Latest news with #TIME100HealthImpactDinner
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
TIME100 Health Panelists Talk ‘Curing Cancer'
Sara Sidner, anchor and senior national correspondent for CNN, told the audience at the TIME100 Health Impact Dinner on Tuesday night that she did 16 rounds of chemotherapy after she was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer in 2023—and worked the entire time through it. The room erupted into loud applause. 'It is possible to live your life while trying to kill cancer,' Sidner said. 'We've come such a long way, and I just quickly want to say to this room: whoever is in this room that is a nurse, a doctor, a physician, a researcher, someone who is creating drugs for us—thank you. Thank you for the research. Thank you for your work; we need it so, so much.' Sidner was joined onstage by Dr. Vinod Balachandran, surgeon-scientist and director of the Olayan Center for Cancer Vaccines at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Victor Bulto, president of the U.S. unit for Novartis, which sponsored the event in New York City. The three appeared on a panel moderated by TIME senior health correspondent Alice Park to discuss the groundbreaking innovations in cancer detection, treatment, and prevention—and the research that still needs to be done. Sidner, who is a 2025 TIME Closers honoree, said she hadn't always planned on publicly sharing her cancer diagnosis. But when she learned she had stage III breast cancer, she realized she wouldn't be able to keep it a secret from everyone. 'You have spent your life telling other people's stories—maybe this is something you need to tell, and tell it in a really honest, sometimes embarrassing, way. Tell people what it's like going through this journey,' she recalled thinking. Balachandran, who is a 2025 TIME100 Health honoree, called cancer 'the most urgent health crisis of our lifetime.' In the United States, one in two men and one in three women will be diagnosed with cancer during their life, according to the American Cancer Society. Part of what's challenging, he said, is that cancer is 'an intelligent cell that is constantly programmed to evolve.' 'We have historically been treating it with drugs that do not evolve with an evolving cancer,' Balachandran said. 'Even though cancer is intelligent, we do not fight it with a medicine that is intelligent. We've always envisioned developing intelligent medicines to diagnose and treat cancer, but we have not really been able to achieve this goal.' Now, though, Balachandran said he thinks the health industry has made progress on this. New technologies, including AI, and research advancements—such as understanding how the immune system recognizes cancer—could help medical providers diagnose cancer earlier and treat cancer more effectively, Balachandran said. Balachandran has used mRNA technology to create personalized vaccines that research has indicated could boost patients' immune systems to help treat pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. Bulto said that it's imperative to continue making grounds on the medicine but also on understanding the patient experience. 'On the one hand, we have a lot to do on the science front, but also, the more we learn about the science, the more we are learning … that we have to become as good or as innovative in how we bring those medicines to patients as how innovative the medicines themselves are,' Bulto said. 'We have spent a lot of time trying to understand the lived experience of patients, the felt experience of patients.' He said that whatever innovations are developed for cancer treatment, it's critical to ensure they're distributed to all patients who need them—whether they live in New York City or in a rural community. At the same time that advancements are being made in the cancer field, research funding through the U.S. National Institutes of Health is at risk under the Trump Administration. Despite that, Balachandran said he is 'optimistic.' 'We've made so much progress, so it's really hard to stop this level of progress when results are really transformative and really sort of ushering in a next era of cancer care,' he said. 'If they work, how could you not support it? Because cancer is something that affects all of us.' To close out the discussion, Park asked the panelists: will we cure cancer? Balachandran replied immediately: Yes. 'We already are curing cancer,' he said. 'The question is: how more can we cure cancer, and how more effectively can we cure cancer, and how more simplistically can we cure cancer with less side effects or less medication, and for whom, and for more people?' 'The next revolution of cancer care is really about expanding access to more patients, expanding more treatments with less side effects for people,' he continued. Sidner and Bulto said they agreed with Balachandran, but Sidner added that it was critical to ensure that cancer is cured equitably. She pointed out that Black women are nearly 40% more likely than their white counterparts to die from breast cancer. 'Something's wrong there,' she said. 'And so for whom will cancer be cured is a huge question that needs to be addressed.' The TIME100 Impact Dinner: Leaders Shaping the Future of Health was sponsored by Novartis and FIGS. Contact us at letters@
Time Magazine
14-05-2025
- Health
- Time Magazine
‘We Already Are Curing Cancer': TIME100 Health Panel Discusses How to Solve an ‘Evolving' Disease
Sara Sidner, anchor and senior national correspondent for CNN, told the audience at the TIME100 Health Impact Dinner on Tuesday night that she did 16 rounds of chemotherapy after she was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer in 2023—and worked the entire time through it. The room erupted into loud applause. 'It is possible to live your life while trying to kill cancer,' Sidner said. 'We've come such a long way, and I just quickly want to say to this room: whoever is in this room that is a nurse, a doctor, a physician, a researcher, someone who is creating drugs for us—thank you. Thank you for the research. Thank you for your work; we need it so, so much.' Sidner was joined onstage by Dr. Vinod Balachandran, surgeon-scientist and director of the Olayan Center for Cancer Vaccines at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Victor Bulto, president of the U.S. unit for Novartis, which sponsored the event in New York City. The three appeared on a panel moderated by TIME senior health correspondent Alice Park to discuss the groundbreaking innovations in cancer detection, treatment, and prevention—and the research that still needs to be done. Sidner, who is a 2025 TIME Closers honoree, said she hadn't always planned on publicly sharing her cancer diagnosis. But when she learned she had stage III breast cancer, she realized she wouldn't be able to keep it a secret from everyone. 'You have spent your life telling other people's stories—maybe this is something you need to tell, and tell it in a really honest, sometimes embarrassing, way. Tell people what it's like going through this journey,' she recalled thinking. Balachandran, who is a 2025 TIME100 Health honoree, called cancer 'the most urgent health crisis of our lifetime.' In the United States, one in two men and one in three women will be diagnosed with cancer during their life, according to the American Cancer Society. Part of what's challenging, he said, is that cancer is 'an intelligent cell that is constantly programmed to evolve.' 'We have historically been treating it with drugs that do not evolve with an evolving cancer,' Balachandran said. 'Even though cancer is intelligent, we do not fight it with a medicine that is intelligent. We've always envisioned developing intelligent medicines to diagnose and treat cancer, but we have not really been able to achieve this goal.' Now, though, Balachandran said he thinks the health industry has made progress on this. New technologies, including AI, and research advancements—such as understanding how the immune system recognizes cancer—could help medical providers diagnose cancer earlier and treat cancer more effectively, Balachandran said. Balachandran has used mRNA technology to create personalized vaccines that research has indicated could boost patients' immune systems to help treat pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. Bulto said that it's imperative to continue making grounds on the medicine but also on understanding the patient experience. 'On the one hand, we have a lot to do on the science front, but also, the more we learn about the science, the more we are learning … that we have to become as good or as innovative in how we bring those medicines to patients as how innovative the medicines themselves are,' Bulto said. 'We have spent a lot of time trying to understand the lived experience of patients, the felt experience of patients.' He said that whatever innovations are developed for cancer treatment, it's critical to ensure they're distributed to all patients who need them—whether they live in New York City or in a rural community. At the same time that advancements are being made in the cancer field, research funding through the U.S. National Institutes of Health is at risk under the Trump Administration. Despite that, Balachandran said he is 'optimistic.' 'We've made so much progress, so it's really hard to stop this level of progress when results are really transformative and really sort of ushering in a next era of cancer care,' he said. 'If they work, how could you not support it? Because cancer is something that affects all of us.' To close out the discussion, Park asked the panelists: will we cure cancer? Balachandran replied immediately: Yes. 'We already are curing cancer,' he said. 'The question is: how more can we cure cancer, and how more effectively can we cure cancer, and how more simplistically can we cure cancer with less side effects or less medication, and for whom, and for more people?' 'The next revolution of cancer care is really about expanding access to more patients, expanding more treatments with less side effects for people,' he continued. Sidner and Bulto said they agreed with Balachandran, but Sidner added that it was critical to ensure that cancer is cured equitably. She pointed out that Black women are nearly 40% more likely than their white counterparts to die from breast cancer. 'Something's wrong there,' she said. 'And so for whom will cancer be cured is a huge question that needs to be addressed.'
Time Magazine
14-05-2025
- Health
- Time Magazine
TIME100 Health Honorees Toast to Progress, Affirmation Over Fear, and Changing a ‘Heartbreaking Reality'
Health is multifaceted, a fact that was reflected in the industry-spanning community gathered Tuesday night at the TIME100 Health Impact Dinner honoring some of the most influential people leading this fast-moving field. The latest annual TIME100 Health list, which debuted in 2024, highlights scientists, doctors, advocates, educators, and other changemakers working to navigate a year unlike any other in global health, punctuated by conflict and upheavals, while gazing into an uncertain future. TIME CEO Jessica Sibley kicked off dinner by announcing the launch of a new coverage initiative, TIME Longevity, which aims to capture the people, institutions, and innovations redefining what it means to live longer and age healthier. TIME senior correspondent Alice Park then led a panel discussion on the next era of cancer treatment and diagnosis. As the dinner wrapped up, four TIME100 Health honorees gave toasts about fighting to restore respect for science, making innovations in public health accessible to those who most need it, supporting the mental wellness of LGBTQ+ youths, and turning a personal near tragedy into nationwide impact. Ensuring scientific progress doesn't stop Bill Nye, advocate, science educator, and TV host, donned a signature bow tie as he took the stage. Over the past year in particular he's been using his celebrity to bring awareness to the importance of supporting scientific research and to urge citizens to speak out to lawmakers about the disruptive reductions made by the Trump Administration at vital agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and NASA. But, 'strangely enough, this would be the time you'd want to be born,' he says. 'More people around the world are better off now than ever before in human history.' That is thanks to the body of knowledge accrued by science over the course of this history, through studies in evolution, genetics, and DNA. This arc of discovery led to recent medical breakthroughs that have unlocked the potential to free families from genetic ailments that have plagued them for generations. For Nye's family, that includes a neurological disorder called Spino Cerebellar Ataxia. 'We are living at this extraordinary time with genetic research, and this is of great interest to me and my family,' he says. 'What a remarkable time in health care, where we are all able to understand these genes and do something about it,' he continues. 'Meanwhile, funding is being cut. Support of health care or scientific research in health care is being cut. But this will not last. We are going to work together.' Harkening back to evolutionary biologists Darwin and Wallace who concluded that all living things share a common ancestor, Nye says: 'My friends, all of us, we are more alike than we are different. … So let's work together and make the world better for everyone.' Finding remedies for malnutrition and its indignity Dr. Tahmeed Ahmed, executive director of ICDDR Bangladesh, spoke about how treating malnutrition improves human dignity for more than 200 million women and children worldwide. For the last 40 years, he's been working to improve and simplify the treatment for malnutrition. Research has gradually revealed that malnutrition is not only caused by lack of food but also by intestine-damaging bacteria introduced through poor hygiene that can result in poor nutrient absorption. Based on these findings, Ahmed and Dr. Jeffrey Gordon from the Washington University at St. Louis developed a treatment that incorporates beneficial gut bugs that could be easily dispensed into food products by local producers. 'We now know more about what causes malnutrition … we also have a number of remedies,' he says. 'The problem is, how do we take these remedies to the people who need it most, be it in Africa, in South Asia.' Promoting affirmation over fear Ronita Nath, vice president of research at the Trevor Project, first shined the spotlight on her fellow honorees in the room. 'Your breakthroughs are redefining what's possible in health and humanity, and it's a privilege to stand alongside you this evening,' she says. Nath then toasted 'every LGBTQ+ young person daring to live authentically in a world that too often misunderstands them' and shared her own experience raising a transgender child. 'Watching him blossom has been a masterclass in what happens when affirmation outruns fear,' Nath says. 'Our research at the Trevor Project shows that when even one adult—whether a parent, teacher, or doctor—affirms a transgender young person's identity, their odds of attempting suicide drop by roughly 45%. In our house, that statistic has a face, a mischievous smile, and an ever‑expanding Lego collection.' She ended her toast commending the coalition of supportive parents, researchers, crisis counselors, who chose to be brave, dedicated, understanding, and empathetic. Changing a 'heartbreaking reality' Damar Hamlin, NFL player and philanthropist, tells the crowd that 'if you had told me just a couple of years ago that I'd be giving a toast at the TIME100 Health Impact Dinner … I probably would've told you you were crazy.' But life doesn't always go as planned, he acknowledges. His sudden cardiac arrest on the field in 2023 and the journey that followed have made him realize that his mission is bigger than football. 'The work I've done in the heart health space … it carries a much deeper weight,' he says 'Sudden cardiac arrest is still the leading cause of death in sports. That's a heartbreaking reality—one that I now live with every day. And because of that, I've found my new life mission: to make sure every kid chasing their dreams can do it safely.' For the past two years, he's been raising awareness about the importance of CPR and heart health education, pushing to make AEDs more accessible, and working with partners like HeartMates and the American Heart Association. 'Before I close, I want to leave you with something that's been on my heart: Fear has energy. It can hold you back—or it can push you forward. It's not about avoiding fear, but facing it and choosing to grow through it. The biggest part of my comeback wasn't physical—it was about belief. I knew I could do it,' Hamlin says. 'So tonight, I raise this toast to the fighters, the dreamers, and the believers; to those who face fear, do the work, and show up with purpose. Here's to all the impact we make together.'
