Professor of Surgery
Director, Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery
Director of Medical Affairs, Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute
Dr. Arthur G. and Mildred C. James – Richard J. Solove Chair in Surgical Oncology
Recent News:
The James Debuts All-Digital Mobile Mammography UnitIntervention Program Boosts Survival In Breast Cancer Patients
What do you like best about practicing medicine at OSU Medical Center?
The tremendous support system. I’m impressed by the quality of the doctors working here, not only for patient care, but for research and education.
What excites you most about the future of medicine?
I think P4 Medicine is the future of medicine everywhere. What excites me most about this is that the scientific discoveries we make almost every day, especially in my field of oncology, are leading to more effective personalized and preventive care.
How do you think P4 Medicine (medicine that is more predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory) will change your specialty over the next 10 years?
P4 medicine increasingly enables us to select personalized treatments that have a better chance of working on individual patients. An example is breast cancer. We used to give chemotherapy to everyone with a tumor larger than one centimeter, knowing that only a small percentage of patients needed it, but having no way to distinguish one group from the other. Now we can do Oncotype testing to determine who will benefit from the treatment and allow those who would not benefit to avoid its associated toxicity.
Name one of your medical career mentors and tell us what you learned from him/her.
Dr. Arthur James (the namesake of Ohio State’s cancer hospital) basically told me I was going to do surgical oncology. I spent a year working with him during my residency at Ohio State and learned a lot about caring for cancer patients and how to perform complex oncology cases. He also was influential in my doing a fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. After that, I had the wonderful opportunity to work with him during his last seven years as a surgical oncologist at OSU.
What advice do you have for young physicians early in their careers?
Don’t try to do everything. Figure out early what you like doing best and what you’re best at doing, then concentrate on those things. Also, determine what is important to you outside of medicine and always make time for those things. Life goes by too quickly.
Who in history would you most like to meet and why?
Martin Luther. I’ve recently read a lot about him and how, in the 16th century, he transformed Christianity into two separate churches and led a Reformation that ushered in the modern era. He was very confident about the rightness of his arguments. Reading about him makes you want to examine your life and how you could change it.
What are your hobbies or volunteer activities? What has been your greatest accomplishment outside of your work?
I’ve always enjoyed golf, and also volunteering for the American Cancer Society — both at the state level and on national committees — and serving as medical director for the Columbus Cancer Clinic (1983-2005). My greatest accomplishment outside work is selecting the right person to marry and raising our four children.
Rising Star: Mark Bloomston, MD, associate professor of Surgery, is a rising star. He did a surgical oncology fellowship at OSU and was so good that we couldn’t turn him away. Mark’s been on our faculty for four years and has done a tremendous job. He leads our gastrointestinal surgical oncology program, heads our surgical oncology fellowship program, maintains an excellent research lab and is very busy clinically. (Read more about Dr. Bloomston on page 24.)
CV summary
Undergraduate Degree: Illinois Wesleyan University
Medical Degree: University of Virginia
Residency: The Ohio State University
Fellowship: The Ohio State University; Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center – Surgical Oncology
National Committees or Board Positions:
• Society of Head and Neck Surgeons, Joint Council for the Approval of Advanced Training in Head and Oncologic Surgery
• Editorial Board: Journal of Surgical Oncology
• American Cancer Society: Detection and Treatment Advisory Group on Colorectal Cancer; Professional Education Committee
• Fellow, American College of Surgeons
• Fellow, Royal College of Surgeons of Glasgow
• National Comprehensive Cancer Network Guidelines Committee – Breast and Thyroid
Research Interests: Breast cancer; head and neck cancer; endocrine surgery.
