UH Med Now

Pictured: Sandi Portnoy (family photo).

By UH Med Now

It is a rare type of cancer, yet uterine leiomyosarcoma does strike women in Hawaiʻi. This past December, physicians in our State had the opportunity to learn more about the disease from a leader in the field, thanks to the generosity of local attorney and University of Hawaiʻi (UH) Regent Jeffrey Portnoy.

Portnoy lost his wife, Sandi, to the disease in 2016 after a battle she waged with her oncologist, medical professor Dr. Michael Carney, the Kosasa Endowed Professor in Gynecologic Oncology. Her family chose to honor Sandi by assuring that the local healthcare community was familiar with the condition, symptoms, treatments, and work ahead.

Sandi Portnoy (Family photograph)

The Portnoy family funded a lecture that allowed The UH John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) to invite Dr. Kathleen Moore to travel to Honolulu from the University of Oklahoma’s Stephenson Cancer Center, where she is an Assistant Professor Section of Gynecologic Oncology and Director as the Oklahoma TSET Phase I Clinical Trials Program.

Dr. Moore, one of the forerunners in uterine leiomyosarcoma, has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles, serves on the editorial board of four journals and consults with numerous drug companies in the fight to not just find a cure for this rare type of cancer but simply to improve treatments and delivery systems.

“I thought that this was an incredibly meaningful tribute to Sandi Portnoy from her family. Thanks to the generosity of Jeffrey Portnoy, physicians in Hawaiʻi were able to learn more about a type of uterine cancer that is extremely difficult to treat,” said Associate Professor Dr. Bliss Kaneshiro.

Holly Edelstein, Jeff Portnoy, Dr. Michael Carney, Dr. Kathleen Moore and Dr. Jerris Hedges after the lecture.

“Though this type of uterine cancer is rare, it affects multiple women in Hawaiʻi and because of this, has a big impact on their families and the community of which they are a part, said Dr. Bliss Kaneshiro, a JABSOM Alumna and Associate Professor in the Department of OB-GYN. “The community benefits greatly from being able to learn about cutting-edge treatments for this type of cancer. I thought that this was an incredibly meaningful tribute to Sandi Portnoy from her family. Thanks to the generosity of Jeffrey Portnoy, physicians in Hawaiʻi were able to learn more about a type of uterine cancer that is extremely difficult to treat,” said Kaneshiro.

JABSOM is grateful to the Portnoy family for the educational opportunity afforded by the lecture, which was held at the Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children, where the JABSOM OB-GYN department administrative offices are located, and where JABSOM and the hospital jointly train MD Residents to become our future OB-GYN specialists.

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