Day 21: Dr. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD. “Progress will come from changing the way we think about cancer”

PROFILES IN LUNG CANCER
Lung Cancer Awareness Month 2015

 

Day 21: D. Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, Director of the Thoracic Oncology Clinical and Clinical Research Programs, University of Colorado 
"Progress will come from changing the way we think about cancer"

What is your connection with lung cancer?

The first lung cancer patient I remember was called John and he was a plumber in Edinburgh in Scotland. He had never smoked and was one of the first people to go on an EGFR inhibitor in a trial and had a great and long lasting response. He was the nicest of people and introduced me to all his tradesmen friends and I will be forever grateful to him for getting me on the inside track for fixing up my ‘fixer upper’ at the time. We didn’t know about EGFR mutations at that point but it was enough for me to see the potential and the need for breakthroughs in this common serious disease. Now, 15 years later, I run the lung cancer program at the University of Colorado Cancer Center where I am a physician and a clinical and translational researcher.
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