Doctors/Researchers Stories
Chigusa Morizane | Brian I. Carr | Timothy M. Pawlik | Hideo Suzaki | Edgar Ben-Josef | Laura Dawson |
Toru Kawamoto | Bruno Daniele | Juan Carolos Roa | Diane Reidy-Lagunes | Abby Siegel | John Kauh
Kaoru Kiguchi | Lewis Roberts
Name: Chigusa Morizane, M.D.
Position: Medical Oncologist
Location: Japan
Years working in the field: 11 years
How did you decide to work in the field of oncology?
My family died of pancreatic cancer.
I want to improve a prognosis of the intractable cancer
What is one piece of advice that you offer to each of your patients when diagnosed with hepatobiliary cancer?
Not only the anticancer therapy (resection, radiation, treatment with anticancer drug) but also multidisciplinary support (IVR treatment, palliative care) is extremely critical by the treatment in treatment of hepatobiliary cancer.
What do you feel is the most rewarding part of your role in the medical field?
Acceleration of the development of anticancer treatment by the conducting multicenter clinical trial
Other comments:
Incidence of hepatobiliary cancer is considerably high in Japan. Furthermore, we have already conducted several high quality multi-center clinical trials in Japan.
Position: Professor of Oncology, Hepatoma Program
Location: Bari, Puglia, Italy
Years in field: 40
Reasons for oncology:
An exciting intersection of several fields
Patient advice:
I advise all patients to read widely and to get two opinions because hepatobiliary cancer is a fast-moving area.
Professional rewards:
The chance to participate in discovery
Other:
Tomorrow really will be better than today
Position:
Associate Professor of Surgery and Oncology
Hepatobiliary Surgery Program Director
Director, Liver Tumor Center Multi-Disciplinary Clinic
Co-Director of Center for Surgical Trials and Outcomes Research
Location:
Baltimore, MD
Years working in the field:
Six
How did you decide to work in the field of oncology?
I decided to work in oncology because cancer has personally afflicted my family in the past. I have a strong desire to help individuals fight cancer and lead long, healthy, high quality lives. I think that this is possible for many patients and I find it very rewarding to partner with patients to make this a reality.
What is one piece of advice that you offer to each of your patients when diagnosed with hepatobiliary cancer?
Patients with hepatobiliary cancers frequently require complicated, complex operations that can be technically challenging. Patients should seek surgical care at high volume, expert centers that have substantial experience dealing with large numbers of patients with similar problems. A successful surgical outcome is frequently the first and most important step in the path toward treating these cancers.
What do you feel is the most rewarding part of your role in the medical field?
The most rewarding part of my work is providing patients with a chance to live a high-quality, cancer-free life. I derive immense joy seeing my patients back in clinic doing well years after their operation.
The patient and their family are extremely important to me and I review the entire process as a partnership. I find the relationship and trust that I build with the patient and family very rewarding.
Other comments:
I would encourage patients with complex hepatobiliary cancers to seek a second opinion in many cases.
Position: Assistant Professor
Location: Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
Years working in the field: 7 years
How did you decide to work in the field of oncology?
I hoped to make some progress for cancer therapy.
What is one piece of advice that you offer to each of your patients when diagnosed with hepatobiliary cancer?
The development for hepatobiliary cancer therapy has made remarkable advances. There must be ideal therapy for every patients.
What do you feel is the most rewarding part of your role in the medical field?
The gratitude from my patients.
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan
I am a radiation oncologist in a large university cancer center specializing in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancer. I have a strong interest in the application of high dose radio-chemotherapy and sophisticated technology to deliver very focused radiation to cancers of the gallbladder and bile ducts. Currently I am exploring, in a national cooperative group trial, the role of adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy after resection of gallbladder and bile duct cancer.
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
My primary clinical and scholarly activities relate to the implementation and evaluation of high precision radiation therapy in the treatment of liver cancers, including biliary malignancies. My research interests relate to how to avoid toxicity and improve the quality of radiation therapy. I am a frequent faculty member at national and international oncology meetings, and I enjoy teaching and supervising medical students, residents, fellows and graduate students on this topic.
Outside of oncology, I spend most of my time with my family. I am married to a wonderful, supportive husband, and I have three boys (1, 7 and 10 years old). I am a passionate (but not extreme) hockey mom. I love spending time hiking, and I enjoy playing ice hockey myself when I get the opportunity.
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Position:
Assistant Professor
Department of Surgery Institute of Gastroenterology
Years working in the field: 24 years
How did you decide to work in the field of oncology?
When I was a medical student, I underwent cholecystectomy due to the gallbladder polyps. Fortunately, they were benign polyps, but I was very interested in the biliary diseases, especially neoplasms of gallbladder. I have studied hepatobiliary pathogenesis since I graduated from medical school.
What is one piece of advice that you offer to each of your patients when diagnosed with hepatobiliary cancer?
Our hepatobiliary oncology team makes sure to provide patients proper treatment to cure or advise hopeful advantages to keep their quality of life. Our data is based on the experiences of more than 200 patients of hepatobiliary cancers per year treated with surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy including proton, immunotherapy and molecular targeting therapy. If you are getting nowhere, feel free to contact us any time.
What do you feel is the most rewarding part of your role in the medical field?
I am involved in translational research of hepatobiliary cancers in my institute. Now I am focusing on erbB family and Stat 3 expressions in these cancers and developing novel molecular targeting therapies.
Other comments:
I worked at MD Anderson Cancer Center with Dr. Melanie Thomas as a visiting assistant professor for three years and published “HER receptor family: Novel candidate for targeted therapy for gallbladder and extrahepatic bile duct cancer. Gastrointest Cancer Res 2007 1; 6: 221-227”.
My e-mail Address: k3731@aol.com
Position: Director of the Department of Oncology and Medical Oncology Unit
Location: Benevento - Italy
Years working in the field: 18
How did you decide to work in the field of oncology?
At the beginning, I started working as a gastroenterologist, mostly dealing with patients with GI and Liver cancer. Then, I realized that for giving a full support to these patients I needed a training in medical oncology, as well.
What is one piece of advice that you offer to each of your patients when diagnosed with hepatobiliary cancer?
There are several treatment options that can improve survival and quality of life. Since liver cancers arise in most patients within a cirrhotic liver, it is important that their physician has experience in both oncologic and hepatology treatments. The best approach to hepatobiliary cancer is multidisciplinary (surgeon, oncologist, interventional radiologist, hepatologist, etc.) and it is more likely found in larger centers dedicated to this cancer.
What do you feel is the most rewarding part of your role in the medical field?
The recent discovery of a new effective systemic therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma has opened a new scenario for the treatment of liver cancer and there are exciting perspectives in this field for both patients and medical oncologists. This is a sort of compensation for those - like myself - who studied hepatocellular carcinoma and treated patients with liver cancer when it was an orphan disease (no effective drugs to use)
Position: 
Professor of Pathology
Director, Molecular Pathology Laboratory;
Director of Graduate and Research
School of Medicine
Location:
Temuco, Chile
Years working in the field: 16
How did you decide to work in the field of oncology?
As a pathologist, all our activities are completely related with cancer diagnosis. Additionally, the specimen archives and the biobanking activity gives you the golden opportunity to access important collections of cases to make research in the field of oncology.
What is one piece of advice that you offer to each of your patients when diagnosed with hepatobiliary cancer?
I do not actually have contact with patients.
What do you feel is the most rewarding part of your role in the medical field?
In Chile, gallbladder cancer is the leading cause of death by cancer in women. Because of this, research in this disease is a duty for us. Any discovery in prevention, early diagnosis or even increasing the therapeutic possibilities in advanced gallbladder carcinoma will give the chance to help these patients that so far have very bad prognosis.
Position: Assistant Attending
Location: New York, New York
Years working in the field: 3
How did you decide to work in the field of oncology? I think the catalyzing moment that made me decide on oncology (and clinical research, in particular) happened when I was working at NIH as a fourth year medical student in what they called Building 10. All the patients in building 10 are enrolled on clinical trials. It was “laboratory bench to bedside research” happening live. I knew I wanted to be a part of that and that I wanted to be on the bedside with the patients as opposed to the bench. I also knew that in order to understand the biology, I would have to be able to collaborate closely with those in the laboratory to improve treatment strategies for our patients.
What is one piece of advice that you offer to each of your patients when diagnosed with hepatobiliary cancer?
I try to tell my patients that our job is to keep them with us for as long as possible but more importantly as well as possible. Our treatments for hepatobiliary cancers are aimed to control the disease and maintain a patient’s quality of life. It is about quality. I also try to convey that every patient and every cancer is different. The patient is not the statistic.
What do you feel is the most rewarding part of your role in the medical field?
I consider it a great privilege to walk into a cancer patient’s life at the most vulnerable and probably the most frightened time of their lives and with all my efforts try to help them lighten that burden by providing support and treatment. It’s not easy but I would not dream of doing anything else.
Position: Medical Director, Hepatobiliary Oncology
Location: New York, New York
Years working in the field: 10
How did you decide to work in the field of oncology?
I was really excited by the new targeted treatments which were just starting to be developed when I was in training.
What is one piece of advice that you offer to each of your patients when diagnosed with hepatobiliary cancer?
Be seen at a large volume center that has a multidisciplinary approach to treatment. We can often treat these tumors with many different therapies, including resection, liver transplant, local therapies, and chemotherapy. Large multidisciplinary centers will help to ensure that you have access to all of these treatments.
What do you feel is the most rewarding part of your role in the medical
field?
Many things--mostly I feel privileged to be part of lives of my patients; research allows me to participate in helping to improve treatment options, and I really enjoy working with students and trainees to help them to become better doctors.
Name: John Kauh, M.D.
Position: Associate Professor of Hematology & Oncology
Location: Atlanta, GA
Years working in the field: 10
How did you decide to work in the field of oncology?
Treating patients with cancer is highly challenging but very rewarding.
What is one piece of advice that you offer to each of your patients when diagnosed with hepatobiliary cancer?
I encourage all my patients to seek a second opinion from a center that has expertise in treating hepatobiliary cancers.
What do you feel is the most rewarding part of your role in the medical field?
Interacting with well- informed patients who are actively involved in their cancer care.
Other comments: During my time in oncology, I experienced a period of therapeutic nihilism and a dearth of effective therapies. However, recent developments of new treatments, such as liver transplantation and new drugs have brought about a new sense of optimism and a renewed interest in clinical research interest.
Position: Professor
Location: Austin, TX
Years working in the field: 25 years in oncology, 15 years in biliary tract cancer research
How did you decide to work in the field of oncology?
Although I enjoyed the daily patient interaction I shared during my clinical years, I wanted to be part of something closer to research—to breakdown the disease process, to understand the pathophysiology, and to explore opportunities for treatment and diagnosis.
What is one piece of advice that you offer to each of your patients when diagnosed with hepatobiliary cancer?
New advancements are being made each day. Never lose hope that something can be done about the disease. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But each day is a day that scientists, clinicians, and patients gain to learn more about the disease.
What do you feel is the most rewarding part of your role in the medical field?
Cancer does not discriminate, affecting all sexes, races, and economic boundaries. It affects us all, directly and indirectly. It allows us to demonstrate our willingness to endure, to test our faith in hope, and to exhibit our persistence in finding opportunities for change. Hence, it provides a community of shared experience that I am privileged to be a part of.
Name: Lewis R. Roberts, M.B., Ch.B., PhD
Position: Professor of Medicine and Consultant, Director, Hepatobiliary Neoplasia Clinic
Location: Rochester, Minnesota
Years working in the field: 13 years
How did you decide to work in the field of oncology? Oncology is a field with many unmet needs and many unanswered questions. Working in this field satisfies my natural inclinations toward service to others and my innate curiousity about the structure of biological systems and how an improved understanding of cancer biology can be translated into advances in diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
What is one piece of advice that you offer to each of your patients when diagnosed with hepatobiliary cancer? You will read a lot of information on the poor outcomes of patients with hepatobiliary cancer, but it is important to realize that a lot of the information is on the experience of the average patient. But no one individual patient or cancer is average, some patients do far better than average. The way to do better than average is not to accept an average outcome as the norm.
What do you feel is the most rewarding part of your role in the medical field? The opportunity to meet many inspiring patients who strive to live rich and fulfilling lives despite their cancer diagnosis. I am continually challenged by the courage and grace of my patients.
Watch this video to listen to Dr. Lewis Roberts talking about a new sensitive way to diagnose bile duct cancers.
Last Updated on 11/22/2011 9:57:50 AM