By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    grief
    Coping With Depression from Loss After a Preventable Accident
    November 14, 2024
    medical research
    The Key to Medical Progress in Clinical Trials
    March 13, 2025
    HIPPA compliance
    How Medical Office Staff Can Make Your Practice HIPAA Compliant
    October 29, 2021
    Latest News
    7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
    August 20, 2025
    Hospital Pest Control and the Fight Against Superbugs
    August 20, 2025
    Hygiene Beyond The Clinic: Attention To Overlooked Non-Clinical Spaces
    August 13, 2025
    5 Steps to a Promising Career as a Healthcare Administrator
    August 3, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    Image
    Emergency Room – Don’t Use It For Primary Care!
    March 19, 2013
    Encouraging Medicare News From Senate Republicans
    March 17, 2012
    chronic disease
    Lifestyles Cause Most Serious Disease and Deaths
    May 25, 2013
    Latest News
    How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
    August 22, 2025
    How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
    August 22, 2025
    How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
    August 22, 2025
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Planeloads of Doctors Determined to Cure Blood-Related Cancers
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Specialties > Planeloads of Doctors Determined to Cure Blood-Related Cancers
Specialties

Planeloads of Doctors Determined to Cure Blood-Related Cancers

Andrew Schorr
Andrew Schorr
Share
6 Min Read
SHARE

I had a weird experience yesterday. I flew from my home in Barcelona, Spain, changed to a bigger plane in Paris, and flew to Atlanta where the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting is taking place this weekend and into next week. On the Paris to Atlanta flight the 300 or so seats were mostly filled with physicians and researchers devoted to understanding and curing blood-related cancer.

I had a weird experience yesterday. I flew from my home in Barcelona, Spain, changed to a bigger plane in Paris, and flew to Atlanta where the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting is taking place this weekend and into next week. On the Paris to Atlanta flight the 300 or so seats were mostly filled with physicians and researchers devoted to understanding and curing blood-related cancer. Over a nine hour flight, I spoke with people from France, Italy, Germany and Austria – all consumed with “beating the beast.” It was very cool. I also spoke to one physician scientist, my seat mate, at length and what he is working on could make a big difference.

Dr. Medhat Shehata is originally from Egypt but has been in Vienna for 20 years. He is a hematologist/oncologist and Director of the Tumor Microenvironment Laboratory at the Medical University of Vienna where there is a major comprehensive cancer center. We spoke a lot about CLL, my original diagnosis and the one that affects hundreds of regular visitors to Patient Power. But the story for CLL can be extended to other conditions, as well.

Dr. Shehata does very early research. What he is excited about now is testing a patient’s’ blood and bone marrow within a few days after they receive a standard therapy, FCR for example – the one I received in 2000, and assessing the patient’s micro response right then and using that as a reliable way to predict if the patient will respond at all or how well. Imagine being spared six months of treatment if it wasn’t bound to work OR imagine them having a drug that fixes your resistance to the treatment so it WILL work in your case, and knowing that almost right at the start! This is another aspect of personalized medicine

More Read

9 Signs You Need An Emergency Dentist
Undetected Car Accident Injuries
Advance Practice Nurse Solution: Making Healthcare Affordable for All
Social Media – Shoulder Surgery Decision Making
Physician Survey 2013 – Physician Burnout and Stress in Healthcare

We’ve talked about genetic testing to see if you have a subtype of a disease like CLL to then picking the most targeted treatment. That’s now Step One. But Step Two, my fellow passenger explained, is assessing each patient to see how well their biology will process that therapy. We are not all the same and it is thought that even if you and I have the same subtype of a disease, one of us may have another gene that gets in the way of us responding equally as well to the therapy. So we both may be on the right road, but my therapy is blocked or pushed to the shoulder of the road because there’s a big truck blocking the road. (One of my funny analogies, but you get the image.)

So in labs around the world, like Dr. Shehata’s, they are now refining approaches that could truly make more cancers “chronic,” where we can live pretty long, full lives and, as some doctors say, if you live so long something else “gets” you, maybe that could even be considered a cure.

I got to thinking of all that brain power on my flight. In seat after seat, someone devoted to making me, and you, well. And by today planes like this have converged on Atlanta from around the world where these folks, at the ASH meeting, get to trade test results and passionately talk about their strategies to beat cancer. I am truly energized because, in the years I have been coming to this meeting, I have seen tremendous progress. Yes, Imatinib for Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) was a shining breakthrough and we haven’t matched that yet. But if that was a home run, there have been many singles, doubles and triples (if you are a baseball fan). And, just maybe the work of researchers like Dr. Shehata will be the next breakthrough we can all celebrate.

Look for our reports and stories from medical experts and patient advocates at ASH to help all of us have optimism for a brighter future.

Wishing you and your family the best of health!

Andrew

TAGGED:cancer
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

engineer fitting prosthetic arm
How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
Health care
August 20, 2025
a woman explaining the document
How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
Public Health
August 20, 2025
physiotherapist at work
How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
Health care
August 20, 2025
Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs
7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
Health News
August 20, 2025

You Might also Like

Protective Genetic Material Appears to Protect against Alzheimer Dementia

July 13, 2012
obesity and cancer
Specialties

The Obesity-Cancer Connection

September 2, 2013
Health careSpecialtiesWellness

Top Three Essentials for General Health Care during Pregnancy

January 13, 2019
type-2 diabetes
SpecialtiesWellness

Eating More Red Meat Associated with an Increased Risk of Type-2 Diabetes

July 25, 2013
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?