Research Rolls On

Good morning! Hold on, that seems too cheery for the way I feel this morning.

Morning.

There, that is more like it. I have a little too much neuroblastoma research on the brain. I think that next time I am going to have to break up my research researching a little more. I only made it through about half of the proposals yesterday and my reviews are all due today. Thankfully I have read them all and taken notes and now I am simply left with writing my reviews. Regardless, I am still knee deep in a race to get through the rest.

The good news is that, as I have dug through the research, I have actually found some pretty interesting and promising ideas. My stress about trying to identify the cream of the crop has been a bit easier than I was experiencing yesterday. However, I am still thoroughly annoyed that I have to accept some of the science as being true. I am happy to say that there are several interesting ideas that include oral drugs, with low toxicity, significant activity, and drug availability. For me that is the holy grail of neuroblastoma goodness - the quadrangle of success. Furthermore, there are even a few ideas that mention the word "cure" and "complete obliteration of neuroblastoma." While I am extremely skeptical of these ideas it is still great to see them in print and at this level of research. Many of the approaches I am seeing are truly innovative. They are new ideas that we have never seen or heard before. That, I like to see.

Unfortunately, I can't be more specific than that. I had to sign a mountain of non disclosure agreements when I agreed to sit on the review committee. None the less, I think it is important that, even though I am complaining incessantly about all of the reviewing, there is some very promising research on the horizon.

I am looking forward to my trip to Washington this weekend to discuss it.

Purpose abounds.