The American Society of Clinical Oncology: The Most Beautiful Sound

WPP and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO®), the world's leading professional organization for physicians and oncology professionals, have teamed up to unveil the first-ever audible sound of cancer cells being destroyed using pioneering technology. Today, one in three people are expected to be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. In order to support patients during their treatment journey, Grey Health & Wellness came up with the concept of giving people receiving treatment for cancer more of an understanding of how their medication or chemotherapy can directly impact cancerous cells. The team then worked with researchers at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital to isolate the sound of breast and lung cancer cells at the precise moment of cellular death. ‘The Most Beautiful Sound’ is the resulting creative and scientific partnership led by Health@WPP, WPP’s community of agencies serving clients across the healthcare sector. The sound was shared for the first time at the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting, where conference attendees were able to experience the sound via an immersive listening station and watch a video produced by Hogarth showing the reactions of patients with cancer. As the principal investigator of the research study, Conor Evans, PhD, oversaw the experiment in his lab. The study was conducted using a stimulated Raman scattering microscopy to measure the exact movements of cancer cells as they die, which were then transcribed into audible sounds.