Congratulations, Dr. Einhorn!

[Scott]

Lawrence H. Einhorn, M.D., Receives the 17th Annual AACR Joseph H. Burchenal Memorial Award

March 22, 2012

CHICAGO — Lawrence H. Einhorn, M.D., distinguished professor of medicine and the Lance Armstrong Foundation chair in oncology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, and a physician-researcher at Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, Indianapolis, Ind., will be awarded the 17th Annual AACR Joseph H. Burchenal Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cancer Research at the AACR Annual Meeting 2012, held here March 31 – April 4.

The award is presented to a scientist who has made outstanding achievements in clinical cancer research. Einhorn’s lecture, “Curing testicular cancer: Present studies and future challenges,” is scheduled for 4 p.m. CT on April 3 in room S100 of McCormick Place South.

“I want to very graciously express my appreciation and humility at being the recipient of the Joseph Burchenal Award for Clinical Research,” said Einhorn. “Successful clinical research is never performed by one individual in a vacuum, and I have the opportunity to work with many extraordinary colleagues. I never had the opportunity to become closely acquainted with Dr. Burchenal, but he was one of my early idols in oncology.”

Einhorn’s clinical interests include solid tumor oncology, specifically within the fields of genitourinary and lung cancers. His legacy will be forever linked, however, with revolutionizing testicular cancer treatment. At one point, patients diagnosed with testicular cancer had approximately a 10 percent chance of survival when they developed metastatic disease.

Einhorn’s research drastically altered this number when he first studied platinum combination chemotherapy in patients with metastatic testicular cancer. This monumental finding has resulted in current survival rates for metastatic testicular cancer at 80 percent.

Einhorn rose to even greater prominence when he used his novel treatment paradigm to treat Lance Armstrong, cancer advocate and seven-time winner of the Tour de France. With Einhorn’s treatment, Armstrong survived stage 3 testicular cancer that initially presented with abdominal, brain and lung metastases. Like Armstrong, Einhorn remains dedicated to raising cancer awareness. He was appointed the first Lance Armstrong Foundation professor of oncology in 2006.

After receiving his medical degree from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Einhorn completed fellowships at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, and the Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis. Einhorn has published more than 450 peer-reviewed articles. His work has garnered many accolades, including AACR Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Memorial Award, American Society of Clinical Oncology Karnofsky Award, American Cancer Society Medal of Honor, and the General Motors Kettering Prize. In addition, Einhorn is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and American Philosophical Society.

[MIKEBRWADE]

Very cool, Dr E rocks!

[AustinsMom]

Wow......as awful as having TC is, we all owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Einhorn and researchers like him. How fortunate we are not living in the '70's right now. Without his discovery, our sons, husbands, brothers, fathers, friends and loved ones etc. would all be fighting a much different battle.

Besides that, I still am amazed this man still takes the time to answer as many emails and/or calls as he must receive on any given day. Not for money, fame or glory, rather out of the kindness of his heart. Now that's what I call a HERO. I wonder if there isn't some way we could send a "group letter" to the conference where he is being honored, to let him know how grateful we are???

Diane

[dc67]

Very well deserved. He is a medical hero!!!

[janine]

I'm in awe of Dr Einhorn. I found out through this forum that he would reply to e-mails from anyone; and when I had serious questions about my son's treatment I did e-mail him twice, and he always replied the same day.

Now that my son has a serious and rare condition (teratoma with malignant transformation), I wanted to be sure that his doctors at Johns Hopkins (which has quite a serious reputation of its own) would consult with Dr Einhorn. When I asked, they let me know they are already in touch with him.

I think a good way to honor him is to donate to the Indiana University Foundation, in his honor. When I asked him where he would prefer donations to be made in his honor, that's one of the places that he listed.

This forum is also a huge resource. It enables people all over the world to share their experiences and their knowledge. Anything we can do to raise awareness, so that young men know of the dangers and get an early diagnosis and treatment, would be a good way to repay Dr Einhorn. Pay it forward.

[val]

Dr. E is a hero to all of us and only for him and his research we would not be looking at such amazing cure rates. It amazes me how he has time to reply to peoples emails etc. He is an amazing man and deserves all the awards he can get. He is a SAINT

[DoubleZero]

From a purely selfish point of view, I think he deserves as many awards (and much more) as can be given to the good Doctor.

And from a humanities stand point, I guess I would think the same - someone who has dedicated themselves so much to the good of mankind gives you faith in the human species.

[CancerSux]

I (and Fed) will be at the conference, but unfortunately I will not be able to make his talk! I am quite bummed (I will be heading to the airport at the time).

Even though I've met Dr. E, and seen first hand how generous and wonderful he is, it would have been monumentally meaning to me to attend this talk.

It is a well deserved honor for a game-changing man who was not afraid to take a risk back in the 70's when there was truly little to lose.

T

[Fed]

I will definitely be going to the lecture. My students are presenting posters that afternoon, but I will certainly be in attendance. My father-in-law met him back in the late 80s when he worked in pharma. He said Larry Einhorn is a very humble man and very easy to talk to. Hopefully I will be able to introduce myself, given that he knows about the forum.

[Aegletes]

I hope you do get to shake his hand, Fed, and remind him how valued and admired he is on this here forum.

[CancerSux]

Kel thinks Fed and I should find Dr. E and take a picture with him.

[Aegletes]

Absolutely! Besides, Tracy, you can use your martial arts if he resists the photo op.

[DoubleZero]

Kel thinks Fed and I should find Dr. E and take a picture with him.

And get it posted on this site - that would be very cool

[hbr777]

Please thank Dr. Einhorn on everyone's behalf. I have never had an email answered so quickly by a doctor - and he wasn't even my husband's doctor. I am amazed to this day.

[Pattytricia]

I can't help but join all of you in commenting on Dr. Einhorn and what a gift he is. I am thankful for all those who helped my son in his battle. He answered our email so kindly and then we had the chance to meet him for a second opinion. What a kind and humble man. It is good to know that even though all those calls for donations from organizations can be annoying, we can see where it enable this good doctor to accomplish a treatment that has saved many lives. Thank you, Dr. Einhorn.

[Scott]

Kel thinks Fed and I should find Dr. E and take a picture with him.

Can't wait to see that photo!

[Wesmom]

I agree with eveyone else. Dr. E deserves the award. He's the best!

[Davepet]

I've never talked to Dr E, but am thankful for his research that led to my successful treatment of my second TC. I was lucky to catch my first TC early enough 37 years ago to survive, not many TC patients did back then ( I may not be the oldest survivor on this forum, but not a lot of us with a first case at 20 that are here) .

My second time, I waited too long & had a lymph node involved, Dr E's 3xBEP knocked it out. It was not fun, but it worked, still NED two years after my last Bleo. Dr E's research is what turned the corner on TC & he deserves any award he gets for that.

Dave

[CancerSux]

Can't wait to see that photo!

Arranging it now! Maybe even in front of either mine or Fed's poster? I feel like a school kid asking for a photo, but he is so gracious with his time and his fame.

[zbot]

When I was diagnosed with a platinum-resistant nonseminoma tumor post RPLND BEP and TIP my local oncologist gave me a 20%-40% chance of survival. That was 4 months ago, I was 18, and my situation was very grim. Now my HCG is undetectable, my lung tumors have shrunk and I can look forward to a future that was once anything but certain. And it's because that December I became a patient of Dr. E. I thank him and all of the other doctors and nurses at the IU stem cell transplant ward for the terrific results i'm seeing today. No man is more deserving of recognition

[mahalomom]

I truly believe Dr. E is a saint!! We met him for a 2nd opinion regarding my son's case. Dr. E took so much time with us. He was kind and humble, direct and decisive. His knowledge truly changed the course of my son't treatment and life.. In my book he deserves every award under the sun!

Mary Ann

[Chris'Mom]

Thanks to Dr. E...for all his work.....as a mom....I am thankful for the research that led to my son being seven years out this past March.....and today receiving perfect bloodwork results.....thank you.....to all the Doctors and their dedication and hard work...Mary Ellen

[CancerSux]

Fed and I met with Dr. Einhorn today at my poster, took a great picture (to be posted later by one of us when we have access), and Fed is at his lecture, which is about to start!

He is a wonderful person.

[Scott]

...took a great picture (to be posted later by one of us when we have access)...

I'm eager to see it!

[Fed]

As promised. More when I return home from Chicago tomorrow.

[Pattytricia]

Love this picture. And the smiles!

[Fed]

So a bit more detail here. Dr. Einhorn met Tracy and I at her poster during the meeting. He was extremely personable and cheerful. What I found the most striking is his genuine interest in people. I had only corresponded with him once while planning the meeting with Tracy, and I only mentioned briefly as a matter of introduction that I was a survivor. The first question he asked me was the history of my encounter with TC. He was interested in hearing about my experience and how I dealt with it just as if he were my own oncologist. He also gave mad props to the Forum, and he made special mention of our very own TC Destroyer as a valuable advocate for the cause and of his wife Lorinda as the epitome of a caregiver who went to bat with the proper knowledge and composure to take action in the face of a poor prognosis. It was, without a doubt, one of the highlights of the AACR Meeting this year.

I missed the first half of his lecture because I had to attend another seminar by a graduate student who has asked me to serve in her Ph.D. thesis committee, but what I caught was brilliant. Fortunately, his entire lecture will be available for anyone to view starting on April 30 at no charge. Once it is up, I will post a link on this thread so all can see.

[Aegean]

Too cool...

[Aegletes]

I'm so happy Fed and Tracy got to spend some time with Dr. Einhorn and, above all, that he is so aware of this here forum. We're all fighting the same battle, after all, from different angles.

[TC Destroyer]

I am happy you were able to experience Dr. E. I am sure you will never forget it. Did he bring me up or did you? I make mention of the forum every visit, though I don't know if he actually ever views it himself.

[CancerSux]

Did he bring me up or did you?

I think Fed mentioned you first, but then Dr. E talked about both you and Lorinda.

[Fed]

I think Fed mentioned you first, but then Dr. E talked about both you and Lorinda.

Indeed. He mentioned how your case and mine are at entirely opposite ends of the spectrum. And as far as "experiencing" Dr. Einhorn is concerned, I am glad I did, and I can clearly see why he is the epitome of what a medical oncologist should be.

[Scott]

He also gave mad props to the Forum...

That is so great to hear, and a testament to everyone who participates here and makes this support community as effective as it is!

[mahalomom]

Were you able to see his wings? I swear when I met him he had his angel wings on. God bless that man!!

~Mary Ann

[Karen]

Dr. E is my hero...he's done so much to help the members here, and always with compassion. It must have been amazing to meet him!!!!

[Smartie]

After a period or relative inactivity on the forum, I am catching up with threads I have missed. What a fabulous picture, Fed and Tracy!

Dr Einhorn is richly deserving of this double honour: receiving the Joseph H. Burchenal Memorial Award, and meting you guys!

[BarclayBanister]

I truly believe Dr. E is a saint!! We met him for a 2nd opinion regarding my son's case. Dr. E took so much time with us. He was kind and humble, direct and decisive. His knowledge truly changed the course of my son't treatment and life.. In my book he deserves every award under the sun!

Mary Ann

^^^This. I too met him for a 2nd opinion when a radiologist mentioned a lymph node. I had gone through months and months of mind numbing depression from my ordeal and that Ct Scan about put me over the edge. I got my life back once I met with Dr. E. and he put my mind at total ease. As Mary Ann said, kind and humble (he actually introduced himself), direct and decisive. He's a hero in every sense of the word.

[JPM]

I recently read the following passage at pages 204-05 of The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee and wanted to share it with the forum:

For patients such as John Cleland, cisplatin came to epitomize the new breed of aggressive chemotherapeutics of the 1970s. In 1973, Cleland was a twenty-two-year-old veterinary student in Indiana. In August that year, two months after his marriage, he discovered a rapidly expanding lump in his right testis. He saw a urologist on a Tuesday afternoon in November. On Thursday, he was whisked off to the operating room for surgery. He returned with a scar that extended from his abdomen to his breastbone. The diagnosis was metastatic testicular cancer—cancer of the testes that had migrated diffusely into his lymph nodes and lungs.

In 1973, the survival rate from metastatic testes cancer was less than 5 percent. Cleland entered the cancer ward at Indiana University and began treatment with a young oncologist named Larry Einhorn. The regimen, a weather-beaten and toxic three-drug cocktail called ABO that had been derived from the NCI’s studies in the 1960s—was only marginally effective. Cleland lived in and out of the hospital. His weight shrank from 158 to 106 pounds. One day in 1974, while he was still receiving chemo, his wife suggested that they sit outside to enjoy the afternoon. Cleland realized, to his utter shame, that he was too weak to stand up. He was carried to his bed like a baby, weeping with embarrassment.

In the fall of 1974, the ABO regimen was stopped. He was switched to another equally ineffective drug. Einhorn suggested a last-ditch effort: a new chemical called cisplatin. Other researchers had seen some responses in patients with testicular cancer treated with single-agent cisplatin, although not durable ones. Einhorn wanted to combine cisplatin with two other drugs to see if he could increase the response rate.

There was the uncertainty of a new combination and the certainty of death. On October 7, 1974, Cleland took the gamble: he enrolled as “patient zero” for BVP, the acronym for a new regimen containing bleomycin, vinblastine, and cisplatin (abbreviated P for “platinum”). Ten days later, when he returned for his routine scans, the tumors in his lungs had vanished. Ecstatic and mystified, he called his wife from a hospital phone. “I cannot remember what I said, but I told her.”

Cleland’s experience was typical. By 1975, Einhorn had treated twenty additional patients with the regimen and found dramatic and sustained responses virtually unheard of in the history of this disease. Einhorn presented his data at the annual meeting of oncologists held in Toronto in the winter of 1975. “Walking up to that podium was like my own walk on the moon,” he recalled. By the late winter of 1976, it was becoming progressively clearer that some of these patients would not relapse at all. Einhorn had cured a solid cancer by chemotherapy. “It was unforgettable. In my own naive mind I thought this was the formula that we had been missing all the while.”

Thank you, Dr. Einhorn.

JPM

[Jules]

JPM, Absolutely brilliant.

[Janeg]

JPM - thanks for sharing that. It's fantastic.

Our experience with Dr. E is just like that of the others. He responded to my email in literally 5 minutes (at 10:52 PM), and made arrangements to see my son within a day. He even happily and humbly posed for a picture with my son (in my profile - I couldn't figure out how to upload in the message from my iPad ). He is our hero.

Interestingly during my son's treatment, we happened to learn that Brian Piccolo (Brian's Song) died of metastatic embryonal carcinoma in 1970. What a difference Dr. E has made.

[Fed]

Dr. Einhorn's lecture is now available, free-of-charge, from the AACR. To view it, go to http://webcast.aacr.org/portal/form. This will open a searchable page of AACR webcasts. On the left column there is a space under "Search Webcasts". Write "Einhorn" and submit the form. This will bring you to a page where the only result will be the lecture. You can either view the slides and follow with the audio (no images of Dr. Einhorn giving the talk) or download the audio alone. The whole lecture is about 50 minutes long and of wide interest to anyone on this site.

[JPM]

Fed, thanks for posting the lecture. Very, very interesting. I found the following statement from Dr. Einhorn a bit disconcerting, especially in view of my own choice of carbo instead of surveillance:

Platinum is the gift that keeps giving. In urine and in organ specimens, twenty years after platinum-based chemotherapy, it is still detectable. Does that mean anything clinically? I don't think anyone knows the answer to that provocative question.

Twenty years??? Wow.

JPM

[Fed]

Platinum is the gift that keeps giving. In urine and in organ specimens, twenty years after platinum-based chemotherapy, it is still detectable. Does that mean anything clinically? I don't think anyone knows the answer to that provocative question.

From a purely chemistry-based standpoint, it is quite astonishing. Platinum (II) complexes such as cisplatin (carboplatin less so) coordinate strongly to DNA. I wasn't aware that the rates of dissociation are so slow that leftover platinum remains "in residence" for so long.

[hbr777]

Is it because it is a heavy metal and those hang around a long time? Would chelation get rid of it?

[Fed]

Is it because it is a heavy metal and those hang around a long time? Would chelation get rid of it?

Chelation to electron-donor ligands found in the body is probably why it sticks around for so long. Slow "k off" (rate of dissociation) as we chemists call it.

[hbr777]

Chelation to electron-donor ligands found in the body is probably why it sticks around for so long. Slow "k off" (rate of dissociation) as we chemists call it.

I laughed aloud when I read this because I have NO idea what any of what you wrote means. I'm glad you do

[Paul54]

Chelation to electron-donor ligands found in the body is probably why it sticks around for so long. Slow "k off" (rate of dissociation) as we chemists call it.

So it's like cheesecake with caramel sauce and whipped cream? Sticks around a long time.

[hbr777]

So it's like cheesecake with caramel sauce and whipped cream? Sticks around a long time.

Yup, you have to work to get rid of it. Easy going in, a pain in the a$$ to get rid of it

[CancerSux]

I laughed aloud when I read this because I have NO idea what any of what you wrote means. I'm glad you do

I got it too!

I had to miss Dr. E's talk - can't wait to find an hour alone (hahaha) and listen to it.

[Fed]

So it's like cheesecake with caramel sauce and whipped cream? Sticks around a long time.

I like the analogy!