In the 1980s, Dr. Bleyer served as Professor of Pediatrics, Adjunct Professor of Medicine and Radiation Oncology, and American Cancer Society Professor of Clinical Oncology at the University of Washington, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and the Children’s Hospital Regional Medical Center in Seattle. 

In the 1990s, Dr. Bleyer was Chair of the world’s largest pediatric cancer research organization and Chair of the Pediatrics Department at the largest cancer center in the world, the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Before moving to Bend, Dr. Bleyer pioneered the adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer initiative [3,4], which has become a national program [5] adopted by Canada and countries in Europe and Asia [6].  Dr. Bleyer is also a founding member of the LiveStrong Young Adult Alliance and Chair of its Science Task Force.

Since 1999, Bleyer has been named among America’s Top Doctors, and has been a recipient of American Cancer Society’s Partners in Courage Award, the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Distinguished Career Award, and a Fellowship in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Glasgow, Scotland).

During the past three decades, Dr. Bleyer was awarded research grants totaling more than $75 million as a principal investigator from the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, and the Leukemia Society of America. His research has been published in more than 300 peer-reviewed articles, chapters, and books.

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[1] In 2002, Lance’s best friend’s brother was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 28.  Dr. Bleyer, then at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, was his original doctor, as described in Lance’s second book, Every Second Counts, ca. 2003.

[2] Originally Diet, Exercise, Fine Eating, and Thriving

[3] Bleyer WA, O'Leary M, Barr R, Ries LAG (Eds):  Cancer Epidemiology in Adolescents and Young Adults 15 to 29 Years of Age, including SEER Incidence and Survival, 1975-2000. National Cancer Institute, NIH Pub. No. 06-5767, Bethesda MD, June 2006 (205 pages); also available at www.seer.cancer.gov/publications/aya.

[4] Bleyer A, Barr RD, Albritton KH, Phillips M, Siegel S (Eds):  Cancer in Adolescents and Young Adults, Springer Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg New York, 2007, 541 pages, in press.

[5] Closing the gap:  Research and care imperatives for adolescents and young adults with cancer. A report of the Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Program Review Group. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute and the LiveStrong Young Adult Alliance. http://planning.cancer.gov/disease/AYAO_PRG_Report_2006_FINAL.pdf, 106 pages; Closing the Gap: A  Strategic Plan. Addressing the Recommendations of the Adolescent and Young Adult Progress Review Group. Lance Armstrong Foundation, Austin, 2007, 104 pages.

[6] Eden TOB, Barr R, Bleyer A, Whiteson M (Eds):  Cancer and the Adolescent, 2 Ed., Blackwell/BMJ Publishing, 2005, 294 pages.