Conn.’s connection to cancer research pioneers in Israel

I’m talking to David Kweskin about something people used to avoid talking about.

Kweskin, 81, recalls his own parents calling it “the C Word.”

“It was like, if you don’t say it, it’s not real,” Kweskin says.

Not talking about it isn’t going to save anyone’s life. There used to be a daily challenge in the newsroom when we called families to confirm information for unpaid obituaries. We required that they cite cause of death. This led to countless awkward exchanges with grieving family members who insisted “The Cancer” not taint the life story of their father/mother/spouse/ uncle, etc.

Using euphemisms isn’t going to save anyone’s life. I’m talking to Kweskin because he started the Connecticut chapter of the Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) 11 years ago. The nonprofit isn’t talked about very much either. Yet Kweskin and other members of the 48-yearold agency relentlessly talk about cancer in hopes of stopping it.

I mention mother and daughter Cindy Eastman and Annie Musso, who write an occasional column for us titled “Can we talk about cancer?” Their graceful work is seasoned with humor about their experiences dealing with Annie’s Stage 4 Metastatic Triple Negative cancer. It’s a model in how not to look squarely at a disease that never flinches.

Using euphemisms isn’t going to save anyone’s life. Fittingly, the Connecticut ICRF chapter’s annual fundraising dinner in Stamford on Oct. 15 will be hosted by comedian Judy Gold. Gold branded “Yes, I Can Say That!” as a memoir and stage show that serves as a time capsule of the absurdity of 2023 (“People are taking their comedians seriously and their politicians as a joke”). She’s an antidote for euphemisms. Among her many screen credits was, serendipitously, the role of a rabbi on “The Big C,” a Showtime series filmed in Stamford about the cancer journey of one woman (played by Laura Linney).

“You can’t make a joke of cancer, but you can laugh,” Kweskin says.

I see no evidence that we’ve ever written about ICRF before, and I only learned about it though another comic connection, board member Peggy Kalter, whose late husband, Alan Kalter, was David Letterman’s TV announcer.

There will be a lot to talk (and laugh) about, at the dinner, which will honor Stamford Clinical Psychologist and Psychoanalyst Leslie R. Freedman and Rabbi Mitchell M. Hurvitz of Temple Sholom in Greenwich. Guest speaker Dr. Yoav Shaul of Hebrew University of Jerusalem is a recipient of an ICRF project grant. He studies “oncometabolites,” the products of metabolic pathways that are deregulated in cancer.

That’s just one example of the breadth of research being done to understand and address the disease. The organization formed in 1975 to try to plug the “brain drain” that was occurring because experts in Israel couldn’t afford the research and would leave the field.

There’s never enough money to go around. Applicants for the grants are considered by a volunteer panel of 40-45 scientists representing different specialties. It could be a reality show with the highest of stakes. That process hasn’t really changed in 48 years.

Then, as now, the nonprofit is based in the United States in concert with Canadian branches. Grant applicants don’t have to be Jewish, but do have to live in Israel (one is Palestinian). Other chapters are in California, New York, Chicago, Montreal and Toronto, and there’s an office in Tel Aviv. Kweskin started the Connecticut chapter to channel the skills he refined during a career in marketing research.

His best pitch is a reminder of progress that has already been made.

“It was not that many years ago (about 60) that childhood leukemia was a 90 percent death sentence,” Kweskin says. “Today it is 90 percent cured. And if breast cancer is caught reasonably early now, the chances of survival are very good.”

Scientists are still trying to solve puzzles, such as why some drug treatments lose effectiveness after working for a period, and seeking to harness new ways for the human body to be the best weapon against cancer.

Success stories include Dr. Aaron Ciechanover, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004 and credits ICRF for early support. The ICRF honor roll is filled with pioneers whose efforts helped lead to the creation of treatments that do nothing less than extend lives through discoveries such as identifying molecular structures and developing technologies that target cancer cells.

There is still something of a stigma about cancer, just as there was at the advent of AIDS and COVID. And Kweskin occasionally encounters resistance when engaging survivors who demur with the explanation that “I don’t want to be known as the cancer person. I just want to move on.”

Still, he seems inspired by colleagues and supporters who do want to talk about cancer. Like the dad who let his kids shave his head when he was losing his hair. Or the cyclist whose treatment left his heart too weak to continue riding.

Kweskin wraps up with a few words that might as well be his marketing campaign: “So we’re looking for more cures.”

Much like writing obituaries, discussion of “the C Word” mandates the contemplation of death. But you have to talk about death to extend lives.

The ICRF Tower of Hope Gala will be held Oct. 15 at Rockrimmon Country Club in Stamford. For more information, see www.icrfonline.org

John Breunig is editorial page editor of the Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Time. jbreunig@scni.com; twitter.com/johnbreunig.