Elaine Jaffe

Last updated
Elaine S. Jaffe
Jaffe, elaine.jpg
Alma mater
Known for
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions

Elaine Sarkin Jaffe (born in August 1943) is a senior National Cancer Institute (NCI) investigator at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) most well known for her contribution to hematopathology. She completed her medical education at Cornell University and the University of Pennsylvania, receiving her M.D. degree from University of Pennsylvania in 1969. [1] After an internship at Georgetown University she joined NCI as a resident in anatomic pathology, and has been a senior investigator since 1974, focusing on the classification and definition of lymphomas. [2] Jaffe's early work helped to provide a deeper understanding of the origin of lymphomas, especially follicular lymphoma. Her team notably elucidated the difference between T cell and B cell lymphomas. [3]

Contents

Her lab's findings led to the development of the WHO Classification of Tumours of the Hematopoietic and Lymphoid Tissues. [4] Jaffe was the President of the Society of Hematopathology at the time that the WHO's Revised European-American Classification of Lymphoid Neoplasms (REAL) classification system was developed in 1994; the REAL classification system is now considered the gold standard in hematopathology. [5] Today, her research includes genetic and epigenetic studies aimed at understanding how B-cells become Hodgkin's lymphoma cells, particularly through the lens of the microenvironment. [2] Jaffe's research has led to improvements in cancer treatments, including disease-specific therapies and improved clinical outcomes. [6]

Early life and career development

Jaffe is the daughter of Ukrainian immigrants who fled Russia during World War I. [3] As a child in White Plains, New York, Jaffe was drawn to the sciences, particularly astronomy and geology. In an interview she states, "I fell in love with biology and decided in high school that I was going to become a doctor." [6] She received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University, and completed her medical education at the University of Pennsylvania in the late 1960s, where she was one of only five women in a class of more than 100 medical students. [6]

In her second year of medical school, she met and married her husband Michael Evan Jaffe, then a law student. Jaffe and her husband have two sons, Greg—an award-winning journalist at The Washington Post, formerly a reporter at the Wall Street Journal—and Caleb—a law professor at the University of Virginia Law School, formerly the director of the Virginia office of the Southern Environmental Law Center in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Jaffe, her husband and first child moved to the Washington, D.C. area, where the Jaffes' second son was born. Jaffe took a residency position at Georgetown University and worked primarily in anatomic pathology. After a year at Georgetown, Jaffe entered an NCI residency program. Jaffe's early research at NCI helped replace purely descriptive classifications with those based on immunology which helped in the development process leading to today's disease-specific therapies. Jaffe and her fellow NCI researchers showed that red blood cells coated with antibody and erythrocyte-antibody-complement (EAC) adhered to B-cell areas, proving they were lymphocytes derived from the lymphoid follicles. [6]

Honors and awards

Jaffe has served on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Pathology, the American Journal of Surgical Pathology, Blood, Cancer Research, and Modern Pathology. [6] She has also served as president of the Society for Hematopathology [6] and the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) (from 1998 to 1999). [7] In 1993, Jaffe was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In 2005 she was chair of the Medical Sciences Section of AAAS and in 2007 she was the second Anita Roberts Lecturer at the NIH. [6] Jaffe is considered one of the most-cited researchers in clinical medicine by Science Watch and was among the top 10 in oncology between 1981 and 1998. [6] She is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine. [6]

Awards

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lymphoma</span> Hematologic cancer that affects lymphocytes

Lymphoma is a group of blood and lymph tumors that develop from lymphocytes. The name typically refers to just the cancerous versions rather than all such tumours. Signs and symptoms may include enlarged lymph nodes, fever, drenching sweats, unintended weight loss, itching, and constantly feeling tired. The enlarged lymph nodes are usually painless. The sweats are most common at night.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) coordinates the United States National Cancer Program and is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is one of eleven agencies that are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NCI conducts and supports research, training, health information dissemination, and other activities related to the causes, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer; the supportive care of cancer patients and their families; and cancer survivorship.

Splenic marginal zone lymphoma (SMZL) is a type of cancer made up of B-cells that replace the normal architecture of the white pulp of the spleen. The neoplastic cells are both small lymphocytes and larger, transformed lymphoblasts, and they invade the mantle zone of splenic follicles and erode the marginal zone, ultimately invading the red pulp of the spleen. Frequently, the bone marrow and splenic hilar lymph nodes are involved along with the peripheral blood. The neoplastic cells circulating in the peripheral blood are termed villous lymphocytes due to their characteristic appearance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aggressive NK-cell leukemia</span> Medical condition

Aggressive NK-cell leukemia is a disease with an aggressive, systemic proliferation of natural killer cells and a rapidly declining clinical course.

Hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma is a rare form of lymphoma that is generally incurable, except in the case of an allogeneic stem cell transplant. It is a systemic neoplasm comprising medium-sized cytotoxic T-cells that show significant sinusoidal infiltration in the liver, spleen, and bone marrow.

T-lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma, previously labeled precursor T-lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma is a form of lymphoid leukemia and lymphoma in which too many T-cell lymphoblasts are found in the blood, bone marrow, and tissues, particularly mediastinal lymph nodes. Labeling as leukemia or lymphoma depends on which feature is more pronounced in a given situation, but has no biological or treatment implication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Kwak</span> American cancer researcher

Larry Kwak is an American cancer researcher who works at City of Hope in Duarte, California and is the Director of the Toni Stephenson Lymphoma Center at City of Hope. Dr. Kwak formerly worked at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He was included on Time's list of 2010's most influential people.

For the Irish playwright and screenwriter, see Nancy Harris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Lennert</span> German physician and pathologist (1921–2012)

Karl Lennert, M.D. was a German physician and pathologist.

Thomas Grogan is an American professor, pathologist and founder of Ventana Medical Systems, Inc. He currently holds the positions of Professor of Pathology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and Chief Scientific Officer at Ventana.

Primary cutaneous follicle center lymphoma is a type of lymphoma. It was recognized as a distinct disease entity in the 2008 WHO classification. PCFCL had been previously conceived as a variant of follicular lymphoma (FL).

Epstein–Barr virus positive diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified was initially termed in the WHO 2008 classification as Epstein–Barr virus-positive DLBCL of the elderly because it was a specific type of large B-cell lymphoma that appeared to be limited to elderly individuals. Since this 2008 WHO classification, however, the disorder has been diagnosed in much younger adults and children. Accordingly, the WHO classification of 2016 renamed this order as EBV+ DLBCL, NOS. The disease is also classified as one of numerous related and interrelated Epstein-Barr virus-associated lymphoproliferative diseases.

Primary mediastinal (thymic) large B-cell lymphoma is a distinct type of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma involving the mediastinum, recognized in the WHO 2008 classification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lauren V. Wood</span> American allergist, immunologist

Lauren V. Wood is an American allergist, immunologist, and staff physician at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, where she has served as a principal investigator. She is known for conducting studies of vaccines for cancer, Human papillomavirus (HPV), Hepatitis C, and HIV especially for use with children, teens and young adults. She holds the rank of captain in the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS).

Mature T-cell lymphoma, also called peripheral T-cell lymphoma, is a group of rare, aggressive lymphomas that develop from mature white blood cells and originate from lymphoid tissues outside of the bone marrow. Mature T-cell lymphoma is under the category of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Mature T-cell lymphomas account for 10% to 15% of all lymphomas and is more common in Asia than in Europe and America. Its common subtypes include angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, anaplastic large cell lymphoma and peripheral T-cell lymphoma not otherwise specified. While different subtypes have variable symptoms, common symptoms include enlarged painless lymph nodes, fever, weight loss, rash and night sweats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jung-Min Lee</span> South Korean-American medical oncologist and physician-scientist

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacqueline Whang-Peng</span> Taiwanese-American physician-scientist

Jacqueline Jia-Kang Whang-Peng is a Taiwanese-American physician-scientist specialized in cytogenetics of cancer, as well as medical genetics, genetic oncology, and gene mapping. She was a researcher at the National Cancer Institute from 1960 to 1993.

Lindsay McOmber Morton is an American cancer epidemiologist who researches genetic susceptibility to second cancers. She is the acting chief of the radiation epidemiology branch and head of its cancer survivorship research unit at the National Cancer Institute.

Dennis Howard Wright was a British medical doctor and professor of pathology with an international reputation in haematopathology.

References

  1. ↑ "Elain S. Jaffe, M.D." ccr.cancer.gov. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Elaine S. Jaffee, MD Senior Investigator Laboratory of Pathology". ccr.cancer.gov. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  3. 1 2 "Elaine Jaffe - Transcript Summary". pathsoc.org. National Institutes of Health. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  4. ↑ "Lymphoma Disease Discovery and Definition". ccr.cancer.gov. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  5. ↑ Delgado, Cynthia. "Elaine Jaffe: Hercule Poirot in a Pathological Universe". nih.gov. Archived from the original on 5 April 2014. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Piana, Ronald. "Elaine Jaffe: At the forefront of clinical lymphoma biology". cancernetwork.com. Cancer Network home of the journal ONCOLOGY. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
  7. ↑ United States & Canadian Academy of Pathology. "Hall of Presidents, Elaine Sarkin Jaffe". Archived from the original on 15 March 2015. Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  8. ↑ "ASIP Rous-Whipple Award". American Society for Investigative Pathology.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.