“It’s Not the Destination, It’s the Journey”: 2011 Society of Surgical Oncology Presidential Address

I want to thank Jim Economou for his kind and wonderful introduction. Jim and I come from vastly different, one might say diametrically opposite, backgrounds. Jim is an impressive intellectual; I am not. Jim is an outstanding, funded scientist–investigator; I am not. Jim comes from a surgical pedigree, the product of a surgeon leader, a former chief of surgery at Rush University Medical Center; I do not. Jim studies ancient cultures and languages such as Akkadin, Sumerian, and Ugaritic. I struggle with English. When you hear Jim speak, it is a mix of William F. Buckley, George Will, and Richard Dawkins. When I speak, you hear a mix of Yogi Berra, Ralph Kramden, and Jerry Seinfeld. Suffice it to say we are different. But the one thing we share, the one common thread, is an unbridled passion for and unwavering commitment to the SSO—to its mission and its values, what it has been, what it is today, and what it will be in the future. The SSO is my professional family. My professional brothers and sisters live with me here. Friends and colleagues, this is my professional home. It has truly been a singular honor for me to serve as your president this past year. It is the crowning achievement, the pinnacle of my academic and professional life. I am still not sure how this has all transpired. I am simply a blue-collar, rank-and-file, hardworking surgeon like everyone else in this room. I thank you for the privilege of working with you and for you, and I will never be able to adequately convey how meaningful this year has been. It is humbling for me to look around and see the many past presidents, true surgical leaders and visionaries who have made our Society such a great organization, the landing zone for surgeons committed to the care of the cancer patient. It is because of them and all of you in this room that I can emphatically state that we are a strong, vibrant, and growing society. Look around and you will notice that the very foundation of this Society is the youth of our membership. There is no other meeting I attend where the number of surgical residents, fellows, and young faculty are so readily abundant and engaged, and participants in the events that define an organization, especially its annual scientific meeting. We must take advantage of and continue to exploit that youthful exuberance since that is the currency for our future success. Equally important is the inherent and growing diversity of our Society. The ranks of our approved fellowship-trained surgical oncologists are growing. Increasing numbers of surgeons trained in affiliated oncologic disciplines such as endocrine surgery, foregut surgery, hepatobiliary surgery, and colorectal surgery, to name a few, have joined the SSO. Our international membership is steadily increasing and an intellectual force in advancing the science of oncology and surgery. Likewise, we have peeled away the outer layers of our Society, and at its core is the community-based general surgeon who performs the overwhelming majority of cancer surgery in North America. We must understand and embrace the blend of needs of this broad constituency, including nursing and other midlevel providers, if the SSO is going to be a beacon for all those participating in surgically oriented oncology care, not because it is SSO’s birthright but because we accept the challenge and readily recognize the opportunity to lead and deliver to this heterogeneous group of stakeholders. In order to fulfill our destiny and accept this responsibility, the current leadership of the SSO, with a forceful This address was given at the 64th Annual Cancer Symposium of the Society of Surgical Oncology, San Antonio, TX, March 4, 2011.