1. Pursuit of Happiness

 

"Be good with numbers, and be good with people, you will make a good broker." This is what a broker at Deal Vilers told Christ about the job. Actually, not only for broking industry, for all walks of life, intelligence and a good personality are both indispensible for success.

 

When Chirst and Chrisopher are travelling in the subway late at night, when they are running like crazy after the bus, when they are eating at the restarant, looking at a family sitting beside them talking and laughing...such scenes really touch my soles, and reminds me of the numerous times when I was feeling the same loneliness, tiredness, and helplessness, while fighting for a dream. "Happiness is something we have to pursue." "Do not ever let somebody tell you that you cannot do something. People they cannot do it themselves, so they would like to tell you that you can neither."

 

I like Christ, not only because of his stamina, perseverance, and smartness, more importantly, he is a good dad, and a man  who knows about love and responsibility. There's another movie I like, called "Homeless to Harvard", which tells the story of a girl born to a poor family and trys to change her life through education. Although her mother is crazy with szhezophenere, indicted to drugs, and got AIDS, she loved her so much that she would rather give up everything just for her. Without love, without family, it makes no sense for success. I think that's the point of these two movies.

2. Georgia Rule

This is a movie about the mom and the daughter. There is an old saying "daughter is the extension of mon's life". However, most daughters see in their mom so many things they hate, and want to be everything anti- mom. In the movie, the grandma Georgia is a woman of high maintenance, who sticks to her family value, exalts hard working, and forbits her husband and daughter from drinking and smoking. Her daughter Lily doesn't undertand her or even hates her. But Lily's lack of discinplinarian and self-centered living style finally paid price with her own daughter-Rachel, who could not differentiate right from wrong, and could not tell lying from truth and trust. The following dialogue is between Georgia and Lily

Lily: Whenever dad and I have some fun together, you would take that away from me, because you fear he want you so little and need me so much. Anyway, I blaim you for his drinking.

Georgia:  I took it away, because your study was slipping. I don't want you to run away and marry an idiot, miss all the good things you have a chance at, just like me.

Lily: Do you love me? I can never remember you ever saying that.

Georgia: Of course I love you. Why should I waste so much time on someone I don't care about.

 

3. The Sixth Sense

Dr. Malcolm tells such a story:

      A doctor could and should make a difference to every of his patient, if he falis any one of his patients, he would feel regret and shame everyday through the rest of his life.

      The well-being of his patients should be put before his own life and happiness.

      If you want to help a patient, first make friends with him and make him trust you.

      As a doctor, you might probably be the last one your suffering patient resorts for help. If you are unable to help, he or she has nothing left but despair.

I think every doctor in China should see this movie. Besides making money and gaining  prestigious reputation, there is something more important for a doctor, which has been largely forgotten.

 

4. Monalisa Smile

Look beyond the image.

Don't judge people or things just because the public or authority say something about them. Don't judge people or things before you really get to know them.

I have buried myself in the library these days. Tons of medical literatures and publications have truely excited a brain storm in me. What am I going go do? Which social slot am I going to fit myself in? Bench or bedside? Such a question has always haunted me whenever I try to step out of the hole, but it graduately seems to me that this is not a "yes or no" question with only two extreme answers. Quite the opposite, maybe the potential success lies in the "grey area".

 

The story of Daniel Vasella, Chief Executive of Novartis, the man standing behind the discovery and marketing of Glivec, has made a point. Nowadays, biomedical research, clinical practice, and drug industry are no longer seperate enterprises. Daniel is a hero who acts as the glue to hold the team together. On one hand, he is M.D. and used to be in clincial practice, no wonder he could bring sympathy, passion, and compassion into his career, he could speak directly with patient organizations. On the other hand, he is expeienced at drug development and marketing. Even at the initial stage with Glivec, he smelt its potential efficacy and financial success, so that he bet with the stake of all his career, and invested in the mass production of such an unapproved drug without any financial secure. Any one who could perceive such an integrated project from an overall perspective would make the leader and winner in the future.

 

Blood cancer? Why am I intereted in it? Unlike patients with coronary heart disease or other categories of diseases, whom are mostly old people, who have savored what life taste like, and whom are kind of paying the price for their own unhealthy lifestyle, such as over-eating, less of exercise, smoking, in other words, they deserve it in some way,(only joking, maybe this is quite inappropriate from an ethical view), the victims with hematologic malignancies are more often than not much younger, whom might be the bread-earner in his family, or whom might be a little child with a long life journey ahead. When I saw the scene in Patch Adams that dozens of children with ALL who were bald due to aggressive chemotherapy, when I saw the mom who cried just out of my office after hearing about her 14-year-old daughter's final diagnosis of AML, when I saw innumerable blood cancer patients torn apart from their family and friends, I felt heartbreak. I know this is the arena for a fight, which I want to join.

 

The relative easiness of the access to malignant cells, and its dismal and wretched clinical features, have made hematologic malignancies the forefront of cancer research. The concept of "targeted therapy" and "individually tailord treatment" is no longer a dream for hematologic malignancies, thanks to the intensive research on their pathogenesis from the cellular and molecular level. Knowing the critical step in neoplastic transformation is like being granted the key to unlock a door, which also provides "potential drugable targets". Actually, after the success of Glivec, numerous novel drugs are in their pre-clinic development or various stages of clinical trials, such as bortezomib for multiple myeloma, tipifarnib for acute myeloblastic leukemia and myelodystropic syndrome, rituximab for lymphoma, etc. I try picturing the future trend of treatment for hematologic malignancies--a patient being admitted, after clinical examination and histological diagnosis, CT scanning or PET facilitates staging the patient, blood test helps to evaluate his or her renal and liver function, then there follows immunophenotypic and cytogenetic examination, maybe there could be a direct gene profiling in the future, so that the key pathogenetic gene defect could be identified, and drugs targeted at the specific defect are given. In contrast to the systemic and general chemotherapy and radiotherapy, such new adapted medication would gain exciting efficacy while avoid damage to normal tissues. Such a medical miracle is not an illusion of science fiction, I believe that its realization is just around the corner.