In the Season 5 debut of On the Edge of Breakthrough, City of Hope CEO Robert Stone openly shares the experiences that shaped his career and ultimately led him to the organization 30 years ago. He reveals how a visit to the Duarte campus changed his perspective and set him on a career path he never expected to take.

The conversation offers a personal look at the influences that shaped Stone's leadership, from lessons learned as a college athlete to balancing family and a demanding career. He reflects on what it means to lead a national organization through tremendous growth while staying connected to the mission and people at its core.

Stone also shares his perspective on the future of cancer care, including the growing role of artificial intelligence, expanding access to clinical trials and City of Hope's efforts to reach more patients nationwide. Throughout the conversation, he returns to a belief that has guided his career and the organization: keeping patients at the center of each decision and earning their trust every step of the way.

Alan Bryce, M.D., Chief Clinical Officer, City of Hope Cancer Center Phoenix, discusses promising prostate cancer research that may help doctors treat some patients earlier and more effectively. He explains how a new combination approach around the time of surgery could help keep cancer from spreading and open the door to more treatment options.

Kristin Higgins, M.D., Chief Clinical Officer, City of Hope Cancer Center Atlanta highlights encouraging progress in lung cancer driven by treatments tailored to specific genetic changes. She also discusses an important challenge: some people who develop lung cancer may not fit the profile current screening programs are built to catch.

Joseph Mikhael, M.D., Professor in Clinical Genomics and Therapeutics Division at TGen, explores how quickly treatment is evolving in multiple myeloma. He shares why newer immune-based therapies are generating excitement and how simpler approaches now in development could make advanced treatment more accessible. For him, the pace of change means new options are reaching patients faster than ever.

While many childhood leukemias are now highly curable, Dr. Wang explains children with certain aggressive brain tumors still face the same outcomes they did a decade ago. This lag in progress is what drives his work today investigating CAR T‑cell therapy gene therapy in early phase clinical trials.

Throughout the conversation, Dr. Wang returns to the idea that progress in pediatric cancer care depends on collaboration across institutions, bringing together patient care, careful study and shared commitment across the research community. For him, the work centers on honoring the trust families place in the field and steadily moving discoveries from the lab to children who need more options and more time.