In a conversation with The Research Evangelist podcast, Abraham Chachoua, MD, the Jay and Isabel Fine Professor of Oncology in the Department of Medicine and associate director of cancer services at NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, reflects on his career, from his clinical experience treating Kaposi sarcoma in people with AIDS in the early 1980s to discovering his passion for treating people with lung cancer.

Dr. Chachoua, who is also a professor in the Department of Urology and director of Perlmutter Cancer Center’s Lung Cancer Center, recalls being steered toward specializing in lung cancer by a mentor because of the dearth of research and treatments.

“In 1985, nothing was happening in lung cancer, and there was really only one type of chemotherapy that people got,” Dr. Chachoua says. “Today, lung cancer no longer is an area that nobody wants to work in. There’s been an explosion of new and effective treatments.”

Listen to Dr. Chachoua’s entire interview on The Research Evangelist.