Cancer Stories: The Art Of Oncology

Listen to ASCO’s Journal of Clinical Oncology essay, “I Want to Kill You” by Dr. Noelle LoConte, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. The essay is followed by an interview with LoConte and host Dr. Lidia Schapira. LoConte shares her experience of a patient's threat to kill her and her reflections on how health care can be improved. TRANSCRIPT Narrator: I Want to Kill You, by Noelle K. LoConte, MD (10.1200/JCO.22.02896)  My patient threatened to kill me. I was in the middle of a busy medical oncology clinic. I was seeing her to discuss test results 1 week after I told her I was concerned that her cancer had returned. As I suspected, the test confirmed recurrent cancer, and this time, it was incurable. I walked into the room to share this news with a woman who I had been seeing for about 3 years. I had been her oncologist since she was first diagnosed with stage III cancer and saw her through surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy. I had met her childre

Listen to ASCO’s Journal of Clinical Oncology essay, “Mrs. Hattie Jones” by Dr. Eric Klein, fellow at Stanford's Distinguished Careers Institute. The essay is followed by an interview with Klein and host Dr. Lidia Schapira. Klein shares the mystery of why Mrs. Hattie Jones might have died when she did. TRANSCRIPT Narrator: Mrs. Hattie Jones, by Eric Klein, MD (10.1200/JCO.22.02405) That Hattie Jones died was not unexpected, but why she died when she did has been a mystery for more than 40 years. It was late summer and she’d been hospitalized for several weeks when I met her, as it were. In the era before a palliative care subspecialty was established, patients with incurable cancer like Mrs Jones were admitted for inevitably long hospital stays characterized by slow declines in form and function, managed by trainees like me, the least experienced and least expert on the team. The chief resident on the service, burly and gruff, brought us into her private room early on the first day of my rotation on the color

Listen to ASCO’s Journal of Clinical Oncology essay, “Wearing Your Heart Around Your Neck: Fostering Physician-Patient Relationships Through Sports” by Dr. Victoria Wytiaz. The essay is followed by an interview with Wytiaz and host Dr. Lidia Schapira. Wytiaz shares how a shared passion for sports can foster improved physician-patient relationships and empathetic care. TRANSCRIPT Narrator: Wearing Your Heart Around Your Neck: Fostering Physician-Patient Relationships Through Sports, by Victoria Wytiaz (10.1200/JCO.22.02529). As the holiday season approaches, my parents will still ask me to give them a list of potential gift ideas, despite the fact that I am a 32-year-old oncology fellow at the University of Michigan. Last year, that list contained a simple request for a new lanyard … specifically, a black and gold Pittsburgh Steelers lanyard to transition to upon the conclusion of the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey season and the start of football training camps. All hospital employees must visibly display their I

Listen to ASCO’s Journal of Clinical Oncology essay, “Cardio-Oncology” by Dr. Daniel Rayson, clinical oncologist at Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Center. The essay is followed by an interview with Rayson and host Dr. Lidia Schapira. Rayson shares a personal experience working with a patient who has two life-threatening diseases. TRANSCRIPT Narrator: Cardio-Oncology, by Dr. Daniel Rayson (10.1200/JCO.21.00971)  I was asked to see a 64-year-old man in the coronary care unit (CCU) 4 days after he collapsed in his driveway after a seemingly normal day at work. His wife told the paramedics that he had been having episodes of chest pain in the past 2 weeks leading up to his dramatic homecoming and he was diagnosed with a myocardial infarction in the emergency room. An urgent cardiac catheterization revealed critical three-vessel coronary artery disease, and on the basis of his otherwise pristine past medical history, he was recommended to undergo coronary artery bypass surgery. His admission blood work, howeve

Listen to ASCO’s Journal of Clinical Oncology essay, “How Are You, Choi-Seonsaeng?” by Dr. April Choi, a Hematology and Oncology fellow at Tufts Medical Center. The essay is followed by an interview with Choi and host Dr. Lidia Schapira. Choi discusses how navigating US healthcare is similar to acclimating to a foreign country. TRANSCRIPT Narrator: How Are You, Choi-Seonsaeng?, by April Choi, MD (10.1200/JCO.22.02103) It was not until Mr. Yoon’s nurse contacted me (an intern eager to flex her Korean skills) for an “agitated patient who is trying to leave the hospital” that his limited knowledge of English became apparent to everyone. Mr. Yoon was sent down to the radiology department for an additional computed tomography scan earlier that day. He had been admitted for partial bowel obstruction secondary to a colonic mass. After his scan was completed, a technician reportedly told him that he was “good to go.” As soon as he arrived back in his hospital room, Mr. Yoon, happily thinking that he was being dischar

Listen to ASCO’s Journal of Clinical Oncology essay, “Chasing Milestones” by Dr. Ameish Govindarajan, a post-doctoral research fellow at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center. The essay is followed by an interview with Govindarajan and host Dr. Lidia Schapira. As a young physician, Govindarajan shares his personal and professional experiences as a cancer patient with non-small cell lung cancer and the importance of shared decision-making between oncologists and patients.   TRANSCRIPT Narrator: Chasing Milestones, by Ameish Govindarajan, MD (10.1200/JCO.22.01379) You always remember the moment your world comes to a halt. Everything comes into stark reality, especially the inane—the socks you were wearing or the type of ceiling tiles over your hospital bed. I lay there alone, a medical student in my 20s, chest tubes emerging from my side. My doctor had just informed me that I had 6-8 months to live. I can still picture those ceiling tiles. What started as an innocuous, yet persistent, cough proved resistant

Listen to ASCO’s Journal of Clinical Oncology essay, “Guilt and Gratitude,” by Dr. Ilana Hellmann, attending physician at Meir Medical Center in Israel. The essay is followed by an interview with Hellmann and host Dr. Lidia Schapira. Hellmann explores the guilt surrounding the toxic consequences of chemotherapy and her gratitude for the patients who continue to connect with their physicians, even after treatment. The interview starts at 06:15 TRANSCRIPT Narrator: Guilt and Gratitude, by Ilana Hellmann, MBBCh (10.1200/JCO.22.02000) It was the end of a long day in clinic. There was a knock on the door to my office and my assistant’s head appeared: “Avi called and asked for an appointment.” The look on her face mirrored the thought that immediately went through my mind: That cannot be good. I asked her to fit him in to one of my clinics in the next few days. I had first met Avi about 5 years previously. He was then a 29-year-old computer programmer and recently married to Talia, an artist. He was tall, skinny an

Listen to ASCO's Journal of Clinical Oncology essay, "People Like Us," by Dr. Stephanie Graff. The essay is followed by an interview with Graff and host Dr. Lidia Schapira. Graff reflects on her life experience as a female physician, farmer’s daughter, mother, and pie connoisseur to connect and help her patients get through a life-altering diagnosis. TRANSCRIPT Narrator: People Like Us, by Stephanie Graff, MD (10.1200/JCO.22.01835)   I was standing in the dining room on the 15-year-old burnt sienna carpet, so heinous that it could have only been chosen because it was on sale. I remember the afternoon light from the western windows falling across the oak dining table which matched my mother’s brusque, wooden tone. She remembers nothing. She does not remember saying the words that I have so often replayed, pondered. I was stung by the interaction in a way that rendered me speechless, in a way I now recognize too often in my approach to conflict in adulthood: silence assumed to represent understanding, consent,

Listen to ASCO’s Journal of Clinical Oncology essay, “Preparing for the End Game,” by Dr. William Beck, a University Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Professor of Pharmacology and Molecular Genetics at The University of Illinois at Chicago. The essay is followed by an interview with Beck and host Dr. Lidia Schapira. Beck reflects on his own mortality and what it means to live, following his good friend’s illness and death from lung cancer.   TRANSCRIPT  Narrator: Preparing for the End Game, by William T. Beck, PhD (10.1200/JCO.22.01758) Recently, Jordan, a dear friend who had stage 4 lung cancer, died of his disease, a year and a half from his diagnosis. His tumor had activating mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor, making him a candidate for treatment with osimertinib, a targeted therapy, one of the recent rewards of the remarkable advances in precision medicine. Jordan was my age, late 70s when he died. He was a lifetime nonsmoker, had several outstanding lung cancer oncologists, and was de

Listen to ASCO’s Journal of Clinical Oncology essay, “Being on The Other Side; An Oncologist’s Perspective on Grieving,” by Shannon MacDonald, an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and a Radiation Oncologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital & Mass General Brigham. The reading is followed by an interview with host Dr. Lidia Schapira and essay author Shannon MacDonald. MacDonald shares her experience with grief, loss, and love after her husband was diagnosed with a mitochondrial disorder that ultimately took his life. MacDonald explores what grief means and how it can be different from what you originally imagined. TRANSCRIPT Narrator: Being on the Other Side: An Oncologist’s Perspective on Grieving, by Shannon MacDonald, MD (10.1200/JCO.22.01363) As an oncologist, I had cared for patients facing grave illness and death. I imagined the loss of loved ones and expected grief to be an unbearable sadness, most poignant in the earliest days and lessening with time. I somehow expected that couns

Listen to ASCO’s Journal of Clinical Oncology essay “Mudras in Medicine: A Role for Dance in Appreciating Non-Verbal Communication in the Clinical Encounter,” by Drs. Maheetha Bharadwaj, Nagda Dipal, et al. Essay authors Dr. Bharadwaj, a urology resident at the University of Washington, and co-author Dr. Dipal, a medical student at Harvard Medical School, are interviewed by host Dr. Lidia Schapira. Drs. Bharadwai and Dipal provide insight on how they use non-verbal communication in the form of Bharatanatyam, an Indian narrative art form, as a way to reflect oncology patient care. TRANSCRIPT   “Mudras in Medicine: A role for dance in appreciating non-verbal communication in the clinical encounter,” by Maheetha Bharadwaj, MD, MS, Mphil; Dipal Nagda, MPH1; and Lipika Goyal, MD, MPhil  (10.1200/JCO.22.00657) Narrator: We present a classical Indian dance piece that depicts a patient and their partner receiving a cancer diagnosis from their oncologist. The primary purpose of this piece was to provide a vehicle for

Listen to ASCO’s Journal of Clinical Oncology essay, “The Will to Go On,” by Dr. Sumit Shah, Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine and Oncology and Medical Director of Digital Health at Stanford University School of Medicine. The reading is followed by an interview with host Dr. Lidia Schapira and essay author Dr. Shah. Dr. Shah explores a patient’s will to live and recounts witnessing a powerful bond between a patient and her spouse. TRANSCRIPT Lidia Schapira: Welcome to JCO’s Cancer Stories: The Art of Oncology, brought to you by ASCO podcasts, which offer a range of educational and scientific content and enriching insight into the world of cancer care. You can find all of the shows including this one at podcast.asco.org.   I'm your host, Lidia Shapira, Associate Editor for Art of Oncology, and Professor of Medicine at Stanford. With me today is Dr. Sumit Shaw, Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine and Oncology and Medical Director of Digital Health at Stanford University School of Medicine. We'll be

Listen to ASCO’s Journal of Clinical Oncology essay “The Side Effects of Caring,” by Dr. Aarti Kamat, a pediatric hematology/ oncology fellow at the University of Michigan. The reading is followed by an interview with host Dr. Lidia Schapira and essay author Dr. Kamat, where they discuss coping with Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) after Dr. Kamat has a triggering experience with a teenage patient. TRANSCRIPT The Side Effects of Caring: Dealing with Secondary Traumatic Stress in Oncology Narrator: The Side Effects of Caring, by Aarti Kamat, MD (10.1200/ JCO.22.00736) “I don’t want to die in the hospital.” I could hear the young teenager crying in the background as I told her mother on the phone that she should come in to the emergency department. She had recently been diagnosed with a relapse of her leukemia and subsequently developed a systemic fungal infection. She now had a new fever that needed to be evaluated. She had decided that her goal was to pursue all possible treatments and interventions, so altho

"A Life and a Death in Haiku," by J. Russell Hoverman: a brother shares haikus and photos dear to his family around his brother's end-of-life care.   TRANSCRIPT A Life and a Death in Haiku, by John John Russell Hoverman, MD, PhD (10.1200/JCO.21.02835)   My brother, Jim, was diagnosed at age 73 years with colon cancer metastatic to the liver, lymph nodes, and lungs. He and his wife were avid hikers and after retirement had hoped to visit as many national parks as possible. Big Bend National Park in Texas, along the Rio Grande River bordering Mexico, at over 800,000 acres, is one of the largest and least-visited parks in the country. The park has vast expanses of desert and high mountain islands, with some peaks over 6,000 feet. We had hoped to have Jim visit us in 2020, but both cancer and COVID-19 interfered until this past spring when we were finally able to arrange a trip to the park. It had been a few years since I had last seen Jim at our most recent family wedding. When he arrived in Austin, he appeared

"Good Genes," by Kaitlin Demarest: a resident searches for answers after genetic testing.   TRANSCRIPT Good Genes, by Kaitlin Demarest, MD1 (10.1200/JCO.22.00871) My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 5. I accompanied her to a handful of chemotherapy sessions and filled the time with MadLibs and word searches. The drive to the hospital became familiar; the diner where I celebrated my fifth birthday was on the way, as was the dairy bar and the Chi Chi’s that shut down. I grew accustomed to her wearing wigs and remember vividly the time one almost flew off her head on a windy day at Rockefeller Center. I learned that vomit could be green and what a computed tomography (CT) scan was. This is not to say that I knew what was going on or what all of it meant. When she was first diagnosed, my dad explained that there was something scary growing inside my mom and her doctors needed to take it out. He drew an arrow coming out of a finger instead of breast tissue to help my young mind better grasp the c

"My Mother's Last Lesson," by Colt Williams: A resident learns about managing mental illness during cancer treatment.   TRANSCRIPT Narrator: My Mother's Last Lesson, by Colt Williams, MD (10.1200/JCO.21.02382)   In January 2017, my 65-year-old mother was diagnosed with treatable cancer. The problem was that she did not want to live.   Her mental health had declined precipitously after losing my father 8 years before, and her grief proved insurmountable. She had been a functional alcoholic for most of my life, and commonly smoothed over the roughness of a long day with half a bottle of whiskey. Growing up, alcohol had been ubiquitous to the point of banality, yet she was nonetheless able to lead a very successful life. But the silence of my father's absence was deafening, and her few moments of relief were only ever found at the bottom of a bottle. Her life came apart at the seams as she had stopped working, lost contact with most of her friends, and rarely left the house. Then, after years of limitless sorrow

"To the Cadaver With the Port," by Kendahl Servino: A medical student begins school in the midst of a pandemic, but also, in the middle of cancer treatment.   TRANSCRIPT Narrator: “To the Cadaver with the Port” by Kendahl Servino, B.S. (10.1200/JCO.21.01979) It was easy to spot the cadaver's port implanted in her chest. The small, triangular object stood out against the pallor of her skin, preserved in the same manner as the rest of the bodies in the anatomy laboratory. As first-year medical students, we met our very first patients here. A quiet veneration was interlaced in the air amid the formaldehyde, and it clung to us the first day we stepped into the anatomy laboratory. It was easy to spot the cadaver's port implanted in her chest. The small, triangular object stood out against the pallor of her skin, preserved in the same manner as the rest of the bodies in the anatomy laboratory. As first-year medical students, we met our very first patients here. A quiet veneration was interlaced in the air amid the

“My White Coat Doesn’t Fit” by Narjust Florez (Duma): a medical oncologist shares her story about exclusion, depression and finding her way in oncology as a Latina in medicine and oncology.   TRANSCRIPT Narrator: My White Coat Doesn’t Fit, by Narjust Duma, MD (10.1200/JCO.21.02601) There I was, crying once again all the way from the hospital’s parking lot to my apartment, into the shower, and while trying to fall asleep. This had become the norm during my internal medicine residency. For years, I tried hard every day to be someone else in order to fit in. It started with off-hand comments like “Look at her red shoes,” “You are so colorful,” and “You are so Latina.” These later escalated to being interrupted during presentations with comments about my accent, being told that my medical school training in my home country was inferior to my US colleagues, and being assigned all Spanish-speaking patients because “They are your people.” Some of those comments and interactions were unintentionally harmful but led t

"Cancer and Armed Conflict: Crossing Realities," by Tamamyan, et al: the story of a young patient with cancer from Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and his thoughts and sufferings during the war in 2020.   TRANSCRIPT Narrator: Cancer and Armed Conflict: Crossing Realities, by Alisa Kamalyan, MSc, Yeva Margaryan, MD, MPH, Jemma Arakelyan, MD, Liana Safaryan, MD, Gevorg Tamamyan, MD, MSc, DSc, and Stella Arakelyan, MD, MPH, MscIH, PhD (10.1200/JCO.22.00663) In 2007, Armen, a 6-year-old boy from a village in the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. NKR is a de facto independent state located in the South Caucasus which has historically been inhabited by Armenians and declared its independence after the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991. Armen’s hometown had a small clinic offering only routine health care services. To receive treatment for lymphoma, he and his family had to travel 350 kms to the Hematology Center in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. The journey was long and ex

"A Soft Spot," by Rebecca Snyder: A surgical oncologist discusses the hidden emotional toll experienced by patients with cancer.