THE STEPS WHICH MAKE A MILE:
DR. PAUL ARENA AND MAYO’S
MEDICAL ONCOLOGY
Dr. Paul Arena, right, during his tour of duty in the South
Pacific shortly before enrolling in the Mayo Clinic.
Aaron Burch
T
he fight against cancer is ever-evolving. From the early attempts with nitrogen mustard, to the 1950s research that
grew into the development of combination chemotherapy in the 1960s, the steps we’re taking today wouldn’t be possible
without the miles walked by the scientific innovators who led the
way.
One of the most fascinating ways in which medicine has evolved
is the explosion of the specialty of Hematology/Oncology. Once
chemotherapy was established as a viable treatment, initially offering patients with Hodgkin’s disease and childhood acute leukemia
the chance for a full recovery, it was only a matter of time before
the treatment of cancer itself would become a specialty.
It was 1972 when the American Board of Internal Medicine recognized Medical Oncology as a new subspecialty. But the wheels,
and physicians, had been in motion long before that. Surgeons had
treated cancer in some way since 1600 BC; after the development
of surgical anesthesia, for over 100 years surgeons have offered increasingly sophisticated curative treatments for many cancers. The
next effective treatments for cancer grew from the Curie family’s
research and applications in radiation therapy. The once impossible task of reaching tumors deep in the brain and body was quick-
ly becoming a reality. With the advent of chemo, multi-modality
treatment opened up a whole new world of scientific exploration.
In the 1960s, oncology programs were just beginning to take
root in the United States (pioneered in Boston and St Louis) when
Dr. Paul Arena applied to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota with a
desire to pursue internal medicine. Having graduated from the
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
before serving for two years as a flight surgeon in the US Air Force
during the Vietnam War, Dr. Arena was excited to delve into his
studies upon arriving back in the United States.
“I was interested in internal medicine but I didn’t know what
subspecialty I would choose,” Dr. Arena recalled. “One of my early
rotations cycled through Hematology, and a spark went off in my
head that I’d like to continue in that field. There was no formal oncology program at the time, but I found it very interesting. I went
to my mentors and asked if it was possible to pursue oncology as a
fellowship. They said ‘Yes!’ and offered to organize a program for
my studies.”
During the late 1960s, the Mayo Clinic was already touching
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