"I've spent years researching the puzzle of cancer. I never imagined my father would become one of the pieces."

SUSAN PAPRCKA'S STORY

I’ve always thought about cancer research as putting a puzzle together – taking scattered pieces of biology and figuring out how they fit together – how pathways connect, which treatment combinations might break through the disease’s defenses. I love the intellectual challenge and the constant discovery of something new.

My father was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and the puzzle quickly became even more real and tangible.

The extraordinary part? He’s now being treated with an investigational drug I worked on from some of its earliest days in the lab. I have seen this molecule progress from a hypothesis to clinical trials, believing in its potential to help patients. I just never thought one of those patients would be my dad.

Everything shifted at that moment. The biology I’d studied so carefully – the pathways, the mechanisms –it all took on a completely different weight. I quickly found myself thinking about clinical trials not just as a scientist looking objectively at numbers and data, but as a daughter considering how to give a father – my father – the best chance at staying alive. When it came to our family, I started to see the whole picture.

A network of my colleagues at Arcus immediately rallied behind me when I reached out for support after he was diagnosed. They helped me to navigate the constantly moving landscape of trials and treatment options, arming me with the information and resources I needed to create a strategic roadmap. I know the science behind what we’re seeing, but now I also feel the emotions – the hope, fear, and unknowing – that patients and their families carry throughout a cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Cancer is persistent, aggressive, and undiscriminating. Having stood on both sides of this disease, as researcher and as family member, I understand something now that I didn’t appreciate as deeply before: every clinical trial represents not just scientific progress, but someone’s best hope. Every data point is a person. And every puzzle piece we fit together could be the one that changes everything for a family like mine.