Leonidas Platanias, MD

@leonidasplatan1.bsky.social

Director of the Lurie Cancer Center @luriecancer.bsky.social of Northwestern University. Medical oncologist and cancer researcher. Views & opinions here are my own.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is notoriously resistant to current immunotherapies Here, Leonidas C. Platanias & team show Slfn5 is a target & modulator of Type I IFN responses that promotes an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment in models of PDAC: doi.org/10.1172/jci....

This is awful. A young mother with young children who died from an aggressive form of leukemia. This is a reminder of how important medical research is. There will be a day that this leukemia will be curable. But only research can make this happen soon.

Tatiana Schlossberg, environmental journalist and JFK’s granddaughter, dies at 35 after terminal cancer diagnosis | CNN Politics

Tatiana Schlossberg, an environmental journalist who was a granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy, died on Tuesday, her family announced. She was 35.

cnn.com

Check presentation today by the incredible H Foundation from the Goombay Bash event earlier this summer. Their incredible philanthropic support of basic science research at the Lurie Cancer Center has had major impact on our efforts. So grateful for their support!

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Μέρα του Απρίλη Πράσινο λάμπος, γελούσε ο κάμπος με το τριφύλλι. Ως την εφίλει το πρωινό θάμπος, η φύση σάμπως γλυκά να ομίλει. Εκελαδούσαν πουλιά, πετώντας όλο πιο πάνω. Τ’ άνθη ευωδούσαν. Κι είπε απορώντας: «Πώς να πεθάνω;» Διάκος poem Kostas Karyotakis (1896 -1928)

One of the worst possible premieres of a symphony, was the premiere of Symphony #1 of Rachmaninoff in 1897. It was conducted by Glazunov (a famous composer himself later) who was drunk at the time and was disastrous. Rachmaninoff suffered severe depression after that.

Johanna Senfter (1879 - 1961) was a remarkable composer with amazing violin and piano works. Her only recorded Symphony 4, has very strong Brucknerian influences and is absolutely stunning. But she has written 9 in total. Hard to understand why her work is being ignored.

The reason so many diseases are cured has been the investment of the USA to medical research via NIH support. Without strong support for the NIH, important medical breakthroughs would have never happened. And drugs that cure or control diseases would have never existed.

Since its discovery in 1882, over 1 billion people have died from tuberculosis, including great composers, like Chopin, Purcell, Lili Boulanger, Stravinsky. One can only imagine how the world would be today if medical research had not found TB drugs. Science is priceless.

One of the saddest, but also most beautiful, compositions by an American composer is the Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber. It was written during the Great Depression in 1938, and reflects the feelings and sadness of that era. A remarkable piece of classical music.