Volume 1, Issue 3

Director's message

Robert B. Diasio, M.D.

At the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, we're not just researching new ways to prevent and treat cancer, we're looking for new ways to offer hope to our patients and their loved ones — hope that can help reduce cancer's burden. This month, Forefront celebrates research that offers new hope for improved quality of life and treatment. Here are a few highlights:

• There is proof that physical activity can improve a cancer patient's mobility, help ease fatigue, improve sleep and contribute to overall well-being. A team of Mayo Clinic researchers is investigating the best way to make patients aware of this so that they can take advantage of the benefits.
• Two Mayo Clinic physicians identify the reasons for the high cost of cancer drugs in the United States and offer potential solutions to this problem.
• A research team from the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and the University of California, San Francisco, has discovered a gene mutation that may be responsible for up to 20 percent of new brain cancers diagnosed in the United States each year. The discovery could eventually help researchers identify new treatments.

As researchers and clinicians, our goal is always to provide hope. It's an enormous responsibility, but it's why we come to work every day.

Wishing you hope and peace this holiday season,

Robert B. Diasio, M.D.
Director, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center
William J. and Charles H. Mayo Professor