The immediate news is that President Trump has nominated Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Nicole Saphier to be the next U.S. Surgeon General. Saphier is a radiologist and is the director of breast imaging at MSK Monmouth, which is a location in New Jersey. Saphier seems to be most known for her commentary in Fox News. In covering the nomination, the STAT staff took a little time yesterday morning to look at some of Saphier’s opinions.
Most of what I saw on cancer hews pretty close to established guidelines (like mammography after age 40). What stood out was Saphier’s approach to the rise of early-onset cancer. In some of her opinion writing, Saphier appears to endorse this idea of having children at an earlier age to reduce breast cancer risk. That’s something that I would anticipate as being controversial. Though, she adds in this op-ed that what society needs are policies that provide access to things like affordable, healthy foods and safe housing. That might imply a belief in a social safety net to make it possible for people to have children earlier.
Having read only a little bit about Saphier, this raises some questions about what kind of Surgeon General she might be and what kinds of lifestyle, health, or medical advice and guidelines she would provide the American public. To me, it’ll be interesting to see if as Surgeon General she would depart from established guidelines to advice things like not delaying having children and try to influence culture or policy in that way, if she tackles cancer at all.
Can’t believe it’s already (and somehow only) May.
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