Pinoy father, teenage son present cancer research findings in US

From dinner-table discussions about cancer to talking about their findings before a 30,000-strong cancer research organization.

That happened to a Filipino father and son duo as they presented their separate findings about cancer recently to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in the United States.

An article published by the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) Health System in May noted the subjects of the presentations that UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center medical oncologist and researcher Primo Lara Jr. along with his 16-year-old son Matthew have recently done.

Matthew presented his findings on non-small-cell lung cancer during a poster session at ASCO's annual meeting on June 1.

His poster, entitled “Predictors of survival for younger patients less than 50 years of age with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): a California Cancer Registry analysis,” discussed research that younger people with lung cancer tend to have better survival rates than older patients with the same disease.

The article noted that Matthew's poster "represents the largest analysis of age-related survival in lung cancer ever conducted." The data in the poster came from the California Cancer Registry, which lists statewide demographic and epidemiological cancer case data.

Dinner table conversation

Matthew's research, the story noted, began as a dinner table conversation.

“We were talking about lung cancer, and I asked my dad if young people get lung cancer and if they do better than older people,” said Matthew in the article.

“My Dad said, ‘Well, you can certainly try to find the answer to that yourself!’ So we did," he also said. Matthew's poster was also co-authored by his father and seven others from UC Davis.

Multi-awarded physician

Meanwhile, his father Primo also presented his research at the ASCO meeting.

"His study — unrelated to Matthew’s work — analyzed survival variables associated with small cell lung cancer patients who had previously been treated with platinum-containing chemotherapy," the story said.

Primo's interests, according to the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, include "genitourinary malignancies, lung cancer and clinical trials. His research focuses on developmental therapeutics and novel treatment approaches to cancer."

He got his undergraduate degree in biology in the University of the Philippines-Diliman in 1987, and his medical degree in the UP-Manila College of Medicine in 1992.

Primo took his internships at the UP-Philippine General Hospital in 1991 to 1992, and at the Rush Presbyterian-St Luke's Medical Center in 1993-1994.

He took up his residency at the latter hospital in 1994 to 1996, and had a fellowship at the UC Davis Medical Center in 1999.

Primo has received several awards and honors in his career, including the Paul Calabresi Career Development Award for Clinical Oncology by the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute.

The story noted that Matthew plans to follow his father's footsteps as an oncologist and cancer researcher.

“There are so many people who still die from cancer. I want to understand it better, how it works and how we can make it better for people," he said. - Gian C. Geronimo, VVP, GMA News