CHICAGO — At the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting, a gathering of oncologists scrutinizes data on survival and mortality rates, among other measures of the care they provide. But relatively few conversations focus on the feelings of sadness and loss that are inherent in the work of medical oncologists. That has changed a little this year.
In his opening remarks, the organization’s outgoing president, Eric Small, spoke of his partner, Amy Lin, an oncologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who passed away in December. She had metastatic clear cell ovarian cancer, a rare disease with few treatment options. Mr. Small also brought a different kind of expert to ASCO’s main stage. Grief and loss expert David Kessler spoke about compassionate end-of-life care.
STAT sat down with Small to talk about that meeting, about Lin, and how the loss changed his perspective on oncology. His “Presidential Theme” for this year was “The Science and Practice of Translation: Improving Cancer Outcomes Around the World.”
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