Aboard the MS Zuiderdam in the Greek Islands – Our cruise with family and friends continues as does the battle to have the teenagers wear enough sunscreen and get to bed before 2:00 a.m. As we travel there is some news to note about the death of a celebrity in the news and the fight for life of a celebrity on board.

A few days ago we read of the death of Tony Snow from advanced colon cancer. Although I never met him, Tony seemed to be an honorable journalist and political commentator as well as a recent White House press secretary. He was a conservative talk show host carried on KVI/Seattle, the same station that carried Patient Power for three years. So I would listen to Tony, found him to be thoughtful, and empathized with him when he was diagnosed with cancer.

When the news came out about his diagnosis the subtext was the advanced stage suggested a less than great prognosis. Now our fear for Tony has come true with his untimely death. While there are people living with advanced colon cancer for some time and drugs like Avastin have lengthened survival, for most people, time is still short.

The key to beating colon cancer is not developing it – a healthier diet, a regular screening to catch precancerous polyps and snip them out. Such early detection did not happen for Tony nor did it for my mother, who died of colon cancer after a four and half year battle. We need to push screening since colon cancer is preventable.

At the same time as I was hearing of Tony Snow’s death I was learning of fellow passenger Steve Kirsch’s fight for life. Steve is a friend from North California of my traveling buddy Francis La Poll. According to Francis, Steve is one of the technology whizzes who developed the computer mouse. He is very smart, very philanthropic; apparently very well off….and at age 50 was diagnosed with what has been an incurable, fatal condition, Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia. At first I thought his diagnosis would be kept under wraps. But, to the contrary, Steve is very outspoken about it and we are linking to his web pages about it.

At dinner one night Steve quizzed me about my treatment for CLL. He knew about all the drugs, and all the big name doctors. Apparently Dr. Steven Coutre, a noted hematologist at Stanford, is one of his physicians. But like a powerful patient Steve didn’t stop there. He searched the country for experts and even more, because he is a man of wealth, he decided to fund research in his condition at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Around the dinner table tonight his close friends expressed confidence Steve’s support could lead to a cure for Steve and there others who have this rare but scary blood related cancer. I hope they are right.

As I have seen with my CLL, the textbooks now appear out of date and the latest research is making tangible inroads. First as one patient’s story, then as data on a group – the “natural history” of a diagnosis can be re-written.

It appears that is the case for me with CLL. I hope it is the case for Steve Kirsch, and I only wish it had been the case for Tony Snow.

Andrew