Dr. Laura D. Porter draws on her medical training and her own experience with colon cancer to write with honesty and hope. She shares her story and her medical expertise as a contributing writer for The Mesothelioma Center, the nation's most trusted mesothelioma resource.
Dr. Laura D. Porter is a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Gastrointestinal Steering Committee and a Patient Advocate on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s Colorectal Cancer Screening Panel. She also serves on several American Society of Clinical Oncology committees, including its Cancer Prevention Committee and its Targeted Agent and Profiling Utilization Registry Molecular Tumor Board.
She has reviewed cancer research grants as a patient representative for organizations including the U.S. Department of Defense and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Dr. Porter also served on the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee from 2016 to 2025.
Dr. Porter has served as a co-investigator and patient advocate on OPTIMISTICC, an international colorectal cancer microbiome research team funded through Cancer Research UK’s Grand Challenge program. She also taught patient engagement as a lecturer in the master’s program in health and science management at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
As a cancer survivor and physician, Dr. Porter draws on both her medical and personal experience to offer a unique perspective on cancer treatment and survivorship. Doctors diagnosed her with stage 4 colon cancer in 2003, when she was 43 years old and in the second year of her pediatric residency. They gave her an 8% chance of living 5 years.
A year after her diagnosis, Porter became a Patient Advocate and medical consultant in the colon cancer community. She shared her survival journey and medical expertise online and in print during that time.
Porter later experienced two recurrences, in her ovary, liver, pancreas and abdominal lymph nodes. She went through many rounds of treatment and surgery and doctors declared her cancer-free in May 2006. She continues to serve the broader cancer community today.
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Walter Pacheco has worked at some of Florida's top newspapers, including the Miami Herald and the Orlando Sentinel. He has nearly 20 years of experience writing about breaking news, economic development, medical breakthroughs and technology.
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