Message from the Editor-at-Large

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 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