Science-based medicine advocate
David Henry Gorski is an American
surgical oncologist and professor of surgery at
Wayne State University School of Medicine .
[1] He specializes in
breast cancer surgery at the
Karmanos Cancer Institute .
[2] Gorski is an outspoken
skeptic and critic of
alternative medicine and the
anti-vaccination movement . A prolific blogger, he writes as Orac at Respectful Insolence , and as himself at
Science-Based Medicine where he is the managing editor.
[3]
[4]
[5]
Early life and education
Gorski attended a
Roman Catholic high school.
[6] He went on to study medicine at the
University of Michigan , earning an MD in 1988.
[7] He entered a residency in general surgery in 1989 at the
University Hospitals of Cleveland . Gorski completed a PhD in
cellular physiology at
Case Western Reserve University in 1994. His dissertation was entitled "Homeobox Gene Expression and Regulation in Vascular Myocytes."
[8] Gorski continued his residency (1993–96) and completed a
surgical oncology research fellowship (1996–99) at
The University of Chicago .
[9]
[10]
Prior to 2005, he was active on the early internet message boards of
Usenet participating in
flame wars .
[6]
Career
In the mid 2000s, Gorski taught surgery as an associate professor at the
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey
[11] and the
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School , at
Rutgers University .
[12]
In 2007 he received the Advanced
Clinical Research Award in Breast Cancer from the
American Society of Clinical Oncology .
[13] He was awarded research grants by
The Breast Cancer Research Foundation in 2008, 2009, and 2010.
[14]
In 2008, Gorski joined the
Wayne State University School of Medicine
[15] and became affiliated with the
Karmanos Cancer Institute .
[12] He is a professor of surgery and oncology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine,
[9] whose laboratory conducts research on
transcriptional regulation of vascular
endothelial cell phenotype, as well as the role of
metabotropic glutamate receptors in breast cancer.
[9] In 2009, he was appointed the cancer liaison physician for the
American College of Surgeons Committee on Cancer.
[16]
He became the co-director of the Michigan Breast Oncology Quality Initiative in 2013.
[17]
[18]
Gorski is listed as a founder of the Institute for Science in Medicine
[19] and as a member of the
American Society of Clinical Oncology .
[14]
Research
Gorski's 1999 article "Blockade of the vascular endothelial growth factor stress response increases the antitumor effects of ionizing radiation", characterizing the effects of
angiogenesis inhibitors on the effectiveness of
anti-tumor therapies , has been cited over 900 times according to PubMed.
[20]
[21] This research has been used in anti-tumor therapeutic research, including an observation that angiogenesis inhibitors enhanced the therapeutic effects of
ionizing radiation "by preventing repair of radiation damage to
endothelial cells ,"
[22] and in determining the potential of combinational therapies to allow reduction of the dosages in toxic conventional treatments
[23] while sustaining tumor regression when combined with specific
antibodies and
radiation therapy .
[24]
Gorski's work with Helena Mauceri and others, published in
Nature in 1998 as "Combined effects of angiostatin and ionizing radiation in antitumour therapy" studied the "combined effects of
angiostatin " (a protein occurring in several animal species) "and ionizing radiation in anti-tumor therapy"
[25] led to investigation into the selective destruction of tumor cells, which according to a 1999 study by Gregg L. Semenza (citing Mauceri and others), "are more
hypoxic than normal cells," allowing for "tumor cells to be killed without major
systemic side effects ."
[26]
In 2008, Gorski and Yun Chen published an article titled "Regulation of angiogenesis through a microRNA (miR-130a) that down-regulates antiangiogenic homeobox genes GAX and HOXA5" that investigated the use of
microRNA to regulate
angiogenesis .
[27]
Skepticism of alternative medicine
Skeptics
Steven Novella ,
Harriet Hall , David Gorski, and
Rachael Dunlop on a panel at The Amaz!ng Meeting 2012
Gorski is a vocal
skeptic of
alternative medicine , known to confront
pseudoscience .
[28]
He has criticized the prevalence of pseudoscience in the medical field including the use of alternative therapies,
[29]
[30]
acupuncture ,
[31]
detoxification ,
[32] and the use of
dietary treatment to manage
autism .
[33]
Blogs
Gorski is a prolific blogger.
[6] In 2004, he began writing a blog entitled Respectful Insolence at
Blogspot under the
pen name
Orac . Respectful Insolence was then moved to the
ScienceBlogs website.
[34]
[35] Alissa Quart, writing for
Columbia Journalism Review in 2010, described Orac as a "self-appointed autism expert" known for attacking the "vaccines-cause-autism set" and who had recently celebrated when an opponent lost their medical license.
[36] In 2015, writing for
Slate , Jacob Brogan said Orac was a "doctor who blogs about skepticism and medicine".
[37]
In 2008 Gorski started blogging at
Science-Based Medicine under his real name while continuing to blog as Orac at Respectful Insolence.
[38]
[39] He was later
doxed as Orac.
[6] As the managing editor at Science-Based Medicine , Gorski has posted on issues of medicine and pseudoscience, including the
anti-vaccination movement , alternative therapies, and cancer research and treatment.
[40]
[41] In 2010, Gorski recounted how members of the anti-vaccine blog Age of Autism wrote to the board of directors at Wayne State University and asked that he be prevented from blogging.
[42]
Writing for
The Atlantic in 2011, David H. Freedman described Gorski as one of the more "prickly anti-alternative-medicine warriors"
[43] and said he was "among a small, loud band of alt-med critics."
[44]
Gorski contributed to the
James Randi Education Foundation 's series of EBooks: Science Based Medicine Guides .
[45] He is a fellow of the
Committee for Skeptical Inquiry .
[46] He was a speaker at
The Amaz!ng Meeting in 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013
[47]
[48] and has been a participant on several panels on alternative medicine.
[49]
[50]
[51] He called attention to a 2005 paper by
John Ioannidis on problems with published research.
[52]
Gorski has advocated for
open research data of
clinical trial results and for only using
evidence-based medicine to treat disease.
[53] He has been critical of
Senator Tom Harkin's support of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), which became the
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health .
[41] He has criticized the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NCCAM for funding and publishing research on unproven therapies not supported by science-based evidence,
[54]
[55] and has commented on
medical ethics and methods of alternative medicine.
[56]
Gorski has criticized popularization of pseudoscience by the media and celebrities such as
Oprah Winfrey ,
[57]
Bill Maher ,
[58]
Ann Coulter ,
[59] and
The Huffington Post .
[60] In June 2013, he expressed support for
healthcare professionals speaking out against poor medical practices and the sale of unproven treatments.
[61] Gorski was interviewed by
WPRR in 2012.
[62] He criticized the
American Medical Student Association for their co-sponsorship of an Integrative Medicine Day.
[63]
In September 2014, Gorski and fellow skeptic
Steven Novella published an article in
Trends in Molecular Medicine denouncing the study of
integrative medicine as harmful to science.
[64]
[65] The following month Gorski also published an article critical of integrative oncology.
[66] Six of his colleagues responded to express concerns with his view on integrative oncology.
[67]
Personal life
Gorski is married.
[6]
[15] His views have gradually shifted from conservative to center-left Democrat.
[6]
Publications
Speyer, Cecilia L.; Nassar, Mahdy A.; Hachem, Ali H.; Bukhsh, Miriam A.; Jafry, Waris S.; Khansa, Rafa M.; Gorski, David H. (4 May 2016). "Riluzole mediates anti-tumor properties in breast cancer cells independent of metabotropic glutamate receptor-1". Breast Cancer Research and Treatment . 157 (2): 217–228.
doi :
10.1007/s10549-016-3816-x .
PMID
27146584 .
S2CID
23986691 .
Welch HG, Gorski DH, Albertsen PC (2015). "Trends in Metastatic Breast and Prostate Cancer—Lessons in Cancer Dynamics". N Engl J Med . 373 (18): 1685–1687.
doi :
10.1056/NEJMp1510443 .
PMID
26510017 .
Gorski D. H. (2014). "Integrative oncology: really the best of both worlds?". Nat Rev Cancer . 14 (10): 692–700.
doi :
10.1038/nrc3822 .
PMID
25230880 .
S2CID
33539406 .
2018 Pseudoscience: The Conspiracy Against Science "Integrative' Medicine: Integrating Quackery with Science-Based Medicine" :MIT Press: edited by Allison B. Kaufman,
James C. Kaufman :
ISBN
978-0262037426
[68]
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External links