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Alliance Launches The Silver Book®: Cancer with Capitol Hill Briefing

May 21, 2015   |   Alliance for Aging Research Team   |   Silver Book, Cancer

Today the Alliance debuted its 10th volume in its Silver Book®: Chronic Disease and Medical Innovation in an Aging Nation series. The Silver Book®: Cancer is a collection of exhaustive statistics, facts, and infographics that offers a comprehensive overview of the tremendous burden of this disease and how innovations in medical research can reduce that burden. It’s available at our Silver Book® website.

To celebrate this debut, the Alliance held a briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in partnership with the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC) and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). It featured remarks from the Alliance’s President and CEO Susan Peschin, MHS, and Vice President of Health Programs Lindsay Clarke, J.D., as well as PMC’s Vice President of Science Policy Daryl Pritchard, Ph.D.

The briefings also featured keynote talks from expert Harvey Jay Cohen, M.D., professor of medicine and director, Duke University Aging Center; and well-known speaker, author, and producer Beverlye Hyman Fead.

Dr. Cohen discussed the profound impact of cancer on the older adult population, noting that 50 percent of cancer survivors are ages 75 and over. The positive news, he added, is that revolutionary advances in cancer research—for example, immuno-oncology—have already made a profound difference in the development of new treatments. However, a greater effort must be made to get older adults involved in cancer clinical trials. He ended by stressing the importance of geroscience so experts can find the common links to why we age.

Hyman Fead poignantly spoke of her experiences as a cancer patient 13 years ago. She recounted the initial shock of the diagnosis and her determined quest to beat the disease. With the help of her family and medical experts, she did just that. She shared the lessons she learned: Be proactive with your disease. Get multiple opinions. Become a co-captain with your doctor. Eat right. Make goals.

The briefing then ended with a Q & A with the audience.

A special thanks go out to Dr. Cohen and Hyman Fead for providing their expertise and experiences. We also thank the PMC and the AACR for their contributions to this event and to The Silver Book®: Cancer.

To watch the briefing, please see the video below:

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