The Research Evangelist

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), tumor cells that are shed from primary tumors in the body and carried through the circulation, were discovered some 140 years ago.   Researchers have struggled to create an efficient way of capturing these elusive and rare cancer cells, and perform genetic analysis to learn about their growth characteristics and molecular evolution. I’m inspired and encouraged by the work of Dr. Bert Vogelstein, at Johns Hopkins.   Dr. Vogelstein is credited with having proved that damaged DNA causes cancer.   Nearly every type of cancer sheds DNA into the bloodstream, so Vogelstein and his colleagues are trying to prove that cancer can be diagnosed much earlier -- perhaps decades earlier -- using a procedure called "liquid biopsy." But the technology isn't clinic-ready yet, and the screening process is still too expensive.   We are nowhere near the reality of liquid biopsy being used in, for instance, your annual check-up.   Making such...

I’ve been thinking about these two words recently. Yesterday marked the 17th anniversary since my lobectomy surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. This deeply personal experience has led me to embrace gratitude and trust as key components to both my personal life and career. So I’m in kind of a unique position to hopefully make an impact on the world.   I have abundant gratitude personally for being a lung cancer survivor.   And I sincerely believe trust is the foundation of every relationship, every encounter in my personal and professional life.   My motivation and commitment are based on sincere interest in helping move cancer research from the laboratory to the patient bedside, because I have been there. It defines me. This is the blending of my personal story and my professional life.   Gratitude and Trust . Gratitude: Surviving cancer…what could you be more grateful for?   But it’s more than that.   It has made me apprecia...

My life really has been quite an odyssey. I looked up the definition of odyssey recently: " a long series of wanderings or adventures, especially when filled with notable experiences, hardships, etc." My lung cancer experience was one of those hardships I guess.  But more importantly, it totally changed the way I looked at everything; my family, my friends, my work, my future... When you are told you have a life threatening illness like cancer, you become vulnerable.  But you also gain an inner strength to not only fight the disease, but do something!  I wanted to help other cancer patients get information to make informed decisions about their treatment options.  I was lucky, I lived in Boston, and had access to great care at Massachusetts General Hospital.  But being from Minnesota, where many of my relatives lived in rural areas, I wanted them to have the same benefit. So I became an advocate for patient education, and started to...

I remember the exact moment as if it was yesterday. I was out for dinner with friends when my cell phone rang. It was my doctor from Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Lee Kaplan. I thought it was strange for him to call me at night. “Dave, it’s Lee. You need to come in to see me…we found a tumor on your lung.” My world stopped. I was a young, nonsmoker with boys were 5, 3 and 1 years old. This news stopped me dead in my tracks. If you've been diagnosed with cancer, or a loved one has, you know EXACTLY what I felt.  My life was forever changed. There were appointments with respiratory specialists, CT scans, MRIs, surgeons, and lots of time to worry “am I going to die?” After the lobectomy (removal of half of my left lung), came months of treatment and painful recovery. I kept telling myself, “one day at a time…one hour at a time…one minute at a time”. I am so thankful for my wife Missi who helped take care of me, while keeping things together for our family. It made me see the wo...