Duke Health

When Bob Blake went to Duke Health for a kidney transplant evaluation, experts discovered blockages in his coronary arteries that put him at risk for a heart attack. Instead of traditional heart bypass surgery, Blake underwent minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting. After a quick recovery, Blake got his transplant. “We probably cut off months of delay that could have prevented him from being a kidney transplant candidate,” said Duke kidney transplant specialist Matthew Ellis, MD. “The sooner we get someone transplanted, the better they do.”

Multi-cancer early detection tests–MCEDs for short–are being touted as game-changers with the potential to change cancer screening and detection within the next 5 to 7 years.

In our ongoing Conversations in Cancer series, Diane Reidy-Lagunes, MD, a medical oncologist at Duke Health, talks to Kevin Oeffinger, MD, founding Director of the Duke Cancer Institute's Center for Onco-Primary Care, and Co-Director of the DCI's Supportive Care and Survivorship Center. He is also the principal investigator at Duke for Pathfinder 2, a large-scale, multi-center clinical trial that has been studying how well these blood tests can detect cancers. 

Learn how these tests work, the benefits and concerns, and who should get tested.

Winston-Salem attorney Erik Harvey spent eight years on dialysis before he was approved for a kidney transplant. On the day he became eligible, his long-time friend and colleague, Elizabeth Lawson, signed up to donate a kidney to him. Thanks to her eagerness and Duke Health’s quick donor testing process, Harvey had a new kidney in just two months. Now, one year later, he’s enjoying life free from dialysis and celebrating his 50th birthday.