Viraj Master Appointed to Editorial Board of NCI's PDQ
May 2019
Viraj Master, MD, PhD, has been appointed to the Cancer Integrative, Alternative, and Complementary Therapies Editorial Board of PDQ (Physician Data Query), the National Cancer Institute's online, comprehensive source of cancer information. PDQ contains detailed summaries on a wide range of cancer topics; drug information summaries on many cancer-related drugs and drug combinations; dictionaries of general cancer terms, drug terms, and genetics terms; and a directory of professionals who provide genetics services.
PDQ has six editorial boards, which produce and maintain the evidence-based cancer information summaries. The Cancer Integrative, Alternative, and Complementary Therapies Editorial Board consists of experts in the fields of oncology, pharmacology, natural products, drug discovery and development, traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, and homeopathy. The Board also contains representatives from the cancer patient community. The Board meets quarterly to write and update information summaries on integrative, alternative, and complementary therapies for cancer.
The various topics in the integrative summaries range from antineoplastons to the use of various foods and dietary supplements for reducing the risk of developing prostate cancer or for treating prostate cancer, and come in both health professional and patient versions. The health professional versions contain background information about the treatments; a brief history of their development; information about their proposed mechanism(s) of action; and information about relevant laboratory, animal, and clinical studies. The patient versions are written in lay language and include glossary links to definitions of scientific terms. All summaries are also available in Spanish.
Dr. Master is considered a national expert in the surgical treatment of kidney cancer and prostate cancer. As the director of clinical research for Emory Urology, he is actively investigating both the role of inflammation in cancers and host (patient) interaction with the disease. He has lectured both nationally and internationally; is closely involved in teaching and mentoring medical students, urology residents, and post-graduate fellows; and has authored more than 150 scientific journal articles and multiple book chapters.
