UP FRONT
diversity through an evolutionary focus.
That was a real turning point for me, even
though it wasn’t directly in the medical
field. I still think about cancer as an evolutionary problem, and that was my first
real push in that direction.
As an intern, there were so many more
people who impacted my career, like Steve
Collins, MD, in whose lab I started. Steve
is a great scientist, writer, and just a gem
of a human being. When I started at the
Hutch, the director was
Nobel prize-winner E.
Donnall Thomas, MD,
who was absolutely inspiring: brilliant, humble,
funny, fair, and hardworking. Every day you wanted
to make Don proud.
What advice would
you give people just
getting started in
their medical career?
Do something that you
are interested in and enjoy. Don’t pick a field or
specific line of research
because it’s “hot” at the
moment or because the
person running the lab
is famous if it’s not what
you truly want to do.
That’s setting yourself up
for being unhappy, which
is a pretty quick route to
failure. To succeed you
are going to spend a lot
of time and effort at your
workplace, so you need to
really enjoy the work and
the environment. Plus,
what’s insanely hot in science this month may just
be insane next year.
Like any other career,
the only way to succeed
in the academic field is
through hard work and
persistence. It’s not unlike
doing well in baseball: if
you bat .300, you’re going to the Hall of Fame,
but if you bat .200, you’re
out of a job. In academia,
most ideas are going to be
wrong, and, even if they
are right, they don’t work
in the lab. So, perseverance and hard work are
essential – as is handling
those failures.
Everyone deals with
success well; how you
deal with failure is a
lot more important. Of
course, that’s a lot easier
to do if you think what
you are doing is fun,
interesting, and has purpose.
ASHClinicalNews.org
What lessons has your life in medicine taught you?
Every day in our field, we see patients
and families whose lives were changed in
a moment into something more horrible
and stressful than we can imagine. So, if
that tells us anything, it’s that life is too
short. We really should enjoy our time,
and try to do good. That sounds really
glib, but it’s true and it should inform a lot
of what we do.
What’s the best part of your day?
What’s the worst part of your day?
Well, at my age waking up alive every
morning is pretty great. I have to say, I enjoy my days. I consider myself amazingly
lucky: I have a fantastic family, a wonderful
place to work, and great colleagues and
friends. My wife is an academic psychiatrist, and she is wonderfully supportive and
helpful, as I can get into the Slavic brooding rut pretty quickly. We have interesting,
fun, and kind kids, who actually still like to
talk to their parents, which is kind of a gift.
Again, I consider myself very, very lucky.
But for a few breaks, I could still be working night crew at Safeway.
Basically, it’s hard to find a “worst” part,
especially since I’ve just come off transplant
service where people have real problems.
The things that occasionally irk me are
pretty darned inconsequential in the big
picture.
LET HIM EXPLORE
WITH ELOCTATE, THE
FIRST AND ONLY rFVIII WITH
A PROLONGED HALF-LIFE
Selected Important Safety Information
• ELOCTATE is contraindicated in patients who have had life-threatening
hypersensitivity reactions to ELOCTATE, including anaphylaxis
GET TO KNOW ELOCTATE
ABR
Median overall
annualized
bleed rate (ABR) of
†
1.6
(0.0, 4.69)‡
0
BLEED CONTROL
*
DOSING
BLEEDS
in
45%
of subjects*
†
Routine
prophylaxis starting
interval of
4
EVERY
DAYS§
rFVIII=recombinant Factor VIII.
*A-LONG, a multicenter, prospective, open-label, Phase 3 study (N=165) evaluating the safety and efficacy of ELOCTATE in previously treated male patients (aged
12-65 years) with severe hemophilia A (<1% endogenous FVIII activity or a genetic mutation consistent with severe hemophilia A) that compared the efficacy of each
of 2 prophylactic treatment regimens (individualized interval and fixed weekly) to episodic (on-demand) treatment. Hemostatic efficacy was determined in treatment
of bleeding episodes and during perioperative management in subjects undergoing major surgical procedures. 164 and 163 subjects were evaluable for safety and
efficacy, respectively. 146 and 23 subjects were treated for at least 26 weeks and 39