dr. ronald depinho, president of the university of texas where he leads groundbreaking research. he was also the founding director of the belfry institute for applied cancer research. he has received many honors and awards and found this there will biopharmaceutical companies focused on cancer. thank you for being here today. i will post questions myself in the later open the floor to questions from you all. keep that in mind. we are going to answer the question, how close we are to curing cancer? i think we will start looking back. dr. collins, you received your medical degree six years after president nixon declared a war on cancer. tell us what the assumptions were then about curing cancer, addressing cancer, treating cancer. did you assume cancer would be cured by 2014? what were your expectations? >> i remember when i was a medical student at the university of north carolina and it was not a specialty at my school when i started in cancer. it happened during my 4 years in a special unit focus on oncology was developed and someone was hired to run it. and what a scary place b

dr. francis collins, director of the national institute of health and .r. ronald depinho they talk about the latest cancer breakthroughs and some of the research challenges. it was cohosted in october by the aspen institute and friends of cancer research. susan page is the moderator. and i am so glad when not only have a full house but c-span is here so we'll have an audience. let me very briefly introduced dr. francis collins. director of the national institutes of health, the larger biomedical research in the world. he is renowned for his leadership as the genome project. many awards, the national medal of science and presidential medal of freedom. welcome. dr. ronald depinho, president of he university of texas where -- he was also the founding director of the belfry institute for applied cancer research. he has received many honors and awards and found this there will biopharmaceutical companies focused on cancer. thank you for being here today. i will post questions myself in the later open the floor to questions from you all. keep that in mind. we are going to answe