Men Still at Work: Professionals Over Sixty and on the Job by Elizabeth F. Fideler Read Free Book Online Page A

Shelbyville, Illinois, where his father was a highly respected physician and a man of great integrity. Bruce is still very fond of the Shelbyville friends he grew up with in the 1940s and 1950s. “We were kids together in that little town in the middle of nowhere. After more than seventy years, we remain very close friends, and despite living all over the country, we get together once a year, often in Shelbyville.”
    Google Bruce and you learn that the mayor declared April 7, 1995, “Bruce A. Chabner Day” in honor of Shelbyville’s native son and his contributions to cancer drug discovery and development. You also find out that he is director of clinical research at Massachusetts General Hospital’s (MGH) Cancer Center in Boston and professor in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is a coleader of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center’s (DF/HCC) Translational Pharmacology and Early Therapeutic Trials. He is the editor of the professional journal The Oncologist , and he serves on advisory boards. For example, for the past two years he chaired the National Cancer Advisory Board, the group of experts that sets research policy for the National Cancer Institute (NCI). He is also a member of the Cancer Center Scientific Council at the DF/HCC.
    “I love what I do, every aspect of my work — the intellectual challenges, the emotional challenges, and the clinical environment itself. I can’t imagine sitting home doing nothing. I will continue to work, as long as I can do useful things. The field of cancer research is dynamic and, even after forty-seven years, I find each day very exciting.”
    Sharing his excitement over breakthroughs in the pharmacology of anti-cancer drugs, Bruce recently wrote an article titled “Not Your Father’s Chemo: Targeted Therapies and ‘Personalized Medicine’ for Cancer Patients.” In it he explains how advancement in understanding the genetic basis of cancer has led to the development of drugs that are specifically targeted to block the errant genes that drive cancer cell growth and survival. The article, which he wrote for his daughter’s website ( http://www.bfflco.com offers cancer care and maternity merchandise), conveys his excitement over new technologies that are revolutionizing the approach to treatment of patients with leukemia, lung cancer, breast cancer, and melanoma.
    What is hardest about Bruce’s job are the long hours he must devote to the considerable volume of work in the hospital and outside, as well. “There is a misperception that older people give up lots of things and lighten their load. Actually, I have taken on new responsibilities as I’ve gotten older, while still trying to maintain some of the older interests. True, my workload has changed: I do less administration and less patient care than in the past, and do more advising, consulting, and mentoring.” Bruce may be doing less patient care, but he gives 100 percent to those patients he does see. And when he can report a successful outcome of treatment, he is likely to choke up with emotion. (I have witnessed this myself.)
    Here is Bruce’s background. After graduating from Yale University in 1961, Bruce headed for Harvard Medical School. In 1964 he married Davi-Ellen, my friend from high school and one of the women I profiled in Women Still at Work: Professionals over Sixty and on the Job . The following year, they both graduated — he with an MD from Harvard Medical School and Davi with a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Bruce did his residencies at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and they raised two kids. It was during the second residency that he worked in the laboratory of Joe Bertino and was mentored by him as well as by other colleagues. “Joe was a great cancer researcher who became my lifelong friend and golf buddy.”
    After the Yale-New Haven residency, the Chabners moved to Maryland where Bruce