Doctors & Staff
The CPC Team: Caring for you is what we do best.
The Cancer Prevention Center (CPC) Team includes nurse practitioners, who work in close collaboration with and under the direction of Dr. Therese B. Bevers, medical director of the Center. Dr. Bevers and the nurse practitioners plan and coordinate the care of all CPC patients.
Nurse practitioners are specialists in the fields of cancer prevention education, cancer screening, diagnosis and health promotion.
With seven decades of combined years of experience, our CPC Team nurse practitioners are highly skilled health care professionals who have completed extensive training to identify and diagnose many types of cancer, including skin, breast, cervical, ovarian and prostate. Additionally, they are specially trained in women’s health issues and in identifying people at risk of developing cancer.
In addition to being on staff in the Cancer Prevention Center, our nurse practitioners hold joint faculty positions at The University of Texas School of Nursing. They help train physicians and nurses in the field of cancer screening and early detection, and lecture nationally and locally at training and educational conferences and seminars.
Qualifications include earning a masters degree in nursing and being nationally board-certified. This involved advanced training and testing, which must be successfully completed before earning the title of nurse practitioner.
Therese B. Bevers, M. D.
Medical Director, Clinical Cancer Prevention
Medical Director, Prevention Outreach Programs
Associate Professor
Dr. Bevers is Medical Director of the Cancer Prevention Center and Prevention Outreach Programs. Dr. Bevers is actively involved in clinical trials focused on breast cancer prevention and detection. She is the institutional principal investigator (PI) for the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project multi-center Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR) for the Prevention of Breast Cancer. Under her direction, M. D. Anderson is one of the leading centers in patient randomization to STAR. In addition, Dr. Bevers is a collaborator in the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial and has been responsible for overseeing the daily clinical management of these clinical trial participants since 1996. She is the PI of a pre-clinical laboratory protocol to evaluate the role of serum, plasma and urine lysophospholipids and related compounds in the detection of breast cancer, and is the co-PI of a validation study of a serum marker panel for the early detection of breast cancer in high-risk women.
Selected Publications
Bevers T. Diagnosis of Palpable Breast Masses. In: Singletary SE, Robb GL, ed. Advanced Therapy of Breast Disease. B.C. Decker, Inc., Hamilton, Ontario, pp. 73-82, 2000.
Bevers T. Primary Prevention and Screening for the Early Detection of Breast Cancer. In: Hunt KK, Robb GL, Strom EA, Ueno NT, ed. Breast Cancer. M.D. Anderson Cancer Care. Springer-Verlag, New York, pp. 21-54, 2001.
Vogel VG, and Bevers T, Editors. Handbook of breast cancer risk assessment: Evidence-based guidelines for evaluation, prevention, counseling, and management. Jones and Bartlett Publishers, Sudbury, Mass, 2003.
Bevers T. Breast Self-examination. In: Singletary SE, Robb GL, ed. Advanced Therapy of Breast Disease. B.C. Decker, Inc., Hamilton, Ontario, in press.
Elise D. Cook, M.D.
Associate Professor
Elise D. Cook, M.D., is a family practitioner in the Cancer Prevention Center and serves as the institutional principal investigator for the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT) and as chair of the national Minority and Medically Underserved Subcommittee for SELECT. She is also chair of the Prostate Cancer Committee for the Houston chapter of the American Cancer Society and serves on the Executive Board of the National Black Leadership Initiative on Cancer. Dr. Cook received a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from Purdue University, her medical degree from the University of California at San Francisco and completed her residency at The University of Texas Medical Branch. She is also an ABFP Diplomat and Ross Award recipient for Clinical Excellence in Family Medicine.
Selected Publications
Mitchell MF, Tortolero-Luna G, Cook E, Whittaker L, Rhodes-Morris H, Silva E. A randomized clinical trial of cryotherapy, laser vaporization, and loop electrosurgical excision for treatment of squamous intraepithelial lesions of the cervix. Obstetric Gynecol, 92(5):737-44, 1998.
Visiting Physicians
The CPC specialists also include visiting physicians from other M. D. Anderson departments.
Dermatologists
Susan Chon, M.D.
Carol Drucker, M.D.
Sharon Hymes, M.D.
Cancer Prevention Center
Charles A. LeMaistre Clinic
Box 336, 1515 Holcombe Blvd.
Houston, Texas 77030
(713) 745-8040 or 1-800-438-6434
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