An Urgent Mission to Speed Progress Against Cancer – WSJ

When Kathy Giusti was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, at age 37, doctors told her she probably had three years to live. Now, more than 20 years later, with her disease in remission, she spends her days working to raise funds and improve research and treatments for cancer. In her down time, she jumps off cliffs, white-water rafts and sky dives.

In 1998, soon after her diagnosis, Ms. Giusti co-founded the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, a nonprofit that has since raised about $400 million. She’s also co-chairwoman of Harvard Business School’s Kraft Precision Medicine Accelerator, founded in 2016 with $20 million from the Robert and Myra Kraft Foundation. Its goal is to advance precision medicine, a term for emerging therapies that personalize treatment based on a patient’s genetic makeup or other particular traits, with a specific focus on cancer.

Her big ambition is to speed up progress in finding ways to treat cancer. “All of that comes from a death sentence,” says the 59-year-old Ms. Giusti. “Everything about me is urgent. There’s no time to wait.”

This month, the Accelerator launched a campaign called the Right Track, which directs patients to personalized care resources in coordination with five cancer organizations. Ms. Giusti came up with the idea for the campaign after hearing so many patients ask similar questions about their treatment options—for example, how to pick the best local cancer center (especially if they liked particular doctors at one place and surgeons at others) or whether they should pursue drugs, surgery or stem cell therapy.

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