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NEWExperts by KevinMDPhysicians and health care experts, by specialty.Shveta GuptaHematology physicianDevin ZarkowskyVascular surgeonKenneth RoInternistEmily WattersPsychiatristAleksandra FilipovicMedical oncologistReuben MathewMed-peds residentRobert MurryFamily physicianKayvan HaddadanPhysiatristPaul HainPediatricianBarbara SparacinoPsychiatristHussain Isma'eelCardiologistAnn LebeckFamily physicianLynn R. WebsterPain medicine physicianAngelika LuehrsConsultant psychiatristBobby DuboisInternistLaurel A. CoonsScientistNathaniel AranaHealth care CEOCraig HaubenHealth care CEOJessica ChalkPatient advocateBrowse experts

Oncology and hematology

2,498 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 6

The Podcast by KevinMD

Living with the uncertainty of surviving stage 4 cancer [PODCAST]

Pediatrician Kelly Curtin-Hallinan discusses her article "My improbable survival of stage 4 cancer." Kelly shares her year-long journey of facing a dire diagnosis, enduring rounds of tests, managing the anxiety of waiting for results, and ultimately experiencing an unexpected recovery…

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Pediatrician Kelly Curtin-Hallinan discusses her article “My improbable survival of stage 4 cancer.” Kelly shares her year-long journey of facing a dire diagnosis, enduring rounds of tests, managing the anxiety of waiting for results, and ultimately experiencing an unexpected recovery with immunotherapy. She reflects on the skepticism she once held …

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Living with the uncertainty of surviving stage 4 cancer [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

How humor helps build trust and connection in pediatric oncology [PODCAST]

Physician-scientist Diego R. Hijano discusses his article "How humor builds trust in pediatric oncology." Diego shares how personal loss and his own cultural and linguistic experiences shaped his approach to care, teaching him that laughter can be a bridge in…

Listen on Apple Podcasts · Spotify

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Physician-scientist Diego R. Hijano discusses his article “How humor builds trust in pediatric oncology.” Diego shares how personal loss and his own cultural and linguistic experiences shaped his approach to care, teaching him that laughter can be a bridge in even the darkest hospital rooms. Through stories of playful exchanges …

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How humor helps build trust and connection in pediatric oncology [PODCAST]

Conditions and diseases

How to choose the right doctor for you

An excerpt from Scary Diagnosis: Navigating Fear, Finding Strength, and Securing the Health Care You Deserve. Doctors are the centerpiece of the health care system. In large part, they have designed it, written its rules, lobbied the government to support…

An excerpt from Scary Diagnosis: Navigating Fear, Finding Strength, and Securing the Health Care You Deserve.

Doctors are the centerpiece of the health care system. In large part, they have designed it, written its rules, lobbied the government to support it financially, and, through doctor-friendly regulation, they are its main financial beneficiaries. For most patients, their doctor is not just the centerpiece of a huge system; they represent the entire …

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How to choose the right doctor for you

Real physician voices, twice a week

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Conditions and diseases

Why mild and female hemophilia must be recognized

People living with inherited bleeding disorders (including those with mild and moderate hemophilia and females affected by hemophilia) face persistent unmet needs that are often overlooked in clinical research and treatment guidelines. About twenty percent of mild hemophilia cases experience…

People living with inherited bleeding disorders (including those with mild and moderate hemophilia and females affected by hemophilia) face persistent unmet needs that are often overlooked in clinical research and treatment guidelines. About twenty percent of mild hemophilia cases experience serious bleeding episodes, challenging current assumptions of their benign course.

Unmet needs

Diagnosis and awareness: Patients with mild and moderate hemophilia often face a delayed or missed diagnosis, leading to unrecognized and …

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Why mild and female hemophilia must be recognized

Conditions and diseases

My invisible illness destroyed my marriage

I never expected that iron deficiency anemia would change the course of my life. I felt off. Tired in a way that sleep could not fix. Foggy, weak, emotionally distant. At first, I thought I was just worn down from…

I never expected that iron deficiency anemia would change the course of my life. I felt off. Tired in a way that sleep could not fix. Foggy, weak, emotionally distant. At first, I thought I was just worn down from work and the daily grind. I was not myself, physically, mentally, or emotionally.

Eventually, I was diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia, a condition many associate with mild fatigue or simply “not …

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My invisible illness destroyed my marriage

Physician voices

When cancer costs too much: Why financial toxicity deserves a place in clinical conversations

Cancer care has long been associated with physical, emotional, and psychological hardship. But for many patients, a quieter burden (the financial strain of treatment) shapes their experience in equally profound ways. Increasingly referred to as financial toxicity, this form of…

Cancer care has long been associated with physical, emotional, and psychological hardship. But for many patients, a quieter burden (the financial strain of treatment) shapes their experience in equally profound ways. Increasingly referred to as financial toxicity, this form of distress is emerging as a key determinant of cancer outcomes. Yet it remains under-recognized in day-to-day clinical care.

The high price of staying alive

Financial toxicity describes the economic hardship caused by …

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When cancer costs too much: Why financial toxicity deserves a place in clinical conversations

Conditions and diseases

Universities must tap endowments to sustain biomedical research

American medical schools and universities once led the world in biomedical discovery, in large part due to federal funding. Public investment in science helped eradicate polio, unlock the human genome, and develop life-saving treatments for diseases once considered death sentences.…

American medical schools and universities once led the world in biomedical discovery, in large part due to federal funding. Public investment in science helped eradicate polio, unlock the human genome, and develop life-saving treatments for diseases once considered death sentences. But that era of reliable federal funding is ending under the current White House administration – and America’s research enterprise is at risk of going with it.

Over the past decade, …

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Universities must tap endowments to sustain biomedical research

Conditions and diseases

My improbable survival of stage 4 cancer

I have always despised the trope of the patient who pulls through against all odds, despite all evidence to the contrary. Yes, diagnoses can shift and treatment plans evolve, but the ultimate trajectory rarely strays far from the original suspicion.…

I have always despised the trope of the patient who pulls through against all odds, despite all evidence to the contrary. Yes, diagnoses can shift and treatment plans evolve, but the ultimate trajectory rarely strays far from the original suspicion. Still, I understand why those stories resonate.

As a resident, I cared for a teen who got a night off from treatment to get married, and another who went to prom …

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My improbable survival of stage 4 cancer

Physician voices

Love, birds, and fries: a story of innocence and connection

I like quails. They resemble sparrows but are slightly larger. Quails are relatively quiet and easy to keep since they cannot fly much, unlike sparrows. They have a good lifespan as well. Since childhood, I have raised many quails, and…

I like quails. They resemble sparrows but are slightly larger. Quails are relatively quiet and easy to keep since they cannot fly much, unlike sparrows. They have a good lifespan as well. Since childhood, I have raised many quails, and I currently have two that I bought in 2023.

The quails have aged significantly, and the male has plucked many feathers from the female’s body. As a result, there are bald …

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Love, birds, and fries: a story of innocence and connection

The Podcast by KevinMD

How to safely undergo IVF with von Willebrand disease [PODCAST]

Renowned fertility specialist Oluyemisi (Yemi) Famuyiwa discusses her article, "When bleeding disorders meet IVF: Navigating von Willebrand disease in fertility treatment." She explains that von Willebrand disease (VWD), the most common inherited bleeding disorder, affects up to 1 percent of…

Listen on Apple Podcasts · Spotify

Listen and followApple PodcastsSpotifyYouTubeMore apps · Browse all episodes

Renowned fertility specialist Oluyemisi (Yemi) Famuyiwa discusses her article, “When bleeding disorders meet IVF: Navigating von Willebrand disease in fertility treatment.” She explains that von Willebrand disease (VWD), the most common inherited bleeding disorder, affects up to 1 percent of the population and poses unique challenges for women undergoing fertility …

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How to safely undergo IVF with von Willebrand disease [PODCAST]

Conditions and diseases

How health care branding can unintentionally stigmatize patients

I first grasped the disconnect between health care professionals and the public while designing a brochure for a cornea donation campaign. My original concept featured a young boy smiling, wearing an eye shield—an approachable image meant to encourage public participation.…

I first grasped the disconnect between health care professionals and the public while designing a brochure for a cornea donation campaign.

My original concept featured a young boy smiling, wearing an eye shield—an approachable image meant to encourage public participation. But the overseeing specialist rejected it. He insisted instead on a clinical close-up of a post-surgical eye, sutures and all. To him, it represented medical success. To potential donors, it was …

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How health care branding can unintentionally stigmatize patients

Physician voices

What a dying patient taught me about compassion in silence

I remember a night during my first year of residency in oncology when I was on call. It was after midnight, and I was sitting at the ward counter. I often struggle to sleep during night shifts, especially when I'm…

I remember a night during my first year of residency in oncology when I was on call. It was after midnight, and I was sitting at the ward counter.

I often struggle to sleep during night shifts, especially when I’m the only doctor on call. I prefer to stay at the counter because I dread the thought of some terrible thing happening and not being able to reach the ward in …

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What a dying patient taught me about compassion in silence

Physician voices

From participants to partners: Rethinking clinical trial design

Clinical trials are the cornerstone of progress in cancer treatment. Yet, paradoxically, the very patients these trials are designed to help often face the greatest obstacles to participation. While the concept of "patient-centered" clinical trials has been around for years,…

Clinical trials are the cornerstone of progress in cancer treatment. Yet, paradoxically, the very patients these trials are designed to help often face the greatest obstacles to participation. While the concept of “patient-centered” clinical trials has been around for years, more than 20 percent of U.S. clinical trials fail to accrue a sufficient number of participants, forcing them to fold.

Why aren’t patients enrolling in clinical trials?

While there have …

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From participants to partners: Rethinking clinical trial design

Physician voices

Why the heart of medicine is more than science

Take a moment—not just to see where you are, but to remember how far you've come. Through obstacles that once felt impossible. Through stress that nearly broke you. Through moments when the weight of it all made you question everything.…

Take a moment—not just to see where you are, but to remember how far you’ve come.

Through obstacles that once felt impossible.

Through stress that nearly broke you.

Through moments when the weight of it all made you question everything.

But still—you kept going.

Because medicine isn’t just a job. It’s a calling.

And here, decisions aren’t just professional—they’re life and death.

You meet people at their most vulnerable, in their most intimate realities.

There’s no room for …

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Why the heart of medicine is more than science

Drugs and prescribing

FDA delays could end vital treatment for rare disease patients

The FDA is failing rare disease patients. I'm one of them. I've been on elamipretide for three years now. It is the only treatment that has made a meaningful difference in my life with primary mitochondrial myopathy—a degenerative genetic condition…

The FDA is failing rare disease patients. I’m one of them.

I’ve been on elamipretide for three years now. It is the only treatment that has made a meaningful difference in my life with primary mitochondrial myopathy—a degenerative genetic condition that impairs how my cells convert food and oxygen into energy. Mitochondria provide over 90 percent of the energy our bodies need; when they fail, the highest-demand tissues—like muscle, brain, and …

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FDA delays could end vital treatment for rare disease patients

Physician voices

Why screening for diseases you might have can backfire

An excerpt from A Return to Healing. Patients often ask me to do whatever tests are necessary to make sure they don't have cancer or any other really bad diseases. It's called screening: Look for diseases before patients exhibit symptoms,…

An excerpt from A Return to Healing.

Patients often ask me to do whatever tests are necessary to make sure they don’t have cancer or any other really bad diseases. It’s called screening: Look for diseases before patients exhibit symptoms, then fix the problems before they can rear their ugly head. Many of my patients believe that they have had their lives saved this way, always by a caring and …

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Why screening for diseases you might have can backfire

Health policy

U.S. health care leadership must prepare for policy-driven change

I am trapped in a circadian rhythm that I cannot escape from. I think it started when I finished my residency. And to make matters worse, this week it felt like I was also trapped in the series Squid Game.…

I am trapped in a circadian rhythm that I cannot escape from. I think it started when I finished my residency. And to make matters worse, this week it felt like I was also trapped in the series Squid Game. I awake about an hour before first light (sometimes as early as 4:30 a.m.) and almost instantly fall asleep about an hour after dusk if I am laying down. No …

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U.S. health care leadership must prepare for policy-driven change

Conditions and diseases

What the research really says about infrared saunas

As someone who believes in a healthy amount of social media consumerism — just enough to stay inspired without drowning in every new trend — I recently found myself intrigued by a wellness practice that kept resurfacing on my feed:…

As someone who believes in a healthy amount of social media consumerism — just enough to stay inspired without drowning in every new trend — I recently found myself intrigued by a wellness practice that kept resurfacing on my feed: infrared sauna. Beyond the polished posts and glowing endorsements, my curiosity was also fueled by my background. As a cancer doctor, and someone who genuinely believes in the impact of …

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What the research really says about infrared saunas

Conditions and diseases

Earwax could hold secrets to cancer, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease

Most of us think of earwax as a nuisance–something to be cleaned out and discarded. But, did you know that this sticky substance is a natural part of your body that can reveal information about your health? If you regularly…

Most of us think of earwax as a nuisance–something to be cleaned out and discarded. But, did you know that this sticky substance is a natural part of your body that can reveal information about your health?

If you regularly clean your ears at home, it’s worth a second thought. Although a part of general hygiene, overdoing it–or using hairpins, toothpicks, and other pointy tools–can do …

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Earwax could hold secrets to cancer, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease

Conditions and diseases

What a dying patient’s handshake taught me about life and love

I was working in my oncology ward as usual when I received a call from the medical ICU to evaluate a patient. The patient was a young male who had been admitted a few days earlier with severe respiratory distress.…

I was working in my oncology ward as usual when I received a call from the medical ICU to evaluate a patient. The patient was a young male who had been admitted a few days earlier with severe respiratory distress. His workup raised suspicion of a possible malignancy (cancer). This was the information provided to me by the doctor in the ICU.

When I entered the ICU, I met a young …

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What a dying patient’s handshake taught me about life and love

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