Nathan I. Cherny, M.D.

Dr. Cherny is head of the Cancer Pain and Palliative Medicine Service at Shaare Zedek Medical in Jerusalem. He studied medicine at Monash University Medical School in Australia where he graduated with high distinction. He completed his fellowship at the Royal Australian College of Physicians in oncology and palliative medicine. During that time he established the undergraduate training program in palliative care at Monash University. He later completed a fellowship in cancer pain and palliative medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

In 1994, Dr. Cherny helped to establish the Oncology and Palliative Medicine Unit at the Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem. He continues to head the Cancer Pain and Palliative Medicine Service and in addition, maintains an active practice in general oncology. Since 1997 he has served on the research steering committee of the European Association of Palliative Care.

Dr. Cherny helped to establish the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Palliative Care Working Group, which he chaired from 2008 to 2013. He led the ESMO initiative to develop policies on the role of the oncologist in palliative care, oncology training for medical oncologists and minimal standards for palliative care in cancer centres. He was instrumental in setting up the ESMO Designated Centres of Integrated Oncology and Palliative Care programme, the premier initiative worldwide for providing a structured model to develop integrated programmes in oncology and palliative care.

Dr. Cherny also spearheaded the European and Global Opioid Policy Initiatives on formulary availability and regulatory barriers to access to opioids for cancer pain, which were published in the Annals of Oncology in 2010 and 2013. The global survey produced the first data of its kind for regions throughout the world and positioned ESMO as an international leader in palliative care.

Most recently, he formulated the idea of developing a scale to evaluate the magnitude of clinical benefit of cancer medicines and served as a member of the ESMO Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale Task Force, whose work culminated in an acclaimed publication in May 2015 was, more recently, updated in September 2017.

In 2007, Dr. Cherny was appointed to the Norman Levan Chair of Humanistic Medicine at Shaare Zedek Medical Centre and in 2008 became associate professor of medicine at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. He has served on the research steering committee of the European Association of Palliative Care and is senior editor of the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Medicine.

Dr. Cherny is a lead coordinator of the ESMO European Consortium Study which aims to provide data on the availability of licensed anti-neoplastic medicines in Europe. He is also editorial director of the ESMO booklet, “A guide for patients with advanced cancer – Getting the most out of your oncologist” which is available in 11 languages.