Dr. John F. Potter

John F. Potter, M.D.Director, United States Military Cancer InstituteProfessor of Surgery, Uniformed Services University

USMCI | Walter Reed Army Medical Center | 6900 Georgia Avenue Bldg 1 | Ste A-109Washington, D.C. 20307 | (202) 782-0544 (Phone) | (202) 782-5833 (Fax)E-mail the webmaster

John F. Potter, MD, Director

Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Building 1 #A1096900 Georgia Ave. NWWashington DC 20307

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"There was no evidence of metastatic disease," recalls surgical oncologist John F. Potter, who was on Lombardi's surgical team and is now director of the United States Military Cancer Institute at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. "He made an uneventful recovery—and in eight days was back on the field.
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"The ... course of the disease was amazing," says Potter."I have never seen anything like it, before or since."
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Soon after, Potter was instrumental in Georgetown's establishment of a cancer center named after the coach.Potter served as director of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center for two decades.

by John F. Potter, MD

by John F. Potter, MD

by John F. Potter, MD
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by John F. Potter, MD
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Dr. Potter brings you valuable information on how to protect yourself and those you love from the scourge of cancer.
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Dr. John Potter founded and was the first director of the Vincent T. Lombardi Cancer Center of Georgetown University in Washington DC.He is also Professor of Surgery at Georgetown.He is also a former president of the Association of American Cancer Institutes.He has been awarded the President's Medal of Georgetown University and lives with his family in Maryland.

Headed by John F. Potter, M.D., USU professor of surgery, the Institute functions within USU, WRAMC, National Naval Medical Center and Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, with HJF providing logistical and administrative support.

"If you have a patient who has very little risk of having cancer beyond the primary organ which is going to be removed, it doesn't make much sense to give that person aggressive chemotherapy or radiation therapy," said Dr. John F. Potter, director of the United States Military Cancer Institute."These things have some toxicity in and of themselves."

To help determine what stage a patient's colon cancer is in, Potter said pathologists currently look at lymph nodes present in the mesentery (the structure or membrane that allows blood vessels to flow into the abdominal region).If they don't show signs of cancer, the advantage of putting that patient on chemotherapy is small."In all probabilities they would be offset by the negative toxicity associated with being on chemotherapy.

"The problem is, the way it's done now, the pathologist who looks at the lymph nodes that are in the mesentery will select any that are large and then take some microscopic sections from them," he said."Only about one or two slides would be looked at from each lymph node.The patient could have a very small number of cancer cells in the lymph nodes that no one will be able to see -- "because there are literally billions of cells on the slides.
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"If you have a patient who has very little risk of having cancer beyond the primary organ which is going to be removed, it doesn't make much sense to give that person aggressive chemotherapy or radiation therapy," said Dr. John F. Potter, director of the United States Military Cancer Institute at Walter Reed."These things have some toxicity in and of themselves."

To help determine what stage a patient's colon cancer is in, Potter said pathologists currently look at lymph nodes present in the mesentery (the structure or membrane that allows blood vessels to flow into the abdominal region).If they don't show signs of cancer, the advantage of putting that patient on chemotherapy is small."In all probabilities they would be offset by the negative toxicity associated with being on chemotherapy.

"The problem is, the way it's done now, the pathologist who looks at the lymph nodes that are in the mesentery will select any that are large and then take some microscopic sections from them," he said."Only about one or two slides would be looked at from each lymph node.The patient could have a very small number of cancer cells in the lymph nodes that no one will be able to see -- because there are literally billions of cells on the slides.

John F. Potter, M.D.Professor of SurgeryLombard Cancer Research Inst.Georgetown University