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University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI) has tapped a nationally renowned expert in biobehavioral oncology research as director of its recently rededicated Biobehavioral Medicine Program.
Dr. Dana Bovbjerg, formerly the director of the Biohavioral Medicine Program at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, will refocus the program’s efforts on improving patients’ psychological and biological responses to cancer treatment.
“The fundamental issue is cancer is not just about the tumor, it’s about the person,” explains Dr. Bovbjerg. “We are talking about providing supportive care for the total experience, how do patients react to treatment, how can we make that process better?”
A renewed emphasis will be placed on interdisciplinary research that taps the expertise of researchers from several schools at the University of Pittsburgh as well as faculty from Carnegie Mellon University, he adds. “We need to know much more about how unconscious activities of the brain may influence those choices and may even have more direct bodily effects on the development of cancer and the response to treatment.”
Dr. Bovbjerg also holds a faculty appointment as a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He previously served in faculty positions at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Cornell University Medical College.
“The reputation of the Cancer Institute and UPMC for cancer care and the opportunity to collaborate with the incredible expertise in other departments is what attracted me to Pittsburgh,” he adds. “The opportunity in Pittsburgh to do cutting-edge research that can benefit patients is remarkable.”
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Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Dr. Dana Bovbjerg, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute
Image courtesy UPMC