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Balancing optimism with reality

Posted by Elizabeth Cooney June 16, 2008 09:05 AM

holcombe%20grier%20150.bmpDr. Holcombe Grier (left, seated) doesn't gloss over the tragedies that can come along with the successes in treating childhood cancer, according to a profile in Newsweek.

"Some kids do die," he told the magazine, explaining a Dana-Farber Cancer Institute mural in memory of those who didn't survive.

The banjo-playing doctor and researcher acknowledges 30 years of remarkable progress in beating back cancer, but worries about a plateau in research funding for the Children's Oncology Group, a nationwide scientific network.

"Pediatric cancer is rare," he says, "and the only way to study rare tumors is in a big collaborative group."

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Elizabeth Cooney is a former health reporter for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, where she also was a business reporter and an editor. Earlier in her career, she edited medical books and journals at Little, Brown, and worked for Boston magazine.

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