Speech-Language Pathologist, Head and Neck Site Group, Oncology Program
Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre, Canada
Marlene Carno Jacobson is a clinical speech-language pathologist and practice-based researcher in head and neck cancer, working within a vibrant interdisciplinary team setting at Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Centre, a Regional Cancer Centre in Toronto, where she was charged with establishing clinical and research roles for speech-language pathology in the oncology setting. She obtained her PhD from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, in 1986. Her doctoral thesis, entitled, “Speech Intelligibility and Articulatory Dynamics of Reconstructed Oral Cancer Patients”, examined the impact of extensive surgical resections and groundbreaking reconstructive procedures in individuals speaking African languages (with the unique distinction that these languages contain challenging click consonants).
She is affiliated with University of Toronto, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, Graduate Dept. of Speech-Language Pathology, where she designed an inaugural master’s level academic course in head and neck cancer for speech-language pathologists. She is passionately interested in the functional impact of innovative oncologic treatment procedures and approaches (including head and neck surgery, radiotherapy, and medical oncology therapies) on upper aerodigestive tract anatomy and physiology, functional and psychosocial outcomes, and issues surrounding survivorship, and the patient’s experience, including long-term and late effects of cancer treatment. She is deeply committed to interdisciplinary collaboration, communication, and care to achieve optimal functional outcomes and quality of life for her patients.
