Until the mid-1970s, only about 10 percent of men with metastatic testicular cancer survived. Dr. Einhorn’s work has since changed this outcome dramatically, and today over 80 percent survive. His position at a university with a major urologic surgical center allowed him access to large numbers of patients who sought surgical cures for testicular cancer. Many of those who were not cured surgically entered his chemotherapy program. In a phase II trial, he added the experimental drug cisplatin to standard therapies, vinblastine and bleomycin. The results of this drug combination were described as astonishing. So astonishing, that the treatment became one of the few instituted after only a phase II trial.
Dr. Einhorn’s subsequent studies involved investigating how to reduce the severe toxicity associated with cisplatin therapy, how to lower the duration of treatment, and the value of antiemetics in patients on chemotherapy. Physicians often achieve lasting fame for curing one famous patient. In Dr. Einhorn’s case, that patient was Lance Armstrong who survived stage 3 metastatic testicular cancer through Dr. Einhorn’s treatment. His clinical research in recent years has focused on urologic, lung and other adult cancers. An influential faculty member who has mentored many students, he has received numerous awards recognizing his teaching abilities.
Career Highlights
2012 Distinguished Alumni Award in Achievement, University of Iowa
2012 AACR-Joseph H. Burchenal Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cancer Research
2003 Master of the American College of Physicians
2001 Elected Member, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC
2001 Elected Member, American Philosophical Society
2000 President, ASCO
1996 Presidential Medal of Honor, Indiana University
1992 Charles F. Kettering Prize, General Motors Cancer Research Foundation
1990 David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award and Lecture, ASCO
1989 Distinguished Clinician Award, Milken Foundation
1989 First Willis Stetson Award, University of Pennsylvania
1986 Gottleib Award, MD Anderson Cancer Center
1981 AACR-Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award
1968 MD, University of Iowa