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Past, Present, and Future

SPEAKER

Breast Cancer Oncologist and Assistant Attending Physician
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

HOST

Sohail Tavazoie, M.D., Ph.D.

Leon Hess Professor
Elizabeth and Vincent Meyer Laboratory of Systems Cancer Biology
Director
Black Family Center for Research on Human Cancer Metastasis
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Dr. Elizabeth Comen is a medical oncologist specializing in breast cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. As a physician-scientist and medical historian, she has dedicated her career to empowering women to better advocate for their own medical care. In her recently published book——Dr. Comen explores the history of gender bias in research and medicine in an effort to begin a new conversation about women’s health.

For more than a decade, Dr. Comen has collaborated with Rockefeller cancer biologist Dr. Sohail Tavazoie, a leader in research on metastasis. The two physician-scientists have combined their expertise to improve how breast cancer is screened and monitored. In 2018, they developed a blood test that could augment image-based screenings to determine if a woman needs a biopsy after an abnormal mammogram.

At the morning lecture on April 4, Dr. Comen will revisit the collective medical history of women and provide insight into her current breast cancer research and the promise of better treatments and diagnostics.

Dr. Tavazoie directs the Black Family Center for Research on Human Cancer Metastasis at Rockefeller University. He also serves as an attending medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a senior attending physician at Rockefeller’s research hospital. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, a 2022 recipient of the National Cancer Institute’s Outstanding Investigator Award, and served as president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.