Last week, I attended the conference of the American Association of Cancer Research in Washington, DC to present a poster on my cancer research.

And oh boy, was I lucky! It was enlightening, exhilarating and fun. This was easily the biggest conference on cancer research. The cancer meeting was well planned and went marvelously. There were 20,000-30,000 attendees from all corners of the globe. It would have been more, if the volcanic ashes of Eyjafjallajokull didn’t deter the Europeans to attend. (The European airports were closed.)

Who was there

The participants were cancer researchers and drug company people. There were the ubiquitous salespersons you bump into during health and medical conferences. The convention center was huge. You could land a plane in the poster hall where cancer researchers enthusiastically displayed their latest cancer results. There were 100 conference rooms in all! You can say that cancer -the longtime bane of mankind – is a topic expected to merit such attendance and pomp.

How big

For five fascinating days the meeting started from 7 A.M. to 5 P.M. But that timeframe wasn’t adequate to hear everyone’s report on cancer. So that all researchers would be seen and heard, special presentations lasted until 8 P.M.
There was such overwhelming information presented. There were a large number of interesting new tools coupled with energetic discussions. My small team was insufficient to cover every important and interesting cancer research report, which was regretful.
On the section of preclinical studies on prevention, natural products and dietary factors figured very much. If you’re curious, the section on prevention discussed current researches on turmeric, green tea, broccoli and small berry. Did you know that vitamin D helps radiotherapy for cancer? There were more and I could go on and on. It gave me a thrill to discover and learn new things about cancer.

Bottom line

If you’re a cancer patient, survivor or if cancer scare you, be aware that there are concerned and passionate people working for you. One day cancer will be better understood and we’ll find the best strategies to beat it. So take heart and these events give us researchers and you, a fighting chance.