Obituary: David Lamb-Candid, meticulous and world-leading cancer doctor

David Steven Lamb, Radiation Oncologist, Professor of Medicine: b May 20, 1951; d April 30, 2021

David Lamb was a precision man.

His attention to detail was well known in the world of medical research and cancer treatment.

Some may argue that it is a prerequisite for a radiation oncologist. However, Ram, who died at the age of 69, was a detailed obsession with all accounts.

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The giant model ship in his practice waiting room on Mount Victoria in Wellington has been meticulously assembled by Lamb and is in favor of it.

The meticulous attention of his work, whether treating the patient directly or in his trials and studies, was his trademark.

Lamb’s research and trials were a decisive part of his medical career.

He is a founding member of the Transtusman Radiation Oncology Group (TTROG) and has worked with Aotearoa and Australian doctors and researchers to find better ways to treat cancer patients.

He was involved in a number of trials, including two highly successful international trials that later focused on prostate cancer.

Lamb’s own experience with cancer as a young man had a major impact on how he served his patients in his later years and his determination to proceed with cancer treatment.

In the last year of the British School of Medicine where he was born, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma.

He took a year from his study to receive treatment. He suffered from many complications and became very ill. The radiation he received in his pelvis to cure his illness saved him.

Patient’s point of view

Ram knew what the experience of the disease would be from the patient’s point of view, as he had cancer himself.

He spoke in layman’s terms so that they could understand their diagnosis, treatment plan and prognosis.

He confirmed that they were considering the side effects of the treatment and its effectiveness, says former colleague Carol Johnson, a radiation oncologist who worked with him for 20 years.

The lamb was also a big picture.

There was a time in New Zealand around 2006-07 when there was a terrible waiting list that caused treatment delays.

Ram tried to make a change at the top.

He was not afraid to oppose the administration.

He talked about improving the delivery of cancer treatments, taking a national approach, caring for and advocating individual patients.

He sought to influence and impress decision makers to improve funding to make resources more available.

“He was very aware that we needed to lift the game together nationwide,” says Johnson.

“He tried to improve access to treatment. He tried to get rid of complacency.

“He asked the Ministry of Health for an explanation.”

Lamb is quoted in thing And many times in the newspaper, he accused the Ministry of Health of unacceptable waiting times and lack of resources and equipment.

In 2006, as Head of Radiology at The Wellington Hospital, he described the waiting time situation for cancer patients as “absolute shame.”

“It is unacceptable to wait more than eight weeks in a civilized country,” when it was reported that cancer patients were waiting more than twice as long as they waited for radiation therapy.

“The amount of excuses cannot justify this kind of waiting time for the treatment of life-threatening illnesses,” he said at the time.

Most recently, Lamb, who had retired by then, spoke out during the blockade of Covid-19 and predicted that there would be a huge backlog of cancer patients.

early life

Lamb was born at the Middlesex Hospital in London and later received medical education.

He grew up in Exeter, southwest England, with his brother and sister.

His father was a doctor and his mother was an artist. The whole family was very musical.

His father made a violin and his brother played an instrument. His sister was a professional viola player.

Lamb played the flute and mastered the flute to the level of participating in the Exceltor Youth Orchestra.

In his first year at Excelter (secondary) school, Ram went home and announced that he wanted to be a doctor.

He never wavered from that decision.

Having cancer, he became interested in treating cancer during his training at Middlesex Hospital School of Medicine.

He contacted during the illness, including Wellington’s radiation oncologist Alangley in the 1970s and 1980s.

It was Gray who offered to apply for a registrar position at The Wellington Hospital.

After a difficult year of treatment, Lamb was looking for a clean break. He got a job and moved to New Zealand in 1978.

Here he met his future wife, Bettina Walker, a cancer nurse at The Wellington Hospital. Together they had two sons, Peter and Andrew.

The couple returned to England in 1980 for three years so that Lamb could undergo his professional medical examination.

While there, he became involved in clinical research at Mount Vernon Hospital in northwest London.

When they returned to Lamb’s position as a radiation oncologist consultant at the Wellington Cancer Center in 1984, he discovered that there were almost no clinical trials involving radiation therapy in New Zealand.

In response to this flaw, Lamb founded TTROG with Australian-based radiation oncologist Jim Denham and Christchurch radiation oncologist Chris Atkinson.

By the end of 2009, 8575 patients had participated in 65 different trials and 74 publications on the TTROG trial had been published in peer-reviewed journals.

His work as a principal investigator in a trial considering radiation therapy for prostate cancer became the headline for this newspaper.

In one of the world’s leading cancer treatment trials at the time, the recurrence rate of prostate cancer was halved and the mortality rate was reduced by a third. Dominion Post report.

Lam said the results of a study conducted between 1996 and 2000 in 801 patients, including 101 in Wellington, were of great international importance.

In 2001, Lamb formed the Wellington Prostate Prostate Prostate Prostate Therapy Group with urologist Gran Trussel and medical physicist Ringraig to treat men with early-stage prostate cancer using permanent iodine-125 seed transplants.

The Prostate Low Dose Rate Seed Program is a curative treatment for early-stage prostate cancer that involves a single insertion of multiple radioactive seeds that irradiate a definitive dose of radiation rather than multiple visits for external beam radiation therapy. ..

This treatment minimized the impact on the patient’s daily life. One night hospitalization, one CT scan about a month later.

Since then, many studies and trials have been conducted on prostate cancer.

His latest treatise on this work has been published in an international journal Brachytherapy In January of this year.

Life isn’t best described in resumes, but Rams is worth mentioning, especially for its huge 20 pages.

He was awarded the Rohan Williams medal while attending the Royal College of Radiologists in the United Kingdom in 1982.

His name appears in 89 publications.

He has been treating patients as a radiation oncologist consultant at The Wellington Hospital for over 30 years. He was responsible for radiation services for 22 years.

He was an associate professor at the University of Otago (Wellington Medical College) and an adjunct professor at Victoria University of Wellington’s Faculty of Biological Sciences.

In the late 1980s, he and two other oncologists founded a fledgling private practitioner at Wakefield and later at Southern Cross Hospital.

He later moved his own private consultant to Mr. Victoria’s home.

Lamb, who was appointed to the New Zealand Order of Merit for Health Services in 2011, was a member of the Mary Potter Hospice Foundation Board of Directors and the New Zealand Cancer Society.

His main interest outside the medical field was trout fishing.

He dreamed of fishing, even when he was seriously ill and sedated badly in the last few weeks. Betina knew this because she was drawing an imaginary line from her hand when she was asleep.

He loved red wine and had too much to store in the cellar.

He likes fast cars and his friends remembered him as a petrol head when he was young. One recalled the roadie to a wedding in Newcastle upon Tyne in northeastern England at an alarming rate.

Treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma in his twenties gave him another 46 years, but the damage it caused to his pelvic area eventually caught up with him.

He was incredibly philosophical about his imminent death.

He knew the end was coming.

He left a more equal playground for his wife, his two sons, and those who fight cancer.

Source: Lamb family.Dominion Post (Nicki McDonald, Ruth Hill), Dr. Carol Johnson