Portland doctor leads the search for cancer breakthroughs [Video]

PORTLAND, Ore. — For the health care and research fields, cancer has long been a most implacable and deadly foe. But there are advances in the fight against it happening more and more — some of them happening here in Portland, inspired in part by the brilliance of one local doctor.

Brian Druker is a medical doctor who grew up in Minnesota. He went to medical school in California and began his research career there.

In 1993, OHSU recruited Dr. Druker to come to Portland and open a lab focused on targeted therapies for cancers. It was there that he found a compound that would zero in on a genetic mutation in the cells that caused a specific type of leukemia called “CML.”

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