In the words of one of his patients, Dejan Juric, MD, medical oncologist in the Henri and Belinda Termeer Center for Targeted Therapies, is “the doctor equivalent of [New England Patriot] Rob Gronkowski. He’s a big guy with tons of energy and you know that you’re in great hands.” In the early phases of what will be a long and prestigious career, Dr. Juric is already a pioneer in the rapidly growing field of targeted cancer therapies, advancing the development of new agents against PIK3CA, one of the most frequently mutated oncogenes in metastatic breast cancer and other advanced malignancies. In addition to many other projects, he has developed a rapid autopsy program that allows a team of pathologists and laboratory collaborators to test multiple tumor samples for genetic alterations associated with therapy resistance, expanding working knowledge of cancer biology and providing insight into new treatment strategies.
Colleague Steven Isakoff, MD, PhD, says, “He has been extremely devoted to his patients, giving them all his cell phone number to contact him anytime for any problem. On one occasion, he was supposed to be on a well-deserved family vacation in Vermont but came back to Boston to see a patient coming in for an urgent visit. This type of dedication and devotion to his patients is remarkable and rare, but typical of Dejan.”
Dr. Juric’s clinical director in the Breast Oncology Program, Beverly Moy, MD, shares, “When Dejan agreed to come on staff at MGH, I knew that we had captured lightning in a bottle.”
Watch Dr. Juric in “Cycle of Discovery,” a video shown at the 2014 the one hundred about how researchers are making progress in the fight against cancer. You can also watch all of the evening’s videos here.
