Connected by Cancer

Every day, the waiting rooms, labs, and clinics at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia fill up with people. Some are there to care for others. Others are searching for the next big breakthrough. Many are there to try to feel like themselves again. Connected by Cancer is a six-part series that tells their stories.

Connected by Cancer presents an extended conversation with Alice Hungerford, whose late husband, Dr. David Hungerford made the discovery that led to targeted cancer therapies. Mrs. Hungerford is in a class of her own when it comes to storytelling. We hope you enjoy spending a little more time with her.

In 1905, when the hospital that would become Fox Chase opened its doors, only one out of ten cancer patients survived long term. Today, that number is two out of three, and for some cancers, nearly everybody survives. We ask different kinds of doctors what it’s like to be living in this moment, when new discoveries constantly change the way they work, and the hope they can provide.

Who spends hours and hours at a cancer hospital when they don’t need to? Marsha Covitz, Judy Bernstein, and more than 500 other volunteers. Walk along with Marsha as she brings a cart full of comfort to every waiting room and hospital room in the Center, and spend time with Judy, who helps new patients find their way. Plus Helen Gordon, director of volunteer services at Fox Chase, talks about what volunteers bring to the cancer universe.

There are many different ways to make an impact – and a career – in cancer research. We talk with a scientist who is trying to figure out why people get colon cancer, a pancreatic cancer researcher and doctor whose work was shaped by family tragedy, and the keeper of a legacy whose discovery led to a new class of cancer drugs.

For many people who choose it, oncology nursing is more than a career. It’s a calling. Meet some of the nearly 800 nurses who devote themselves to caring for cancer patients at Fox Chase, and learn why they love what they do.

Treating each individual patient is the doctor’s mission. But about 50 years ago, some doctors realized that they could save many more lives by preventing people from getting cancer in the first place. Thus, a new field was born. Ride along with the team that brings cancer prevention outside the hospital and into the community, and hear from one of the pioneers of prevention, Dr. Paul Engstrom.

Among many milestones cancer patients seek, there is one precious sound many await: the ringing of a bell that signifies the successful completion of treatment. A couple of patients who have lived that moment tell us why it’s such a special ritual. We also talk to a nurse who makes sure her patients get the most out of the bell, and the survivor who brought the bell to the hospital.