Title: Radiation Oncologist, Diplomate of the American Board
of Radiology
Employer: Cancer
Treatment Centers of America, in the Southeastern Region
When and why did you become a SITC member?
I joined SITC a few years ago due to a long-standing
interest in immunity. One of my earliest
experiences with my immune system was at age 12 during a Boy Scout project in
Utah clearing trails through the woods. I was exposed to poison oak, causing a mild rash on my legs and
arms. When we went back a few weeks
later, I volunteered to take care of all the poison oak bushes, thinking my
prior exposure had inoculated me against it. I was dead wrong. A few days
later I was in the doctor’s office with my face swollen up like a balloon and
weepy sores all over my body. I had to
take a cortisol injection to turn down my T-cell immune response which was
attacking the poison oak antigens on my skin and even attacking areas where I
wasn’t directly exposed. Needless to
say, I learned a lot that day about the power of the immune system and how
little I understood it, and that not all exposures are protective – in fact
they can rev up the immune response. We
see that with cancer immunotherapy.
