Eric Winer is director of the Breast Center at the Dana Farber Susan Smith Women's Cancer Center. He is an internationally recognized authority on breast cancer and is well known for his research and education in the field of breast cancer.
On October 18, 2019, Dr. Eric Winer was awarded the Gil Ross Award by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF). The award is awarded annually to BCRF researchers in recognition of pioneering research in a particular field.
Professor Winer is dedicated to treating breast cancer patients and conducting breast cancer research. The Jill Rose Award recognizes his excellence and leadership in clinical research.
1
Throughout his career, Professor Winer has designed and conducted clinical trials that have transformed clinical practice or paved the way for more personalized breast cancer treatments. WINER's clinical research includes a variety of studies to determine the optimal drug dosage and duration of treatment, the optimal sequence of treatment, and the most effective combination of drugs to be used to treat early, locally advanced, and metastatic breast cancer.
2
Much of Professor Winer's research has focused on still challenging diseases, such as metastatic breast cancer, where an estimated 41,000 people die each year in the United States. He and his team conducted a series of studies to improve treatment of the disease. In the lab, they developed new models derived from patients' tumor tissue to test novel drug combinations. Clinically, they have developed and guided clinical trials to evaluate different targeted combinations of drugs, such as atlizumab, patuzumab, and trastuzumab.
3
Dr. Winner is a member of the BCRF Scientific Advisory Board. In November, he will receive the Westchester Women's Award in Memory of Marla Melman. In addition, he has received numerous awards including the Gianni Bonadonna Breast Cancer Award (2017) and the William McGuire Memorial Speech Award (2016).
eric p. winer
Department: Director of the Breast Cancer Center
Job Title: Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Chief Clinical Strategy Officer
Director of the Department of Female Cancer
Senior Vice President, Medical Affairs
Susan F. Smith, Director of the Breast Cancer Center, Women's Cancer Center
Chair of Thompson Breast Cancer Research
Physician of the Institute
Inaugural Hospital:
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Professor Winer received his M.D. from Yale University in 1983 and later completed his internal medicine training and served as lead physician at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
He subsequently served as a Researcher in Hematology and Oncology at Duke University Medical Center and taught at Duke University from 1989 to 1997, where he became co-director of the Multidisciplinary Breast Program.
In 1997, he joined Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber as Director of the Center for Breast Oncology.
Research focus
Professor Winer's breast cancer center team of more than 25 doctors and researchers is focused on improving the care of breast cancer patients through clinical trials; preventing recurrence of early breast cancer; improving psychosocial functioning in women with early and advanced breast cancer; better understanding the experience of women newly diagnosed with ductal cancer in situ; and the problems faced by breast cancer survivors.
It is such an outstanding, world-renowned expert who, when facing each patient, will consider which patients are better to treat with relatively few treatments, avoid overtreatment, and pay great attention to the treatment of their own patients' complications, carefully weighing the toxicity of the drug and the best treatment options for the greatest benefit of the patient.
Nowadays, going abroad to see a doctor is nothing new, and remote international medical services are also at the keyboard and fingertips, which are the gospel of patients. So that patients do not have to travel thousands of miles to the United States, but also face to face with top experts.
There are already many breast cancer patients in China who have obtained his diagnosis and treatment opinions through remote consultation with Professor Eric, and are slowly recovering. The following is Ms. Wu's consultation case, to share with you.
Neglected early signs!
Mom is a primary school teacher, at the end of 2013, mom said that I felt a little burning in my breasts, because I remember reading online articles, saying that breast cancer is generally painless, pain is generally hyperplication, so at that time we didn't care too much, I think it should be only temporary.
One day on the eve of New Year's Day, my mother suddenly felt unbearable pain, so she went to the hospital, did a breast X-ray, bone scan, blood test, and after the results came out, the doctor said that a tumor was found on the left breast, and it was recommended to puncture and biopsy as soon as possible to see if it was benign or malignant.
The next day I quickly took a leave of absence to accompany my mother to do the puncture. The process of pathology is very painful, and we all pray that it is just a false alarm.
On the day the pathology report came out, the doctor told us that my mother was stage III estrogen-positive breast cancer, I burst into tears in an instant, and I repeatedly asked the doctor if there was any mistake, whether it was possible that the pathological results were diagnosed incorrectly.
The doctor shook his head and told us that the prognosis for this type of breast cancer is still good if actively treated.
On the advice of the doctor, in order to remove the tumor as much as possible, the mother immediately underwent mastectomy, the operation was successful, and after three weeks the mother recovered. Subsequently, 8 cycles of cyclophosphamide, epirubicin, and docetaxel chemotherapy are required to maximize the removal of residual cancer cells in the body, and then, following treatment with exemestane, the situation has been very good.
Voldemort struck again
Just when we thought the cancer had left, in the summer of 2018, My mother's breast cancer had returned, and I was very anxious and scared, because I knew that once it recurred, it would be difficult to treat.
Mom first received capecitabine for a short period of treatment felt that the effect was not good, changed to fulvestrant and everolimus, the disease is still progressing, the doctor changed back to capecitabine treatment, but the disease still progressed. Doctors added paclitaxel and bevacizumab, but only controlled it for two months before progressing. No way, all the treatment options seem to have been tried, at that time we knew that with the drug pd-1, we decided to give my mother a try, but just received a treatment, my mother had a lung infection, liver function also began to deteriorate, we can only stop all treatment, first deal with lung infection, restore liver function. Later, treatment with oxaliplatin was initiated.
I always cried secretly alone in the middle of the night, and all the domestic solutions were tried, and I didn't know how to take my mother back from the hands of death.
Later, I heard a friend in the medical circle say that the medical level in the United States is very high, taking the 5-year survival rate of breast cancer in China and the United States as an example, the 5-year survival rate of breast cancer treatment in China is about 73.1%, while the 5-year survival rate of breast cancer treatment in the United States is as high as 89%, maybe I can see what good treatment methods there are in the United States. I suddenly felt my eyes light up, as if I saw a glimmer of hope.
The most correct decision!
According to a friend, I contacted the global oncologist network, a domestic platform that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients, hoping to take my mother to the United States through them to see what good solutions there are.
The doctors of the platform said after listening to the mother's situation that we should not be so anxious, and in the actual treatment process of frequently changing treatment plans, many patients changed their medications quickly after the progression of the disease, which may lead to the shortening of survival benefits. There are still many patients who feel slightly uncomfortable, they begin to increase the amount, eager to eat all the drugs they can find, but in fact, the more drugs are used, the higher the dose, the easier it is to force out the drug-resistant gene mutations, affecting subsequent treatment. I felt very remorseful after listening to it, and I wanted to give my mother the best treatment, but I didn't want to be self-defeating.
I quickly asked how to go abroad, and the doctor poured me a basin of water, negating my idea of going abroad.
The doctor said that unlike domestic medical treatment, to go to foreign hospitals need to make an appointment in advance, and it takes time to apply for a visa to the United States, the fastest is 2 to 3 weeks, the mother's current physical condition is not good, blindly go to the United States, in case there is no good treatment plan, white toss a trip not to say, the mother's treatment and body are not good.
Just when I thought that my hopes were dashed, the doctor said that if you want to listen to the advice of American experts, there is a better way, we only need to transmit the medical record information to the United States remotely, apply for authoritative expert consultation, and get the treatment plan within a week. This saves time and money, and does not have to travel thousands of miles to let my mother run. From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank the platform doctors for putting themselves in the shoes of our patients and families, rather than letting us go abroad in order to earn service fees.
Because the mother's condition is now very complicated, the staff of the global oncologist worked overtime to sort out and translate the mother's medical record information, and at the same time helped us contact the internationally renowned breast cancer coffee Professor Eric Winer, fortunately, Professor Eric Winer gave a reply on the same day, accepted our consultation application, and agreed to consult at 8:00 a.m. Beijing time three days later.
At 8:00 a.m. on March 20, 2019, I had a face-to-face discussion with Professor Eric with the oncology consultants and translators from the Global Oncologist Network and the next step of treatment for my mother.
To my surprise, Professor Eric is very good at people, and there is no shelf of international experts at all. In the past two years, I have taken my mother around to seek medical treatment, looking for big experts, I have to say that sometimes, money spent can not say two sentences on the sent, occasionally ask a few more words and have to see the doctor's face of the mood for those of us who are waiting to take the doctor's advice to save the patient's family can not be worse, and Professor Eric is very patient to his mother's summary of the condition he received and I confirmed one by one, and asked a lot of questions that were not mentioned in the medical records, and then analyzed the current situation of the mother with us. Very pertinent treatment recommendations were given.
Because the last treatment for the mother was with oxaliplatin, and Professor Eric does not recommend continuing to use oxaliplatin because it is not a particularly effective drug in metastatic breast cancer, and its toxicity is very large, he believes that the next step of treatment options can be considered including egeribrin (if any), carboplatin, vinorebine or anthracycline (epirubicin, doxorubicin or liposomal doxorubicin), if there is no egeribrin in the country, carboplatin can be considered in the case of normal heart function of the mother, followed by vinorelbine.
Professor Eric also mentioned that the biggest question now is whether moms should receive another dose of anti-PD1 treatment. For women with breast cancer, this therapy is usually not effective, especially without chemotherapy. However, after receiving a dose, the tumor markers were lowered, the pleural effusion was reduced (according to what was learned in the video conference), and she felt better than before. My concern is that patients currently have some risks associated with what is currently called a lung infection, which is pulmonary toxicity caused by immunotherapy, but sounds more like cough and sputum infection than lung toxicity. I tend to give her another dose of anti-pd1, but this needs to be judged by our domestic attending physician.
After that, we discussed whether it was necessary to participate in clinical trials, and Professor Eric said that Mom was in a good situation now, and tried these standardized treatments first.
Finally, I expressed to Professor Eric that I wanted to go to the United States for medical treatment and asked him if he would like to receive the medical treatment. Professor Eric said that these treatment options can be fully implemented in China, there is no need to travel thousands of miles to the United States, do the same treatment in a strange environment, if you need to participate in the clinical trial of new drugs in the later stage, you can reconsider, but obviously, it is too early to discuss this issue.
I think this is the most correct thing I did after my mother had cancer, not only through the remote face-to-face and Professor Eric fully discussed my mother's condition, but also learned about the new treatment techniques and drugs being carried out in American hospitals, some treatment plans have not been published internationally, and can only be learned through communication with American experts, I just regret not seeking Professor Eric's help in time at the beginning of my mother's recurrence, if Professor Eric gave treatment advice at that time, maybe my mother would not have to suffer so much. There may be longer time to be with me.
Although we did not go to the United States for treatment, for mothers, it is undoubtedly the best choice to get the clinical treatment guidance of top experts in the United States under the treatment of the first-class expert team in China! Now mom in Professor Eric's advice, receiving treatment in China, the effect and state are still good. Look forward to a period of time to review the results can have good results. It is also hoped that more breast cancer patients will receive Professor Eric's treatment advice.