Measles is at its highest levels in the United States in more than 25 years. One MSK employee has made headlines for her work spreading accurate information about disease prevention within the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, the center of the New York outbreak.

Dr. Blima Marcus, DNP, is a nurse practitioner at MSK and a member of the Orthodox Jewish community. Recent Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Gothamist articles highlight her work countering misinformation about vaccines. She has organized workshops in homes, presenting accurate science in a non-judgmental way, and has trained others to lead the sessions.

With the Orthodox Jewish Nurses Association and the newly founded organization, Engaging in Medical Education with Sensitivity, she developed and distributed a document that refutes the claims made by an anti-vaccination pamphlet being sent to families in the ultra-Orthodox community. About 10,000 copies of her pamphlet have already been distributed, with New York’s Health Department requesting 29,000 more.

A recent Washington Post column by Steven Petrow describes his experience with volunteerism at MSK, both as a patient and a volunteer. His interaction with MSK volunteers began on his first night as a patient 35 years ago, when a volunteer from the patient-to-patient program came to his room and made him realize he had hope for life after cancer. About a decade later, Petrow joined the volunteer program, becoming one of the 900 people between the ages of 14 and 90 who give their time and talents as MSK volunteers.

A volunteer (in blue coat) and a caregiver. (Source: Richard DeWitt)

To learn more about volunteering at MSK, visit the Department of Volunteer Resources website.

The recent American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting placed MSK in the spotlight recently, both for research being performed here and for expert opinions. Here are two such featured items:

• Since 2017, CAR-T therapy has been used as treatment for forms of leukemia and lymphoma. Medical professionals collect and modify a sample of a patient’s immune cells, then return the altered cells to the patient to target and kill cancer cells. MSK’s Prasad Adusumilli and his team developed a CAR-T therapy targeting cancers outside the bloodstream—mesothelioma and lung and breast cancers that spread to the chest wall—and conducted a small phase I clinical trial. The trial found the therapy to be safe and early signs of the immunotherapy’s effectiveness are promising. Read more from the Associated Press, Daily Mail, and The Scientist.
• Two articles quoted MSK’s Monica Morrow’s assessment of a study performed by researchers at Loma Linda University and presented at the meeting. The retrospective study looked at National Cancer Database data from 2010–2012 to determine whether surgery impacted survival for women with HER2+ metastatic breast cancer. It found that women who received surgery were more frequently white, younger, and with private insurance. These socioeconomic factors account at least in part for their improved outcomes after receiving surgery. Dr. Morrow does not believe this study is sufficient to change clinical practice, in large part due to the selection bias in the patient population receiving surgery. She is awaiting results of a randomized trial currently underway.