As a college student, Gerold was intrigued by biology. As a physician, he was drawn to cancer research because "it offered an opportunity to make a significant difference in a huge disease." Now in his fifth year at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Gerold is the Program Leader for Thoracic Oncology, and a vocal advocate for research and clinical trials.
"Until recently,we had very low participation in clinical trials for lung cancer research," he says. But with an innovative patient advocacy group reaching out to new Moffitt patients, the numbers have gone up steadily. "If there is no community advocacy for lung cancer then the federal funding will dry up," he says assuredly.
"Patient advocacy helps raise awareness of the disease," Gerold says. Lung cancer still has a social stigma attached to it. For many years people would not speak about it, but today they will actually admit they have lung cancer. "That is progress," he says."Having this disease does not mean you are dead three months from now."
No one works alone in this fight. "In thoracic oncology we have a team spirit, we work together to make a dent in fighting this disease," Gerold says. He is equally devoted to both parts of his job -- patients and research. "I like to interact with patients in the clinic, but emotionally it is very hard. And I love the laboratory work and how it will apply to future patient treatments."
It would give him great joy to someday tell his patients that he found a cure, and he hopes to see it in his lifetime. "It is hard to imagine because lung cancer is such a complex disease," he says. "But without doing clinical trials and laboratory research,you are not going to improve treatment for any kind of disease."
"You can tell people the numbers -- for example, more women die from lung cancer than breast cancer; or, the five-year survival from lung cancer has nearly doubled over the past 25 years -- but these numbers are quite meaningless to a patient who has just been diagnosed with lung cancer. I want people to know there are many others in their neighborhood living with lung cancer. They may look fine and not seem sick,but they are there."
"One of our missions is to improve treatment for this disease," Gerold says.The team at Moffitt works toward this goal every day. "We know you want a cure, but we can't get there unless we all work together."
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