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By
ZACK PALMER Like most people who work long hours, Dr. Jose Acostamadiedo loves his job but enjoys time away to occasionally pursue other hobbies and interests. However, Acostamadiedo does not spend his leisure time on the golf course or coaching Little League. In fact, his hobby is a little out of the ordinary - he moonlights as a professional tournament angler. And
what makes Acostamadiedo's second passion even more out of the ordinary
for someone who lives in the western part of the state, is that
as a professional angler, he does not race around small lakes trying
to catch largemouth bass. Acostamadiedo participates in the World
Billfish Series, where he and his team scour the Atlantic Ocean
for white marlin, blue "I love being a doctor, but being an oncologist sometimes can be very emotionally draining,"says Acostamadiedo. "I find that the energy to fulfill my job comes from my patients." "But aside from loving my work and my patients, I also love fishing," he adds. "Some people are not lucky enough to have a job they love. Others are not lucky enough to have a hobby they truly enjoy. I am blessed, not just lucky, to have both." Acostamadiedo, who was born and raised in Barranquilla, Colombia, is the attending physician at Northwest Piedmont Hematology/Oncology in Elkin. He is also an instructor of internal medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Northwest
Piedmont Hematology/Oncology is affiliated with Wake Forest University
Baptist Medical Center. Acostamadiedo works as a consultant in hematology
and oncology at Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital, and he works closely
with the primary care physicians who refer patients with hematologic If they didn't refer patients to me, I wouldn't have many patients to do my job with," Acostamadiedo says with a chuckle. He works especially close with Dr. Robert Peterson, a thoracic surgeon who sees most of the patients with lung cancer that come through Hugh Chatham Hospital. The
fact that Acostamadiedo is in tight communication with the other
faculty members of the Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest
University provides a great advantage to all of his patients, but
especially those with lung cancer. Since his fellowship, Acostamadiedo
has had a special interest This program brings together a team of doctors from a number of different medical and surgical specialties related to thoracic oncology each week to discuss the management of cases brought before them. This format allows many opinions to be weighed so that a patient can receive the best possible diagnosis and treatment recommendation in a single afternoon. "There
are very few of these programs around the country," With all he does in the field of medicine, most days Acostamadiedo says he gets so busy with work that he will not leave the office until 8 p.m. So with a grueling schedule during the week that affords him very little free time, most people would expect Acostamadiedo to take up a hobby that would allow him to relax and enjoy his time away from work. Time for relaxation, Acostamadiedo says, is sparse while fishing in offshore marlin tournaments, but the satisfaction of hooking and landing a 400-pound blue marlin and spending time with friends and family who share a similar interest is, indeed, an enjoying time away from work. "There is nothing quite like these tournaments," Acostamadiedo says. "I have been marlin fishing since I was in medical school in Colombia, yet it's still a rush to see one of these beautiful creatures and know that you are not only competing against other fishermen, but also Mother Nature and the fish you are trying to catch." So far, this year has been very productive for Acostamadiedo and his teammates on the Hammer Time, a 47-foot fishing boat. They have placed in several tournaments and ended up seventh overall in the North Carolina Governor's Cup Series. They are also in the process of recruiting Bobby Sauls, who is the standing World Champion of Billfishing. This
year several of Acostamadiedo's fellow crew members may accompany
Sauls to the Grand Championship in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in November,
but Acostamadiedo probably won't go. Yet somehow, splitting time between his duties as a doctor, fisherman, husband and soon-to-be father was simply not enough for Acostamadiedo. That is why he started the "Catch Cancer...Before It's Too Late"program to provide free skin cancer screenings to anglers, captains and mates at certain World Billfish Series tournaments. "The incidence of melanoma in the U.S. population is one in 74 right now," says Acostamadiedo. "Malignant melanoma is reaching almost epidemic proportions, and its incidence is increasing faster than most other cancers over the last 10 years. Fishermen and people who have chronic exposure to the sun, like captains and mates, are at the most risk." The main focus of the program is to raise the awareness of melanoma and skin cancer in the general community, and also to impact the overall survival for high-risk individuals through early detection. "The public has a misconstrued concept about skin cancer," says Acostamadiedo, "and since it is generally treatable they tend to neglect their care, thereby neglecting the early diagnosis and possible treatment of malignant melanoma which could save their lives." Preliminary screenings for the "Catch Cancer...Before It's Too Late" program were done at the three largest tournaments of the Billfishing circuit in North Carolina, and Acostamadiedo and his staff screened approximately 140 people. The initial analysis of this effort showed that melanoma and the lesions that often serve as a precursor to melanoma are much more common in the high-risk group of professional fishermen. "It is well known by the American Cancer Society and the American Academy of Dermatology that screening the whole population is not cost-effective or feasible," Acostamadiedo says. "Screening a high-risk population is the way to do it, so I came up with screening the fishing community and it has already paid off." Acostamadiedo says that the implementation of this program would not have been possible without the collaboration of the American Cancer Society. Additionally, Acostamadiedo credits the large number of dermatologists who volunteered to help in the screenings. "The
ACS has been very supportive since the beginning," Acostamadiedo
says. "They provided the manpower and logistical help to make
this program a reality, and they recently awarded me a Community
Development Grant to help implement the program. If
it hadn't been by the encouraging words of Phillip Gregory, the
Regional Cancer Control Director who has been working with me since
the beginning, I don't know if I would have pursued this any further,"
says Acostamadiedo. "I thought they were going to tell me that
I was crazy even though I knew I But the success of the first screenings has given Acostamadiedo hope that the program will pay large dividends in the future, and he already has plans to do more screenings at several upcoming World Billfish Series tournaments. "The
program has already gained much support," says Acostamadiedo.
"Right now we are screening only at selected tournaments, but
eventually I would like to establish screenings at every tournament.
We already have requests "It's a lot of work," Acostamadiedo says, "but it is a labor of love. I just pray that God gives me the energy to continue with this, and I know He will continue to bless me as He always does." So with the new "Catch Cancer...Before It's Too Late" program under way, it appears Acostamadiedo will now have one more difficult task to juggle in his hectic life. But,
like everything else he has done so far, it is sure to be a
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