New Englander finds Memphis the right base for fight vs. pancreatic cancer

For people living in the Northeast, the end is finally in sight for the brutal winter of 2014-15. Here in Memphis, New England native Stephen Behrman, MD, is not, as one might think, relieved that he missed all that record snowfall, but rather wistful about how he would have enjoyed it.

“That’s the stuff we live for as New Englanders,” he said.

Behrman is a professor of surgery in the division of surgical oncology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. His primary area of expertise is pancreatic cancer. He twice has chosen to locate in Memphis and has spent most of his career here, even though, as he says, “My heart will always be in New England, and I still go back quite often.”

He grew up in Needham, just outside Boston. He came from what he calls a blue-collar family and as a youngster ran track and cross country, played saxophone in the band, had a newspaper route and worked at McDonald’s. After earning a degree in biology at Boston University, he failed to get into medical school on his first attempt, so he took a job as assistant to the anesthesiologist at Shriners Burn Hospital in Boston.

“That gave me a lot of exposure to surgery and kind of confirmed that my passion was surgery and medicine,” he said.

After earning his medical degree at Boston U., he decided it was time to experience life outside New England. For surgery training, he applied to programs in the South. He had an interview at North Carolina on a Monday and at Emory the following Saturday, and so to fill the time in between secured an interview in Memphis almost on a whim.

“I certainly didn’t know much about the program,” he said. “This is where I ended up matching. I feel fortunate that I did train here.”

Still, when he left UT to complete a fellowship in gastrointestinal surgery at Ohio State, he thought he’d seen his last of Memphis. But after career stops in New Hampshire and California, “my old chairman, Dr. (Louis G.) Britt, asked me to come back here to work at the old Baptist downtown in ’97, and I’ve been here ever since.”

Several years later, one of his pancreatic cancer patients, a dentist, Dr. Maurice Petrovsky, introduced him to the family of Herb Kosten, who had recently lost his life to the same disease. Petrovsky’s introduction to the Kostens led to Behrman’s association with the Herb Kosten Pancreatic Cancer Research Foundation – an association that now is about eight years old.

“The unique thing about that family is they had no one involved in medicine at all, and yet when Herb died they really wanted to try to have an impact in our community and make the experience of anyone with pancreatic cancer better and hopefully lead to an ultimate cure,” Behrman said.

Behrman is the foundation’s medical adviser and established the Kosten Foundation Pancreatic Cancer Research Endowment Fund at UTHSC. The foundation’s primary fund-raiser is the Kick It 5K, scheduled for Sunday, March 23.

“The last five years we’ve had about 1,500 runners, making it one of the biggest 5K races in Memphis,” Behrman said. “The best part is that almost everybody who shows up has some tie to pancreatic cancer – either they have a family member with it or know someone who died from it.

“So that whole day, which seems like it would be a somber day, is actually kind of a day of celebration. We have a support group here in town, we bring in an internationally prominent speaker, and the Kostens fund two researchers in the basic science lab that I collaborate with. So it’s been a very rewarding relationship.”

The rising incidence of pancreatic cancer that Behrman has seen in the Mid-South, however, is a source of disappointment, not to mention what the doctor says is a lack of funding and awareness.

“Because of the Kostens, the awareness in our community has gone up,” he said, “but I think many people are still not aware of it until it affects them or they know someone who’s been affected by it.

“What’s almost incredible is that pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal diseases, but it’s one of the least funded by the National Institutes of Health. For instance, breast cancer, which we basically have licked now – the vast majority of people with breast cancer are cured of it – gets the most funding by the NIH. Pancreatic cancer gets the least. It’s not even on the radar screen. So it’s extremely frustrating.”

On the positive side, while a cure is not in sight, Behrman sees advances brought about by identifying gene mutations that occur in people with pancreatic cancer. By screening families, taking cancer tissue and performing gene sequencing, risk assessments can be made.

“I think what ultimately will happen is it will be like many cancers now where we can actually do a blood test, especially with those who might be of higher risk for pancreatic cancer, and see if they have any mutations that we can say, yes, your risk of pancreatic cancer is 50 percent or 70 percent. And at that point we can recommend prophylactically taking over their pancreas.

“That is certainly a ways off, but I think that is going to be the future, because there’s not really a great way to pick it up” in its early stages.

Behrman spends a good portion of his time cooped up indoors, so in his free time he likes to go for runs or work in the garden. When he goes back to Massachusetts, he likes to kayak and bike. His wife, Robyn, a former nurse, is active in volunteering with the Kosten Foundation and other organizations. Their daughter, Caroline, is a senior at the University of Memphis who plans to go to pharmacy school.

And Behrman’s heart, as stated earlier, is in New England, and it was warmed last month when the Patriots won the Super Bowl. The doctor watched the game at a friend’s house “surrounded by Seahawks fans,” who were as distraught as he was thrilled when the Pats scored an improbable, last-minute victory.

“Miracles do happen if one has faith,” he said.