UT Southwestern Simmons Cancer Center

April 18, 2014


UT Southwestern Simmons Cancer Center
Dallas, TX. Team Draft will visit with the head of UT Southwestern Simmons Cancer Center's lung cancer program, Dr. Joan Schiller. 
Dr. Schiller is Professor and Chief of the Division of Hematology-Oncology at UT Southwestern Medical Center and Deputy Director of Simmons Cancer Center. She is founder and president of Free to Breathe, a partnership for lung cancer survival.

Working with her colleagues in radiation oncology and thoracic surgery, Dr. Schiller focuses her work on treatment of small cell and non-small cell lung cancer. She is an expert in matching the medication (chemotherapy) to the tumor to achieve maximum results

Prevention, early detection, and personalized treatment of lung cancer are her passions. While 85 percent of lung cancer patients have smoked, there is a rising percentage of lung cancer developing in never-smokers, particularly in women. Yet women have a better chance of survival from the disease than men. Early detection is a major factor in treatment strategy, as is the makeup of a patient’s cancer.

People who’ve never smoked who get lung cancer frequently have very unique mutations in their tumors. The good news is there are now medications that specifically target these mutations, and by using them there’s an excellent chance of having a very dramatic response.” ~ Dr. Joan Schiller