General Thoracic Surgery and Science: Editorial It All Takes Time

Harvey I. Pass, MD

Maybe this is the era of “contraction.” general thoracic surgery, is now “growing up” and we In the United States, we have been warned by major are in danger of having a whole generation of fast-tracked league baseball that because of revenue losses, at least residents lose out on the exploding opportunities for trans- two major league teams are going to be removed from lational research in this field. I am talking about the type the league. Curiously enough, there is much discussion of research that starts with glazy-eyed but always inquisi- (and action) for contraction of the length of specialty tive residents who get an idea for a testable question in residencies in the United States also, with a more stream- the laboratory which has been stimulated by either (1) lined training of thoracic by decreasing gen- agonizingly long cases, (2) agonizingly miserable results, eral surgery time. Moreover, citing “life style” changes, or (3) agonizingly profound sorrow with a feeling of help- many residents are opting not to pursue training in tho- lessness when you lose a patient. racic surgery, and this is reflected by the contraction in Oncology, specifically thoracic oncology, can be char- the number of applicants for the matching program in acterized with the “half-glass empty” attitude of (1), (2), the United States. The pervading theme in surgery con- and (3) above, but as an advocate of the “half-glass full” tractions is time; too much devoted to the training, not philosophy for this discipline, I worry about the lack of enough out of the hospital, not enough for reading. exposure to science that thoracic residents in the future I am worried about another casualty of thoracic surgi- will have. Moreover, the thoracic must be more cal time contraction and that casualty could be the de- than specimen vampires; they must understand the sci- velopment of the thoracic surgical scientist. In the “old ence, should be able to converse with the principle in- days” of (1960-1980), you could vestigators, i.e. scientists, for the study, and understand almost depend on most surgery programs in the United the advantages and the flaws of the methods and the re- States to encourage residents to spend some time in the sults. lab either at the programs university, or at some other These seemingly naive demands for the continued university, or at the National Institutes of Health. You evolution of “physician scientists” in the surgical world wore your laboratory time as a badge of honor, and blasted of contraction are only justified if the promise of the new through experiments to have enough data for the Ameri- science is worth it. Ready or not, I think the new science can College of Surgery Surgical Forum or for scientific is worth it, and permit me to give some examples where presentations at specialty meetings. Part of your reward thoracic surgeons should focus their efforts by eating at for those one or two years was a presentation at a meet- the same table with the PhDs and medical oncologists. ing, shaking hands with the first of a crop of “new 1. Early detection and characterization of lung can- translationalists” in cardiothoracic surgery including cer: Thoracic surgeons can be the gatekeepers for the David Sabiston, James Hardy, Norman Shumway, Albert management of patients with helical computed tomo- Starr, Michael DeBakey, Denton Cooley, James Kirklin graphic lesions. There is no better example of this than and a host of others who developed North American car- in Japan where many of the issues of the “ground glass diac surgery. opacities” are being investigated by thoracic surgeons. Well, I could argue that ’s step-brother, This type of science is on a “macroscopic scale”, i.e. some mass is detected on a imaging study. However, the sur- From Department of Surgery and Oncology, Wayne State Univer- geon must be involved with the science on the micro- sity and Karmanos Cancer Institute, Michigan, U.S.A scopic side, because pretty soon the promise of finding a needle in a haystack is going to come to fruition. Sur- Address reprint requests to Department of Surgery and Oncol- ogy, Wayne State University and Karmanos Cancer Institute, geons need to be in there mulling through the haystack! Detroit, Michigan 48201, U.S.A. Why? There has been a proliferation of techniques which

Ann Thorac Cardiovasc Surg Vol. 8, No. 5 (2002) 251 Pass are characterizing preneoplasia and established cancer vants, as well as genetic based therapies and molecular using the human genome including serial analysis of gene prognostication efforts are all being led by thoracic sur- expression (SAGE) and gene expression arrays. The hay- gical oncologists. stack (i.e. the ability to characterize or prognosticate for Obviously, residency programs cannot predict which a given cancer) is getting smaller as the needle(s) (i.e. individuals are going to be motivated to spend the time genes or proteins which define a given cancer) are get- (there is that word again!) to be involved with a ting bigger and more uniform. benchwork project which complements their clinical 2. Early detection and characterization of thoracic pathway. The desire to be stimulated by such efforts is a malignancies using proteomics: The holy grail of early combination of innate and acquired behaviors. Stimula- detection is to be able to define preneoplastic changes tion takes time, mentoring takes time, and science takes using intermediate markers of carcinogenesis develop- time. I personally do not think that we can afford to al- ment. Proteins that are expressed as a result of ongoing low time contraction for residency training influence the neoplastic development are harbingers of future events grooming of a special breed of thoracic surgical physi- and using mass spectroscopy and two dimensional gels, cian-scientists, especially when our understanding of it is now possible to identify unique proteins which ap- basic molecular events is expanding. In fact, the curricula pear in the serum which could predate overt cancer de- for training thoracic surgeons, apart for independent study velopment. Thoracic surgeons have access to patients in in a mentored laboratory, must begin to accommodate whom proteomic studies can be performed because of time to educate ALL trainees on the translational impor- their endoscopic talents using autofluorescence broncho- tance of these new events so they will understand the scopy. The possibilities for examination are endless in- pathogenesis of thoracic diseases at the molecular level. cluding not only analyses of serum but also of sputum Such teaching will make it all the easier when there is and pleural effusions. commercialization of these discoveries for early detec- 3. Investigating orphan diseases which require surgi- tion and intervention. cal intervention: Novel treatment approaches for diseases Time flies when you are having fun, and believe it or such as mesothelioma are really falling into the hands of not, scientific correlation and discovery can be fun. surgeons. Intraoperative therapies, postoperative adju- Take my word for it, just give it time, please?

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