The Cancer History Project

Marcus Humphrey, who was diagnosed with two subtypes of lymphoma in 2021, and his wife Mary Humphrey speak with Dr. Deborah Doroshow, an oncologist at the Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Doroshow, who is also a historian of medicine, is a member of the editorial board of the Cancer History Project and is guest editor during National Cancer Survivor Month this June....

In this episode, 2023 David Karnofsky Memorial Award winner Hagop Kantarjian discusses his long career developing novel therapies for several types of leukemia. “This is why I consider that choosing leukemia was the best decision in my life,” Kantarjian said to The Cancer Letter. “Because within the span of one professional lifetime, we were able to change the full course of all the leukemias from...

In this episode, Frederick Appelbaum, executive vice president, professor in the Clinical Research Division, and Metcalfe Family/Frederick Appelbaum Endowed Chair in Cancer Research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, speaks with Alexandria Carolan, associate editor with the Cancer History Project. Delving deep into Thomas’s role in discovering bone marrow transplantation and its role in curing hema...

This episode features an interview with Sandra Hillburn, who was diagnosed with glioblastoma in 2006, and Dr. Deborah Doroshow, an oncologist at the Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Doroshow, who is also a historian of medicine, is a member of the editorial board of the Cancer History Project. When Hillburn was first diagnosed, she was given two to three months to l...

This episode features a recording of a March 7 Women’s History Month panel on the topic of Betty Ford,  Nancy Reagan, and how their cancer diagnoses impacted a nation. The panel was introduced by Monica Bertagnolli, MD, director of the National Cancer Institute, and moderated by Stacy Wentworth, MD, assistant professor of radiation oncology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Med...

In this conversation, Richard Silvera, assistant professor of infectious disease at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, speaks with Robert A. Winn, director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center and guest editor of the Cancer History Project during Black History Month. Silvera is a recipient of a grant from the Robert A. Winn Diversity in Clinical Trials Award Program,...

Vickers: “We’ve been seen as exclusive and selected. I want to broaden that aperture for the organization.” In this conversation, Selwyn Vickers, president and CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, speaks with Robert Winn, director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center and guest editor of the Cancer History Project during Black History Month. Vickers overviews his e...

In this conversation, Robert Winn and Otis Brawley discuss the structural biases and racism that are present in law enforcement as well as in medicine after the killing of Tyre Nichols by police. Otis Brawley is Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Oncology and Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University and co-editor of the Cancer History Project; and Robert Winn is director of the Virginia Commonwe...

Kay Dickersin, MA, PhD, professor emeritus at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, is one of the early leaders of the National Breast Cancer Coalition. In this interview, Dickersin discusses her breast cancer diagnosis at age 34, and her frustration that, at the time, most support groups seemed to focus on how to fix your makeup or your wig. Dickersin, along with Marsha Oakley, a breas...

Directors of the first three NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers are learning from the past, starting with the National Cancer Act, and mapping an equitable future for oncology. On July 29, 2021, the Cancer History Project convened panelists Candace S. Johnson, president and CEO of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Craig B. Thompson, president and CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Ca...

Craig Jordan was one of the first researchers to analyze and describe tamoxifen’s preventive properties. His discoveries changed the face of breast cancer prevention and treatment. His career is storied. He received the Karnofsky award for his work as the father of tamoxifen, is a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, met and corresponded with Princess Diana while...

Robin Scheffler is an associate professor in the Science, Technology, and Society Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also the author of A Contagious Cause: The American Hunt for Cancer Viruses and the Rise of Molecular Medicine , and a historian of the modern biological and biomedical sciences and their intersections with developments in American history. In this episode,...

Dwight Tosh had grown so weak that he was unable to walk. Still, doctors at the rural Arkansas hospital—where he lay in bed for weeks in 1962—were unable to diagnose him. “My athletic body had been reduced to just a shell of an individual, looked like you’d just taken the skin and stretched it over my bones, just wasn’t much left of me,” Tosh, 73, a Republican state representative in Arkansas, sai...

In July, the Cancer History Project is focusing on the founders of cancer centers. In this conversation, Jerome Yates tells us how he helped build Vermont Cancer Center. For Yates, a Joe Simone quote comes to his mind when reflecting on his days in Vermont:  “when you’ve seen one cancer center, you’ve seen one cancer center.” University of Vermont received a planning grant in 1974 to develop...

This is the third installment of the Cancer History Project’s series in honor of Cancer Survivors Month. Dr. Deborah Doroshow, Cancer History Project guest editor during the month of June, conducted the following interview with Dave Boule, who was diagnosed with polycythemia vera in 2006. Soon after Boule was diagnosed, he had a hunch that there were better treatment options than the phlebotomies...

This is the second installment of the Cancer History Project’s series in honor of Cancer Survivors Month. Dr. Deborah Doroshow, Cancer History Project guest editor during the month of June, conducted the following interview with Beth Carner, a colon cancer patient who is now in remission. At 25, Elizabeth Carner was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. Thus began a months-long odyssey of six hour...

This month, Cancer History Project guest editor Deborah Doroshow, MD, PhD is conducting several oral histories with people who have experienced cancer—in a preliminary attempt to begin to capture some of those experiences. Although sources regarding the experiences of scientists and clinicians are often readily available, sources documenting the patient experience—a topic which historians of medic...

Jim Allison hadn’t been back to his hometown of Alice, TX, in 40 years when Bill Haney asked him to return there during the filming of “ Jim Allison: Breakthrough .” “I think, as is often the case with people who I make films with—it’s a voyage for discovery for them too,” said Haney, director, writer, and a producer of the documentary. “I think that Jim walking the streets where he was as a child...

In a panel moderated by Dr. Karen Knudsen, CEO of American Cancer Society, four leaders in oncology proposed an action plan for tackling cancer health disparities and creating health equity. The panel includes Clifford A. Hudis, CEO, American Society of Clinical Oncology; Executive vice chair, Conquer Cancer Foundation; Chair, CancerLinQ; Chanita Hughes Halbert, Vice chair for research, professor,...

In a panel moderated by Dr. Narjust Duma , of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, four directors of NCI-designated Cancer Centers discuss their unique perspectives as immigrants—and leaders in oncology. Topics cover their unique pathways to leadership, diversity in medicine, and challenges faced by international medical graduates. The panel included Dr. Kunle Odunsi , director of University of Chicago M...

Jerome Yates became a cancer doctor during a time when medical oncologists were thought to be what he describes as “the garbage collectors of medicine.” “The attitude among physician colleagues was, why are you wasting your time doing this? Not only are you wasting your time, but you’re making the patients sicker,” said Yates, 85, a retired oncologist who has practiced and administered research at...

A band of “Cancer Cowboys” once known as the ALGB—Acute Leukemia Group B—are, in large part, responsible for flipping the mortality rate of childhood leukemia from 90% to 10%, where it stands today.  While researching his book from 2013 to 2017, Tim Wendel, lecturer at Johns Hopkins University and author of "Cancer Crossings," spoke with the doctors of ALGB. Among them was longtime St. Jude C...

In honor of Women’s History Month this March, this week’s podcast features an interview with Susan Love, founder and chief visionary officer of the Dr. Susan Love Foundation for Breast Cancer Research. In this discussion, Love overviews the breast cancer advocacy movement of the 1990s, and how she and others helped educate breast cancer advocates about the disease. “Really this was, ‘we want to be...

The panel, which met Feb. 23, 2022, discussed the impact of systemic racism, the history of the health equity movement, and the crucial role of mentorship. Panelists: Robert A. Winn, MD Guest editor, Cancer History Project; Director and Lipman Chair in Oncology, VCU Massey Cancer Center; Senior associate dean for cancer innovation and professor of pulmonary disease and critical care medicine, VCU...

Today’s episode features doctor Robert Winn, director of VCU Massey Cancer Center, and doctor John Stewart, founding director of LSU Health LCMC Health Cancer Center, who speak with Wayne A.I. Frederick, president of Howard University. This interview focuses on the legacy of LaSalle Leffall, a Howard University surgical oncologist. Stewart and Frederick were both mentored by Leffall. A full t...