In the video beginning you can find out that in the year 2022, just five weeks after becoming the director of the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Monica Bertagnolli had a mammogram—and found out she had cancer. “I went through all my treatment, and I am fine,” said Dr. Bertagnolli, the former director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), onstage at the TIME100 Summit in New York City on April 23. That's because “every single bit of the treatment I got was supported, funded, and happened because of the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute.”
Dr. Monica Bertagnolli was joined onstage at the Summit by two other leaders in the health industry: Dr. Anaeze C. Offodile II, chief strategy officer of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Tina Deignan, commercial president of Pfizer Oncology. Appearing on a panel moderated by Abby Phillip, anchor of CNN NewsNight, the three experts spoke about innovations in cancer treatment—and the importance of making sure as many people as possible have access to these medical advances.
Tina Deignan, like Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, shared a personal story about cancer: One of her colleagues experienced pain in her side and was later diagnosed with Stage III colon cancer. The colleague was in her late 30s—years before doctors typically recommend people get routine colonoscopies.
The conclusion is you better watch out and take care. The routine colonoscopies and some routine analyses is something everyone should do. Not because you have a health problem, the reason is that more adults than ever getting cancer younger.
