Observe, Lead, Discover
It may have been fate that Thomas P. Loughran, Jr., MD, was on call the night a patient was referred with an unknown illness in the mid 1980’s. The woman’s symptoms were vague and included a decreased number of normal white cells. As an oncology Fellow at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington, Loughran became something of a detective, using the patient’s blood smear and records of similar patients previously seen at the University to describe a new disease. Timing and tenacity converged and his findings were instrumental in discovering large granular lymphocyte (LGL) leukemia – a new and rare hematologic malignancy. The initial discovery was described in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 1985. “It’s really rare,” says Loughran, who graduated from Ursinus in 1975 with a Biology degree. “We got lucky.” Only 1,000 new patients a year in the United States are diagnosed with LGL leukemia. The disease affects both men and women usually between the ages of 50 to 60 years old. It is a chronic condition found around the world, but more common in the United States. LGL patients now even communicate on an LGL Facebook page. Loughran sees at least two new referrals of LGL patients a week. The infrastructure at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center played a crucial role in allowing him to succeed, he says. “To be successful as a physician-scientist you need institutional support and a strong mentoring system,” says Loughran, who completed his fellowship in medical oncology at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in 1985. Those support systems are continually in jeopardy because of federal funding cuts. His career path has been marked by his commitment to translational research which
has at its core a focus on multi-disciplinary collaboration and practical applications for scientific research. “I’m fascinated by the clinical and genetic connections of LGL and with the research figuring out what causes it. We suspect that the disease could be caused by virus but we haven’t been able to prove it yet.” Loughran will bring his understanding of translational research to his newest role. In August, he began a new position as director of the University of Virginia Cancer Center, F. Palmer Weber-Smithfield Foods Professor of Oncology Research and Professor of Medicine. His keen ability to balance leadership, research and patient care highlighted his career as the first founding director of the Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine at the Penn State College of Medicine. Surrounding himself with the best and the brightest has helped shape his leadership style, says Dr. Loughran. “My objective has always been to hire people who are smarter than I am to work with me. You have to remain optimistic and build a team. You have to be focused on longer goals and metric-driven performances should not be the major focus of your work,” he says. Before Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute, he was program leader of hematologic malignancies at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute at the University of South Florida, associate director of the Bone Marrow Transplant Program at SUNY Health Science Center, and chief of hematology at the Syracuse Veteran's Affairs Medical Center in Syracuse, N.Y. His liberal arts education with its focus on writing and critical thinking continue to serve him in his career. College students today should focus on a broad education, he says. “It’s very important to have a comprehensive, broad background. Students need a strong foundation and the ability to think critically. You never know where the new ideas are going to come from.”
Thomas P. Loughran, Jr., MD, 1975, is the new director of the University of Virginia Cancer Center, F. Palmer Weber-Smithfield Foods Professor of Oncology Research and Professor of Medicine. He was the founding director of the Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine at the Penn State College of Medicine. After graduating from Ursinus, Loughran earned his medical degree from Hahnemann Medical School in Philadelphia in 1979. He completed his Internship and his Residency in Internal Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. As an oncology Fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington, he was instrumental in discovering large granular lymphocyte (LGL) leukemia - a new and rare hematologic malignancy. FALL 2013 PAGE 19