My grandfather’s 80th birthday was a double celebration. With our family gathered around the dining room and a mylar balloon floating above his seat at the head of the table, Pop-Pop ushered in his eighth decade, cancer-free.

He had been battling colon and liver cancer for more than a year, underwent multiple rounds of chemotherapy, and, in stubborn New Yorker fashion, had seemed to come out on top. And yet, exactly one month after we raised our glasses to him being in remission, on January 11, 2020, he was gone.

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I was overwhelmed by the unfairness of it all. Didn’t the universe know that Pop-Pop never lost a fight? Didn’t it know that this was the man who attended every dance recital I ever had, wowed my sisters and me with a disappearing card trick each time we came to visit, and taught me how to drive? Didn’t it know I wasn’t ready to say goodbye?

If it knew, cancer didn’t seem to care. It never does.

Photo by Sarah Banks

Roughly two million Americans were diagnosed with cancer last year, according to the National Cancer Institute. Some will live to be 100. Others may never see their high school prom. In many ways, cancer feels like a cruel game of chance, but for this issue’s cover story, we spoke with Colorado health care experts about groundbreaking tools and treatments they’re developing to make the fight against cancer more about science and less about luck.

In “The Best Cancer Care in Colorado Keeps Getting Better,” you’ll meet two researchers from Children’s Hospital Colorado who’ve discovered a new therapy that could eradicate a rare, aggressive childhood tumor; a cardio-oncologist protecting cancer patients from future heart disease; a University of Colorado Boulder research team that is figuring out how to grow stem cells in space; and more inspiring innovators.

But in this issue, which compiles the best of 5280’s health content over the past two years (fact-checked and updated where possible), we detail exciting advancements happening all over the industry. We dive into the new frontier of using mushrooms to boost mental well-being, a burgeoning program from the University of Colorado College of Nursing that supports pregnant and postpartum women battling substance use disorders, and the merits of cold plunging.

My hope is that the ingenuity in these pages might provide some solace to anyone grappling with an unresolved health problem, be it in yourself or a loved one. Although the oncology breakthroughs we detail won’t bring back Pop-Pop, I sometimes wonder what I would say to him if they could. The truth? I’d ask him how he pulled off that magic card trick.