Society of Surgical Oncology Presidential Address: The War on Cancer—Shifting from Disappointment to New Hope

Abstract

First of all, it has been a singular honor to be your President for the past year. It has been a wonderful journey with the SSO since I first began working on the Program Committee in 1993. I have learned from outstanding mentors during this time and have watched our Society grow not only in membership, but also redefining itself as we seek to broaden our outreach across all surgeons across the world. We keep getting better and I am confident that our organization will continue on the paths set by my predecessors. From a personal standpoint, I am grateful to all of the people who have helped me get here. The list is too large to show, and of course I would forget some, but I do want to thank a number of people who have guided me along the way. Dr. Warren Cole was my earliest mentor—meeting him in high school and benefiting from his wise counsel until his death in 1990 (Fig. 1). He was not only a consummate surgical oncologist who happened to retire to my hometown, but was a visionary, frank mentor. Early in my career, Dr. Hilliard Seigler helped nurture a lifelong love of the laboratory and was my first real-life demonstration of a surgical scientist. Probably Drs. Samuel Wells and Murray Brennan have had the greatest influence on my career (Fig. 2). There is simply no finer surgical scientist than Sam Wells and no finer teacher than Murray Brennan. From a research standpoint, two of our guest lecturers have had a profound impact on fostering the scientific portion of FIG. 1 Dr. Warren Cole