Dr. Suzanne Kirby, a medical hematologist and oncologist, joined the Scully-Welsh Cancer Center staff this month.
A protégé of Dr. Oliver Smithies, a British-born American geneticist who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2007, Kirby brings both a medical degree and a Ph.D. in pathology to Scully-Welsh, along with extensive expertise in treating leukemia and lymphoma, according to Scully-Welsh director, Dr. James Grichnik.
Leukemia and lymphoma are two of the deadliest – and most common – forms of cancer in the world.
The National Cancer Institute says leukemia is the sixth most common cancer in this country with over 62,000 new cases diagnosed each year. The disease claims almost 25,000 lives in the U.S. annually.
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, meanwhile, will account for an even larger number of new diagnoses, with 72,000 cases likely to be uncovered over the next 12 months, and it will claim a further 20,000 American lives.
Yet, according to Grichnik, these two types of blood cancer have often been “underserved” in this area.
Until now, that is.
In addition to her work with Smithies, Kirby is also a winner of the prestigious Leukemia Society of America Special Fellow Award as well as the American Society of Hematology Scholar Award.
And while Kirby was also recruited by Duke Health in Durham, N.C., she elected to come to Vero Beach instead.
Leukemia is cancer of the body’s blood-forming tissues, especially the bone marrow. Unlike most other cancers, leukemia does not produce tumors. Instead it causes an overproduction of abnormal blood cells in general and white blood cells in particular.
“I always tell people,” says the diminutive Kirby, “that bone marrow cancers happen a lot of times because the bone marrow is kind of like the canary in the coal mine. It’s the first one to show some signs of all the toxins we get exposed to in life.”
Those toxins can come from pesticides or from any number of the various man-made chemicals we’re all exposed to in our daily lives. Almost ominously, Kirby points out, “We all have around 400 chemicals, at least, in our bodies.”
Lymphoma, meanwhile, according to New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, is another form of cancer that affects the immune system.
Specifically, it affects the lymphatic system which includes the lymph nodes, the thymus, the spleen and tonsils, as well as in the digestive tract.
The most common form of lymphoma is Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), which accounts for roughly 90 percent of all cases.
Kirby pauses briefly and then explains, “There many, many types of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas and some of them grow slowly and people can live with for a long time; others are very aggressive and if you don’t treat them aggressively, they’re going to get you in a short time. So, there’s a wide range of therapies that are available, depending on what subtype of lymphoma you have.”
Like almost all forms of cancer, treatments for both leukemia and lymphoma have evolved dramatically over the past few years.
Kirby says, “We used to just use general toxic agents – chemotherapies – that would damage the DNA and cause cells to die. Then we started using antibody therapy, which are products that can stick to the protein on the surface of, say, a lymphocyte, and then use the body’s own immune system” to kill only the cancer cells.
“As we’ve gotten more and more data about particular gene mutations that happen in lymphomas and leukemias,” Kirby continues, “we’ve been able to see more and more targeted agents come along.”
Turning the tables on cancer, says Kirby, those agents can now create mutations within the cancer cells themselves causing them to – instead of growing all the time – literally shut down and go into a “resting” state.
Almost beaming at the arrival of his center’s newest doctor/scientist, Grichnik says Kirby “really has a wealth of experience in hematology, both in benign and the malignant counterparts, and particularly leukemias and lymphomas.”
Then he quickly adds, “We’re basically bringing her in to help take care of our community,” and to be a valuable resource and asset for other area hematologists and oncologists to work with.
Dr. Suzanne Kirby is now with the Scully-Welsh Cancer Center. For more information or to schedule an appointment or consultation the phone number is 772-226-4810.