Bruce Ratner has led an eclectic life. After focusing much of his undergraduate coursework on math, biology, and physics, he started his career in law and public service as an assistant professor at New York University Law School and Commissioner of Consumer Affairs under Mayor Ed Koch. In his late 30s, he moved into real estate, becoming one of the city's largest developers. Over the course of three decades, his firm developed some of New York's most prominent buildings and fostered the renaissance of the borough of Brooklyn.
In 2016, Ratner's brother, Michael, died of metastatic cancer. Through this tragedy, Ratner came to see that there were scarcely any cures for most advanced cancers, despite headlines regularly implying otherwise. Instead, he realized that early detection was the key to reducing cancer mortality. Following his brother's death, he founded a non-profit, the Michael D. Ratner Center for Early Detection of Cancer, to research and promote better cancer screening. He is on the boards of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Weill Cornell Medical Center, and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Adam Bonislawski is a science writer with ten-plus years of experience covering genomic and proteomic research and diagnostics development with a focus on cancer diagnostics and early detection. He has written hundreds of articles on cancer early detection, covering everything from cutting edge academic research to established companies and technologies and looking at the full range of challenges, from scientific to organizational to financial to societal, involved in developing and implementing new tests for cancer. The publications he writes for, GenomeWeb and 360Dx, are read by thousands of cancer researchers and doctors as well as a wide range of healthcare entrepreneurs and investors, and he has scientific and media contacts at many of the major cancer and academic research centers in the United States and Europe.
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Bruce Ratner has led an eclectic life. After focusing much of his undergraduate coursework on math, biology, and physics, he started his career in law and public service as an assistant professor at New York University Law School and Commissioner of Consumer Affairs under Mayor Ed Koch. In his late 30s, he moved into real estate, becoming one of the city's largest developers. Over the course of three decades, his firm developed some of New York's most prominent buildings and fostered the renaissance of the borough of Brooklyn.
In 2016, Ratner's brother, Michael, died of metastatic cancer. Through this tragedy, Ratner came to see that there were scarcely any cures for most advanced cancers, despite headlines regularly implying otherwise. Instead, he realized that early detection was the key to reducing cancer mortality. Following his brother's death, he founded a non-profit, the Michael D. Ratner Center for Early Detection of Cancer, to research and promote better cancer screening. He is on the boards of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Weill Cornell Medical Center, and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Adam Bonislawski is a science writer with ten-plus years of experience covering genomic and proteomic research and diagnostics development with a focus on cancer diagnostics and early detection. He has written hundreds of articles on cancer early detection, covering everything from cutting edge academic research to established companies and technologies and looking at the full range of challenges, from scientific to organizational to financial to societal, involved in developing and implementing new tests for cancer. The publications he writes for, GenomeWeb and 360Dx, are read by thousands of cancer researchers and doctors as well as a wide range of healthcare entrepreneurs and investors, and he has scientific and media contacts at many of the major cancer and academic research centers in the United States and Europe.
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In his long career, Bruce Ratner served as New York City's Commissioner of Consumer Affairs, an NYU law professor and the founder, chairman, and CEO of Forest City Ratner Companies, a major property developer. He led the economic revival of Downtown Brooklyn, built the Barclays Center arena, brought the Nets NBA basketball franchise to Brooklyn, and helped restore Times Square, including building The New York Times headquarters. For more than two decades, Mr. Ratner has applied his deep interest and background in the sciences by serving on the boards of Weill Cornell Medicine, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. He also founded the Michael D. Ratner Center for Early Detection of Cancer, in memory of his brother, to advance the cause of expanding the adoption of life-saving cancer screening and research into new diagnostic tests. Through the center, Mr. Ratner has promoted early detection testing for lung cancer, particularly in low income and underserved populations. Mr. Ratner is also Chairman of the Museum of Jewish Heritage A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. He was founding chairman of the New York City Parks Foundation and, for a decade, served as chairman of the board at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Adam Bonislawskiis a science writer with more than 10 years of experience covering genomic and proteomic research and diagnostics development with a focus on cancer and early detection. His writing ranges widely over academic research, companies and technologies. The publications he writes for, GenomeWeb and 360Dx, are read by thousands of cancer researchers and doctors as well as a wide range of healthcare entrepreneurs and investors, and he has scientific and media contacts at many of the major cancer and academic research centers in the United States and Europe. In addition to his work as a science writer, Adam writes about business and real estate for the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, and Commercial Observer.
"A lucid, persuasive case for overhauling diagnosis regimes to
catch cancer early rather than late."
—Kirkus Reviews “This powerful book makes a decisive argument that
our current strategy against cancer would be vastly enhanced if
tumors were detected at earlier stages. I wish that every patient,
and policy maker, would read and understand the broad implications
of this invaluable, highly readable book.”
—Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, Cancer Researcher and Pulitzer
Prize-Winning Author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of
Cancer “I’ve spent the last twenty-five years trying to convey
exactly what this deeply personal, insightful and well reported
book shouts, that detecting cancers early, when they are the most
treatable, is the key to saving countless lives. It is what
policymakers need to hear.”
—Katie Couric, Award-Winning Journalist, New York Times
Best-Selling Author of Going There and Co-Founder of Stand Up To
Cancer “An engaging, informative and hugely important work that
will save lives.”
—Ken Burns, Grammy and Emmy Award-Winning Filmmaker “Early
Detection provides an important look into testing and treatment
disparities that exist in cancer care, and thoughtful guidance
about how to mitigate these inequities. Expanding access is in
everyone’s best interest as it has the potential to increase the
chance of survival while lowering the cost of care.”
—Selwyn M. Vickers, MD, President and CEO, Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center “This clear and thoughtful book is a critical step in
the fight against cancer. The authors understand our medical system
and have proposed comprehensive policies that will save thousands
of lives and help eliminate the detection and treatment disparities
that we need to end.”
—Richard I. Beattie, Esq Former Chairman of the Board, Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center “Bruce Ratner and Adam Bonislawski
identify early diagnosis as a critical requirement for better
cancer control and their book elegantly explains the need for both
existing and new early detection technologies to make it affordable
for all. The personal stories in the book that the authors bravely
recount make this mission all the more poignant and urgent.”
—William A. Haseltine, PhD, Chair, Access Health International,
Professor, The Feinstein Institute Of Medical Research
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