Tom Aronson

I love Baseball, Tech Toys, Fried Foods, The University of Michigan & my fam (not necessarily in that order).

[Tom Aronson @taronson]

👊

[NYU Grossman School of Medicine @nyugrossman]

Pancreatic cancer research just had a breakthrough moment. KRAS-targeting drugs and mRNA vaccines are extending survival in ways we haven't seen in decades. The @Perlmutter_CC is already running trials to bring these advances to patients.

Dr. Anirban Maitra (@Aiims1742)

[Tom Aronson @taronson]

Yes we are!!!

[Derek Thompson @DKThomp]

New pod: WE'RE GOING TO WIN THE WAR ON PANCREATIC CANCER

This most lethal cancer evades treatment for at least 3 reasons:
1. Key gene mutation (KRAS) is hard to drug
2. Weak T cell response
3. Doctors can't see it on scans until it's too late

We're solving all 3—or, at least, making strong progress along all three fronts, and all the following news just broke in the last few weeks:

1. A new breakthru drug therapy from RevMed seems to target RAS mutations effectively

2. New research shows that personalized mRNA cancer vaccines (made and administered post-surgery) seem to prolong survival among responders in a limited study

3. Last week, the Mayo Clinic announced the results of their own study showing that AI-assisted radiology can find previously invisible microscopic signs of pancreatic cancer up to 3 years before typical diagnosis

Today, I spoke to the head of the Mayo study on AI, radiology, and why he thinks we're 5-10 years away from turning the corner on pancreatic cancer

Most optimistic show we've done in months!

https://t.co/b0luR8hVzN

[Anirban Maitra @Aiims1742]

News from the @US_FDA for patients with metastatic #PancreaticCancer while the inevitable approval is happening for Daraxonrasib.
https://t.co/HiYbBXuTA2

[Tom Aronson @taronson]

Now we’re talking!!!

[Mayo Clinic @MayoClinic]

A Mayo Clinic-developed artificial intelligence (AI) model can help specialists detect pancreatic cancer on routine abdominal CT scans up to three years before clinical diagnosis. It identifies subtle signs of disease before tumors are visible, when curative treatment may still be possible. The findings, published in Gut, mark a milestone in Mayo Clinic's multiyear research effort to enable earlier detection of one of the deadliest cancers.

Learn more: https://t.co/EJySSkaW3P

[Ben Sasse @BenSasse]

i can still live another 50 years if @Mike_Pence has the courage

[Judge Stephen Dillard @JudgeDillard]

Every American should watch every second of this video.

Thank you, @BenSasse.

[Tom Aronson @taronson]

Agreed

[Scott Hanson @ScottHanson]

This is 1 of the best interviews I’ve watched in years.
.
If anyone knows @BenSasse or knows how to get in touch with him, please tell him THANK YOU for giving this time amidst his circumstance.
What a gift.
(& Scott Pelley & @60Minutes - 🫡)

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

Congratulations to @CoachDustyMay, Elliot Cadeau, and @UMichBBall on winning their first title since 1989! This team dominated the tournament from start to finish. Well deserved. Go Blue!

[The Hockey News @TheHockeyNews]

Jack Hughes: the first player in hockey history to have a Bar Mitzvah and a Golden Goal! Pretty cool!

[Tom Aronson @taronson]

@Aiims1742 @Perlmutter_CC @nyulangone @JohnPLeonardMD @nyugrossman @NYULangoneLI @NYULangoneBK @DrOscarLahoud @EmelineAvikiMD Huge and incredible news. Congratulations to @Aiims1742 and everyone who hates Cancer!

[Ben Sasse @BenSasse]

Friends-

This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.

Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.

I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.

Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints.

There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.

Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.

A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears.

Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet.

Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective:
“When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.”

I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.

But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9).

With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices,
Ben — and the Sasses

[Tom Aronson @taronson]

@MetroNorth why did the 12:24 from Harrison to Grand Central depart the station at 12:22? I watched it leave w my family as we were walking down the steps. In no rush because it was early…

[Front Office Sports @FOS]

Game 7 of the World Series drew 50% more viewers than Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

[Sarah Langs @SlangsOnSports]

RESEARCH CONFIRMS

[Jeff Passan @JeffPassan]

Yoshinobu Yamamoto won Games 2, 6 and 7 of the World Series. He threw a complete game in Game 2, six innings and 96 pitches on Friday and came back Saturday to throw 2.2 scoreless innings on 34 pitches and induce the World Series-winning double play. A legendary performance.

[Jeff Passan @JeffPassan]

What does a perfect pitch look like?

This.

[Tom Aronson @taronson]

@Aiims1742 @nyulangone @Perlmutter_CC @DrMhidalgo @JohnPLeonardMD Welcome to NY!

[Gavin Newsom @GavinNewsom]

SOON “MAGA” WILL HAVE A WHOLE NEW MEANING! COMING SOON FOR YOUR NEXT BOAT PARADE! YOU ARE VERY WELCOME, PATRIOTS!

[OHSU Knight Cancer Institute @OHSUKnight]

Phil and Penny Knight announced today a record-breaking $2 billion gift to the Oregon Health & Science University’s Knight Cancer Institute to transform the future of cancer care and set a new standard globally.

Thank you to Phil and Penny Knight for their incredible generosity.

[JJ McCarthy Fan @JJOneOfOne]

“He instilled a championship culture in Ann Arbor is what he did. He was a brave Marine. And in this house, Connor Stalions is a hero. End of story!”