The 2024 Seay Lecture will be given by Elizabeth Comen, M.D. Dr. Elizabeth Comen, M.D., has dedicated her medical career to saving the lives of women. Though women comprise 50% of the population, their health is often overlooked, misunderstood, and met with derision as mere “bikini medicine.” This blatant disregard often leads to life-threatening consequences in the form of delayed or inaccurate diagnoses that could have been avoided had doctors taken their patients’ concerns seriously. An award-winning, internationally sought-after clinician and physician-scientist, Dr. Comen works to bring women’s health out of the shadows and into the light. She is an Associate Professor of Medicine at NYU and a medical historian.
Dr. Comen’s first book, a USA Today bestseller, is titled All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women’s Bodies and Why It Matters Today. Praised in a starred review by Publishers Weekly as “meticulously researched and conveyed in lucid prose,” it “fascinates and outrages in equal measure.” In a world where women weren’t required to be included in clinical trials until 1993 and heart disease symptoms common in women are still called atypical because they don’t often present in men, All in Her Head works to right the wrongs of centuries of what Comen calls “insidious incuriousity” about women’s health. Part medical history, part holistic reintroduction to women’s bodies, part call-to-action, the book reminds us that women are not small, “hysterical” men ruled by hormones.
Recognized for her compassion and easy-to-comprehend communication with patients, Dr. Comen is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the Department of Defense Breakthrough Award for Breast Cancer, the American Society of Clinical Oncology Young Investigator Award, and multiple grants from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Susan G. Komen Foundation, among others. Her research has been published in prestigious scientific journals, including Nature, Cancer Cell, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and The Journal of National Cancer Institute. Chosen as a Castle Connolly Top Doctor in New York since 2017, she has also been featured as a New York Magazine Top Doctor multiple years in a row.
Dr. Comen has appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, The View, ABC News, NY1, Wall Street Journal online, Fox News, and in other media outlets, such as the New York Times, Elle magazine, and Self magazine. A tireless advocate for women’s healthcare, she has mentored many students throughout their academic and medical careers with the goal to empower patients with the tools they need not just to survive, but thrive.
She earned her BA in the History of Science from Harvard College and her MD from Harvard Medical School, then completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and her fellowship in oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
This annual lecture series takes place during lunch as part of the GASCO Annual Meeting.