He became Medical Director of the Alexander J. Walt Comprehensive Breast Center at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in 2010 and was appointed co-director of the Michigan Breast Oncology Quality Initiative in 2013.[9][10]
Gorski's article "Blockade of the vascular endothelial growth factor stress response increases the antitumor effects of ionizing radiation", characterizing the effects of angiogenesis inhibitors on the effectiveness of anti-tumor therapies, has been cited over 900 times according to PubMed.[15][16] This research has been used in anti-tumor therapeutic research, including an observation that angiogenesis inhibitors enhanced the therapeutic effects of ionizing radiation "by preventing repair of radiation damage to endothelial cells,"[17] and in determining the potential of combinational therapies to allow reduction of the dosages in toxic conventional treatments[18] while sustaining tumor regression when combined with specific antibodies and radiation therapy.[19]
Gorski's work with Helena Mauceri and others, published in Nature as "Combined effects of angiostatin and ionizing radiation in antitumour therapy" studied the "combined effects of angiostatin" (a protein occurring in several animal species) "and ionizing radiation in anti-tumor therapy"[20] led to investigation into the selective destruction of tumor cells, which according to a study by Gregg L. Semenza (citing Mauceri and others), "are more hypoxic than normal cells," allowing for "tumor cells to be killed without major systemic side effects."[21]
His article with Yun Chen "Regulation of angiogenesis through a microRNA (miR-130a) that down-regulates antiangiogenic homeobox genes GAX and HOXA5" investigated into the use of microRNA to regulate angiogenesis[22] led to research by Jason E. Fish's group at the University of California, San Francisco, into the use of microRNA to regulate blood vessel development, and thus limiting tumor growth. Citing Chen and Gorski's research, Fish wrote that "several broadly expressed microRNAs regulate in vitro endothelial cell behavior, including proliferation, migration, and the ability to form capillary networks", and sought to describe the in vivo functionality of a specific set of microRNAs and their targets; the group was able to isolate a particular microRNA (miR-126) as the most highly enriched in endothelial cells.[23]
Skepticism of alternative medicine
Gorski is a skeptic of alternative medicine. In 2004, Gorski, under the pen name Orac, began writing a blog entitled Respectful Insolence at Blogspot and it was moved to the ScienceBlogs website two years later.[24][25] In 2008 Gorski used his real name when he started blogging at Science-Based Medicine (he continues to use Orac for Respectful Insolence[26][27]). He is currently their managing editor, and has posted on issues of medicine and pseudoscience, including the anti-vaccination movement, alternative therapies, and cancer research and treatment.[28][29] Gorski recounted how in 2010 members of the anti-vaccine blog Age of Autism wrote to the board of directors at Wayne State University and asked that he be prevented from blogging.[30]
Gorski has criticized popularization of pseudoscience by the media and celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey,[48]Bill Maher,[49]Ann Coulter,[50] and The Huffington Post.[51] In June 2013 Gorski said he supported healthcare professionals speaking out against poor medical practices and the sale of unproven treatments.[52] Gorski was interviewed by WPRR in 2012.[53] He called the co-sponsorship of Integrative Medicine Day by the American Medical Students Association "quackademic medicine" and was described by the pro-CAM science writer David H. Freedman among: "prickly anti-alternative-medicine warriors."[54] In 2014, Gorski and fellow skeptic Steven Novella published an article denouncing the study of integrative medicine as harmful to science.[55][56]
In January 2020, Gorski analyzed a 2020 review of systematic reviews ("Acupuncture for the Relief of Chronic Pain: A Synthesis of Systematic Reviews") concerning the use of acupuncture to treat chronic pain. Writing in Science-Based Medicine, Gorski said that its findings highlight the conclusion that acupuncture is "a theatrical placebo whose real history has been retconned beyond recognition." He also said this review "reveals the many weaknesses in the design of acupuncture clinical trials".[57]
Publications
Speyer, Cecilia L.; Nassar, Mahdy A.; Hachem, Ali H.; Bukhsh, Miriam A.; Jafry, Waris S.; Khansa, Rafa M.; Gorski, David H. (4 May 2016). "Riluzole mediates anti-tumor properties in breast cancer cells independent of metabotropic glutamate receptor-1". Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. 157 (2): 217–228. doi:10.1007/s10549-016-3816-x. PMID27146584.
Welch HG, Gorski DH, Albertsen PC (2015). "Trends in Metastatic Breast and Prostate Cancer—Lessons in Cancer Dynamics". N Engl J Med. 373 (18): 1685–1687. doi:10.1056/NEJMp1510443. PMID26510017.
Gorski D. H. (2014). "Integrative oncology: really the best of both worlds?". Nat Rev Cancer. 14 (10): 692–700. doi:10.1038/nrc3822. PMID25230880.
^Dvorak, Harold F. (1 November 2002). "Vascular Permeability Factor/Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor: A Critical Cytokine in Tumor Angiogenesis and a Potential Target for Diagnosis and Therapy". Journal of Clinical Oncology. 20 (21): 4368–4380. doi:10.1200/JCO.2002.10.088. PMID12409337.
^Mauceri, Helena J.; Hanna, Nader N.; Beckett, Michael A.; Gorski, David H.; et al. (16 July 1998). "Combined effects of angiostatin and ionizing radiation in antitumour therapy". Nature. 394 (6690): 287–291. Bibcode:1998Natur.394..287M. doi:10.1038/28412. PMID9685160.
^Brayton, Ed (host) (14 August 2012). "Dr. David Gorski and Mike Farrell". Culture Wars Radio. WPRR, Public Reality Radio. Archived from the original(podcast) on 13 November 2012. Retrieved 16 June 2013.