Posted: August 8, 2012

I am about to retire from active clinical practice as a Medical Oncologist after thirty-four years of taking care of cancer patients.  This is a good time for me to reflect on the changes in cancer care over that period.  In some ways they have been revolutionary, in others disappointing.

As a trainee in the mid 1970’s I had few tools at my disposal.  There was only one CAT scanner in all of Boston, where I trained as a fellow, and it only scanned the head.  Body CAT scanners had not been invented and there was no MRI.  How did we figure out what was wrong with people? Frankly I have no idea.  The staging of cancer must have been a good guess only.

+Read more about changes in cancer care from Dr. Stark on the BS757 blog.