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When Your Doctor Is a Rock Star: Oncologists Make Music for Cancer

If there is an upside to having gynecological cancer, it may involve bragging that your doctor is a rock star — and meaning it.

That’s what one giddy patient does in the trailer for an upcoming documentary about N.E.D., a rock band made up of six gynecological oncologists. Short for No Evidence of Disease, N.E.D. began as a way to spice up a scientific meeting. The band subsequently snagged a record deal and worked with one of David Bowie’s former producers on an album, Six Degrees,that was released over the summer. The title is a witty reference to interconnectedness as well as the six medical degrees conferred on the band members.

“Patients feel like we are their band,” says John Boggess, an associate professor of gynecological oncology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who contributes vocals, guitar and harmonica. “They feel the same way we do, that no one is talking about their experience, no one is talking about their cancers.”

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Album: N.E.D. brings their music to a new level with ‘Six Degrees’

This summer, rock group N. E. D. (No Evidence of Disease) reached a major milestone on the road to legitimacy by releasing their first full-length studio album titled Six Degrees. The CD is so named to reflect the interconnectedness of all people by making reference to the proverbial “six degrees of separation” but is also a reference to the fact that all six band members have medical degrees.

N.E.D. is composed of six gynecologic oncologists who want to raise awareness about cancers of the female reproductive organs while also fulfilling their childhood dreams of being rock stars.

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PERSON OF THE WEEK: UNC DR. BAND

Two gynecologic oncology surgeons from UNC Women’s Hospital are preparing for a big debut. They landed a record deal and are about to release their first album.Their band is appropriately titled No Evidence of Disease,” and the money they raise goes to help fight cancer in women.

Click here to listen to a clip

Click here to watch a performance on youtube

“We were first put together as a novelty to play at one of our society meetings. The idea was to sort of lighten up our big conferences,” explained band member Dr. John Boggess.

Boggess and Dr John Sopher make up the group with four other doctors from around the country.

“We all thought about it and thought this could be fun,” Boggess explained. “None of us really knew each other that well so we over the internet put together a song list everybody practiced on their own and we put together 20 cover tunes.”

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Whenever a CD is recorded in support of a noble cause — whether it’s universal health insurance in the United States, combating illiteracy in developing countries, or reducing domestic violence — some reviewers are reluctant to offer an honest critique of the music itself. Understandably, they have a hard time saying anything negative about someone who is, for example, doing a lot to help poor children in Somalia. But in the case of N.E.D., one can both support their cause and their music with a straight face, because this 2009 release is quite solid. The cause that N.E.D. (a band consisting of six board-certified oncologists) are devoting themselves to is raising awareness of gynecologic cancer (that is, cancers of the female reproductive organs, such as ovarian or uterine cancer), and most of their music is best described as folk-rock/adult alternative with a somewhat psychedelic edge.

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William Winter is a Portland-area surgeon who specializes in the often overlooked area of cancers afflicting women. He treats cancers that tend to be especially insidious and deadly. He’s dedicated to raising awareness of ovarian, cervical and endometrial cancers.

And he likes to rock.

Winter may be known in oncology circles for his expertise in women’s cancers, but it’s his role in a new rock band that’s drawing some national attention. Winter, 38, an oncologist at Northwest Cancer Specialists, is the lead guitarist for a band made up of six rocking cancer doctors from around the country.

Their band name alone — N.E.D. — is music to a patient’s ears. It’s doc-speak for “no evidence of disease.”

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