Edward Chu, director of the Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center, died on Nov. 13 from glioblastoma. He was 66.
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In the most recent issue of The Cancer Letter, Roy S. Herbst, deputy director at Yale Cancer Center, penned an obituary for Chu chronicling the career and impact of the “baritone of reason.”
In this week’s episode of The Cancer Letter Podcast, Herbst sat down with Paul Goldberg, editor of The Cancer Letter, and shared stories about meeting Chu on a sailboat in Rhode Island, exploring Athens, Greece while they were both in town for a meeting, and the eulogies he heard at Chu’s funeral.
Herbst has known Chu for almost 45 years.
“He was just a real amazing human being, scientist, clinical researcher, but also someone who cared about people,” Herbst said on the podcast.
“It hit us all very hard. Many of us have known that Eddie’s been fighting this illness for a while,” Herbst added. “He’s been very much a part of our lives—a friend and mentor to so many. We’re all struck by his passing and sad for his family, friends, and the entire community that lost someone who did so much for cancer patients, for students, and fellows. Just a real tragedy.”
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This episode was transcribed using AI transcription services. It has been reviewed by our editorial staff, but the transcript may be imperfect.
The following is a transcript of this week’s In the Headlines, a weekly series on The Cancer Letter podcast:
Jacquelyn Cobb: Hi everyone. Since we didn’t publish an issue last week due to Thanksgiving break, we have a special episode of The Cancer Letter Podcast for you today. You’ll hear from Roy Herbst, deputy director and chief of medical oncology and hematology at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital, speak with Paul about the late Edward Chu.
Edward Chu, who was director of the Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center, died Nov. 13 from glioblastoma. He was 66.
In our most recent issue, Herbst and a host of Chu’s other former colleagues came together to write about the lasting impact he had on several institutions throughout his career, including Yale, UPMC, Hillman, and Montefiore Einstein.
Enjoy the conversation.
Paul Goldberg: Roy, thank you so much for finding the time to talk with me. I know you’re in England right now at a conference, but I know about you, but I’m sure it’s the same thing with you. I’m finding that the world without Ed Chu is not as fun a place as the world with him, so I’m sure you’re really grieving right now.
Roy Herbst: Yeah, well, it hit us all very hard. Many of us have known that Eddie’s been fighting this illness for a while, but especially for many of us at Yale. Still, many of the faculty here work with him. He was the chief of medical oncology before me. I actually inherited the job from him, his office, some of the faculty.
So, he’s been very much a part of our lives and a friend and mentor and a many So, yes, we’re all struck by his passing and sad for his family and friends and the entire community that lost someone who did so much for cancer patients, for students and fellows. Just a real tragedy.
Paul Goldberg: Well, well, our tribute to him, which you wrote a part of, is the most read story now, and one thing it did not have in it were some of the stories that you told always and repeatedly, thank God. I love hearing them and the stories that he told. And you’ve known Ed longer than anyone in oncology.
Roy Herbst: Well, coincidentally, I’ve known Ed, and I don’t want to date myself, but probably almost 45 years, because life is just coincidences and who you know and where you end up.
But I was a freshman at Yale in 1980. I had no medical background at all, and there I find myself as my random roommate at Yale, a guy named Peter Calabresi, who’s the son of Paul Calabresi.
So, on day one or two of college, I met one of the then and still now most famous oncologists, and being very friendly with Peter, we would go up to Rhode Island on weekends because as many people know, Paul Calabresi was many great things, but he was also a great sailor. And on the boat one weekend I met Eddie Chu and didn’t think much of it back then, but over the years, our lives crossed and certainly the fact that Eddie was at Yale and I came to Yale and he was very helpful to me as I got started, now almost 15 years ago.
And we built upon what he had set up at Yale and medical oncology, and he became a friend, someone that I would see at meetings. Just a few years ago, our families were together at a meeting in Greece and I got to know his wife a bit better and his kids. My daughter got along well with his kids.
He was just a real amazing human being scientist, clinical researcher, but also someone who cared about people, and we miss him a lot and I’m glad that we have a chance to talk a little bit about him and some of the memories we have of him in the things that he did and the people that he impacted.
Paul Goldberg: He always referred to Uncle Paul. That was always one of his more hilarious stories about Paul Calabresi.
Roy Herbst: Well, it’s interesting. At the funeral last week, and I was fortunate, it’s only about an hour and a half from where I live, so I went, Bruce Chabner was there, so of course Eddie had time in Providence, but also at the NCI where he worked with Bruce. And Bruce was his uncle Bruce.
And I guess Paul was either his uncle or maybe a surrogate father because Paul’s parents, sorry, not Paul, but Eddie’s parents, both PhDs worked for Paul Calabresi. They worked with him in Rhode Island and at Yale. So, there’s really a very tight bond, and Eddie really lived a lot of the history, and that’s why I know he’s probably very helpful to you as you’ve been doing your history projects and so forth over the years because Eddie really saw that firsthand.
And he did amazing work in GI cancers, folate metabolism, thymidylate synthase, and other work. And he was the pharmacologist’s pharmacologist. I bet many other people watching this or reading this, probably when they were studying for their boards, used his book or they would bring him into lecture at all the different review courses on cancer for boards because Eddie taught lecture one, two, and three on cancer pharmacology. He really was an amazing cancer doctor, but also pharmacologist.
Paul Goldberg: But he understood cancer centers especially well, that seemed to be almost like his kind of a natural habitat.
Roy Herbst: It’s incredible. I’ve served on several EABs with him. Oftentimes he would be the chair, but he really did understand what was needed, and look at what he did with Montefiore Einstein, an amazing center that’s been around for years, but within three years, he made it a comprehensive center, something that had been tried for many years. He knew what to do.
He also was an amazing writer. People at Yale, we got together over a coffee last week and they would talk about how you would ask any advice, and before you turned your head, he would actually write you a few paragraphs. He was that good a writer and synthesizing ideas. I served on EABs with him where by the time I sent in my critique, he’d already written up the whole program. He just really understood what needed to be done and people relied on him.
And I think that collective wisdom of working on EABs working with cancer center directors, being one himself, has really elevated the entire field, certainly at a time when we needed more than ever, because we’re flying with that knowledge now of how cancer centers is run during this period as we redevelop some of the new methods.
Paul Goldberg: Yeah, well, the trajectory of Montefiore Einstein was really incredible because they went from probation to comprehensive in a very quick time.
Roy Herbst: Right, and you saw that at the memorial service for him, all the people from Montefiore who really respected and will miss him dearly. I was struck by one former Yale resident who ended up doing his fellowship in Houston and then came back and was hired by Eddie.
He was just telling me about the amazing mentorship he got from Ed, and he was working now in breast cancer, but Ed cared about people. He took the time to talk to people, to advise them, to help them.
Not a lot of people do that great anymore and are willing to be generous in that way, and that’s something I remember about him. We used to teach at Vail. I was actually the Vail Clinical Trials course. I was in the very first course many years ago, but over the last decade I would teach there and oftentimes I’d be paired with Ed and it’d be the two of us with a statistician. So, I learned a lot from him. It was really, I’m glad that I got to know him as well as I did.
Paul Goldberg: One of his nicknames was the “baritone of reason.”
Roy Herbst: Yeah, deep voice and a big Bear hug. He was caring, thoughtful, insightful, and it just shows us any of us can be struck by illness, by tragedy, and I guess was amazed by the dignity at which he handled this. I hadn’t talked to him in the last several months, but he was writing a chapter in one of the books that I edit, one of the big medical textbooks, and I said, “Ed, do you want to take a second author?” He goes, “No, I can do it.” I said, “Are you sure you don’t want to have someone else help you?” And to the end, he wanted to keep working. Finally, he did take on some help, but he really wanted to keep doing his work and supporting people as he searched for the best treatments he could find for his disease.
Paul Goldberg: What was his experience with the healthcare system? I don’t even know any of this.
Roy Herbst: Well, I don’t know much, but I can tell you that one of the things that I think all of us that work in the field know is we’re a tight community. We care about everyone. But when one of us gets sick, we all rush to help. And I’ll tell you, I know from the New York metropolitan area, Connecticut, everyone was there to help him advise him. It makes you really realize, Paul, that even when you’re in the top of the field and you know exactly what to do, you really don’t, especially in a disease that’s not that curable or curable at all, you have to weigh different options.
So, I think he got great advice and great care. He was fortunate he had his own hospital, but I’m sure he sought care elsewhere as well. And hopefully in his memory, we do more research into areas like glioblastoma cancers where we’ve made very small progress in recent years, and there are many other cancers similar to that.
So, I can tell you that the way I look at it is work’s not done nearly at all. We have a lot of research to do. We need to do trials. I’m hoping there’ll be a nice symposium and honor sometime next year. I know the people at Einstein are planning to do something for him, and I think that his commitment to cancer research and patient care will certainly come out from that.
Paul Goldberg: Yeah, I think it would be interesting to do an oral history or a series of oral histories of his whole career, but the part that’s really I keep coming back to is the beginning, which is for him, the career begins really at birth or close to it.
Roy Herbst: Yeah. Well, Tommy from Yale spoke at his funeral, and Eddie was born an only child to two scientists who worked with Paul Calabresi. So, I’m sure he got a little bit of a push. My Jewish parents gave me a little push too. I can just imagine how big a push he got. He was obviously quite smart and brilliant, so he was destined to work in cancer research, and I know Paul Calabresi would always, always talk about Ed to me, even though I didn’t interact with him that much over the years. But I know Paul saw him as a son and really mentored him.
And so, he was an oncologist from an early age and had great experiences at great places, and I know he did a lot for us at Yale. I can tell you that Yale Cancer Center now really has grown, and Eddie left right as we were opening our new hospital.
And I remember sitting in his office and he said, “Roy, if you take this job, these are the things that you need to think about. And he helped me to get some support for pharmacology, for translational research. He actually was working on a P01 at the time he left Yale on something called PHY906. It’s a combination of four or five Chinese herbs, and some were skeptical, but he actually, he saw that there were some pharmacological properties in some of these herbs.
They were using it in colon cancer. It helped with some of the side effects. And he actually got a P01, and we actually helped him to take a large part of it to Pittsburgh, which is where he went. And we kept the trial going. Howard Hochster kept the trial going at Yale, so very nice to work with him in that way. And I asked once, “What’s your data for this?” And he said, “Well, we have a great deal of preclinical data and there’s 1800 years of experience with these herbs.”
So, I thought it was very amazing that someone who is really a very analytical basic scientist was willing to look at these alternative type Chinese medicines. And that might’ve been part of his background. He’s very involved with a group called CAHON, the Chinese Oncology Association. And they were quite present at his memorial service as well.
Paul Goldberg: Yeah, no, he and I talked about it when he went to, at one point, I don’t even know, I’ve had so many conversations with him over the years, but he was telling me about the Chinese herbs. Did that ever pan out?
Roy Herbst: I think it’s still ongoing in clinical trial. Tommy Chang is still working on it, and they’re still, they’ve got it funded. So, I think the trials will tell the story, but things like that, you have to study them in an analytical way using scientific rigor. And he was willing to do that along with all the other work that he did.
Paul Goldberg: Yeah, is a very small part of what Ed did. Are there any other thoughts? Any other anecdotes that come to mind?
Roy Herbst: I just think Eddie’s life was quite short, but I think of all that he did in his 60 plus years, you look at people that he interacted with, we appreciate at Yale, the opportunity myself, Mario Sznol, Vince Devita, who remains a friend and mentor to me, I know was a mentor to Eddie.
How many chapters did he write for that textbook or the companion to that textbook? There are many people who feel that we’re very lucky. We had him in our lives, both as a friend and as someone who really mentored many young faculty in the next generation. But I’ll just say on a personal note, it makes me realize, so we saw Eddie two, three years ago in Greece, and we were with a couple of other of our friends, Sarah Goldberg from Yale, Pasi Jänne, a few others.
I remember we went out on a boat in Athens and we really got to know each other, not so much as colleagues working on a textbook or working on a grant, but as friends.
And we had said, “Let’s get together more. We are only an hour and a half away.” He actually lived in New Rochelle, which is where I grew up, and I did make it down there about two years ago, for a grand rounds.
And I had dinner at his house with his wife Laurie, and his son was there, and then he was having a little bit of pain in his neck that day, and he told me the next week he was going in for an MRI. And that was the last time I really saw him. And we talked a bit, but then his life changed and just goes to show, we just have to live each day, even as oncologists, oncology professionals working in the field, just do the very best we can and just remember to spend time with people and talk to people and interact with them and treat them well. And I think his legacy is great man, great scientist, but amazing human being.
Paul Goldberg: Totally. That’s such a nice way of putting it. Thank you so much, Roy.
Roy Herbst: Thanks Paul. And it’s always great. I wish I wouldn’t have to talk to you about this, but thank you for doing what you can for the memory Ed.
Paul Goldberg: Thank you.
Jacquelyn Cobb: Thank you for joining us on The Cancer Letter Podcast, where we explore the stories shaping the future of oncology. For more in-depth reporting and analysis, visit us cancerletter.com. With over 200 site license subscriptions, you may already have access through your workplace. If you found this episode valuable, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and share together. We’ll keep the conversation going.
Paul Goldberg: Until next time, stay informed. Stay engaged, and thank you for listening.
