Science to Society: Modeling the Precision Health Movement on the War on Cancer

Type the words “cancer research” into Google today, and you’ll find pages upon pages of organizations fighting cancer. The national crusade to end this disease is stronger than ever before, and it shows no signs of slowing down. And even though we’ve yet to find a definitive cure for this disease, it’s not for lack of awareness. Cancer research today is one of the most effectively organized medical causes, with heavy-hitting players in both the private and public spheres donating their time and money. But though it might seem that things have always been this way, cancer research has not always gotten the attention it deserves, nor even much attention at all. How did the cancer movement become so prevalent today, and how can we apply its teachings to our own revolutionary mission at PPH to change healthcare through precision medicine?

Looking back to the 1940s, just before the big bang of cancer advocacy, American pediatric pathologist Sidney Farber was learning how to best treat leukemia –a disease that had resisted interpretation for over a century. After hearing that folic acid dosage improved pernicious anemia by nurturing blood cells back to health, Dr. Farber discovered that the opposite — antifolates — could potentially control leukemia’s explosive white blood cell growth. His landmark research evolved into what is today the remarkable breakthrough field of chemotherapy. The stage was set on the science front.

Meanwhile, Mary Lasker, a firebrand health activist, was catalyzing our modern War on Cancer. Having experienced early success as a New York City businesswoman, she pivoted into philanthropy once meeting and marrying her husband Albert Lasker, an influential NYC adman. After losing her mother to cardiac arrest — a loss all the more frustrating due to the limits of medicine at the time — Mary brainstormed for a way to make a difference. Finally, she decided to unleash the potential of medical research against cancer through fundraising. Mary said she was opposed to illness “the way one is opposed to sin,” and she advertised her cause like an old-school evangelist.

The Laskers used deep social connections and marketing finesse to harness public support in an unprecedented way, and they knew funds could be limitless if they could only get people on board. Once they set their sights on the American Society for the Control of Cancer in New York, which was slow and ineffective at the time, they rejuvenated its mission and transformed it into today’s American Cancer Society. Their success grew, and as they churned through barriers with a growing team of believers, they next shifted their attention to a full-fledged, government-backed War on Cancer.

But Mary recognized that two sides to the cancer coin existed. She herself was the heads side — a recognizable face working her way through high society and politics to personalize disease advocacy, becoming its fearless leader in the process. In Farber, Mary Lasker found her complement — the tails side of the coin, who could serve as more than a scientific mouthpiece by bringing the authority needed to legitimize their cause. This division of roles, one to quarterback the science, and the other to run it into the endzone, was crucial to their cancer advocacy. They formed an ideal partnership that ultimately culminated when Nixon signed anti-cancer research funding into law, officially beginning the War on Cancer. The team’s work paid off, and to this day, the War on Cancer consistently receives billions in funding thanks in large part to Mary Lasker.

So how does this story apply to PPH now, and how can it help advance our charge toward precision health? Foremost is understanding the ways advocacy can fill the roles science can’t. At PPH, our job isn’t to prove the science; it’s already been proven and is beginning to have real impacts on health. Companies like Quanterix continue to innovate daily, showing that biomarkers can accurately predict diseases months and sometimes years before they manifest, including Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, cancer, inflammation, infection, and even drug toxicity. Novartis and Roche have recently demonstrated headway toward a range of biomarker-driven drug developments, and Biogen is persistently working to evolve novel theranostic methods.

At heart, these industry innovations represent the spirit of Sidney Farber within the precision health movement. Each company has established its scientific authority in the lab, and the ability of these new technologies to change lives has been demonstrated through technical application. Together, they are fundamentally grounded in good science and are redefining the limits of what is possible in disease detection.

And yet, all scientific innovations need social implementation in order to take off, and fortunately, if technological innovation is Sidney Farber, then PPH is Mary Lasker, bringing science to the attention of the greater community. Through the union of medical professionals, patient advocates, investors, regulators, and administrators, we see PPH as the movement to jumpstart precision health adoption, making it more pervasive and transformative throughout the world.

At the end of the day, for any cause to make a difference, it must be made political in the truest sense of the word — “an affair of the entire city” — as well as scientific. By establishing a forum where diverse backgrounds can converge to share ideas and forge a path forward, we are ushering in a future where precision health can work its way out of the lab and into our society with all of its unencumbered power. By revisiting the precision health agenda every year at our annual summits, we at PPH hope to give precision techniques cultural permanence and to establish them firmly in medical consciousness.

As our movement continues to grow, we see no sign of slowing down. We will continue to work hard toward our 2030 goal of reducing healthcare costs by 40 percent, opening access by 60 percent, and increasing productive life expectancy by eight years in America. Because though we may have accomplished a lot so far, our revolution is only just starting.