Len Zwelling

50 Years Ago Today-2/9/2014 By Leonard Zwelling      Perhaps the most fortunate piece of luck that has ever befallen me was to be born at the right time for music.      Most baby boomers first became aware of popular music at the tail end of the 1950’s when Elvis’ upper torso only shimmied into the […]

The Silence of the Docs By Leonard Zwelling        It has been a fascinating transition to go from the largest and most prestigious academic cancer center in the nation to one of the foremost federally-qualified health clinics in Texas. The fascination stems not from the differences, but from the similarities.        First, you would think

Many Faces, One Shadow By Leonard Zwelling        I have a friend named Stephen Levine. Stephen was a major figure in spiritual teaching, and in the death and dying movement after Kubler-Ross’s writings made it acceptable to die.        Stephen has taught me a great deal over the years. I have even been able to

Fewer Traffic Lanes and Smoking; Both Bad: We Knew That Already By Leonard Zwelling        The Christie controversy deepens, but seems to be hanging on nuance which is always dangerous in political matters. My experience with politicians has always been that they live in a pretty nuance-free zone.  Politics is not rocket surgery and subtlety

Cookies, Cookie-Cutters, Cancer and The Ask By Leonard Zwelling        On January 31, Dr. DePinho published an op-ed piece in the Houston Chronicle entitled “It’s time to renew our efforts in the battle against cancer”. The title alone was shocking. I thought that fighting cancer and making it history was what was already going on

FOB: Follow-on Biologics or Full of Baloney? By Leonard Zwelling        The two links below do a good job outlining the problem.        It will come as no shock to the oncologists out there that biologic agents like proteins and antibodies extracted from living systems like cells in culture are valuable agents in the treatment

Fixin’ By Leonard Zwelling        All my life I assumed that fixing was about repairing something that is broken. The chain on my bike came off; my Dad fixed it. I drove my electric train too fast around a bend in the track and it fell off the table my Dad had built for the

Mixed Emotions By Leonard Zwelling          It is difficult for me to think about MD Anderson. The difficulty stems from all the fond memories of the great people with whom I worked and who taught me so much juxtaposed with an absolute administrative mess that I see engulfing all the good like a rapacious black

WHY HEALTH CARE HAS TO BE A RIGHT I don’t think I could write a more damning piece than this one in today’s NY Times about for-profit hospital chains and the behaviors they incentivize and reward. No business interests should ever come between a doctor and his or her patients and this business arrangement in

Resentment By Leonard Zwelling “Resentment is when you take the poison and wait for the other guy to die”          This is a quote from Carrie Fisher from her one-woman show Wishful Drinking. I was fortunate enough to see it twice for Ms. Fisher is a singular force of Hollywood nature with a pedigree that