Episode 18: Dr. Alice Wei—Academic Careers, Centralization of Pancreatic Surgery, and Radiotherapy for Pancreas Cancer

In this episode, we interviewed Dr. Alice Wei.  Dr. Wei is an HPB surgeon at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.  She is the Co-Director of Surgical Initiatives at the David M. Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research and an associate professor of surgery at the Weill Cornell School of Medicine.

We discuss Dr. Wei's initial academic career as an HPB surgeon in Toronto, followed by a mid-career transition to her current position in NYC at MSKCC.  During the podcast we talk about the importance of having distinct initial, mid, and later career goals.  We additionally examine differences in centralization of care for pancreatic surgery between the Canadian and the United States healthcare systems, and finally hear about developing trials investigating definitive radiotherapy for pancreas cancer.

 

Papers referenced in the episode:

Jolissaint JS, Reyngold M, Bassmann J, Seier KP, Gönen M, Varghese AM, Yu KH, Park W, O'Reilly EM, Balachandran VP, D'Angelica MI, Drebin JA, Kingham TP, Soares KC, Jarnagin WR, Crane CH, Wei AC. Local Control and Survival After Induction Chemotherapy and Ablative Radiation Versus Resection for Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma With Vascular Involvement. Ann Surg. 2021 Dec 1;274(6):894-901. doi: 10.1097/SLA.0000000000005080. PMID: 34269717; PMCID: PMC8599622.