| September 30, 2006 2nd annual Jeanne A. Petrek, MD Breast Cancer Walk Meet and register on the lawn at Lawrence Hospital near the traffic circle by Pondfield West. The walk will take place, rain or shine, on The Bronx River Parkway Path and is approximately 3 miles long. $25 participant fee per family (children welcome). Additional donations are welcome. About the Event The walk is in honor of Dr. Jeanne Petrek, a Bronxville resident, who was tragically struck and killed in April 2005 at a Manhattan street crossing. Dr. Pertrek was an attending physician and surgeon at Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center and world renowned breast cancer researcher. Proceeds from the walk will be donated to a special fund established by Memorial Hospital for the perpetuation of Dr. Petrek's memory and good works. The fund's first goal is to endow a Jeanne A. Petrek, MD Memorial Professorship. Additional donations beyond the registration fee are welcomed. The event will begin with a ribbon cutting ceremony by Jeffrey Duban, husband of the late Dr. Petrek. In addition, The Hope for Change Foundation (www.hopeforchange.org), which supports theatrical programming as a means of offering aid to organizations that are dedicated to the research of breast cancer, will provide entertainment for the walk. In memory of and about Dr. Jeanne A. Petrek, MD Jeanne A. Petrek received her MD from Case Western Reserve University in 1973 and as a fellow at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center as a surgical oncology fellow in 1978. Dr. Petrek then served on the faculty of Emory University School of Medicine and joined the Memorial Hospital medical staff in 1984. At the time of her death in April 2005, she was the Director of the Surgical Program at the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center, and a professor of surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. During her 20 years at the Breast Center, Jeanne treated more than 4,000 women and was committed to providing them not only with longer lives following surgery, but with better lives. Devoting her research efforts to the study of patients' quality-of-life issues, she became an extraordinary advocate on their behalf. Jeanne was a leading expert on pregnancy-associated breast cancer as well as on lymphedema. Another central question she sought to answer was how safe it is for young women to become pregnant after breast cancer. She was close to completing a ten-year study on changes in ovarian function following breast cancer treatment, such as premature menopause and infertility, and the overall effect of these changes on patients' quality of life. The study involved 800 women, 44 years old and younger, who had been treated with chemotherapy. It was the first extensive, prospective study ever undertaken of the safety of pregnancy in such women. Five-year results were presented at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Orlando, Florida, in May 2005. Jeanne was a member of many scientific and medical societies, including the Association of Women Surgeons, The New York Metropolitan Breast Cancer Group, and the North American Menopause Society. She served on the American Cancer Society's Advisory Board for Cancer Detection and Treatment, as Chairman of the American Cancer Society's Medical Content Committee for Breast Cancer, and as a Medical Advisory Board member of the Young Survival Coalition: Young Women Against Breast Cancer. Jeanne also served on several editorial boards, including the boards of Cancer and The Cancer Journal of Scientific American. Her scholarly contributions included more than 200 publications as author or co-author of peer- reviewed papers, books and book chapters, monographs, presentations, and abstracts. Over many years, Jeanne served on numerous Memorial Hospital committees, including the Surgical Quality Assurance Committee and the Surgical Day Hospital Quality Assurance Committee. At the time of her death, she was a member of the Executive Committee of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center Outpatient Breast Diagnosis and Treatment Quality Assurance Committee. Jeanne was beloved by her many patients, and a valued and respected friend and colleague at Memorial Sloan- Kettering, where she played a major role as a clinician, researcher, institutional leader, and mentor during her two decades with the Center. The Chief of Memorial Sloan-Kettering's Breast Service, Patrick I. Borgen, said the following about Dr. Petrek: "Jeanne embodied the very best of what Memorial Sloan-Kettering can achieve. Her warmth, enthusiasm, expertise, and tireless dedication to the improvement of treatment for breast cancer will be profoundly missed." |
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Working Women of Bronxville -- The WWB Network
