Brian Druker

What I saw with chemotherapy is that we were giving patients pretty toxic drugs.

We didn't quite know if they'd work.

And my view was there had to be a better way.

And that better way had to be based on a knowledge that was driving the growth of a specific cancer.

The problem was,

Not a lot of people believe that was going to work.

The reality is I wasn't just a researcher.

I also had patients, many, many patients who believed in me, thought that this was a potential way forward for them.

And it allowed me to have enough courage to be their mouthpiece and voice to lobby to get this drug into clinical trials.

So all of a sudden I was getting contacted by patients from around the world.

Her parents thought that she would never live long enough to graduate from high school.

And here she is with us today.

It is a remarkable and magic moment of reflection because some of the patients on that phase one, first in human trial, are still with me.

And they've seen weddings, births, graduations, grandchildren, all the things that they never thought that they could imagine would happen.