From Lifestyle to Lymphoma: Heather Goff, MD, MPH, Shares Numerous Insights at SDPA Fall 2025

At SDPA Fall 2025 in San Antonio, Texas, medical director Heather Goff, MD, MPH, professor of dermatology at UT Southwestern in Dallas, shared insights from her 3 classes reflecting her various medical and tutorial pursuits, starting from way of life medication and ethics to cutaneous lymphomas.

In her first speak, “Lifestyle in Skin Health and Disease,” Goff emphasised the dermatologist’s distinctive alternative to impression sufferers’ general well being.¹ As many sufferers see their dermatologist extra often than a main care supplier, even small way of life interventions can have broad results on well-being. She highlighted weight-reduction plan, train, and sociability as key determinants of longevity and high quality of life. For people aged 40 to 60, common train, notably resistance coaching, is essentially the most important modifiable issue influencing long-term well being. In older adults, social engagement predicts life expectancy greater than any medical variable, underscoring the significance of group involvement and goal. Dietary steerage ought to deal with complete meals: at the very least half the plate composed of vegetables and fruit, emphasizing unprocessed meals and complete grains for each systemic and pores and skin well being advantages.

In “Ethical Dilemmas in Clinical Dermatology Practice,” Goff explored how moral decision-making extends past medical algorithms.² She harassed the significance of aligning remedy plans with every affected person’s values, objectives, and assist techniques, guaranteeing clear communication when views differ between the clinician, affected person, and household.

Her speak on “Cutaneous Lymphomas: Diagnosis and Treatment” centered on cutaneous T-cell lymphomas, notably mycosis fungoides, a malignancy that may mimic benign inflammatory dermatoses like psoriasis and atopic dermatitis.³ Because these entities share T-cell–pushed immunopathology, longitudinal evaluation and serial biopsies are essential. Goff advocated for preliminary remedies, similar to narrowband UVB, that provide profit throughout differential diagnoses whereas minimizing hurt.

Looking forward, Goff expressed pleasure about advances linking the intestine microbiome, metabolomics, and pores and skin well being, as rising AI and mass spectrometry instruments reveal new weight-reduction plan–illness connections. She mirrored on the dramatic progress in dermatologic therapeutics — from restricted choices 2 many years in the past for circumstances like vitiligo and alopecia areata to at this time’s transformative JAK inhibitors — emphasizing optimism for future breakthroughs, even in difficult ailments similar to mycosis fungoides.

“It’s important to remember that even diseases now that seem sort of full of despair and that there’s no hope or that there’s no real viable therapeutic options…new discoveries are always being made, and it will be exciting to see what the next 20 years have to bring,” Goff concluded.

References

1. Goff, H. Lifestyle in Skin Health and Disease. Presented at: Society of Dermatology Physician Associates Fall 2025 Conference; November 5-9, 2025; San Antonio, Texas.

2. Goff, H. Ethical Dilemmas in Clinical Dermatology Practice. Presented at: Society of Dermatology Physician Associates Fall 2025 Conference; November 5-9, 2025; San Antonio, Texas.

3. Goff, H. Cutaneous Lymphomas: Diagnosis and Treatment. Presented at: Society of Dermatology Physician Associates Fall 2025 Conference; November 5-9, 2025; San Antonio, Texas.