Spotlight: Stacy Wentworth, MD, and her podcast Less Radical | | |
|
|
This month, Stacy Wentworth, MD, joined our Wake County team, where she cares for patients with a broad range of cancers. But Dr. Wentworth is also a talented writer and the creator of the podcast Less Radical – where, over six episodes, Dr. Wentworth explores operating rooms, Congressional hearings and laboratories to tell the story of Dr. Bernie Fisher, a surgeon-scientist who revolutionized breast cancer treatment.
Less Radical was recently named a "best podcast of the week" by The Guardian, and Dr. Wentworth was interviewed live on NPR on Wednesday, October 30. As we close out Breast Cancer Awareness Month, please consider listening to Less Radical to learn more about the history behind breast cancer treatment.
| |
|
What made you decide to start a podcast on this topic?
Breast cancer survivors are a growing and vocal community. Thanks in large part to early detection efforts, greater than 80 percent of breast cancers are now curable. Treatment over the past fifty years has also become less radical and more personalized. Yet, a quarter century after President Nixon declared a "War on Cancer," many patients still ask me: why aren't we closer to finding a cure for cancer? I struggled to explain this to patients and hope this podcast can answer that question.
| |
|
What’s a key takeaway listeners will get from this podcast?
Dr. Fisher is present in the room of every woman diagnosed with breast cancer. Yet no statue stands in his honor, and few know his name. I'm not an artist, so I didn't build a statue, but I hope by sharing the story of this remarkable man, more people will know about his life and have reason to hope for all the amazing science that is yet to come.
| |
|
|
How does telling this history inform your clinical role?
I've been telling the story of Dr. Bernie Fisher's trials to newly diagnosed breast cancer patients for 20 years. His research forms the strong foundation by which my recommendations for their care rests. I find that placing their diagnosis in this long history provides a measure of comfort that all these decisions are based on science, not arbitrary feelings.
| |
Floyd lab receives $100,000 grant from Ian's Friends Foundation | | |
|
Ian's Friends Foundation (IFF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to funding novel pediatric brain tumor research and supporting affected families. Since its inception, IFF has raised over $40 million, funding 50 groundbreaking research projects at 26 world-renowned US institutions. | |
|
In September, IFF held the 2024 WhatIFF Symposium, which featured doctors, clinicians and researchers from leading institutions around the globe, including Scott Floyd, MD, PhD, and lab members. In a Shark Tank–style event, participants pitched innovative ideas for advancing pediatric brain cancer treatment and fellow attendees voted on the most innovative treatment modalities. The top three projects received a grant of up to $100,000 each from IFF to accelerate the research.
Dr. Floyd and his lab were selected as winners; the comments stated that the "presentation yielded great promise with FLASH radiation and its capacity to deliver high doses of radiation while sparing healthy tissue, thereby increasing the potential for enhanced therapy and laying the groundwork for the delivery of combinational therapies."
| |
Fecteau featured at DPUC's Community Education Event | | |
|
Ryan Fecteau, MD, PhD, spoke on a panel at the Duke Cancer Institute Center for Prostate and Urologic Cancers' (DPUC) fifth annual Community Education Event on September 21. The conference, which aimed to provide information on support, survivorship programs and treatment updates at Duke Health, also included remarks from Durham Mayor Leo Williams on Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, observed in September. | |
The event received strong positive feedback from patients in the post-event survey, and specifically, the session featuring Dr. Fecteau received the most positive feedback of any session! | |
Faculty and staff updates | | |
|
Congratulations to Chang-Lung Lee, PhD, who has been promoted to Associate Professor, effective August 1, 2024. | | |
|
Radiation oncologist Paul Koffer, MD, will join our GU team at the Duke Cancer Center clinic in July 2025. Dr. Koffer received his MD from the Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, PA, and completed residency at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, MA, graduating in 2018. He is currently an assistant professor at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. | | |
|
Radiation oncologist Parisa Shamsesfandabadi, MD, will join our Wake County team in September 2025. Dr. Shamsesfandabadi received her MD from Kashan University of Medical Sciences and Health Services in Kashan, Iran, and completed her residency at the Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh, PA, graduating in 2024. | | |
|
|
Congratulations to Kaitlin Bailey, BSN, OCN, BSc, and Linda Kaltenbach, PhD, on their success with Tier Advancement 2024. Kaitlin has achieved CRNC II, and Linda has achieved CRC III. Tier Advancement is a rigorous application and testing process; both Kaitlin and Linda have worked very hard, and their promotions are truly deserved. | | |
|
Jessica Lee, MD, will be leaving Duke, effective April 2025. She is a graduate of our residency program; after her graduation, she joined the faculty, specializing in the care of head and neck cancer patients at Duke Radiation Oncology Wake County and Duke University Hospital. Dr. Lee will be joining the Kaiser Permanente program in Washington, DC. We wish her all the best. | |
2024 Thaddeus Samulski Lectureship | |
|
Keynote speaker Hong Chen, PhD, gave a talk on "Emerging Opportunities in Non-Ionizing Radiation: Ultrasound for Noninvasive Brain Interventions"; and keynote speaker Michelle Howard, PhD, gave a talk on "Overcoming Radiation Resistance in Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma through Targeted Redox Dysregulation."
As Duke celebrates its centennial this year, we were proud to have the 2024 Thaddeus Samulski Lectureship named a Duke Centennial event. The lectureship highlights Duke’s commitment to advancing knowledge and promoting excellence, as well as our dedication to celebrating influential figures and historical innovations. And in addition to honoring our past, by bringing experts like Drs. Chen and Howard to Duke, the lectureship highlights Duke's role in shaping the cutting-edge research of the future. Thank you to everyone who attended and made this event a success.
| |
Presentations and publications | |
|
Snider M, Salama JK, Boyer M. Survival and recurrence rates following SBRT or surgery in medically operable Stage I NSCLC. Lung Cancer. 2024 Sep 23.
Wentworth, S. Interviewed in: New FDA mandate to tell patients whether their breasts are “dense” or “not dense” baffles doctors. The Cancer Letter. 2024 Sep 27.
Lin MH, Olsen L, Kavanaugh JA, Jacqmin D, Lobb E, Yoo S, Berry SL, Pichardo JC, Cardenas CE, Roper J, Kirk M, Bennett S, Cheung JP, Solberg TD, Moore KL, Kim M. Ensuring High Quality Treatment Plans with a Plan Quality Review Checklist. Pract Radiat Oncol. 2024 Sep 30.
Saifi O, Pinnix CC, Ballas LK, Kelsey CR, Milgrom SA, Terezakis SA, Figura NB, Parikh RR, Grecula JC, Flampouri S, Ha CS, Lo AC, Plastaras JP, Hodgson DC, Hoppe BS. Radiation target nomenclature for lymphoma trials: consensus recommendations from the National Clinical Trials Network groups. Lancet Haematol. 2024 Sep 30.
| |
|
Eckrich C, Lee B, Wang C, Light K, Chino J, Rodrigues A, Craciunescu O. Evaluation of cumulative dose distributions from external beam radiation therapy using CT-to-CBCT deformable image registration (DIR) for cervical cancer patients. J Appl Clin Med Phys. 2024 Oct 4.
Radcliffe BA, Kim Y, Raffi J, Ayala-Peacock DN, Stephens SJ, Chino J, Meltsner S, Craciunescu O. Retrospective assessment of HDR brachytherapy dose calculation methods in locally advanced cervical cancer patients: AcurosBV vs. AAPM TG43 formalism. J Appl Clin Med Phys. 2024 Oct 9.
Casey DL, Murphy ES, Shen CJ, Milgrom SA, Larrier NA, Bradley JA, Ladra MM, Indelicato DJ, Hill-Kayser CE, Borinstein SC, Luo LY. Metastatic site radiation therapy for Ewing sarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma: Consensus guidelines from the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation. Pract Radiat Oncol. 2024 Oct 22.
O'Daniel J, Hernandez Masgrau V, Clark C, Esposito M, Lehmann J, McNiven A, Olaciregui-Ruiz I, Kry S. Which Failures Do Patient-Specific Quality Assurance Systems Need to Catch? Med Phys. 2024 Oct 28.
| |
Photo roundup — September and October 2024 | | |
|
New ASTRO Fellow Junzo Chino, MD, with former Duke Radiation Oncology resident (and sister) Fumiko Chino, MD, at ASTRO. | |
Medical physics PhD student Jingtong Zhao (mentored by Chunhao Wang, PhD), presented "Neural Ordinary Differential Equation Enables Radiogenomic Explainable AI for Identifying Post-Radiosurgery Brain Metastasis Radionecrosis" at the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Conference on Mathematics of Data Science in Atlanta, GA, highlighting the group's significant contributions to developing explainable AI solutions in medical imaging. | |
Radiation therapists Monica Enriquez Cano, RT(R)(T); Melissa Mudger, BHSc, RT(T); and Henry Diaz, BS, RT(T), at the American Society of Radiologic Technologists' annual Radiation Therapy Conference in Washington, DC. | | |
|
Early voting runs through Saturday, November 2. Election Day is Tuesday, November 5. Additional information and resources can be found on the Duke Votes website. Leaders are reminded to cancel nonessential meetings on Election Day, and to be flexible with scheduling to enable staff members who are unable to vote outside normal work hours to do so before, during or after their assigned shifts. | |
|
Duke University School of Medicine 2025 Leadership Development Program applications – including the ADVANCE-UP, ALICE, DCLP and LEADER programs – are due Friday, November 1.
November 4-8 marks National Radiologic Technology Week! Please take a moment to celebrate and recognize the hard work of our medical imaging and radiation therapy professionals.
The Duke Center for Brain and Spine Metastasis will host Sarah Sammons, MD, for an invited speaker session on Wednesday, November 6 from 4-5 p.m. in the School of Nursing Room 1011.
Nominations are due Friday, November 8 for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award, which recognizes faculty and staff who embody Dr. King's vision of "it starts with me" through their work with a nonprofit’s mission.
The 6th annual Duke Association of Women Surgeons Grand Rounds will be held on Wednesday, November 13 from 7-8 a.m. in Duke North 2002 and virtually.
On Thursday, November 14, the DCI Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is hosting a virtual lunch and learn on "Holiday Challenges Unique to the Oncology Audience: Finding Space for Grief AND Celebrations." Contact Sharyn Davis with questions.
| |
|
Duke's Office for Translation and Commercialization is hosting Invented at Duke 2024 on Wednesday, November 20 at Penn Pavilion. The event celebrates the inventors and innovations of the Duke community and will showcase groundbreaking inventions and provide networking opportunities with the entrepreneurial community.
The DUHS Employee Experience team will host the 2024 Grief Symposium on Wednesday, November 20 from 8:30-11:30 a.m. You may participate in person at TSCHE Great Hall, join a viewing party at Duke Raleigh or Duke Regional or stream virtually from your own space. The event will feature a keynote speaker, panel discussion and optional grief circles.
On Thursday, November 21, Duke's Research Professionals Network (RPN) will host a webinar on "When There Are No Words: Effective Practices for Responding with Empathy and Care for Healing (REACH)." Join the listserv at docr-rpn@dm.duke.edu to receive RPN meeting invites or contact Angela Rice-Warren to register.
The 29th annual meeting of the Society for Neuro-Oncology will be held November 21-24 in Houston, Texas.
On Friday, November 22 at 6 p.m., join the Duke Volleyball team as they play Stanford during "Spike Out Cancer: Supporting Teens and Young Adults Facing Cancer."
Save the date for the Duke Research Summit, a showcase of the groundbreaking research and innovation happening across the institution, held on Tuesday, January 7, 2025 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Wilkinson Building in Durham.
The School of Medicine will hold "From Likes to Leadership: Leveraging Social Media to Advance in Academic Health" on Thursday, January 30 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Trent Semans Center Great Hall. Material will be geared toward faculty.
| |
. . . and in case you missed it | |
October 21-25 marked National Medical Assistants Recognition Week. If you haven't already, please take a moment to recognize all our CMAs, RMAs and PCTs who are dedicated each and every day to our patients and our team. | | |
|
Please take a moment to follow our LinkedIn page to keep up with news from our Department! | |
Duke Corporate Payroll Services has launched an incident management system for payroll, enabling individuals to submit requests for assistance to Corporate Payroll Services electronically. This new system will allow Corporate Payroll Services to respond to customer requests more effectively and efficiently as well as track requests to ensure completion and utilize the information to identify opportunities for system and communication enhancements. Read more about the new system. | | | | |
