Brian Ler on WNYC, now and for the rest of the show, a special edition of our series

100 Years of 100 Things. It's thing number 98, 100 years of cancer research. First, we'll trace

the century of developments in identifying, preventing, and treating different cancers, and then we'll

convene a discussion of what should happen now at a time when cancer research funding is being

cut, as you all know, as a policy of the Trump administration.

The American Cancer Society put out a release just the other day, saying cut by 37%. The context for this is that each year, WNYC's local news division, which includes us,

hosts a health convening with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The convening has typically been an opportunity for health care experts and practitioners

to inform WNYC's health reporting in an off-the-air briefing and interaction.

This is the second year that we're bringing it on to the air,

as we think it'll be a service for you to hear the briefing too.

And for the deepest possible background on where we are now with cancer treatment and prevention,

we begin with 100 years of 100 things, thing number 98, 100 years of cancer research.

Joining us to walk through some of that history is Paul Goldberg, editor and publisher of the Cancer Letter and co-editor of the Cancer History Project. Paul, thanks for much for joining us for this.

Welcome to WNYC. Thank you for inviting me, Brian. It's great to be here. When was cancer discovered

and named? Oh, gosh, that goes back to Egypt, ancient Egypt.

So as far as the naming, I do not know. But the discovery goes way back. And as far as early

advancements, one thing that we saw in our research is from around near the turn of the previous century, according to cancer.gov, in 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie, I went to Marie Curie Jr. High School.

Oh, cool.

Discover the radioactive elements, radium and polonium.

I was always very, you know, thrilled to go to a middle school that was named after a female

scientist once I became old enough to realize that that was a rare thing.

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