I recently returned from an American Association of Cancer Research conference held in Washington DC, Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research. I was very grateful for the invitation. I attended the conference as part of the AACR’s Scientist-Survivor Program. The program is a wonderful one, I am very privileged to be a part of it. I am able to learn what is new in cancer research directly from the scientists who have dedicated their lives to curing cancer. Attending these conferences and being exposed to new advances in cancer research gives me such hope that the answers will one day be found.
So many presentations are offered at each AACR meeting that I am usually attending programs and presentations at the convention center from morning until night. I knew that before going, so arrived in DC a day early to site-see. Also, very cool coincidence, a signet ring appendix cancer survivor I met via my web site and have communicated with for about a year lives in DC, so I was able to meet her for breakfast downtown the day before the conference. We had a great time and talked for a few hours. I was kind of proud of myself, I used a bus to get to the Metro station and from there navigated two subway lines to get to the location where we met. The DC subway system is wonderful and very similar to the Chicago subway system I’ve used.
DC is not a place I’d ever planned to visit. I’ve never been interested in history or politics so DC was never on my list of “places to see”, but it turned out I loved the city. After meeting with my friend, I took a 4 hour bus tour of the famous sites. I was able on the tour to see the Capitol Building, the White House, the Washington Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam and WWII Memorials. I didn’t have time after the tour to go to see any other sites, but I hope now to go back again as a tourist someday to see what I couldn’t see this trip. I’m thinking it might be a nice family vacation next summer! I want to see the botanical gardens, the Smithsonian museums, Arlington Cemetery and the Art Museum.
I took lots of notes and listened to many scientific presentations. I will share what I learned here soon.