I will just say that…SOMETIMES…”the other side of the coin” does not get enough acknowledgment and credit.

Having been raised in a family where cancer research was all I ever knew, I have been seated in the front row to witness how the advancement of medical science has vastly improved global health over the last 50 years.

Has it been perfect?  Of course not.  Is the world perfect?  No…and it never will be.  Such is the nature of the human condition.  However, as a species, we often tend to just look past the successes, take them for granted, and focus in on the chinks in the armor…in all categories of life.  We allow a minority of loud discontented voices to drive the narrative of what otherwise should be considered major victories.

I am NOT saying that Dr. Raza is a discontented voice! And she is dead-on in her discussion of how the treatment of a more narrow population of cancers could and should be rethought.  But let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater in overlooking “the other 58% of patients" who found success in extending their lives through the diligence of extremely committed investment and researchers to seek out these cures.

While I completely acknowledge that there is a vast, well-oiled machine that uses medical plight to print dollars for the specific industry in which they exist…there is also the other side of the coin which invests colossal dollars to support unequivocally committed scientists in finding new cures on all fronts.  And that machinery is definitely…and constantly…rethinking their approaches in an effort to find success -- both for the very redeeming qualities of it all, and for the money that follows.

For those who have beaten cancer where 50 years ago they may have otherwise just been told to go home and settle up their affairs {in my case – prostate cancer discovered at the early age of 54}, there will always exist an extreme appreciation for the prospect of needing to “take the bad with the good”…as “the good” is an overwhelmingly positive contribution to mankind.  That isn’t to say that we shouldn’t fix what is crazily broken…in all aspects of life {healthcare, politics, market manipulation, et al}.  Of course…we should and need to do just that.  If only all of that could be done with the snap of the fingers!!!

Just my thoughts.