Philip Kantoff, MD —
one doctor, many roles
By Saul Wisnia
Three years ago, a Rhode Island doctor told Jim Noonan he had just three months to live. Determined not to let the prostate cancer he had been battling for 17 years win out, he asked the surgeon who had originally operated on him, "Now that I've seen a pessimist, can you send me to an optimist?"
Philip Kantoff, MD, is known for his easy-going, honest, and warm style with patients like Jim Noonan.
The surgeon referred him to Boston and the Dana-Farber clinic of Philip Kantoff, MD. Director of DFCI's Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology and newly named chief of the Institute's Solid Tumor Oncology division, Kantoff is one of the world's leading authorities on genitourinary cancers, most notably prostate cancer research and treatment. He is also, notes Noonan, a man who "sees the doughnut rather than the hole."
"He's more optimistic than any physician I've ever dealt with," says Noonan, a Barrington, R.I., grandfather of 16 who this June began the process of joining his second clinical trial while under Kantoff 's care. "He's an easy guy to talk to, and he listens. He's very gracious and has a great rapport with patients, and he's not afraid to tell you exactly what he thinks rather than whisper around an issue. Then he lets you have your say."
Noonan is describing Kantoff 's attributes as a clinician, but this is only one of the myriad hats this doctor wears. In contrast to the traditional model of a physician who devotes the majority of his or her time to either laboratory investigations or patient care, Kantoff has succeeded in both roles while also serving as an administrator, mentor, and even a fundraiser for the Lank Center. And as a clinical investigator engaging in translational research — which converts lab findings into new treatments — he is carrying out the "bench-to-bedside" care approach pioneered by Institute founder Sidney Farber, MD, and still encouraged by DFCI leaders.
Two days each week, Kantoff sees patients such as Noonan in the center's 11th floor clinic, located in the Charles A. Dana Building. The other three days he spends planning clinical trials (which test how well new drugs or procedures work on patients) and conducting research into the genetic makeup of prostate, testicular, kidney, and bladder cancers. This is the schedule, but it is by no means set in stone.
"He's more optimistic than any physician I've ever dealt with."
— Jim Noonan
"When I'm in the clinic and in between patients, I'm checking e-mails that continue to move research projects along," explains Kantoff. "And on the days I do research, I'm still taking care of patients." As he sits in his office explaining this routine to a "research day" visitor, his phone rings almost as if on cue with news that one of his prostate cancer patients has developed serious back pain. "My door is always open to people, whenever they want to meet with me," he adds after the call. "But the most important principle that everybody, including myself, needs to remember is that patients and clinical problems always come first."
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