Beth Karlan | |
---|---|
Born | New York City, New York, US |
Spouse | Scott R. Karlan |
Academic background | |
Education | BA, Biochemical Sciences, 1978, Radcliffe College MD, 1982, Harvard Medical School and Harvard-M.I.T. Program in Health Sciences and Technology |
Academic work | |
Institutions | David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA Cedars-Sinai Medical Center |
Main interests | Gynecologic Cancers and Inherited Cancer Risk |
Beth Young Karlan is an American gynecologic oncologist. In 2008,she was named editor-in-chief of the medical journals Gynecologic Oncology and Gynecologic Oncology Reports. In 2012,Karlan was appointed by the White House to serve on the National Cancer Advisory Board,and in 2015,she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
Karlan is best known for her clinical efforts in identifying,treating,and preventing ovarian cancer,and her research focuses on inherited cancer risk,specifically cancers related to BRCA1/2 mutations. Her research has identified subtype-specific biomarkers for early detection,prognostication,and personalized therapies in gynecologic malignancies.
Karlan was born in New York City,New York,USA. [1] She was interested in medicine at a young age and worked in a cancer research lab at her local hospital as a teenager. [2] While Karlan was discouraged from applying to Harvard University's Radcliffe College by her high school guidance counselor,she became the first person from the school to attend the institution. After graduating in 1978,she was accepted into Harvard Medical School. [3] Upon graduating with her medical degree,Karlan completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Yale New Haven Hospital,a research fellowship in molecular biology at Yale Medical School,and her clinical fellowship in gynecologic oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. [4]
After completing her education and training,Karlan joined the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center as their Director of Gynecologic Oncology Research. [1] In 1995,she was named the inaugural recipient of the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors endowed chair in Gynecologic Oncology [1] and in 1998 she received the Women's Cancers Research Award for her work in ovarian cancer. [5] In these roles,Karlan focused on "unraveling the genetic underpinnings that drive the growth of ovarian cancer" with a specific focus towards finding clinically actionable targets. She co-authored Molecular signatures of ovarian cancer:from detection to prognosis which identified subtyped-specific biomarkers for early detection,prognostication and personalized therapies. [6] Karlan chaired the Department of Defense’s Ovarian Cancer Research Program’s Integration Panel in 2002,after years of service on the panel helping to direct federal support to the promising research. [7] She later testified before the United States House of Representatives Defense Appropriations Subcommittee to advocate for continued support for the Department of Defense’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. [8]
Karlan’s interest in ovarian cancer early detection led to the discovery of a novel biomarker HE4 to help triage women with a pelvic mass and to help monitor women with ovarian cancer for possible recurrence. She collaborated with professors at the University of Toronto so study how often the BRCA1 gene was abnormal in women of Ashkenazi descent who had already developed ovarian cancer. [9] In 2002,Karlan co-published Cancer incidence in a population of Jewish women at risk of ovarian cancer [10] and later became the principal investigator for BRCA Founder Outreach Study (BFOR),to develop a new model to increase access to BRCA genetic testing. [11]
Beyond UCLA,Karlan has also been active in advocacy for women’s health,testifying before the US Congress to help to spearhead the passage of the "Gynecologic Cancer Education and Awareness Act of 2005," [12] which was signed into law by President George W. Bush. [13] In 2006,Karlan was named an American Cancer Society Early Detection Clinical Research Professor. [14] After being promoted to director of the Cedars-Sinai Women's Cancer Research Institute at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute,Karlan was appointed editor-in-chief of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology medical journal in 2008. [15] [16] Following this,she was also appointed to serve on the Board of Directors of IRIS International,Inc. [17] During the presidency of Barack Obama,Karlan was appointed to serve on the National Cancer Advisory Board,a committee that advises the National Cancer Institute (NCI). [18] She was also recognized by Los Angeles Magazine as one of their "Ten Women Leaders Who Impact LA." [4] The following year,Karlan was recognized by Angelina Jolie after she treated the actress' mother. [19]
As a result of her scientific research,Karlan was selected as the 2015 recipient of the Claudia Cohen Research Foundation Prize for Outstanding Gynecologic Researcher. [20] She was later the recipient of the Rosalind Franklin Excellence in Ovarian Cancer Research Award from the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance [21] and elected to the Board of the Harvard Board of Overseers for a six year term. [22] At the start of the 2015–16 academic year,Karlan was elected to the National Academy of Medicine [23] and was later honored as a Giant of Science by the American Cancer Society. [24]
In 2018,Karlan was named a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) "in recognition of her dedication to volunteer efforts that benefit ASCO,the specialty of oncology and the patients ASCO serves." [25] In 2019 she was named Vice Chair of Women’s Health Research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine,and appointed chair of Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance's Scientific Advisory Committee. [26] Her work in advancing cancer treatment,diagnosis and research was also recognized by OncLive by being inducted into their 2019 class of Giants of Cancer Care in gynecologic malignancies. [27] During the COVID-19 pandemic,Karlan elected vice-chair of the Harvard Board of Overseers executive committee for the final year of her six-year term. [28] She also oversaw clinical trials at UCLA to better understand the impact and outcomes of COVID-19 in people undergoing cancer treatment. [29] In 2021, Los Angeles Business Journal named Karlan to their Los Angeles' Top Doctors List, [30] and she was recognized in Rome,Italy by the International Gynecologic Cancer Society with their Lifetime Achievement Award. [31]
Karlan is married to Scott R. Karlan,a general surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center,and they have two children together,Matthew and Jocelyn. [9]
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit,tertiary,886-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles,California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System,the hospital has a staff of over 2,000 physicians and 10,000 employees,supported by a team of 2,000 volunteers and more than 40 community groups. As of 2022–23,U.S. News &World Report ranked Cedars-Sinai among the top performing hospitals in the western United States. Cedars-Sinai is a teaching hospital affiliate of David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California,Los Angeles (UCLA),which was ranked in the top 20 on the U.S. News 2023 Best Medical Schools:Research.
Chandler Park is an American physician,medical journalist,and clinical researcher. In June 2021,his cancer research was published in prominent medical journals including the New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of Clinical Oncology. Park also contributes regularly as an expert physician for popular newspapers and magazines such as Newsweek,Reader's Digest,U.S. News &World Report,The Exponent-Telegram,College of St. Scholastica,and Medscape and writes medical news for Doximity. In 2020,Park was selected as the President of the Kentucky Society of Clinical Oncology. The Kentucky Society of Clinical Oncology is the state affiliate of American Society of Clinical Oncology,American Society of Hematology,and National Cancer Institute.
Gynecologic oncology is a specialized field of medicine that focuses on cancers of the female reproductive system,including ovarian cancer,uterine cancer,vaginal cancer,cervical cancer,and vulvar cancer. As specialists,they have extensive training in the diagnosis and treatment of these cancers.
David B. Agus is an American physician,cancer researcher and author who serves as a professor of medicine and engineering at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and Viterbi School of Engineering and the Founding Director and CEO of the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine. He is also the cofounder of several personalized medicine companies and a contributor to CBS News on health topics. He is also the author of four books.
Jonathan S. Berek, MD MMS is the Laurie Kraus Lacob Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine,Director of the Stanford Women's Cancer Center,and Senior Advisor,Stanford Cancer Institute. He is a recent past Fellow in the Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute.
Kelly J. Manahan is an American gynecologist who is the current Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences in Toledo,Ohio.
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Eric P. Winer is a medical oncologist and clinical researcher specializing in breast cancer. He is director of Yale Cancer Center and president and physician-in-chief of Smilow Cancer Hospital Yale New Haven Health System,effective February 1,2022. He also is Deputy Dean for Cancer Research at Yale School of Medicine. From 1997 to 2021,he was the Chief of the Breast Oncology Program at Dana–Farber Cancer Institute in Boston,Massachusetts. Beginning in 2013,he held a range of institutional roles at Dana-Farber,including Chief of Clinical Development,the Thompson Chair in Breast Cancer Research and Director of the Dana-Farber/Harvard SPORE in Breast Cancer. He also served as a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He was president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2022-2023 and became Chair of the Board in mid-June 2023. His career has been focused on breast cancer treatment and research.
Susan M. Domchek is an oncologist at the University of Pennsylvania,Executive Director of the Basser Center for BRCA,the Basser Professor in Oncology at the Perelman School of Medicine,and Director of the Mariann and Robert MacDonald Cancer Risk Evaluation Program at Penn Medicine. She has authored more than 250 articles in scholarly journals and serves on a number of editorial review boards. In 2018,Domchek was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
Christina Messineo Annunziata is an American medical oncologist researching molecular signal transduction in ovarian cancer. She is an investigator in the National Cancer Institute's women's malignancies branch and head of the translational genomics section.
Allison Walsh Kurian is an American medical oncologist. She is a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology &Population Health at Stanford University and an oncologist at the Stanford Cancer Institute.
Jung-Min Lee is a South Korean-American medical oncologist and physician-scientist focused on the early clinical drug development and translational studies of targeted agents in BRCA mutation-associated breast or ovarian cancer,high-grade epithelial ovarian cancer,and triple-negative breast cancer. She is a NIH Lasker Clinical Research Scholar and principal investigator in the Women's Malignancies Branch at the National Cancer Institute.
Lori Jo Pierce is an American radiation oncologist and 57th President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. She is a Full Professor and Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on the use of radiotherapy in the multi-modality treatment of breast cancer,with emphasis on intensity modulated radiotherapy in node positive breast cancer,the use of radiosensitizing agents,and the outcomes of women treated with radiation for breast cancer who are carriers of a BRCA1/2 breast cancer susceptibility gene.
Stephanie Lynn Schutt Graff is an American breast medical oncologist. She is the Director of Breast Oncology at the Lifespan Cancer Institute and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Alpert Medical School. Previously she was the Director of both the Breast Program and Clinical Research at Sarah Cannon Research Institute at HCA Midwest Health at Sarah Cannon Research Institute and Associate Director of the Breast Cancer Research Program at Sarah Cannon Research Institute.
Maura Lianne Gillison is an American medical oncologist and molecular epidemiologist. She is credited as the first investigator to establish a connection between HPV and oral cancer.
Kathleen R. Cho is an American gynecological surgical pathologist. She is a Professor of Pathology and Internal Medicine at Michigan Medicine.
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