I heard the word carcinoma.

Gloyne S R (1935) Two cases of squamous carcinoma of the lung occurring in asbestosis. Tuberculosis 17 5.

Lynch K M and Smith W A (1935) Pulmonary asbestosis. Carcinoma of lung in asbestos silicosis. American Journal of Cancer 24 56.

According to Iran, the study demonstrates that the release of pollutants from the oil well fires, the oil spills and depleted uranium increased carcinogens in the environment, and this led to an increase in cases of leukaemia, lymphoma and carcinoma after 1991.

(This is perhaps the first indication that self sacrifice may be an intrinsic human trait!) Damaged by the sun, but not quite able to commit suicide, the mutated cell continues to proliferate at the expense of normal surrounding cells, resulting in a pre cancerous growth that can progress to a full blown squamous cell carcinoma.

And so please consider this a work in progress, but I'd like to tell you today a story about a very rare cancer called midline carcinoma, about the protein target, the undruggable protein target that causes this cancer, called BRD4, and about a molecule developed at my lab at Dana Farber Cancer Institute called JQ1, which we affectionately named for Jun Qi, the chemist that made this molecule.