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Mary LaskerMary Lasker
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anybody can -- she's got persistence and energy, and she'll be fine.

Q:

That's great. Can I ask you to talk about, what are there? Four meetings a year of the Cancer Advisory Board?

Lasker:

Yes, four meetings a year. Various subjects are brought up before them. That's a very disparate group of men and only two women, and very few of them are very hot about clinical advances. A lot of them are basic researchers or surgeons who don't have much hope or much vision of clinical advances, so that it's very frustrating to be at the meetings most of the time. They do have reports of what's going on, and sometimes the reports are quite good and interesting, but I don't feel that these are major -- very seldom are them major new thrusts discussed or implemented.

Now, maybe one day we'll do something about interferon or some other drugs. That will be a decision taken to do something new and crucial, but a great deal of effort is being supported notwithstanding all the indifference to the patients.

But a lot of the decisions are not made on that board. That's just an advisory board, and it's usually done by the staff and the Director of the Cancer Institute. I don't feel that one gets a great deal done in the meetings. At least, I don't, I don't think.

Q:

Tell me also, the subject of the awards for the Lasker Awards.

Lasker:

For this year? One is going to be to the people that discovered enkephalins and endorphins. The other is going to





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