Lance Dell, M.D.

Student, Radiologist, Philanthropist

In 1975, a student fresh out of high school arrived at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center to participate in a summer program designed to introduce promising students to the research environment and to career possibilities in biomedical science. Lance Dell, that Texas high school graduate, thought he wanted to be a dentist, but by the end of the summer his life had taken a new turn thanks to his experiences at M. D. Anderson and his association with Dr. Michael Ahearn, Dean of the School of Health Sciences.

Dr. Ahearn remembers Dell. “He was an outstanding student, and I was proud to be his faculty mentor that first summer.” He tells the following story to illustrate the special potential that Lance exhibited from the beginning of their acquaintance.

The Student Surprises the Professionals

“All students in the Cancer Center's program are required to complete a research project and present the results to faculty and students at the end of the summer program. Under my supervision, Lance completed a project in the area of electron microscopy. Not long after this experience at M. D. Anderson, Lance saw a call for abstracts for the Annual Meeting of the Electron Microscopy Society of America and submitted his summer project, "A New Technique for Light and Electron Microscopic Study of Spinal Fluid Cells in a Mono Layer." The meeting's program committee selected his paper and invited him to be a platform speaker at their annual meeting in Miami. I’m certain they had no idea that they were inviting an eighteen-year-old student. He was probably the youngest presenter they ever had,” said Ahearn.

The Radiologist—Motivated to Help

Dell went on to study medicine and become a radiologist. He credits the three summers he spent at M. D. Anderson with motivating the satisfying choices he has made in his professional life. In 2001, the gratitude he had felt for many years began to spill over and touch the lives of subsequent students in the summer program. When he asked Dr. Ahearn for suggestions, he was told that a renewable emergency loan fund for students would fill an immediate and future need. Many students who might have dropped out have been able to complete the program with the help of emergency loans from this fund.

The Philanthropist— An Endowed Scholarship in the School of Health Sciences

When that fund became self-sustaining, he looked for another way to help. In 2004, he created The Dell Family Scholarship Fund for the School of Health Sciences at M. D. Anderson as a special tribute to his parents who have always been a positive motivating force in his life. The endowment will provide scholarships for students in the institution's new baccalaureate program. This is one of the first scholarship funds to be endowed for the degree-granting program, which has just celebrated its fourth commencement. Dr. Dell hopes the scholarship will be given each year to a student in need who will make a contribution in the field of health sciences. “I’m just repaying the kindness and guidance I received,” says Dell.

Philanthropy comes in all sizes and can target patient care, research, prevention or education. M. D. Anderson Cancer Center works with donors to make the gift meaningful for the donor while at the same time serving the program needs of M. D. Anderson.