Helmuth Goepfert, MD, Oral History Interview, August 27, 2012
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Description
Major Topics Covered:
- Personal and educational background
- Head and Neck oncology: evolution of; patient experiences of; special challenges
- History of head and neck surgery; evolution into multi-disciplinary team collaboration
- Section of Head and Neck Surgery
- Research: combining surgery with chemotherapy and radiation therapy to preserve laryngeal function
- Interdisciplinary care for head and neck cancers at MD Anderson
Identifier
GoepfertH_01_20120827
Publication Date
8-27-2012
Publisher
The Historical Resources Center, Research Medical Library, The University of Texas Cancer Center
City
Houston, Texas
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Topics Covered
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas System. M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute at Houston, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Recommended Citation
Goepfert, Helmuth MD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Helmuth Goepfert, MD, Oral History Interview, August 27, 2012" (2012). Interview Sessions. 208.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewsessions/208
Conditions Governing Access
Open
About the Interview
About the Interview Subject:
Helmut Goepfert (b. 13 September 1936 in Santiago, Chile) first came to MD Anderson in 1967 as a research fellow. In 1974 he joined MD Anderson as a part-time associate professor (while serving as the first Chief of the Otolaryngology Section in Dept. of Surgery at University of Texas Health Sciences Center Medical School. Dr. Goepfert is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery. He has provided clinical support to clinical research addressing chemoprevention w/ derivatives of Vitamin A and combination therapies and to preserve larynx functionality. He served as Chair of the Department of Head and Neck Surgery from 1982 until his retirement from clinical practice in 2003.
Original Interview Profile: Helmuth Goepfert, M.D.
Submitted by: Tacey A. Rosolowski, Ph.D.
Date revised: 17 June 2014
In this two-session interview of approximately four and one half hours, Dr. Goepfert (b. 13 September 1936 in Santiago, Chile) is interviewed about his long career as a head and neck surgeon. Tacey A. Rosolowski is the interviewer and the sessions take place in August 2012 in a conference room in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery in Pickens Academic Tower on the main campus of MD Anderson.
Dr. Goepfert is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery. He first came to MD Anderson in 1967 as a research fellow. After a number of years spent in Chile and in Europe, he returned to Houston for additional surgical training and in 1974 joined MD Anderson as a part-time associate professor (while serving as the first Chief of the Otolaryngology Section in Dept. of Surgery at University of Texas Health Sciences Center Medical School). He became full professor in 1979. From ’90 to 2003 he held the M.G .and Lillie A. Johnson Chair for Cancer Treatment and Research. He served as Chair of the Department of Head and Neck Surgery from 1982 until his retirement from clinical practice in 2003.
Dr. Goepfert was received his M.D. in 1962 from the Universidad de Chile Medical School in Santiago, Chili. He went to the J.F. Kennedy Hospital in Valdivia Chile for a Residency in general surgery (finished in ’64) and went on to a Fellowship in Surgical oncology and Chemotherapy at UCLA (finished in ’66). In 1967 he came to MD Anderson as a Research Project Investigator and stayed through 1968 as a Senior Fellow in Surgery. After several years overseas, Dr. Goepfert returned to complete a residency in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the Baylor College of Medicine (1974). He joined the MD Anderson faculty in 1974, becoming full time in 1979. He became Chair of the Department of Head and Neck Surgery in 1982. Dr. Goepfert has performed wide ranging services to his field and to MD Anderson. For succeeded R. Lee Clark as Medical Editor of Cancer Bulletin. He chaired a Joint Council of Advanced Training in Head and Neck Oncologic Surgery to accredit institutions nationwide. In 2002 he published and editor of 1st Web based textbook: “Multidisciplinary Care of Head and Neck Cancers.” Dr. Goepfert has received numerous awards, including Presidential Citations from the American Academy of Head and Neck Surgeons (‘93 and ‘94), MD Anderson’s Faculty Achievement Award in Patient Care (’94), the Charles A. LeMaistre Outstanding Achievement Award in Cancer in 1998 and the Distinguished Surgeon Award from the Association of Operating Room Nurses of Greater Houston in 1999. In 2002 a group of his trainees established the Helmuth Goepfert Society, an organization that has sponsored lectures in the field.
In these interview sessions, Dr. Goepfert describes his particular focus on the larynx and how he has devoted his career to studying how surgery can be combined with chemotherapy and radiation therapy to preserve the larynx’s essential functions for a patient. In the process, he Interview Navigation Materials: #23 Helmuth Goepfert, MD, page 5 gives a history of the evolution of head and neck cancer. He gives a very clear picture of the range and complexity of cancers the head and neck and their potential impact on human functions (speech, smell, taste, etc.). He tells some touching stories of how difficult it can be for patients to hear the news that they may lose their ability to speak, for example. Dr. Goepfert gives an overview of the history of head and neck surgery in the United States and enables the listener to grasp the basic need for interdisciplinary care in treating head and neck cancers. He has been an advocate for interdisciplinary care in his field, working with Dr. Gilbert Fletcher in the sixties to combine surgical intervention with radiation therapy, and constantly expanding the range of specialists involved in treating head and neck cancers to insure treatment outcomes that preserve the best quality of life possible for patients. He gives a picture of how this has had an impact on the organization of treatment teams at MD Anderson. He also covers his interest in publishing ethics, education and the educational publications MD Anderson has produced, as well as his post-retirement work with the Physicians Network, a subsidiary of MD Anderson that provides guidelines and credentialing to physicians across the nation.