Hi, folks.
My name is Dr. Jack West, and I’m a medical oncologist specializing in thoracic oncology at Swedish Cancer Institute in Seattle, WA. Over the next year, I’ll be covering a broad range of topics related to malignant pleural mesothelioma; one of the cancers I treat, as well as speak and write about for the cancer community. Though it’s a relatively uncommon cancer in the US and around the globe, my corner of the country actually has the highest per capita incidence of mesothelioma. This is primarily because of the many shipyards in our area where people are exposed to asbestos, and our center has emerged as one of the leading places in the country for management of mesothelioma.
By way of background, I was an undergraduate at Princeton University before traveling to the University of Cambridge in the UK for a Fulbright Scholarship. There I received a masters degree in Experimental Biology. I then returned to the US to attend Harvard Medical School, where I did additional research as a medical student fellow of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Following my graduation, I trained at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston for my internal medicine internship and residency, then moved to Seattle to do my medical oncology training at the University of Washington/Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. There, I developed an expertise in lung cancer and mesothelioma and continue to focus in these fields today as Medical Director of the Thoracic Oncology Program at Swedish Cancer Institute, the largest private oncology center in the Pacific Northwest.
I look forward to bringing you information that can help you understand the leading options that have proven to be beneficial in managing malignant pleural mesothelioma, as well as discussing current clinical questions and emerging research options. Together, the educational resources available here should help enable people to become active participants in their own care.
-Jack West
