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Doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York performed a procedure called a pulmonary lobectomy on Ginsburg. The growths they removed were determined to be malignant in an initial pathology evaluation, the court said, citing Ginsburg's thoracic surgeon, Dr. Valerie W. Rusch.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-ruth-bader-ginsburg-surgery-cancer-20181221-story.html

Valerie W. Rusch, MD, FACS

Thoracic Surgeon

Vice Chair for Clinical Research, Department of Surgery; Miner Family Chair in Intrathoracic Cancers

Conditions Treated

Lung Cancer

Mesothelioma

Esophageal Cancer

Valerie W. Rusch, MD, FACS – Vice Chair for Clinical Research, Department of Surgery; Miner Family Chair in Intrathoracic Cancers

Locations

New York City

New Patient Appointments

646-497-9163

Phone

212-639-5873

About Me

I am a thoracic surgeon who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of people with cancers of the lung, airways (trachea and bronchi), esophagus, mediastinum, chest wall, and pleura (malignant pleural mesothelioma). I have 25 years of experience as a thoracic surgeon, and was among the first women in the country to be board certified in this specialty.

My colleagues at Memorial Sloan Kettering and I use the highest level of technological expertise to treat our patients. But I also believe in a hands-on, person-to-person approach to ensure that my patients receive the best possible care. To minimize patients’ discomfort and the length of their hospital stay, we use minimally invasive techniques such as VATS (video-assisted thoracic surgery) and the latest high-tech procedures including robotically assisted surgery whenever possible. To determine the stage of lung and other thoracic cancers, we often use EBUS (endobronchial ultrasound) and EUS (esophageal ultrasound). These techniques allow us to determine the extent of tumors without an incision.

Today’s optimal care of people with cancer depends on the close involvement and coordination of physicians in multiple specialties. Tightly integrated, multidisciplinary care is the hallmark of our approach to the management of thoracic cancers. Our Thoracic Disease Management Team meets twice a week to discuss complex patient problems at our Thoracic Tumor Board and to develop and oversee multidisciplinary research at our team research conference. With my colleagues, I am responsible for coordinating multiple research studies aimed at improving the care of our thoracic patients. We are proud of our active participation in national and international clinical trials and are studying many new ways to help people with the most difficult cancers, including better methods to diagnose cancers at an earlier stage and the testing of new cancer treatments. My own research efforts focus on the genetics and treatment of lung cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma, and esophageal cancer.

A native New Yorker, I graduated from the Lycée Français de New York and Vassar College and am fluent in both French and English. I received my MD degree from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, then completed residency training in general surgery and thoracic surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle. After that, I spent one year at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston for additional training in thoracic oncology before joining the faculty at the University of Washington for six years. In 1989, I joined the staff at MSK.

In addition to other responsibilities, I currently serve as Chair of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, as a Regent (i.e., member of the Board of Directors) of the American College of Surgeons, as Chair of the Lung and Esophagus Task Force of the American Joint Committee on Cancer, and as Chair of the Mesothelioma Subcommittee of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s Staging Committee. I contribute regularly to peer-reviewed specialty surgical and oncology journals and have written chapters on lung cancer, mesothelioma, esophageal cancer, pleural disease, and mediastinal disease for several medical textbooks.

Clinical Expertise: Thoracic Surgical Oncology; Lung Cancer; Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma; Esophageal Cancer; Mediastinal Tumors, including Thymoma; Pulmonary Metastases; Tumors of the Chest Wall; Video-Assisted and Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery; Pulmonary and Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, including Laser Endoscopy and Cryotherapy; Endobronchial Ultrasound (EBUS); Tracheal and Bronchial Disease (Tracheal Stenosis, Tracheomalacia, and Tracheal Tumors) and Resections; Tracheobronchial and Esophageal Stents.

Awards and Honors: Castle Connolly: New York Magazine Top Doctors (2002-2004; 2013-2018)

Languages Spoken: English; French

Education: MD, Columbia University

Residencies: General Surgery - University of Washington; Cardiothoracic Surgery - University of Washington

Fellowships: The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Board Certifications: Surgery; Thoracic Surgery

National News

Tyrone Gayle, 30, Spokesman for Senators and Hillary Clinton, Dies

Posted October 26, 2018

https://www.wral.com/tyrone-gayle-30-spokesman-for-senators-and-hillary-clinton-dies/17949323/?comment_order=forward

Tyrone Gayle, the Washington press secretary for Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and a veteran of Democratic campaigns, died Thursday in Manhattan. He was 30.

His death, at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, was caused by colon cancer, according to Lily Adams, Harris’ longtime communications director.

Despite his youth Gayle had worked for several top Democrats, from his time as a driver and body man for Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia in 2012 to serving as a spokesman for the 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton.

Along the way, he left lasting impressions, friends and colleagues said.

“If I’d go to an event, and the next time I’d be back and Tyrone wasn’t with me, everyone would want to talk about ‘how come Tyrone wasn’t with me, where’s Tyrone?'” Kaine said in an interview Friday.

Gayle and Kaine crisscrossed Virginia for the senator’s 2012 campaign, bonding over a shared interest in sports, particularly college football. Kaine officiated at Gayle’s wedding in May to Beth Foster, a legislative assistant to Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

It was during his time on the Clinton campaign that Gayle’s cancer was diagnosed. After going into remission, the cancer returned this year.

But his wife said he had refused to let his illness slow him down. “From the moment he got up in the morning to when he went to bed, he was not the kind of guy to sit around,” Beth Gale said.

More at link!

Treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-clinton-drugs-idUSKCN1181DM

Politics

September 2, 2016 / 7:26 AM / 2 years ago

Clinton offers plan to curb 'unjustified' price hikes on life-saving drugs

A “BOLD IDEA”

Dr. Peter Bach, the director of a nonpartisan health policy research group at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said Clinton’s announcement on Friday was a “flag” for drug manufacturers that her administration would notice and respond to steep price hikes.

“It’s a response to the broader industry phenomenon of generating added profits by raising the price of drugs for which there is no competition,” Bach said, saying the campaign was focusing on a “sub-category” of manufacturers that had not invested heavily in developing a drug.

Bach said he was contacted by the Clinton campaign about his work on drug pricing but had not advised the campaign in a formal capacity.

The oversight panel would be made up of representatives from existing public health and consumer protection agencies who convene to examine the scope of a drug price increase, the manufacturer’s production cost and the treatment’s relative value to patients and public health, Clinton’s campaign said.

Terry Haines, head of political analysis for Evercore ISI, said Clinton’s proposed panel had little hope of getting through Congress.

But Clinton, if elected, might be able to achieve price reform via changes to Medicare’s prescription drug benefit, known as Medicare Part D, if she works with Congress to reform the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, Haines said.

In that event, Haines said shares of pharmaceutical and biotech companies could come “under sustained headline risk in 2017 as ACA reforms are discussed.”

In cases where a price hike determined to be unjustified is accompanied by insufficient market competition, Clinton’s administration would intervene to purchase alternative drugs from comparably regulated markets or assist manufacturers in bringing the product to market in the United States.

Dr. Aaron Kesselheim, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, called it a “bold idea” to get the federal government “involved in helping stabilizing some of these generic drug markets.”