Community outreach and engagement in global oncology
Abramson Cancer Center investigators are engaged in NCI’s mission to reduce the global burden of cancer through a variety of innovative research efforts.
As a member of ASCO’s Global Oncology Leadership Taskforce, the International Affairs Committee, and the Academic Global Oncology Task Force, Lawrence Nathan Shulman, MD, has achieved numerous significant milestones and honors in his efforts to improve cancer care worldwide. Shulman was the recipient of the 2019 ASCO Humanitarian Award. He also co-led cancer treatment committees for the WHO and published over 40 papers on the provision of global oncology (Martin et al., Lancet Oncol, 2018; Rubagumya et al., Lancet Oncol, 2017; Shulman et al., J Clin Oncol, 2016). Shulman’s work includes establishing the infrastructure for telepathology triage and EHR systems at hospitals in Rwanda, Botswana and Haiti. With funding from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and Celgene, Shulman is evaluating methods to implement a breast cancer early detection program and a program to ensure adherence to breast cancer treatment guidelines at Butaro Hospital in Rwanda.
With funding from a K12 award and the Penn CFAR, Yehoda Martei, MD, MSCE is evaluating the availability of WHO essential cancer medicines in Botswana. Martei is also guiding resource allocation and is documenting the co-diagnosis of HIV and breast cancer (and its effect on cancer treatment outcome) in Botswana (Dryden-Petersen et al., J Clin Onc, 2016).
Surbhi Grover, MD, MPH led a prospective study of the impact of HIV on cervical cancer in Botswana (Grover et al., Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys, 2018).
Erle Robertson, PhD is involved in several global initiatives related to oncogenic viruses in China, India and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Gregory Weinstein, MD, FACS is principal investigator of the first FDA approved Transoral Robotic Surgery (TORS) for head and neck surgery. Weinstein is the co-founder of the world’s first research program in human TORS. He has trained physicians and researchers from several centers around the United States in the TORS techniques and has trained visiting surgeons from a range of countries in the TORS techniques including Japan, Korea, China, Australia, Sweden, Brazil, France, and India. The Department of Radiation Oncology leads a Global Training Program on the establishment of a Proton Therapy Center, including immersion in the Department, which provided personalized training for >160 participants from 14 countries.