10.1245/ASO.2004.06.930
Annals of Surgical Oncology 11:807-809 (2004)
© 2004 Society of Surgical Oncology
ANNUAL HERITAGE PRESENTATION |
Honoring Blake Cady, MD: Society of Surgical Oncology President, 1988–1989
John E. Niederhuber, MD
Correspondence: Address correspondence and reprint requests to: John E. Niederhuber, MD, Clinical Cancer Center, University of Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center, 600 Highland Avenue, Box 7375 CSC, Madison, WI 53792; Fax: 608-265-5963; E-mail: niederhu{at}uwccc.wisc.edu
The 2004 Society of Surgical Oncology Heritage Award honors Dr. Blake Cady, our society’s president during 1988–1989 (Fig. 1). The annual Heritage Award was established in 2001 as a way for the Society to honor a former president whose accomplishments in surgical oncology best exemplify the mission and goals of the society. Dr. Cady joins a distinguished group of honorees: former Society of Surgical Oncology presidents LaSalle LaFalle (2001), Walter Lawrence (2002), and Donald Morton (2003).
Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Cady has been known as a champion of evidence-based oncology practice. He has been critical, thought-provoking, and challenging in his contributions to our understanding of breast disease, thyroid cancer, and gastrointestinal malignancies. He was one of the first to study the application of regional chemotherapy in the management of colorectal cancer metastatic to the liver.1 Whenever our discipline has been at the crossroads of change, Dr. Cady, clad in his familiar professorial bow tie, has been there on the panel or in an editorial, providing insight and wise counsel.2–4
Dr. Cady is also known as the consummate caring physician and as an outstanding teacher and mentor—qualities that exemplify the goals of our society. In addition to serving as president of the Society of Surgical Oncology, Dr. Cady has been president of the Boston Surgical Society, the New England Surgical Society, the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, and the New England Cancer Society. He has contributed more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, numerous editorial opinion pieces, and more than 90 chapters and review articles during his distinguished career.
Dr. Cady was born in Washington, DC, to Captain John and Elizabeth Cady. He has an older brother, Pete, and together they grew up in Hawaii, where his father was stationed in the US Navy (Fig. 2). Dr. Cady graduated from Amherst College (Amherst, MA) and Cornell University Medical College. After his graduation from medical school, he trained in surgery at the Boston City Hospital (Boston, MA), initially on the Tufts service.
His training in surgery was interrupted by a call to military service, and like his father, Dr. Cady joined the Navy medical corps reserve, where he served on an icebreaker. After his 2 years of service, he returned to Boston City Hospital to complete his training on the Fifth, Harvard Surgical service. After a year as chief resident, Dr. Cady moved to New York City and trained in surgical oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute.
In 1967, Dr. Cady returned to Boston and joined the Lahey Clinic Foundation. In 1981, he was appointed chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology at the New England Deaconess Hospital and professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. In 1997, Dr. Cady moved to Brown University as director of the Breast Health Center, Women and Infants Hospital, Providence, RI.
Dr. Cady has received numerous awards recognizing his many contributions as a leader in the field of surgical oncology, including the prestigious National Distinguished Service Award of the American Cancer Society (Fig. 3). Dr. Cady was the founding editor of Surgical Oncology Clinics of North America.
Despite a busy career, Dr. Cady is known as a superb husband and father. He and his wife, Elizabeth, raised three children: Brian, a graduate of Amherst College; Suzanne, a graduate of Carlton College; and Pamela, a graduate of Colorado College (Fig. 4). Recently he has become the proud grandfather of Nathaniel, born to Suzanne and her husband, Michael.
Dr. Cady is an avid and extremely accomplished sailor. He has twice competed in the Marblehead-to-Halifax race and in the Marion-to-Bermuda race. He has accomplished a transatlantic sail and has circumnavigated Newfoundland (Fig. 5).
There are several quotes from Dr. Cady that help paint the portrait of this man: "a great career," "a wonderful way to contribute," and "satisfaction of helping patients with life-threatening issues of the diagnosis of cancer." As one of Dr. Cady’s admiring colleagues, it gives me a great deal of pleasure to introduce Dr. Cady as the recipient of the 2004 Annual Society of Surgical Oncology Heritage Award.
Received for publication June 2, 2004.
Accepted for publication June 22, 2004.
REFERENCES
- Cady B. Hepatic arterial patency and complications after catheterization for infusion chemotherapy. Ann Surg 1973; 178: 156–61.[Medline]
- Cady B. Staging in thyroid cancer. Cancer 1998; 83: 844–7.[Medline]
- Cady B. Is axillary lymph node dissection necessary in routine management of breast cancer? In: DeVita VT Jr, Hellman S, Rosenberg SA. Cancer: Principles & Practice of Oncology (PPO Updates). Vol. 12. Philadelphia: Lippincott-Raven, 1998: 1–12.
- Cady B. Breast cancer in the third millennium. Breast J 2000; 6: 1–8.[Medline]
