Charting the Successes: CancerProgress.Net Chronicles More Than 50 Years of ASCO and Progress Against Cancer

On this historic year, as ASCO proudly commemorates its 50th anniversary and decades of evolutionary change and growth, it also celebrates the significant progress that has been made against cancer throughout history. ASCO’s anniversary website, CancerProgress.Net, chronicles these achievements and more.

In honor of the Society’s anniversary, the site features stories about ASCO’s evolution, an upgraded timeline of advances in cancer, aggregated news and views on ASCO’s anniversary and progress, social media features, and an opportunity to vote on the most significant milestones in the field.

Cancer Progress Timeline

A key feature of the site, the interactive Cancer Progress Timeline developed under the guidance of an editorial board of 21 of the nation’s leading oncologists, has been updated with a fresh look and is now accessible on all mobile devices. Advances in nearly 20 types of cancers are represented on the timeline, and the story of progress is shared by the timeline editors in their video interviews.

In his video interview about changes in the detection and treatment of prostate cancer, Derek Raghavan, MD, PhD, FASCO, editor of the Prostate Cancer Timeline, cited several major advances. “I’ve been treating cancer for more than 30 years.… When I started, one of the hardest things was to find the balance for people who had advanced cancer and were in pain,” said Dr. Raghavan. “Now, we’ve developed a whole series of techniques and better drugs that allow patients to go to work, to actually deal with their cancer and their cancer treatment but in much better physical shape.”

Dr. Raghavan also recalled that “many of the chemotherapy drugs that we used to give really made patients incredibly sick. With the new medications that we have now, those drugs can be administered to patients and still have them going out to play sports or go to work. In addition to having better antinausea treatments, which we’ve developed, many of the drugs have been refined to make them less toxic.”

Tour ASCO’s anniversary website, CancerProgress.Net, to navigate the timeline advances, hear from other editors about milestones in cancer research, and vote on the top cancer advances over the past 5 decades. Also, follow ASCO on ASCO Connection, Twitter, and Facebook to join the conversation about progress.