchers are taking a different approach: What if, they ask, the human body is more like an ecosystem? What if cancer cells are active members within that habitat? Billions of years of evolution have endowed ecosystems with ways of remaining healthy despite predators, exploiters, cheaters, and deadbeats. And if researchers apply predictable ecological management principles to cancer treatment, we might reframe the disease in a way that leads to effective new treatments instead of an ever unattainable cure.

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Join Future Tense—a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University—in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, April 27, as we gather the experts who are reassessing how we understand, prevent, and treat cancer. The event will start at noon; lunch will be served. For more information and to RSVP, visit the New America website. If you can’t join us in person, you can still watch live. RSVP to watch online to get a reminder note.

Agenda

Noon – 12:10 p.m.: The Ecology of Cancer

Athena Aktipis 
Assistant professor, Psychology Department, Arizona State University
Co-founder, International Society for Evolution, Ecology and Cancer

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12:10 – 12:40 p.m.: Learning From the Ailments of Our Ancestors

Kate Hunt 
Bioarchaeologist, 106 Group

Moderator: 
Kathryn Bowers 
Co-author, Zoobiquity: The Astonishing Connection Between Human and Animal Health
Future Tense fellow, New America

12:40 – 12:55 p.m.: Notes on a Small Thing

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Jacob Brogan 
Journalist and critic

12:55 – 1:45 p.m.: Changing the Way We Think About Beating Cancer

Athena Aktipis 
Assistant professor, Psychology Department, Arizona State University
Co-founder, International Society for Evolution, Ecology and Cancer

Donna Marie Manasseh, M.D. 
Director of breast surgery, Maimonides Breast Cancer Center

David Reese, M.D. 
Senior vice president of translational sciences and discovery research (interim), Amgen

Joshua Schiffman, M.D. 
Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah
Investigator, Huntsman Cancer Institute

Moderator: 
William Saletan 
National correspondent, Slate

Future Tense is a partnership of SlateNew America, and Arizona State University.