Dr. Talia Golan Leads the Battle to Find a Cure for Pancreatic Cancer

 Dr. Talia Golan finds herself on the front lines of battling pancreatic cancer, hard at work to find the “magic bullet” that could possibly cure several forms of the disease in the near future.

The South African-born doctor made Aliyah to Israel with her parents – prominent physicians in their own right – when she was 13 years old. She started her career at Sheba Medical Center in 2009 as a resident in the hospital’s Oncology Institute.

Today, Dr. Golan is a Medical Oncologist at Sheba’s Gastrointestinal Unit, heads the Sheba Pancreatic Cancer Center and the Pancreatic Cancer Translational Research Laboratory, and serves as the Medical Director of the Early Phase Clinical Trial Unit.

“We are constantly working on new and innovative medicines in collaboration with other hospitals and cancer research units like MD Anderson (at the University of Texas), PMH (Canada) and NYU in

the USA,” said Dr. Golan. “The biggest thing for me right now is working with various research groups to make rapid progress in understanding the biology of pancreatic cancer, in developing early detection mechanisms for the disease, and in discovering new treatment options. Each of these remains a challenge.”

However, they are beginning to see progress. “I believe the changes in the way we treat pancreatic cancer, using new and innovative technologies at our disposal, will result in the emergence of game-changing drugs in the near future,” Dr. Golan added. “These treatments will target the specific gene mutation that causes the cancer, re-engineer it, and eliminate it as a threat.”