In 2022, just five weeks after becoming the director of the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Monica Bertagnolli had a mammogram—and found out she had cancer.
“I went through all my treatment, and I am fine,” said Bertagnolli, the former director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), onstage at the TIME100 Summit in New York City on April 23. That's because “every single bit of the treatment I got was supported, funded, and happened because of the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute.”
Bertagnolli was joined onstage at the Summit by two other leaders in the health industry: Dr. Anaeze C. Offodile II, chief strategy officer of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and Tina Deignan, commercial president of Pfizer Oncology, which is a sponsor of the TIME100 Summit. Appearing on a panel moderated by Abby Phillip, anchor of CNN NewsNight, the three experts spoke about innovations in cancer treatment—and the importance of making sure as many people as possible have access to these medical advances.
Deignan, like Bertagnolli, shared a personal story about cancer: One of her colleagues experienced pain in her side and was later diagnosed with Stage III colon cancer. The colleague was in her late 30s—years before doctors typically recommend people get routine colonoscopies.
