How do you go from 100% to dead? That is the tragic enigma which changed Jim Foote’s life. In 2004, Foote’s 15-year-old son, Trey, was diagnosed with bone cancer. After chemotherapy and surgery, doctors told him, “We never say it’s [cancer] 100% dead. It’s 100% dead. You’re good.” Three months later the cancer returned. In October 2006, Trey Foote died; he was 17.
Bereft, Foote was haunted by the riddle “how do you go from 100% to dead?” When he learned bone cancer treatment protocols had not budged in 25 years, Foote saw an industry in need of transformation. Today, he is the co-founder of First Ascent Biomedical and sits at the forefront of twin technological innovations in western Pennsylvania: artificial intelligence and cancer mapping.
The birthplace of the petroleum and steel industry, western Pennsylvania, is a century removed from its economic zenith. Deindustrialization has turned the region into a