This episode talks about practical tips for preparing for cancer treatments including answering the following questions:

Some key takeaways include:

Jessica Stuart, MD

Dr. Jessica Stuart, Jessie, grew up in Connecticut before attending Stanford University, where she obtained her degree in English. She went to Harvard medical school and is training in Internal Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She also works with the Thoracic Oncology group at Dana Farber Cancer Institute doing research on immunotherapies. She hopes to continue a career treating patients, doing clinical research, and focusing on education.

Not only does she treat patients, she was herself a cancer patient when she was diagnosed with Lymphoma at age 12 and was treated into her teenage years. She recently published an article in the New England Journal of medicine titled “The Little Things”, which sheds light on how being a patient has shaped how she treats her own patients, linked here.

This episode outlines the different cancer treatment modalities including radiation, surgery and systemic therapies (chemotherapy, targeted therapy, hormonal therapy, and immunotherapy). 

Shagun Arora, MD

Dr. Shagun Arora is an hematologist-oncologist (blood cancer doctor) who specializes in the care for patients with cancerous and noncancerous blood disorders at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Arora completed her residency at Michigan State University, followed by an oncology fellowship at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. She is passionate about medical education and works closely training physicians as well as patients. She was also a part of a created a six session course about cancer intended for the public called Cancer Today: Same Disease, New Hope. One session of this course, called “How is Cancer Treated?” can be found here.

What is cancer? This episode talks about what cancer is, how it is diagnosed and staged. 

Sam Brondfield, MD, MAEd

Dr. Sam Brondfield is an oncologist at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) where he treats patients who are hospitalized with cancer. He received his undergraduate degree at from Harvard University and went to UCSF for his medical school, residency and oncology fellowship training.  He additionally obtained an education degree at the University of California, Berkeley. He devotes his career to not only treating patients with cancer as well as teaching doctors, trainees, and patients. He is an incredible teacher, colleague and physician and has received multiple awards for his devotion to teaching. He created a six session course about cancer intended for the public called Cancer Today: Same Disease, New Hope. The first session of this course, called “What is cancer?” can be found here.

Jordyn Silverstein, MD host of this podcast introduces what the podcast is all about, take a listen!