Personalizing Cancer Care: American Society of Clinical Oncology Presidential Address 2009

I would like to welcome you all to Orlando, FL, and the 2009 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting. This has been a challenging year for people everywhere due to the global economic recession and the resulting unemployment and loss of health care benefits. But it has also been a year of great hope for a new administration in Washington, DC, that is very supportive of biomedical research and committed to curing cancer. I am pleased to see so many of you gathered here to share our common goal to improve the outcomes of cancer patients through research and the delivery of high-quality care. The next few days will present an extraordinary array of educational sessions and scientific presentations that focus on our vision to deliver the right care to the right person at the right time. We hear much today about “personalized medicine.” Thus, as the theme of this year’s Annual Meeting, I have chosen “Personalizing Cancer Care,” and you will see it, in its many dimensions, in every session of the Meeting. Personalization is the new buzzword in health care and health policy— but what does it mean for cancer patients and oncologists? For the next few minutes, I’ll share with you what I think this means for our community, why it’s important, and how ASCO members can bring this concept to life for our patients.