Dr. Edward Soffen's role as one of New Jersey's star radiation oncologists was not the starring role to which he originally aspired. From an early age, Dr. Soffen was attracted to the bright lights of Broadway. He was very active in theater productions while in college and was recruited in his senior year by a talent scout to come to New York for a series of auditions for parts on the big stages that line the Great White Way. After three years of being passed over for Tony Award nominations, Dr. Soffen decided that his talents could be better showcased in a different venue. He applied to and was accepted to the Temple University School of Medicine. The Medical School provided him not only with the opportunity to display his medical knowledge to appreciative patients but also gave him the chance to direct and star in the Broadway-type show that the school produces each year.
Over the next thirty years, Dr. Soffen has devoted most of his energy to the care of cancer patients, but on occasion, he still feels the call of the stage. He has appeared in local theatrical productions, and he even earned a spot as an extra in an episode of Sex in the City. He is renowned for marrying his love for performing with his medical talents when called upon to deliver a scientific lecture. He has been known to spice up these lectures with a song or an impersonation of a famous character, and his audiences love it.
While he no longer associates with famous actors on a daily basis, he has had the opportunity to provide medical care to a few movie stars among the thousands of patients that he has cared for during his career. He treats all kinds of cancers, including cancers of the breast and lung, but his particular interest is the treatment of prostate cancer. He has traveled around the world giving lectures and proctoring other doctors in the latest techniques for prostate cancer treatment. He is one of the very few radiation oncologists in the country who is skilled in the use of every radiation option for prostate cancer, including advanced treatment techniques such as Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT), Image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), proton beam therapy, radioactive seed implants, and high-dose-rate prostate brachytherapy.
He was one of the co-investigators who pioneered the use of SpaceOAR gel to reduce injury to the rectum from radiation. He is one of the principal investigators in two National Cooperative Group studies comparing conventional radiation with proton beam radiation for prostate cancer (the PARTIQoL and COMPPARE studies). He co-authored a revolutionary paper on the use of prostate seed implants as a highly successful salvage treatment for men whose cancers recurred after conventional external beam radiation and were told by other doctors that there were no curative options available to treat such a problem.
Dr. Soffen's Astera Health Care group is one of the few groups in the United States involved in a trial of a new biodegradable balloon to protect the rectum during prostate cancer radiation treatments. The balloon is filled with saline, inserted into the patient, and biodegrades after six months. This trial has closed to the accrual of patients, and the results will soon be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for their approval.
Dr. Soffen enjoys finding solutions to problems that bother and bewilder other people, not only in his efforts to discover new treatment options but even in his efforts to overcome the obstacles that the Covid pandemic has placed in the path of virtually everyone. When he couldn't travel to see his newborn grandson, this dedicated family man searched for an RV that would not only let him travel to Green Bay, Wisconsin in safety but would also allow him to continue to care for his patients via telemedicine.
Dr. Soffen has always felt that medicine is both a "science and an art" and he has felt privileged to try to bring the two together in his years of practice as a radiation oncologist.