Oncology/Hematology

How MRI-guided radiation therapy is changing the paradigm in pancreatic cancer

Conditions

November 14, 2021

I truly believe we’re at the beginning of something great in terms of fundamentally changing how we approach pancreatic cancer, the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States. With a mortality rate of roughly 80 percent, it’s been referred to as a medical emergency, yet minimal progress has been made in its treatment over the past few decades.

In the world of radiation oncology, …

The rise of targeted therapies: the era of the patient-focused approach

M. Yair Levy, MD

Meds

November 12, 2021

There is an urgent need for innovation in cancer treatments. Although we’ve seen significant progress in indications for drugs treating particular diseases, cancer research data shows that 10-year survival statistics for cancers such as esophageal and lung cancer, for instance, have shown only a 10 percent increase, while pancreatic cancer has shown no significant improvement since the 1970s. The implementation of targeted therapies in cancer treatment is an …

Tackling racial disparities in cancer care by creating new ways for institutions to operate

Joseph D. Stern, MD, PhD

Conditions

October 31, 2021

At 84, Emma Shuford found a lump in her breast. After a lumpectomy, she was diagnosed with locally aggressive breast cancer. Her doctors said it was treatable but she needed radiation to help stop it from growing.

At first, she refused. Because of her age and a chronic leg injury, she didn’t feel safe driving to the cancer center. The bus would take 90 minutes each way, and she couldn’t walk …

Breast cancer’s silver lining

Anne Katz, RN, PhD

Conditions

October 19, 2021

In many ways, this woman was similar to other patients I have seen after a diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Her hair was growing back, and I immediately noticed that she was comfortable enough to not be wearing a wig or head covering for our Zoom visit. I keep my hair very short by choice and I find this …

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Breast cancer’s silver lining

How to overcome the roadblocks to getting a medical second opinion

Miles J. Varn, MD

Physician

October 7, 2021

There are many reasons why you should seek a second opinion. A second opinion can help you:

Make sure your diagnosis is accurate, lowering your risk of misdiagnosis and the harms that can cause.
Ensure that you’re choosing an appropriate, evidence-based treatment that has been shown to achieve better outcomes.
Learn about all appropriate treatment options, both medical and surgical, so you can make an informed decision.

One study conducted by …

Culture and end-of-life caretaking

Deepa Iyengar, MD, MPH

Physician

July 7, 2021

Amidst beeping monitors, I sat holding my mother’s frail hand in mine with tears rolling down my face and an eerie silence within my soul. I was trying to make sense of the last 24 hours.

My mother had migrated to Houston after an early retirement at 55 to spend time with her granddaughter and me. But life had other plans, as she was diagnosed with breast cancer a year into …

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Culture and end-of-life caretaking

Happy Father’s Day in heaven

Mildred Perea-Bonet, MD

Physician

June 20, 2021

It sounds like a long time, but it really wasn’t. It was actually a very short period of time. My perspective of time changed with this number. I was close to my 9th birthday when my dad passed. He was only 48, and he had been diagnosed with lymphoma only a few years earlier. He passed after losing his battle to cancer. I remember saying my goodbyes in the hospital …

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Happy Father’s Day in heaven

Love is the strongest medicine

Steven Eisenberg, MD

Physician

May 1, 2021

An excerpt from Love Is the Strongest Medicine: Notes from a Cancer Doctor on Connection, Creativity, and Compassion.

For nearly two decades, I’ve been telling my oncology patients, with only a little irony, Welcome to your new normal. There’s no getting around the fact that a cancer diagnosis—for you or someone you love—is life-changing. Sometimes those changes are temporary (even …

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Love is the strongest medicine

A physician colleague’s gratitude

Mary Leung, MD

Physician

April 7, 2021

There are endless life lessons to learn from people around us. Our friends’ opinions on what they think about a product, a certain cuisine, or how they view life not only gives us a glimpse of who they are, but also can impact our own views. As a doctor, it is always fascinating to me how two patients with the same oncologic diagnosis can have such different views of life: …

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A physician colleague’s gratitude

After all the years of medical training, I learned how to treat ugly on my own

Farhan S. Imran, MD

Conditions

April 6, 2021

We first met about two years ago when she came to see me in my clinic as a new patient. I glanced through her chart and reviewed her scans and pathology reports. She had one of the worst possible kinds of lung cancers, called small cell lung cancer, that had spread to both of her lungs. Her disease was incurable, but I could give her chemotherapy to improve her symptoms …

What I learned from stepping away from medicine for a year

Jennifer Lycette, MD

Physician

March 3, 2021

Before COVID-19, I left the practice of medicine for what would turn out to become an entire year. While away, I found a new way of seeing our hearts and bodies as humans in the medical profession, allowing me to return.

Here are five lessons I learned in the hope they might help others.

1. Perfectionism doesn’t make you perfect

If perfectionism isn’t an unwritten rule in our profession, it’s, at minimum, a …

The adaptive unconscious, the physician, and AI

Saira Nasar, MD

Tech

January 15, 2021

Being an internist, the day is filled with problem-solving. The problems are often not straightforward and require thinking, rethinking, reevaluating, and reading up and researching before the problem can be solved. However, when a sixth sense, an intuition kicks in that warns us that something needs to be addressed urgently even when we cannot specify or articulate why.

Once I had a patient come in for shortness of breath that is …

A letter to my first patient

Lindsay Fleischer

Education

September 1, 2020

It was only my first week in the hospital as a third-year medical student when we met. I entered your room early Tuesday morning. Only knowing your chief concern, I knocked on your door and entered the room. You didn’t complain when I awakened you. You didn’t complain when I asked many questions about a story you had already relayed multiple times to others. You didn’t complain when …

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A letter to my first patient

Where is the line between faith and medicine?

Moses Anthony

Education

August 31, 2020

The long debate about rationality and conformity in both medicine and religion has been intense on many levels. Some people claim science requires certainty, validity, and reliability; others believe faith and optimism are essential for scientific advancement. Some reasons for this argument might include the enormous prosecution of scientists Read more…

Where is the line between faith and medicine?

As an oncologist, this is the hardest role I play

Don S. Dizon, MD

Conditions

July 24, 2020

As an oncologist, perhaps the hardest part I play is as witness. I am there to give a diagnosis that, more often than not, will alter someone’s life forever. For some, I see resignation—a sense that they’ve known something was wrong and that it’s what they thought they had. For others, I see an almost …

Health care workers in the time of COVID: reluctant superheroes?

Ankur Sharma, MD, MPH

Physician

June 7, 2020

Invisible and unassuming, the radioactive spider slowly descends from the ceiling, and before he knows it, Peter Parker’s life has changed forever. With that one bite, he is transformed from a normal man into a reluctant superhero. Only, that infamous spider is COVID-19, and Peter Parker is a health care worker during these troubled times.

It may surprise you to know that many of us in health care are uncomfortable being …

The truth about research: Lessons learned by an aspiring physician-researcher

Sara-Jane Onyeama, MD

Physician

May 27, 2020

Many people looking in on the world of research have perceptions of brilliant minds at work, rapidly putting forth groundbreaking ideas. While they’re not entirely wrong, I discovered that this arena of fascinating new discoveries is not always so rapid and not glamorous at all.

As a clinical trials research associate, I learned that research is hard. I found that testing and implementing theories and postulations takes time and dedication. I …

The medical basis of vampires

Michael Hefferon, MD

Conditions

March 18, 2020

An excerpt from Of Plagues and Vampires: Believable Myths and Unbelievable Facts from Medical Practice.

The concept of a vampire predates Bram Stoker’s tales of Count Dracula – probably by several centuries. But did vampires ever really exist?

In 1819, 80 years before the publication of Dracula, John …

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The medical basis of vampires

Should nurse practitioners complete medical residencies?

Anonymous

Physician

March 1, 2020

About three months ago, something awful happened. The oncology nurse practitioner (NP) whom I trained for the past two years in my subspecialty decided to seek employment elsewhere in order to have a more flexible work schedule.

My team and I lamented we had a going-away dinner to say thank you for her work. And for the next three months, I trudged through my days in a busy oncology clinic, seeing …

The intern who knows everything

Jason Lizalek, MD

Conditions

January 3, 2020

What seems like a tidal wave of pages washes over you. Drowning in a torrential sea of order clarification, bowel regimens, and vital sign deviations — you struggle to stay afloat. Medical school did not prepare you for this. Patients and nurses are calling you, “doctor,” you wish to return to that minimal responsibility role as a medical student.

Welcome to your first on-call weekend.

These first few days, weeks, and months …

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The intern who knows everything