Debra

Blogger at Musings of a Cancer Research Advocate, Writer, Advocate, Breast Cancer Survivor, Young Adult Hodgkin's Lymphoma Survivor, & So Happy to BE Here!

[Debra @AdvocateDebM]

Thank you for your crucial work! After my stage 3 Hodgkin’s dx at age 22 in the 1980s, I found little understandable, current patient info so became a medical writer and advocate for patients. I’m gratified that as an MD, you’ve dedicated your efforts in this critical area!

[Eric K. Singhi, MD @lungoncdoc]

Early on, I was told patient education in oncology ‘isn’t physician work.’

I disagreed. Invested anyway. With mentors, patient advocates & @cancerGRACE.

Never imagined being named Patient Educator of the Year in Cancer Care.

Education is empowerment.
Truly grateful. #ASCO26

[Debra @AdvocateDebM]

Truly important work by Dr. Elizabeth Nally on dedicating research to objectively determine cancer treatment toxicities from the patients’ point of view!

[OncoAlert @OncoAlert]

A Great Start to Day Two of #ASCO26 and no better way to start than our @OncoAlert 🚨from the Podium to your feed with Dr. Elizabeth Nally from Barts Cancer institute🇬🇧 discussing Abstract 4512 : Decision regret and toxicity perception following adjuvant pembrolizumab in renal cell carcinoma.

In this multicentre London study of 104 patients with RCC treated with adjuvant pembrolizumab, decision regret was uncommon (13%) after a median 30-month follow-up. Regret was driven primarily by long-term, patient-perceived significant or life-changing toxicities rather than disease recurrence or CTCAE-graded severity. Permanent endocrine and musculoskeletal toxicities were associated with the highest regret.

Patient-informed toxicity assessments outperformed CTCAE criteria in identifying regret, highlighting the importance of patient education and shared decision-making. #KidneyCancer

Elizabeth Nally
@veda13k @scocmem @b_szabados @Naveed_Sarwar @tompowles1 @montypal @crisbergerot

Pinging OncoAlert Faculty
@brian_rini 🇺🇸@declangmurphy 🇦🇺 @KidneyCancer 🇺🇸 @salvolarosa @silkegillessen🇨🇭 @APCCC_Lugano @RenuEapen 🇦🇺 @nataliagandur 🇦🇷 @seanmcbride 🇺🇸 @DrJaVallejo 🇪🇸 Pinging our ASCO Pulse Faculty @DrChoueiri 🇺🇸 @hoperugo 🇺🇸 @matteolambe 🇮🇹 @TiansterZhang 🇺🇸 @CathyEngMD 🇺🇸 @stolaney1 🇺🇸 @montypal 🇺🇸 @cdanicas 🇪🇸 @NiuSanford 🇺🇸 @amerseburger 🇩🇪 @GlopesMd 🇺🇸 @Icro_Meattini 🇮🇹 @PGrivasMDPhD 🇺🇸 @DrYukselUrun 🇹🇷 @nataliagandur 🇦🇷 @ElisaAgostinett 🇧🇪 @HHorinouchi 🇯🇵 @realbowtiedoc 🇺🇸 @to_be_elizabeth 🇮🇹 @UOzkerim 🇹🇷 @p_ciracimd 🇮🇹 @DrVilmaPBarcia 🇪🇸 @DraMartinezLago 🇪🇸 @DrMirallas 🇺🇸 @GaiaGriguolo 🇮🇹 @MarioBalsaMD 🇪🇸 @scocmem 🇬🇧 @AmandaNizamMD 🇺🇸 & @weoncologists 🇺🇸

[Dennis Prager @DennisPrager]

As an American, as a Jew, and as Dennis, I am devastated at the assassination of Charlie Kirk. The truth is, as I write these words, I can’t believe I am writing them. I am in the denial stage of mourning.

As an American, we have lost the most articulate spokesman for America and its unique value system—a country founded to be free, based on Jerusalem and Athens, the Judeo-Christian value system and the Greek emphasis on logic and reason. Charlie was a uniquely gifted individual who, in his teens, created the largest movement of young Americans committed to preserving and growing America and its ideals. He tirelessly went from campus to campus, from Oxford to Utah, dialoging with any student who wished to debate him. Using his vast reservoir of facts and his exceptionally speedy and articulate mind, he gave them what seemed to be unlimited amounts of time, and then calmy eviscerated all their anti-American, anti-Western, and anti-Judeo-Christian positions. I watched an inordinate number of these exchanges and thanked God that Charlie Kirk was there to do this work. America’s youth in particular have lost a moral and intellectual leader, one who would, perhaps, have one day become their president.

As a committed Jew, I thank God regularly that a non-Jew, a committed Christian, became one of the few great public spokesmen on behalf of Israel the Jewish communities outside of Israel. Few Jews could match Charlie’s knowledge and eloquent arguments on behalf of those two entities.

As Dennis, I have lost a very close friend. Charlie repeatedly visited me in the various hospitals that I have been in since November 12 of last year, when I suffered a catastrophic fall which has left me paralyzed. When members of the nursing staff heard that Charlie Kirk was visiting me, my room became the most popular one in the hospital. Charlie brought me the manuscript of his forthcoming book arguing that everyone—Christians as well as Jews—should observe Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, just as he and his family had begun to do from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. It is a measure of our close relationship that he dedicated the book to me. His brilliant exposition of these arguments provide clear evidence for the non-necessity of a college education for most young Americans.

My heart breaks for his young widow, Erika, and for his two children, who have lost as great a man and a father as children can have. And for Charlie, who did not live to see them grow up. For one of the first times in my 20 years with my wife, Sue, I have seen her sob uncontrollably. The Prager home is in deep mourning, as are the homes of countless Americans. The loss to us personally and to the country generally is immeasurable.

[ASCO @ASCO]

✨What an inspirational talk by @ASCOPres ! #ASCO25

"Driving knowledge to action-building a better future"

@yekeduz_emre

[❥❥❥ᗰoᒪᒪie❥❥❥ @mollie_don]

We all know inflation has been bad, but when you see the numbers side-by-side, it should be a huge wake up call to anyone that is still undecided.

It’s time for people to put their personal feelings aside and vote for the best candidate for their families.

This chart 👇🏻 from @realDonaldTrump proves we were living much better under President Trump.

VOTE DONALD J TRUMP-NOVEMBER 5

[Afshine Emrani MD FACC @afshineemrani]

A letter from Ron Hassner to students at UC Berkeley.

"Dear students,

I have hatched a strange plan. I am launching a sit-in protest against antisemitism and for student safety in my office, starting today, Thursday, March 7, at 6PM. If my students feel that they cannot walk safely across campus without being bullied, then I will not cross campus either. I will be conducting all my classes via zoom from now on. I have invited my colleagues to do likewise.

I will stay in my office until we take necessary steps to prevent violence between students. I will teach, eat, and sleep in my office. My office will be open at all hours of the day and night, on weekdays and weekends, to all students who do not feel safe, or who have been subjected to antisemitic abuse, or who wish to chat. I will also leave a light on in my office window at all times, so that all students walking by on Bancroft Ave. can see that at least one faculty member is sleeping as badly at night as they are.

In contrast to recent protests, my protest is non-confrontational, non-violent, and legal. It will be easy to ignore, especially in the first few weeks before visitors and media find me and my office in a rather disheveled state. After that, it will become an increasingly embarrassing public display of the university’s inability to make difficult and important decisions.

I am pessimistic that this will sway the administration, certainly in the short term. I am willing to wait it out for as long as I can. But the main reason I am doing this is not to exert indirect pressure on campus leaders. Rather, it is to signal to you students that we, the faculty, care. I am backed in my protest by many colleagues who share my commitment to making you all feel safe and cared-for on our campus, first and foremost among them Ethan Katz.

And I mean what I write in the letter to Carol Christ and Ben Hermalin: I hope that students will see the light in my window on the 7th floor of the Social Science Building, and will come to say hello. I am launching 24-hour a day office hours, weekends included, for as long as it takes. I would love to hear your stories and share a cup of coffee or tea with you.

Best,

Professor Ron Hassner of UC Berkeley"

[Debra @AdvocateDebM]

@AMAManual, re: 18.1.5: Could you explain the rationale for indicating that a space should appear between the number and the degree symbol—so that the degree symbol appears directly before F or C with no space? Is the reasoning that the degree symbol and F (or C) are a unit?

[Yael Bar tur @yaelbt]

This is Captain Yuval, an infantry commander in the Nahal Brigade. On Saturday morning, as soon as she heard about the horrors taking place, she ran out of her home with her gun in her pajamas.

She reports there were dead bodies all over the road, and that at some point, a group of terrorists on motorcycles drive towards her, and she empties a whole magazine on them killing two. She's calling her boss Colonel Steinberg, but he's been killed. Same with other commanders she tries reaching - all gone.

She located Captain Ron, and together they understand that only they are left to conduct this battle. They find a friend's house nearby, open up a war room, and begin directing the forces on the ground. Before most of us even woke up and understood what is happening, these two young captains were directing commandos and fighter pilots, and eliminated 22 terrorists, preventing them from taking control of two outposts. In their pajamas.

They are still out there fighting. We are in good hands!
(source: Yuval is a cousin of @sivanhakolkalul)

[Bari Weiss @bariweiss]

"After terrorists killed my cousin Daniel Pearl, my family called for peace. But after the worldwide celebration of our people’s slaughter, my hope for peace is dead."

A must-read by @ilanibenjamin in @TheFP:

https://t.co/9NHcnQi4CJ

[Judea Pearl @yudapearl]

October 10 marks the birthday of my late son, Danny, who would have been 60 today. A diehard humanist who wanted to believe that man is not a predator to other men. We hoped that his brutal murder would mark a turning point in the history of man inhumanity to man. Saturday's massacre in Israel negates any such hopes. Today my heart goes to the families of so many Israeli families who are still waiting for information about their missing love ones. I know what they are going through.

[Amir Barkol @BarkolAmir]

This picture was taken by the couple Amit and Nir while they were hiding in the bushes from Hamas terrorists who slaughtered hundreds of young Israelis at a party. They took it to leave a memory of love in case they die. Please share #HamasisISIS #SupportIsrael

[Bari Weiss @bariweiss]

You are about to withstand a barrage of lies about the war that broke out today in Israel.

Some of those lies will be explicit. Some of them will be lies of omission. Others will be lies of obfuscation. Or lies of minimization. Lies told by people who are simply too afraid to look at such a barbarous reality. And lies told by people whose true beliefs are too ugly to quite say aloud. Turn on cable news and you can hear some of them right now.

So let’s get some facts straight.

https://t.co/MmTen7il88

[Debra @AdvocateDebM]

A dangerous lie right on the floor of the House. He knows he’s lying but doesn’t care. And all this while antisemitism is increasing all around this. I am so tired of politicians lying to us every day with impunity. ☹️

[🇺🇸 🦅 𝔹𝕣𝕠𝕠𝕜𝕝𝕪𝕟 𝔾𝕚𝕣𝕝 🇺🇸 🌸🌞💮 @Brooklyn__Girl]

Of course it is. HJ does not live in reality.

[Debra @AdvocateDebM]

Science journal editor: Agree with me on climate change or don’t get published https://t.co/bsHTZFetEQ Important food for thought

[Debra @AdvocateDebM]

Absolutely magnificent! What a one-of-a-kind talent, and what a tremendous loss. RIP, Meatloaf.

[Marc Thiessen @marcthiessen]

Wow. RIP

[The Cancer Letter @TheCancerLetter]

“This was, ‘We want to be at the table. We want to be making the suggestions and making sure they happen, not just marching around wearing pink,’” @DrSusanLove said. #breastcancerawarenessmonth
https://t.co/Ur4OzgNuV8

[Debra @AdvocateDebM]

We must rely on accurate data & stop making arbitrary, subjective conclusions that are affecting so many lives. I wish folks wouldn't use the phrase "Follow the science" as a weapon to stop discussion and evaluation of critical questions. Rather, how about "Follow the evidence"?

[The Cancer Letter @TheCancerLetter]

“We took a lesson from AIDS activists, and we made a case for why $300 million more was the right number,” @NBCCStopBC's @FranMVisco said. “They didn’t do it by simply, politely, and softly knocking on a door and saying, ‘If you wouldn’t mind.’”
https://t.co/MRKfjKCRCk

[Debra @AdvocateDebM]

Are you a #doglover who has been diagnosed with #cancer? If so, be sure to read about the health benefits associated with being a #dog owner. #puppylove #CancerResearch

[Debra @AdvocateDebM]

Why Dogs Can Help People with Cancer https://t.co/uYJL3JU2AO

[Debra @AdvocateDebM]

Why Dogs Can Help People with Cancer https://t.co/uYJL3JU2AO