I wrote the letter to the editor (see below) which was published in todays Globe & Mail. The Globe has done an outstanding job covering issues related to cancer and to medical research. End-of-life treatment is a complicated, emotional, difficult topic but needs more full “dialogue”. It’s almost taboo as a subject but for everyone who has had a family member or friend pass from cancer you know the issues and they go well beyond the cost/benefits of drug intervention and treatment. Tough but hats off to Andre Picard for such a thoughtful piece. Hope is always in my mind and my heart when I read such positive and provocative journalism.

Toronto — From Friday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Friday, Sep. 11, 2009 03:14AM EDT

I read with great interest André Picard's excellent article We Do Have To Put A Price On Life (Life, Sept. 10), as well as the story of actress Lisa Ray's battle with multiple myeloma (A Global Actress Reveals Her Private Fight: An Incurable Cancer, A Determined Spirit - front page, Sept. 10). End-of-life treatment and treating "incurable" diseases can be crushing to the human spirit. But in my work at Toronto's Princess Margaret Hospital, I'm often reminded of the strength of character exhibited at the end of life and by those with "incurable cancer."

There is a quote from Bernard Baruch framed in the offices of several doctors at Princess Margaret: "There are no such things as incurable; there are only things for which man has not found a cure." I look forward to reading a great deal more about the issues related to end-of-life care, but I, for one, wish to remain on the hopeful side.