By Dr. Kathleen T. Ruddy
The earth’s crust is fractured into large and small plates of rock that move in relation to one another. Plate boundaries are notable for the cataclysmic activity produced when one plate abuts another: volcanoes, earthquakes, mountain formation, and very deep ditches like the Marianas trench that dives nearly 7 miles down toward the center of the earth. Naturally, the larger plates hold sway over the smaller, but the smaller have their say every now and again. I like to think about this continental drift as a metaphor for scientific drift as I finalize the details of a meeting being held tomorrow in New York City, a third summit meeting of researchers working on the human mammary tumor virus (HMTV) and the world’s first preventive breast cancer vaccine. A host of important people, including scientists from related fields, academicians, and healthy policy advisors, will attend to flesh out the conversation whose goal is to understand the causes of breast cancer and work, diligently, for primary prevention of the disease.
Progress is being made in the research on HMTV, and important breakthroughs have been achieved with regard to the breast cancer vaccine developed at the Cleveland Clinic in 2010. A full report of the summit will follow on Wednesday. I’m happy to report that all the pieces – smaller plates, shall I say – are falling into place. I don’t expect volcanic activity or an earthquake as a consequence of this meeting, but I wouldn’t be surprised to feel the earth move ever so slightly, at last.
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