Kathleen I. Pritchard facts for kids

Kathleen I. Pritchard is a very important doctor and researcher from Canada. She is the head of the oncology department at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. Oncology is the study and treatment of cancer. Dr. Pritchard is an expert in treating breast cancer. She also leads the team that runs clinical trials at the center.

Dr. Pritchard has written many studies about women's health, breast cancer, and how to do good research. She was even named one of the most-cited researchers in the world in 2014 and 2015. This means many other scientists used her work in their own studies.

About Dr. Pritchard

Kathleen I. Pritchard grew up in a town called Deep River, Ontario. She finished high school there in 1964. She then went to Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. She earned her science degree in 1968 and her medical degree in 1971.

Dr. Pritchard completed her medical training in Toronto hospitals. From 1973 to 1974, she focused on research about melanoma (a type of skin cancer) and how the body's defense system fights tumors. In 1977, she started researching breast cancer through clinical trials at the University of Toronto.

Her Career Journey

From 1978 to 1984, Dr. Pritchard led clinical trials at Women's College Hospital. She received an award from the Canadian Cancer Society for this work. In 1984, she became the head of Medical Oncology and Haematology at Women's College Hospital. She also led a group focused on breast cancer for the National Cancer Institute of Canada.

Three years later, in 1987, Dr. Pritchard moved to the Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre. There, she became the head of Medical Oncology. In 1997, she took on another important role. She became the head of Clinical Trials and Epidemiology at the Odette Cancer Centre at Sunnybrook. She has been involved in many studies. She is known as one of Canada's top academic doctors. Her research looks at different treatments like chemotherapy versus hormone therapy. She also studies how aging and menopause affect breast cancer risk.

Dr. Pritchard's Research

Dr. Pritchard is a cancer doctor and researcher who has worked on many clinical studies. Her research covers many topics, but she mainly focuses on women's health and breast cancer treatments. Her main goals are to create special treatments for each patient. She also works to improve tests that predict how a disease might progress.

Understanding Breast Cancer Treatments

Some of her research looks at using a person's genes to guess how their cancer might grow. This helps doctors plan treatments just for them. Besides genetics, Dr. Pritchard's research tries to understand how different treatments work together. She considers the patient's age and stage of life. Her clinical trials have led to new ways of treating breast cancer around the world. Dr. Pritchard's work has been published in many important medical journals. These include The New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet.

Key Discoveries in Treatment

One of Dr. Pritchard's big discoveries involved a drug called letrozole. This drug was used for women who had already taken tamoxifen for five years to treat their breast cancer. Letrozole helps by lowering estrogen, a hormone that can make tumors grow.

Dr. Pritchard followed over 5,000 women who had breast cancer. They had taken tamoxifen and were then given either letrozole or a fake pill. The letrozole treatment lowered the chance of breast cancer coming back by over 40%. The study even stopped early because the results were so good. The drug also stopped the cancer from spreading to other parts of the body.

These important findings were published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2003. Two years later, Health Canada approved the treatment. Later studies showed that taking letrozole for ten years could help even more. Another study looked at how letrozole affected women of different ages. Dr. Pritchard found that letrozole helped both younger and older women. It was especially helpful for younger women who had used tamoxifen before. This research showed that anti-estrogen treatments like letrozole are helpful whenever they are given after the first treatment.

Tailoring Chemotherapy

Dr. Pritchard has also suggested that women with high levels of a protein called HER-2/Neu might respond better to certain chemotherapy drugs. These drugs are called anthracyclines. She showed that women with a lot of HER-2 protein had a better response to these drugs in a clinical trial.

Her research suggests that the HER-2 gene could help predict which treatment works best for certain patients. This means chemotherapy can be made special for each person. The goal is to help patients avoid strong side effects from drugs they might not need.

Newer Treatment Combinations

Some of Dr. Pritchard's most recent research looks at combining different hormone therapies. These are for women with advanced breast cancer after menopause. Doctors are still figuring out the best order for these combination treatments. However, there is good evidence that some combinations work well as a first treatment. Others are better as a second treatment.

For example, a combination of fulvestrant and anastrozole or palbociclib and letrozole could be first-line treatments. Combinations like everolimus and exemestane or palbociclib plus fulvestrant are good second-line options. Sometimes, these combinations can have side effects. Doctors can manage these by checking on patients often.

Radiation and Recurrence Risk

Dr. Pritchard also worked on a study about different ways to use radiation for early-stage breast cancer. She looked at what happened when patients received radiation to the whole breast. Some also got extra radiation to their lymph nodes. After ten years, there was no big difference in how many patients survived. However, the group that got extra radiation had less chance of their breast cancer coming back.

Predicting Cancer Recurrence

Recent research explores a tool called Oncotype DX. This tool helps predict if breast cancer will come back. Oncotype DX looks at certain genes linked to breast cancer. A higher score means a higher chance of the cancer returning.

One project, called the TAILORx study, uses the Oncotype DX score. It helps doctors decide if a patient needs extra chemotherapy. Dr. Pritchard helped confirm that Oncotype DX is useful for patients with low scores. For patients with middle scores, the results are still being studied.

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)

Dr. Pritchard also studied how hormone replacement therapy (HRT) affects women. HRT is often given to women during menopause to help with symptoms. Her studies showed that women who took HRT with both progesterone and estrogen had a 53% higher risk of developing cancer. Women who only took estrogen had a 34% higher risk.

HRT can also have other risks, like blood clots. It can also make breast tissue dense, which makes mammograms harder to read. Dr. Pritchard suggests other ways to help with menopause symptoms. These include Vitamin E, calcium, venlafaxine, clonidine, and changes to diet. She notes that these might not be as effective as HRT. But they do not have the increased risk for breast cancer.

Memberships and Leadership

Dr. Pritchard has been a leader in many medical groups. She helped start the Canadian Oncology Society in 1978. She also helped create the Canadian Association of Medical Oncology in 1988. She was even its president from 1990 to 1992. She served on the board of directors for the American Society of Clinical Oncology in 2006.

Awards and Honors

In 2005, Dr. Pritchard received the O. Harold Warwick Prize. The Canadian Cancer Society gave her this award for her important work on breast cancer clinical trials. In 2015, she was honored at the Women of Action awards luncheon in Toronto. In December 2017, Dr. Pritchard was given a very special honor. She was named a Member of the Order of Canada (CM). This is one of Canada's highest honors.

Selected publications

• (with Henri Rochefort)

See also

In Spanish: Kathleen I. Pritchard para niños