Report from the Cancer Battlefield, 50 Years Later
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In 2021—five decades after President Richard Nixon declared a War on Cancer—some 1.9 million new cancer cases were diagnosed and the scourge killed more than 600,000 Americans. Yet we have made extraordinary progress on the battlefront in the same time frame. Childhood leukemia can often be cured, death rates for colorectal, cervical, and prostate cancer have fallen by half, and treatment advances have rerouted the course of breast cancer, lung cancer and melanoma. The recognition that cancer is not a single disease, but thousands of discrete diseases, and the ability to map cell signaling pathways and tumor mutations, are driving life-extending gene therapies, immunotherapies, and other targeted therapeutics forward. How hopeful should we be?
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Health
As we wrap-up another year of elevating big ideas at Aspen Ideas: Health, we're excited to share the 15 most-watched sessions from the event. These conversations with inspirin...
Research on aging and extending life and healthspan has ventured beyond humans to our best animal friends – dogs. In less than a year, dog owners may be able to buy a drug tha...
In America, millions of people struggle with mental health including depression, anxiety, and more — all further exacerbated by living through a pandemic. The National Allianc...
Our attitudes, habits, pleasures, and responsibilities shift across the generations, influencing the health challenges we face and how we respond to them. Expectations about h...
The United States spends $4.3 trillion—almost one fifth of the nation’s GDP—on health care. As the scale of the medical enterprise expands, venture capitalists are pursuing th...
Today's kids are coming of age against a backdrop of political, social, technological and economic upheaval. While these circumstances are shaping a precocious generation that...
Advocates, healthcare providers, legislators, researchers, and venture capitalists are bringing the unique health needs of women to light – from vigorous policy debates on iss...
From the debate over reproductive rights to the epidemic of gun violence to the youth mental health crisis, this year's Aspen Ideas: Health sessions tackled many of today's mo...
The recognition that all things are connected is at once a scientific principle and a philosophical touchstone. Humans, animals, and the environment are intertwined in complex...
Our need for human connection is profound and deep. Yet, today, one in two adults are living with measurable levels of loneliness – and the numbers are even higher among young...
For as long as humans have looked at the skies, we’ve speculated about whether there is life in space. Scientists, the U.S. military and the CIA have all searched for proof of...
It sounds like sci-fi: Scientists are beaming solar energy from space, subbing seaweed for plastic and brightening clouds to reflect sunlight to lower temperatures in a warmin...
Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing health care by improving patient navigation, telehealth and the speed of drug development. From enhancing patient and provider exper...
*No food or service animals allowed in this session.* The creator of Fat Bear Week in Alaska gives insight on the importance of wildlife education, and then ecologists unpack...
Brain-computer interfaces show potential to restore function to people impacted by incurable neurological conditions such as stroke, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury...
Scientists are developing life-extending drugs for dogs, and new advancements could bring them to market by 2025. Two leaders working to slow the aging process for Fido discus...
Neurodivergent people make up 15% to 20% of the global population, and visionaries are busy trying to foster welcoming environments in areas like adaptive sports, fashion des...
Across the globe, humans are living and working longer than ever — and today’s systems, governments and businesses aren’t prepared. Examine how we can reimagine work, wealth a...
Given what we learned from the global turbulence from COVID-19, are we any more prepared for the next pandemic? Author and journalist Michael Lewis and Adar Poonawalla, CEO of...
Few people are more deeply steeped in science than Francis Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health and the groundbreaking Human Genome Project, and forme...
