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Jeffrey White, M.D.
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Dr. White is the Director of the Office of Cancer Complementary and Alternative Medicine at NCI. Dr. White oversees research in complementary and alternative medicine as it relates to cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and symptom management.
Dr. White received his M.D. from Howard University and completed internal medicine, hematology, and medical oncology training at the Washington Hospital Center. He is board certified in internal medicine and medical oncology.
Jeffrey White, M.D.
What got you interested in research?
My undergraduate work was in engineering physics, and it was a very laboratory-intensive kind of study. When I made the transition to medicine, I maintained that interest in science and research. The medical school I went to, Howard University, was very much grounded in the clinical side of medicine, so I made sure to seek out research opportunities wherever I could find them. In fact, I started the summer after my freshman year by doing a summer research program in which I worked in the lab studying estrogen receptors in breast cancer, and that was the beginning of my active medical research.
What got you interested in medicine after being in physics?
I guess you could say I have eclectic interests, and as I was progressing through my engineering degree, I decided that I really wanted a career that incorporated as many of my major interests—including nutrition and health—as possible. It became apparent that engineering wasn't the path that could do that, so I started to explore medicine.
Did you ever see yourself as being a traditional practitioner, or did you always know that you would pursue an academic or a research-oriented career, combining your two interests?
The transition to medicine was radical for me in a lot of ways. I was very interested in the clinical side of medicine—all of it, from psychiatry to surgery—but with regard to a practice, I don't think I ever really thought that I would pursue a career only as a practicing physician. I liked the idea of discovery, of developing new findings, and being involved not just in the practice of what had already been established as a standard of care, but in trying to ask new questions and coming up with new answers.
What got you interested in the alternative and complementary medicine field that you're now responsible for?
It was really the continuation of my interest in nutrition that led me to this position. It had been a sustained interest since my undergraduate days, but I hadn't found a lot of outlets for it in conventional medicine.
Do you feel like there is growing acceptance of complementary and alternative medicine?
Yes, I think there's been more acceptance and interest in it, from both practitioners and researchers, predominantly in interventions that address supportive care, which would include many of the mind-body approaches and spirituality issues, as well as some of the physical therapy-related things like massage.
Do you think that cancer, in particular, lends itself to looking into these types of alternative and complementary protocols?
I think because of both the challenge of the disease and the management of the patients, there is a natural connection there. Within cancer therapeutics, for example, we have found some conventional cancer therapeutics out of traditional medical systems, such as traditional Chinese medicine.
What's the most exciting thing going on in your office right now?
One of our core research activities is looking more deeply at traditional medicine, and we're working right now on a very exciting medicine, an herbal mixture that comes out of traditional Chinese medicine, with a biochemist at Yale, Dr. Yung-Chi Cheng. He's studying this mixture, which is over 1000 years old, in combination with chemotherapy in animal models of cancer and starting to explore some of the mechanisms by which it seems to diminish the side effects—and also improve the effectiveness—of certain chemotherapeutic agents. It's exciting to get to see it at the very early stages as it's starting to unfold.
Since your school wasn't research-focused, did you have mentors along the way who helped you?
Oh yes, I can think of at least four: Dr. Suresh Mohla, in whose lab I worked the summer after my freshman year; he's now here at NCI. Dr. Jack White, the head of Howard's Cancer Center was my faculty advisor and was just great to me. The cancer center director who came behind him, Dr. Kenneth Olden—who went on to be the director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences—was also a great mentor. Finally, Dr. Warren Ashe, who was the dean of research at Howard, was also a great mentor; his enthusiasm about research was infectious.
What advice would you give to a minority med student interested in research?
That first summer program I participated in really affected my entire career, so I would certainly say look for those opportunities. They may not be all that well publicized, so you might have to do a little digging. Go talk to the dean of research at your school and tell him or her what it is that you're trying to figure out.
Also, don't be so locked into a particular idea or area of research that you don't end up getting a good experience because you can't find one that really fits exactly what it is that you think you want to do. In research, there are so many transferable experiences.
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