‘He changed medicine’
Late pioneer of thyroid cancer treatment
Paul Walfish, a world-renowned Toronto doctor who pioneered thyroid disease treatments, has died of blood cancer at 83.
Walfish died at Mount Sinai Hospital on Saturday.
He had a prolific career as an endocrinologist at Mount Sinai, where he worked for more than 50 years, transforming health-care practices at both national and international levels.
“He changed medicine,” said Shellianne Bedder Green, a longtime friend and fundraiser.
A scientist and clinician, Walfish was named to the Order of Canada in 1990. He was named to the Order of Ontario, the province’s highest honour, in 2007 for establishing a newborn screening program, a landmark procedure that detects congenital hypothyroidism in infants — a thyroid condition that can cause brain damage, mental disability and growth failure. Since its discovery, the test has been adopted by hospitals around the world.
Bedder Green met Walfish when she was 22 years old and seeking treatment for an overactive thyroid. At the time, she knew little about medicine, but was so impressed with her doctor’s innovative work, she wanted to get involved. She started by donating to Walfish’s research initiatives at Mount Sinai, and was an original committee member of the Da Vinci Gala, an annual event in honour of the Dr. Paul Walfish Research Fund. She is currently chair of the fundraiser, which is going into its 14th year.
Bedder Green affectionately remembers Walfish as “legendary,” recounting a time when she and her husband were vacationing in Phuket, Thailand, and met an American couple who owned a hospital in South Korea. “I mentioned Walfish and they go ‘of course we know who he is!’” she said.
Walfish graduated from the University of Toronto in 1958 where he specialized in internal medicine. He received the McLaughlin Foundation Fellowship and spent a year studying endocrinology at Harvard Medical School. In 1965, he founded the Nuclear Medicine Department at Mount Sinai. He and his colleagues’ first feat was using fine needle biopsy and ultrasound technology on thyroid cysts to detect early stages of cancer. As a result, Walfish discovered that thyroid cysts carry a 30 to 40 per cent risk of cancer, opposed to the previously accepted rate of two per cent.
His other accomplishments include identifying a temporary thyroid function disturbance in six to eight per cent of women who give birth (the condition has since been recognized worldwide as Postpartum Painless Thyroiditis Syndrome); and in collaboration with Dr. Ranju Ralhan, pinpointing a tissue biomarker that helps predict whether certain patients will develop oral cancer.
Since 1983, Walfish has received a plethora of awards, including the Award of Merit from the City of Toronto and the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee medal.
In 2009, he was honoured with the John B. Sanbury Pathophysiology Award, making him the first Canadian to win three awards from the American Thyroid Association.
Bedder Green said that Walfish was proud of his accomplishments and continued his research even in his last months.
“Dr. Walfish’s whole purpose in life was to save lives,” she said. “And he did.”
He is survived by his wife, Sandy, and daughters Lori Chazen and Carolyn Walfish. He was predeceased by daughter Marci Walfish.