Choosing to Lead
Collaborating with Clinicians, Researchers, and Industry Professionals
One of the goals of The White Ribbon Project is to partner with clinicians, researchers, and other professionals in general lung cancer advocacy. While their daily work directly benefits people affected by lung cancer, our collective engagement in lung cancer advocacy is critical to changing the lung cancer story, increase screening, and securing more research funding for this disease. Without adequate funding, lung cancer will remain the cancer that kills more Americans than breast, colon, and prostate cancers combined.
We are so appreciative of physicians and scientists who support the lung cancer community, and lead with heart. In this Blog entry, we highlight four leaders who have bought in to the mission of The White Ribbon Project and our goal to collaborate with medical facilities to build & distribute ribbons to those impacted by lung cancer. All of these leaders have chosen to apply their influence and talents beyond their normal responsibilities.
Be on the watch for more stories highlighting the many medical professionals who are championing our mission.
Dr. Michael Gieske
Dr. Gieske is a family practitioner of 35 years and the Director of Lung Cancer Screening at St. Elizabeth Health Care in Kentucky. While the average national lung cancer screening rate remains less than 10%, Dr. Gieske and his team have been able to elevate the screening rate several fold for the population St. Elizabeth Primary Care Physicians are accountable for (it is one of the best screening rates in the country). This translates to diagnosing many more early stage lung cancers of which the majority can be cured through surgery or radiation alone, or a combination of surgery and medications.
In his spare time, Dr. Gieske has become a great advocate for the lung cancer community. Not only has he personally made hundreds of white ribbons, but he has also transported one all the way to the base camp of Mount Everest, literally elevating lung cancer awareness to the world’s ceiling. He also helped sponsor and organize the first white ribbon painting and signing event at a medical center. The St. Elizabeth Cancer Center in Edgewood Kentucky was the first cancer center to host such an event.
Recently, he has joined an effort to secure more lung cancer research funding that is allocated by the Department of Defense. He demonstrates the value of having a primary care physician support lung cancer advocacy. Early detection using low dose computed tomography (CT) scans in the eligible population is one of the most important ways to improve the overall 5-year survival for lung cancer.
Dr. Michael Caligiuri
Dr. Caligiuri is one of the first physicians to take a picture with one of our large white ribbons and has since continued to help us advocate more effectively for the lung cancer community. He is the current President of City of Hope National Medical Center and the Deanna and Steve Campbell Physician-in-Chief Distinguished Chair, and a world-renowned physician, scientist, builder, and innovator. The list of his accomplishments can easily fill several pages, but his support of The White Ribbon Project and other lung cancer advocates deserves further mention.
Dr. Caligiuri has encouraged his team at The City of Hope to accept our White Ribbons as a symbol of support for their lung cancer patients and the larger lung cancer community. He has welcomed ribbon painting and signing events at the main City of Hope campus in Duarte California, and he has always been willing to reach out to his relevant contacts to strengthen our lung cancer advocacy efforts.
Dr. David Carbone
Dr. Carbone is the Director of the James Thoracic Oncology Center at the Ohio State University Medical Center. Like Dr. Caligiuri, he is a physician researcher with too many achievements to list entirely. He is Past President of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) and his research interests have been focused on lung cancer, lung cancer genetics, and cancer immunotherapy.
In addition to all of his clinical and academic accomplishments, we are also fortunate that Dr. Carbone is a fierce lung cancer advocate and supports the lung cancer community in many other ways aside from his professional responsibilities. The Ohio State University James Cancer Center, with Dr. Carbone, are one of the few cancer centers to advocate and fundraise for lung cancer research with an organization, A Breath of Hope, Ohio founded by two patients of Dr. Carbone. In 2022, Heidi & Pierre Onda attended the Breath of Hope Ohio fundraiser, Heidi was a guest speaker and those impacted by lung cancer received ribbons handmade by Dr. Carbone (utilizing his exceptional woodworking skills and he even recruited his team and family to make ribbons).
Dr. Johnathan Whetstine
Dr. Johnathan Whetstine is a Professor, the director of the Cancer Epigenetics Institute and the Cancer Signaling and Epigenetics program co-leader at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, PA. He is recognized as a star in the epigenetics arena with a significant record of achievement. Dr. Whetstine’s laboratory aims to bridge basic discovery to the clinic. The institute and program he leads is focused on determining how a normal cell is transformed and develops into cancer. They are also studying how cancer cells develop resistance to therapy with the goal of developing more effective therapeutic options to target the cancer and the associated resistance. Much of his work is relevant to developing new biomarkers and treatments for lung cancer.
In addition to his research activities, he has been an early supporter of The White Ribbon Project and the lung cancer community. The enthusiasm and optimism he brings to his work injects a large dose of hope to those affected by cancer. We are also so grateful for his generosity and commitment in hosting a white ribbon build at his home, bringing together clinicians, researchers, lung cancer survivors, and other advocates and educators for a day of lung cancer awareness.
