Dr. Nair’s Full-Circle Moment With Jefferson Health and LVHN

As Physician in Chief at Lehigh Valley Topper Cancer Institute, Suresh Nair, MD, has helped bring life-changing and lifesaving treatments to people facing cancer. In his area of specialization, melanoma care, Dr. Nair led clinical trials at Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) that ultimately resulted in immunologic treatments, such as nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy), being approved for the treatment of melanoma and many other types of cancer.

Dr. Nair’s passion for cancer care, and particularly for guiding care for people facing melanoma, was fostered through his medical school training at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. As Jefferson Health and LVHN join together, Dr. Nair recalls his journey into medicine, his training at Jefferson and his optimism for the future of care with these two organizations working in concert.

Though I was strongly considering M.I.T. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and had scholarship funding, my parents were concerned about the costs. So, I explored a pre-med and medical school program jointly offered by Jefferson and Penn State – a program still in place today – where, at that time, you could earn both your bachelor’s and medical degrees in five years.

I will never forget the day of my interview. At age 17, my concerns were less about the interview, and more about how I looked. I had expressed my desire to my dad about getting a new suit, but he did not give in. He said, “Suresh – this isn’t a modeling contest. They are picking you for your brains, not your beauty.”

That day I learned that SAT scores and high school grades only got candidates in the door for the interview. What truly inspired me was discovering that Jefferson was actually looking for compassion, empathy and caring in their future physicians. These values resonated with me and were ever-present throughout my training.

During clinical rotations, I was drawn to internal medicine because I enjoyed getting to know patients, diagnosing and treating them. My interest in pursuing oncology, and specifically melanoma care and research, was sparked by Michael Mastrangelo, MD, a physician who is still on the Jefferson faculty today.

I remember Dr. Mastrangelo as an optimist, especially in his work on melanoma vaccines. When anticipating the future of melanoma care, he once told us, “We are going to crack the code of how to harness the immune system to beat cancer!” Forty years later, we see results of that optimism. Our program at Lehigh Valley Topper Cancer Institute has cured 50 stage 4 melanoma patients. That was an impossible dream back then, but Dr. Mastrangelo knew science would eventually make hope and cure possible.

My training led me to two health systems, but it was an invitation to join Lehigh Valley Health Network that allowed me to build our melanoma program and become Physician in Chief of Lehigh Valley Topper Cancer Institute. My Jefferson roots undoubtedly made this possible.

Reflecting on the journey of my life, I feel immense love and gratitude for Jefferson. My training and career are thanks to Jefferson and a program that took a chance on a high school kid from York County.

My inspiration to care for melanoma patients and research new ways to cure them is directly thanks to Jefferson.

I believed the final arc of this circle was having the honor to hood my son, Jacob, when he graduated from Thomas Jefferson University last year and he embarked on a family medicine residency.

However, now, I have a chance to continue forging ahead in partnership with my medical school alma mater. That is truly the stuff of dreams and a full-circle moment for me. I often think of my late father and how proud he would be to witness this moment too.

Jefferson and LVHN are driven by a shared mission to help people in the communities we serve. Together, we will provide an even greater level of care, including more specialists and more innovative approaches to patient care.

We will prioritize discovering new ways to care and cure. We truly are coming together for the future of health care, and it’s right here in our hometown.

As someone who knows how exceptional both organizations are, I am excited to see the future that Jefferson and LVHN will forge together and how it will positively impact the lives of generations to come. I can’t wait to be part of this remarkable journey.