A New Face at the Door…

Excerpt

Happy New Year and a fond adieu to the old. It has been another remarkable year. A year filled with jeers and cheers. A year of accomplishments and renewed commitments. This was most evident at our recent annual meeting in Tucson, Arizona. The International Cancer Education Conference, a.k.a. the annual AACE/CPEN meeting, was true to its billing as an international conference. Kudos goes to the co-chairs of the meeting Sheryl Ness (Mayo Clinic) and Amr Soliman (University of Nebraska), and all the members of their Committee as well as to Maria Bishop who along with her team did such a marvelous job with local arrangements. The setting and substance for this year’s meeting was truly inspirational. This year’s conference theme was Cancer Education in Diverse Populations: Disparities, Genomics and Innovations. As the co-chairs explained, the theme was “chosen to highlight the global perspective of educational issues across the continuum of the cancer experience for patients and their families with a focus on serving the needs of special populations and addressing disparities in cancer care. From prevention through treatment, to survivorship or end-of-life care, cancer educators and researchers are at the forefront of this evolving practice promoting excellence in cancer patient education, services, and cancer care.” The quality of the presentations at the meetings gets better and better. There were far too many superb presentations to mention in this editorial. The schedule, per usual, was packed from early Wednesday mornings preconference workshops to the closing ceremony of late Friday afternoon. This year’s Harvey lecture was given by Diane Zipursky Quale who along with her late husband, John, launched the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network—BCAN (www.​bcan.​org). BCAN’s mission is to advance research, provide information and support, and raise awareness on bladder cancer. Her presentation left no doubts as to the breath and success of their organization. She recounted its remarkable growth from its nascent beginning as a private conversation between husband and wife to today’s incredibly successful and supportive organization. I encourage all to visit their website to see how you can become a bladder cancer advocate. …