Watching baseball, I have so many medicine stories to tell,
and yet I am not talking about sport medicine.
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| Andrew Mcutchen |
The lowly Pittsburgh Pirates finished another losing
season. I have to look for teams to root
during the October Fest. Red Sox has
bowed out of the race and the manager, John Farrell is not coming back next
season. It is less fun to watch Red Sox
after its slugger, David Ortiz, retired last year. Someone please reminds Pirates owner/manager
that having a star player is crucial when they think about trading Andrew
McCutchen.
My reading has been focusing on the history of cancer
treatment, which will be an ongoing project for years to come. Watching baseball, I found out many related stories.
Jon Lester beat
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
Jon Lester was diagnosed to have anaplastic, large-cell
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma during his rookie year as a Red Sox pitcher during 2006
season. Terry Francona, then Red Sox manager visited Lester at Massachusetts
General Hospital (MGH) and brought the news to the team, ending the rookie’s
season prematurely. He had the first
round of chemotherapy at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and finished it at Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center at Seattle, his home state.
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| Jon Lester in action |
Last month I attended a six-day cancer medicine conference
at Boston, given by Dana Faber Cancer Institute, MGH and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. On the lecture of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the
speaker mentioned Jon Lester with pride and gratification as Dana Faber
participated in his treatment. He mentioned
that Lester was not doing too well, not the best of him this season, not
medically, though. He was struggling on
the ball field at times.
Another game lost for
Jon Lester yesterday
It was painful to watch how the Chicago Cubs collapsed at
the bottom of 8th inning yesterday.
Jon Lester left the game at the bottom of 8th inning with
Cubs trailing Washington Nationals 0 to 1, Cubs pitcher was changed again when
the bases were full of Nationals players.
Two out, all bases occupied. The
Nationals hit a grand slam homer upon the second pitch, how could Wrigley Field
full of people be so quiet?
Now both teams tie at 2:2, the division champion will be
decided at Washington, DC tonight, good for politicians on either aisle; they
will finally cheer the same thing. So
root for the Chicago Cubs, especially if you were not happy with the politicians.
What is anaplastic,
large-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma?
Anaplastic, large-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a rare form
of lymphoma (seen in 1-2% of all lymphoma, 10% of all childhood lymphoma, and 50%
of large-cell pediatric lymphoma, the second most common T-cell lymphoma), most
commonly seen in children or young adults.
It is a high grade (aggressive with a rapidly progressive course if
untreated) cancer that is also highly responsive to chemotherapy.
The prestigious Fred
Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is related to baseball
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center was founded by
William Hutchinson, M.D. in honor of his brother, a former all-star pitcher
with Detroit Tigers and later manager of various teams, including the Detroit
Tigers, St. Louis Cardinals, and Cincinnati Reds. He died of cancer in 1964, at age 45.
Dr. E. Donnall Thomas was awarded a Nobel Prize in Medicine
in 1990 for pioneering bone marrow transplant.
He is from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
The serendipitous car
accident led to the discovery of cancer for Jon Lester
The discovery of Lester’s cancer was the result of an
auto-accident in which Lester’s care was rear-ended; he was on his way to
Fenway Park on August 18, 2006. He began
to notice back pain after the car accident. He went to see his uncle, who is a
physician in Tacoma when Red Sox were in Seattle for a West Coast swing. His physician uncle detected several enlarged
lymph nodes that eventually led to the diagnosis of lymphoma.
Money talk in
baseball
Jon Lester was traded to Oakland Athletics in July 2014. After a short sting at Athletics, he joined
Chicago Cubs with a six-year $155 million deal.
Red Sox tried to get him back with a $135 million offer. San Francisco was a close bid of $150 million.
Lester went on to help Chicago Cubs clinch the World Series champion in 2016,
the first in 108 years.
Terry Francona had a
cardiac ablation
Just last week the Cleveland Indians, beating Yankees two
games in a row, literally shouted “Yankees Go Home!” What a comeback for Yankees whose starting pitcher
CC Sabathia (yes, we do need a star pitcher) beat Cleveland Indians on Game 5
of the “Best-of-Five” of the 2017 ALDS yesterday.
It must be quite a disappointment for Cleveland Indians
manager, Terry Francona (a longtime Red Sox manager), who underwent cardiac ablation
procedure for some sort of cardiac arrhythmia in July this year, thus missing
the chance of managing the American League team in All-Star game.
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| Jameson Taillon |
Testicular cancer
afflicts young men
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Jameson Taillon underwent surgery
for testicular cancer on May 8, 2017, he has since returned pitching. Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Chad Bettis
was also diagnosed to have testicular cancer in November 2016, on the day of
his first wedding anniversary. He has since returned pitching this year. Three years after beating the advanced
testicular cancer, Lance Armstrong won the 1999 Tour de France.
For some unknown reason the incidence of testicular cancer
seems to be on the rise. It used to be
less than 7,000 cases in the States annually; it has reached 8,850 cases so far
this year. It primarily afflicts young
men, no wonder so many young athletes were stricken. It is the most frequent cause of cancer in
men age 15-34 years.
Using pop culture (Deadpool) as cancer advocacy
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| Dr. William Oh |
Dr. William Oh (an urologist, Chief, Medical Oncology at
Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai NYC) was one of
several guest speakers during the six-day oncology medicine conference that I
attended last month.
At the end of the lecture, Dr. Oh showed a Youtube (“Deadpool
[a comics character]: Gentlemen, Touch Yourself Tonight”) of how we’re using
pop culture for cancer advocacy. It also
features in an article in Lancet Cancer.
To detect it while in early stage, still confined to the testicle, yields the
best result.
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