Oncology, Etc. - In Conversation with Dr. David Steensma (Part 1)

In this Oncology, Etc. episode, hosts Patrick Loehrer and David Johnson interview hematologist-oncologist and scientist Dr. David Steensma, who currently serves as Head of Global Hematology at Novartis. In Part One of the episode, Dr. Steensma shares about his career journey from astronomy to medicine, and from academia to industry. We'll also learn about the discovery and significance of a new pre-malignant condition - Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential (CHIP). If you liked this episode, please subscribe. Learn more at https://education.asco.org, or email us at [email protected]. TRANSCRIPT Dave Johnson: Hello, everyone, I'm Dave Johnson at UT Southwestern, in Dallas. Pat Loehrer: And I'm Pat Loehrer from Indiana University, in the Center of Global Oncology in Indianapolis. Dave Johnson: And this is another episode of Oncology, Etc. Pat Loehrer: Yeah. Before I get started, I'm going to ask you a quiz. Do you know what a myrmecologist is, Dave? Dave Johnson: Is that somebody who studies snails and conches, or no? Pat Loehrer: No. Not even close. Dave Johnson: Okay. Pat Loehrer: Do you know what a philatelist is? Dave Johnson: I thought it was maybe a small cardiologist. Pat Loehrer: Someone who studies mermaids - no, no. A myrmecologist, actually, is a subject of this book that I just read called, Scientist, it's a story about E.O. Wilson. It's a biography of him. And I didn't know that much about him. Dave Johnson: Oh, ants. Pat Loehrer: Yes. Yeah. Richard Rhodes wrote this book. Actually, it's a great read. I mean, he grew up in Alabama, at the age of seven, he was fishing. And fishing, the hook got caught in his eye, he kept on fishing. He didn't seek medical attention. And later on, he ended up losing his vision in that eye, and his other eye was perfect. So, he used that to focus on little things - he loved ants and butterflies, and at the age of 18, he discovered the first colony of fire ants in the United States, eventually, went to Harvard. He was instrumental in creating the Encyclopedia of Life in which they're basically doing this global database for 1.9 million species. He was a bit of a controversial, but a very proactive person with conservation. He said basically that destroying the rainforest for economic gain is like burning a Renaissance painting to cook a meal. And he's talked about the Brazilian rainforest in which less than 1% of it is now present as it was compared to 100 years ago. It's really quite amazing. His study of ants, the best quote I have from that is he said, "Karl Marx was right." He says, "Socialism works, it's just that he picked the wrong species." So, that's my book today, but I'm gonna turn it over to you, Dave, to introduce our speaker. Dave Johnson: Well, we're very fortunate today to have David Steensma on this episode of Oncology, Etc. Dr. Steensma is a highly accomplished physician-scientist, and an internationally recognized expert in the diagnosis and management of myelodysplastic syndromes. He has numerous academic accomplishments, ranging from characterization of the prevalence of JAK 617F mutations in MDS, first description of the involvement of the IR3G in human neoplasia, and more recently, the initial definition of Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential, or CHIP - more about that later. Dr. Steensma is a graduate of The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. He obtained his Internal Medicine and his Hematology-Oncology fellowship training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. In the early 2000s, he served as a post-doctoral research fellow and visiting scholar in the molecular biology hematology laboratories of Dr. Douglas Higgs, and Richard Gibson at Oxford University. He has served the medical community in many ways, including on the FDA ODAC Committee, a fun activity if there ever was one, Educational Chair of the 2015 ASH annual meeting, and also as a member of the ABIM Hematology Examination Committee, as well as many othe