CURE forums are a go-go
By Kathy LaTour
My favorite get well card
said, “Life is what happens to you when you were busy making
other plans.” It fits again as I approach my 20th anniversary
of survivorship on October 6. It also explains the reworking of
our original plan to do six forums in six cities in 2006. Because
of the feedback we received from attendees about last year’s
locations, we’re going back. If we didn’t see you at
the Dallas forum in May, we hope to see you in Washington, D.C.,
on September 16 and 17 or in San Diego on November 4 and 5.
The forum in Dallas drew old faces
and new. Seems we have developed some forum groupies who have attended
numerous forums and keep coming back. If you haven’t been
to a forum, we hope you will make Washington, D.C., or San Diego
your first. Part of the program will have updates on the latest
news from the 2006 American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting,
so go to www.curetoday.com/patientmeeting
for the latest updates.
We are also very excited to announce that we are taking
over the Day of Caring event for breast cancer survivors in Denver
and will expand it to a national meeting for breast cancer survivors
in May 2007 as our first cancer-specific forum. This event has been
going on in Denver for 25 years and has a loyal following of more
than 1,000. Watch for details in upcoming issues.
In tandem with the breast
cancer forum, we will be doing our second special issue on breast
cancer in 2007. If you remember our first in fall 2003, you know
it will be wonderful. That issue was a National Magazine Award finalist
for best single-topic issue, so we are challenged to outdo ourselves.
On other fronts, we are
renewing our effort to launch Heal in 2007. If you have
been with CURE for a while, you know Heal is CURE’s
sister publication that looks at life from the day treatment ends
and for the rest of your life. Indeed, the full title is Heal:
Living Well with Cancer. Heal follows the new focus
on survivorship compiled for the first time in a report from the
Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council called “From
Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition” that
explores the issues of who we are as survivors and how our needs
and lives differ from those who have not done a round with this
thing called cancer. You’ll be hearing a lot more about Heal
in upcoming issues and on our website at www.curetoday.com.
In this issue we have
some great features. Skin cancer has become one of the most prevalent
cancers in the country. Monica Zangwill, MD, finds out why it’s
more important than ever to know how to spot skin cancers, treat
them and prevent more in the future. Jo Cavallo looks at that very
difficult subject of a good death and how to find one. And our cover
story by Jennifer M. Gangloff provides a fascinating look at drugs
that come from nature, taking the reader to the forest and the ocean
for some old drugs and others now in development.
Watch your mailbox in
August for our special issue about survivorship with a cover story
on Lance Armstrong that looks at the man and his mission now that
the bike is back in the garage. What you will find is that he is
approaching his role as founder of the Lance Armstrong Foundation
with the same determination that he approached the Alps.
I don’t know about you, but
it gives me hope that someone as determined and focused as Armstrong
has taken on cancer as his next mountain.
Kathy LaTour
Editor-at-Large
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