You Have a Cancer Diagnosis- Now What?

A cancer diagnosis can change everything in an instant. One conversation. Three words: "You have cancer." Suddenly, patients and families are faced with uncertainty, fear, and countless questions about what comes next.

In this episode of MedStar Health DocTalk, host Debra Schindler sits down with medical oncologist and hematologist Dr. Ankit Madan of MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center, to discuss the critical first steps after a cancer diagnosis. Dr. Madan explains how patients move from diagnosis to treatment, how cancer is staged, and why building a multidisciplinary care team is essential for the best possible outcomes.

The conversation explores the emotional impact of hearing a cancer diagnosis, the importance of patient navigators, social workers, nutritionists, mental health professionals, and the role patients play as active partners in their own care. Dr. Madan also discusses treatment advances, clinical trials, immunotherapy breakthroughs, second opinions, and practical advice for patients and families navigating one of life's most challenging journeys.

Whether you or a loved one has recently been diagnosed with cancer, this episode offers guidance, reassurance, and expert insight into what happens after the diagnosis—and how patients can move forward with confidence and support.

Topics covered:
• Coping with the emotional impact of a cancer diagnosis
• Understanding cancer staging and treatment planning
• The role of biopsies, CT scans, PET scans, and additional testing
• Building a multidisciplinary cancer care team
• Patient navigators, social workers, and support services
• Shared decision-making and patient autonomy
• When to seek a second opinion
• Clinical trials and emerging cancer treatments
• Immunotherapy and advances in cancer care
• Nutrition, exercise, and mental health during treatment
• Cancer survivorship and ongoing surveillance

To learn more about cancer care at MedStar Health, visit MedStarHealth.org/Cancer.

For more episodes of MedStar Health DocTalk, go to medstarhealth.org/doctalk.

Transcript

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and insightful conversations about health and medicine happen here. When MedStar Health Doc talk, these are real conversations with physician experts from around the largest healthcare system in the Maryland DC region. One of the most pivotal moments in a person's life can come from one conversation and three words. You have cancer and suddenly life is divided into the before and after getting that diagnosis in an instant, everything changes. Some people go blank for some questions are racing through their mind. How do I tell my family? Am I going to get through this? Fear might kick in where to begin with options no matter what the initial reaction patients are usually asking. Next, what now what do I do? Today we're talking about what comes next, the first steps after a cancer diagnosis, how to make sense of the moment, grasp the decision making process, build your care team and find your footing. Again. Joining me is MedStar, health medical oncologist and hematologist Dr. Ankit Madan, thank you so much for being with us here on Doc Talk.- Thank you Debra, for having me. This is such an important conversation we are going to have today about a patient's journey through the diagnosis of cancer. I want people to know that when they get this diagnosis, they're not alone. They're supportive teams around them, cancer center teams around them that are there to take care of them when they have a diagnosis like this.- Sure. Let's begin with that emotional side. When someone first hears they have cancer, I can imagine it would feel like the, the, the ground is literally shifted beneath them. What do you want patients to know in that moment?- So first of all, you know, listening to these words that you have cancer is, is not easy. I always tell my patients it is way difficult to be sitting on the patient side of this story and hearing a doctor say this. First of all, I want patients to know that there are teams to take care of them. How somebody reacts to that diagnosis really depends on where they are in life. You know, when you get a diagnosis of cancer, you're not prepared for it. You're living your life, you're planning trips with your family, you're opening a new business, going about your daily activities,- Right?- Suddenly you feel ill and there you go. You know, we find a mass or we find something on the scan that needs to be pursued and you know, you get told this diagnosis at that time. What I've seen on the emotional aspect with people is that for our younger population, especially our young breast cancer females, they have younger kids at that time. So now suddenly they're thrown into a position where they're taking care of their health instead of what they usually do, which is take care of their kids.- Right? - When you have older people who view, who've been through a few health scares in their life, manage it a little bit better. But again, there's no right or wrong way to deal with this situation. This is an unusual situation that arises when you get cancer and the next best step for you is to start looking at the treatment process.- Would you say that's probably the most difficult part of the job, that you have to tell people that they have cancer?- It is very difficult. The anxiety about this diagnosis starts from the time they get the biopsy seeing me in the room and when I see them, you know, majority of our communication is non-verbal. When I see them, I am seeing how they are and then I try to deliver the news the best I can so that they not only get the emotional impact, but they also get that this doctor is also talking about how to treat this. But it is a very difficult part is to how to deliver this news. And with time and experience, one gets better at this. But from a patient perspective it's very difficult.- Do they ask you, how long do I have? Yeah,- So this response can be varied.- Yeah. - Some people, you know, they're taken aback. They respond with a somber response. Some people frankly sometimes have denial that, hey, this cannot be happening to me. And some people take it in their stride. It's a very visceral, organic reaction that happens when you know about it. And then yes, patients do ask me how long do I have now, you know, we have so much data in different kinds of cancer. So when somebody has say stage four cancer, we know survival data for all stage four cancer. So I'm able to tell them how long they have so they can plan their next few months, years accordingly. We have data for early stage cancers too with different cancer when it's stage 1, 2, 3 and when it's still curable. So we, in those situations we talk more about progression-free survival, how long your treatments will hold this at bay, your overall survival. But it's a, you know, it's a very loaded question when somebody asks you, how long do I have? And we answer it using evidence-based medicine.- So I think it's important too to, at this point that the patient understand the pace of their treatment. I would imagine they want to navigate it immediately. A friend of mine went through this recently. He had a trip planned, he got a colon cancer diagnosis, he canceled the trip.- What your friend did was the best thing he could do, health is wealth. You know, the trip can wait for a few months. He was able to get the colon cancer taken care of in a curative intent and that is the the best way to do it.- Patients wanna get through the treatment part right away. They wanna the surgery to get it out. Exactly. They wanna start radiation, they wanna get rid of the cancer. What do you tell them in those situations that you don't have to navigate it instantly or do you- Instantly is better? So when I see a patient with a new diagnosis of cancer, I usually say the best day to get treated was yesterday. And that kind of sets the tone that, you know, this is something we need to deal urgently. Everything else can wait. Like a trip can wait, a family reunion can wait. You know, most things can wait because with cancers, the earlier you treat, the higher chances you have for a cure.- Okay. What's the first thing patients should know when they're informed that a, a biopsy or a screening is showing positive for cancer?- So when I see somebody in our cancer center with a new diagnosis, say they have a lung mass or a colon mass, the first thing we do is biopsy that mass to definitively establish that they have cancer. Once they, we know they have cancer, the next step is to develop a care plan. We want to stage the cancer, right? Cancer comes in different stages. Stage 1, 2, 3 being curative. You want to definitely treat them, you do wanna do it urgently. Stage four cases tend to have where it's spread to different places, patient present with a lot more symptoms. So at that time I'm doing, what I'm doing is I'm ordering a CT scan or a PET scan for them. So a CT scan is a simple scan which can look at different parts of the body, see where the cancer could have spread. And PET scan is an imaging study that we do for staging, which is a step above CT scan where you know, we are giving radioactive dye with glucose attached to it and that glucose is picked up by your cancer. So if the cancer spots tend to light up on the PET scan and that's how we stage them. Once a patient's stage is known, we know the kind of cancer they have. What we do then is that we develop a treatment plan. Does the patient need chemotherapy? Does he need chemotherapy before surgery? Does the patient go straight for surgery? Does the patient get radiation because they're old? We have so many complicated decisions that we make just by seeing the patient and then that helps in deciding the treatment plan.- If there is a subtype of cancer, is that understood from that biopsy or are additional tests necessary to see if there's the subtype?- So majority of the times one biopsy is enough. You send the patient tissue is sent to a pathologist who reads the sample and gives you the subtype of the cancer. At times you run across complicated cases where they have a mixture of different subtypes or they have a a rare subtypes and in those cases, one and maybe a second biopsy is needed. So we do that. We try to get all this information before the treatment plan is implemented.- So it is really dependent on what type of cancer someone has that would dictate whether or not they need additional screenings or additional tests to find out how advanced the cancer is.- Exactly. So for example, there are some cancers where even when the cancer is not spread enough on the CT scan, we do an MRI of the brain because some of the cancers like lung cancer are, you know, notorious for going into the brain. So we want to make sure we get all the imaging studies done once we know the kind of cancer you have or a patient has to, to see what all additional testing you need. So additional testing could sometimes be checking an echocardiogram of the heart, make sure the heart is ready for treatment, getting blood tests done to make sure the liver and kidneys are working fine. All these things need to be checked before we implement any kind of therapy for the patient.- And what's the timeline for all of that to happen? Is it generally a week after a diagnosis a month?- So typically we want to get everything done within two to three week window. You know, I always tell my patients you have this narrow window where we can diagnose and start treating. Logistically it takes about a week to get the CT scan'cause we have to get everything authorized by the insurance. It takes about a week to get a biopsy. If we started without a biopsy, then you want to at times get a mediport, which is a device we place to give chemotherapy and then to get everything ready takes about three weeks.- Is there anything that you can do as a physician or your office can do when the insurance companies hold things up?- So we have actually a team of, and most cancer centers have a team of insurance authorization personnel who work to try to expedite it as much as possible. So if we are finding any holdup from the insurance providers and physicians get involved in doing peer-to-peer conversations with the insurance company to justify the need for that test and the treatments, we do come across these roadblocks once in a while our providers and patient navigators help with that.- What is a patient navigator?- You know, patient navigator is a very versatile role. A patient navigator is something that a patient will encounter, you know, as a patient is interacting with a doctor, right? We're implementing a medical plan for the patient. A patient navigator will navigate the patient from everything non-medical they need, if they have any transport issues. The patient navigator works with the social worker to resolve that. If there are any financial constraints that the patient have, the patient navigator can work with them. They're a liaison within the whole complex health system. Patient navigators can help with chemotherapy teaching, making sure their appointments and scans are scheduled, make sure the patient has a good idea of the calendar for their chemotherapy. So it's a very versatile role. It changes based on the need of each cancer center and they really help navigate the system.- One thing that oncologists have told me through the years is that they ask their patients to write down questions and concerns to bring to the next appointment. But right here at this point in this juncture that we are describing, when you first get that diagnosis, what questions do they usually bring to you?- You know, I usually tell my patients, you know, the questions will not come to your mind when we are having a conversation about the treatment process. Questions will always come to your mind when you're home by yourself digesting the diagnosis, knowing that your treatment is coming up, that's when the questions will come to your mind. So make sure you write them. Typically I get various questions. I get your standard questions, which are what stage is my cancer? What type of cancer I have? What is the prognosis of my cancer? Something we discussed earlier, how long do I have? Then come your questions about treatments, chemotherapies, what kind of side effects chemotherapy have? How long is a chemotherapy, how many rounds of chemo will I be getting? How many months will I need treatment? Do I need radiation? And then you get questions about radiation therapy, is it every day? What are the side effects of radiation? What are the long-term impact of radiation? Sometimes even though I'm not a surgeon, I just, you know, patients ask me about surgery question, how long is the surgery? How many days am I in the hospital? And then sometimes I get questions that are, you know, a little bit different. Like how does chemotherapy affect my sex life? If my spouse touches me, does the chemotherapy affect him or her? Can my spouse gimme the tablets of chemotherapy? Can I eat food during my chemotherapy? Simple basic questions are- There- That sometimes surprise me as to what the patients are actually thinking. But a majority of the time it's, it's about the effects of the therapy.- I can't imagine how many questions there would be really, because there is so many different facets involved with cancer care.- Exactly. So you know, cancer care is very complicated. There's no one doctor that's driving the whole process. You know, your cancer care is typically multidisciplinary, which means we involve physicians, different people from different parts of cancer treatment. So you have your medical oncologist like me who talk to patients who are internal medicine doctors trained in cancers. We talk to patients about their prognosis, their stage, their diagnosis. We are the ones who are giving them chemotherapy, immune therapy, oral therapy for cancer. But then you have other physicians which include surgeons that are curing cancers through surgery like breast surgery, colon surgery. And then you have radiation doctors that are able to deliver high dose radiation in a pinpoint accuracy to treat cancers. So those are your physicians that take care of you. But you meet so many other personnel during this journey that can include a nurse practitioner or a physician assistant who is an advanced practice provider. They are essentially an extension of care that would be provided by a physician. They're very adept in managing side effects. At the same time you'll find social workers in the cancer centers, they will also help with some of the work that patient navigators do. They arrange transport, arrange financial assistance, get funds for you at times. I've had our social workers actually walk patients through getting insurance if your self pay at the time of diagnosis. And then you have your pharmacist who are mixing your chemotherapy that you will be getting. And they're trained in mixing different types of chemotherapy accurately. And then you have nurses that actually deliver chemotherapy and are actually an integral part of our cancer team because they're in contact with the patient. They know patients inside out'cause they're spending three to six hours during their treatment days. So yes, you, you meet the whole team. So that is what it is. Multidisciplinary care where different oncology spectrums come together to make the best treatment plan for the patient. You know, usually for our complicated patients we discuss them in our tumor boards, which happen ever so often. Where you have the radiation oncologist, surgeon, medical oncologist sit together and reviewing the images of the patient and the pathology of the patient, which is typically done by the radiation radiologist and pathologist to make a care plan that is individualized for the patient based on the subtype of cancer they have or the stage of cancer they have- Or the other health issues they may have. Cardio oncologists,- Cardio-oncology is a very, is a developing branch. So we have certain cardiologists who are trained in the heart how the heart is affected by different chemotherapies and they make accurate recommendations on how to treat patients with underlying heart failure or who develop problems with chemotherapy to see if they can be challenged or what medications we can give to regenerate their heart. So it's a very important branch that we closely communicate with for treatment of our patients.- You gave a very thorough list really of all of the members of a care team, but there's two more I wanna make sure that we mention and that's nutritionists and mental health professionals. How do they play into that comprehensive care?- So nutrition as we know is very important. That is probably the most commonly asked question that I have. What can I eat to make myself better? So nutritionists play a very important role. They advise patients on the best diet that they can have, which is a high protein diet. And at the same time, cancer is a diagnosis that carries with it a lot of anxiety and at times depression as well. So having a mental health professional in your cancer team is always helpful.'cause sometimes patient needs therapy to deal with the cancer as well as sometimes we give them medications to improve their mood so they can deal with the mental health aspect of this disease and they can forge ahead with the treatment.- The patient also has to have a say they're a member of their own team,- They're actually the captain of the ship.- Do you ever make a recommendation that they don't wanna accept?- You know, I'm a firm believer of patient autonomy. I make recommendations that I feel are best for the patient. We live in an era of shared decision making, so I may be recommending few things, but the patient have their own beliefs and how they want to be treated. Patients who are older sometimes do not want aggressive chemotherapy, so then we lower the intensity of the chemotherapy or give them immune therapy or treatments that may be easier on their body. I'm actually feeding off the patient's wishes and beliefs to formulate a care plan that will be more acceptable to them. So they have to be, as I said, captain of their ship. They are an active partner in deciding how we are going to treat them- If a patient doesn't want to go that route. And I had this happen in my own family. Both my grandmother and my father-in-law opted against chemotherapy and further treatment. They just accepted their disease and accepted that they were facing the end of their life. How does that make you feel as a physician? Do you ever try to talk them out of it to say, this is surviv survivable, or maybe it's not and maybe you recognize that they accept that- You know, I'll speak for myself. I recognize what they want for themselves. I will usually not try to talk them out of it. I'm assuming they were in their seventies or eighties when they were in this situation.- That's correct, yes.- Can I promise them that my chemotherapy, that plan, that I device will not cause them side effect. I can't promise that I have to know the stage of their disease. If it's advanced enough and their wishes are to not pursue chemotherapy, then I would actually talk to them about quality of life, making sure the time that they have, they spend it with their family and make it quality time. And I do not force treatment on patients who don't want it.- On the other hand, you have seen so much advancement in cancer care that I would think that more often than not there is help available.- Exactly. You know, I tell people all the time, you know, so usually people when you talk to them about cancer, they have a very negative connotation to it. Or you talk about chemotherapy, they instantly think about, oh I'll be throwing up all the time. I tell them, Hey, it's 2026. Our treatment options have come a long way. Our cure rates have come a long way. Clinical trials are happening all the time. New drugs are getting developed. The main name of new drugs is to be less toxic than the old ones and more efficacious than the old ones. And in my last 10 years, I've seen patients that who would've otherwise not been here actually get better and survive cancer that 20 years ago they would not. So the treatment are getting better with time.- When should a patient ask for a second opinion? And does that offend you if they want to find another opinion from another physician?- You know, actually I encourage second opinions. There are two types of second opinions in my opinion,- Right?- One is a second opinion where the patient wants to hear your plan from another doctor. So a patient comes to you, you develop a plan with them, they would be at more peace and would sleep better if they knew like this is the right plan for them. So they directly want a second opinion and I'm very happy to give them the second opinion because when they hear the same plan from a second doctor, they're kind of more reassured. They come back more confident and they're like, Hey doc, when can we start treatment? So I'm always encouraging. There are certain second opinions that I seek when I see a very complicated patient who's maybe elderly, who maybe has a heart condition, maybe has single kidney, that I do want medical oncologists, surgeons up at a bigger hospital at tertiary care center with more experience in complicated cases or who are more specialized with particular underlying conditions. Then in those cases I actively seek a second opinion because at that time I need their recommendations. So I'm very encouraging of a second opinion does not offend me at all.- You talked about a social worker getting involved, an oncology social worker specifically, or a patient navigator can be a lifeline to help manage the stress of cancer. You don't have to have had cancer to see what it can do to someone or their family with stress. So connecting those individuals, patients and their families with resources and navigating real life concerns is very important. Like talking with children or handling your work challenges, how do you encourage your patients to seek out that kind of support?- You know, you bring up a very important point. A lot of us actually don't seek help when we need, when somebody has a cancer diagnosis, you have to actively tell them that you have to seek help because this is the time you need it. Social workers are there. You know, a lot of times patients don't open up to physicians as much as they do to somebody like a social worker who is a person they can talk to about anything. They can be vulnerable with them. They can tell them about what food constraints they have, what work constraints they have, what kind of help they need in terms of paperwork, getting the FMLA or their job to get the adequate time off so they can actually focus on their or their family members' health, whoever has cancer. So it's very important that we take help when it's needed. And actually you would be surprised how much resources we have, people who don't have cars, we are able to set them up with taxi companies to bring them patients who don't have transport. We can schedule set them up with Uber or Lyft to get them to our cancer center so that they can come for their treatments when the copays are too high. We've actually had patients get financial assistance and get their medications for free because the drug company was able to provide them and our social worker worked with them. A lot of patients anxious whether insurance will approve their treatment or not. And I always tell them, Hey, we have a team that works with insurance companies to get your TE treatment authorized. So that is off your plate. All you need to do is focus on your health and come get your treatment.- What about clinical trials? Is that up to the patient to seek that out, to find what's available? Or is that something that you might bring to a patient and say, Hey, there's a clinical trial happening here, it involves this kind of a medication. I think you're a good candidate for it.- So clinical trials are very important in the field of oncology. All the drugs that we use have gone through the process of phase one, two, and three clinical trials. Sometimes I offer clinical trials to them that are available in our institute and we recognize which patient would be a candidate and we offer it to them and it is on them to volunteer to be on the clinical trial. Sometimes these clinical trials tend to be therapeutic trial where we are comparing the standard of care chemotherapy with something that's new in addition to standard of care. Sometimes these clinical trials are more for mindfulness supplements. Sometimes clinical trials are newer tests that are being tested against the standard of care tests like circulating tumor, DNA. And at times patients want to seek clinical trials on their own. And so it all depends on the patient. But we have trials that we offer MedStar being the biggest can cancer network within our region. We have clinical trials at Southern Maryland that we opened last year. We've had phase one, two, and three clinical trials at MedStar, Georgetown University Hospital, Washington Hospital Center, Franklin Square. So we're encouraging more and more patients to be on clinical trials. So they have access to the newer medications that they normally would not have access to outside the trials. And we've had patients who actually went on a trial, the medication got approved because it was so effication and they're still on that medication now- And they're doing- Well. The biggest breakthrough we've had in the last 10 years is the immune therapy- Is is that Keytruda in some medications like that? Yes,- Pembrolizumab, nivolumab. These are new immune agents that actually unlock your own immune system to fight cancers. And they came through the process of clinical trials, got approved, have advanced survival across so many different cancers in early stage and late stage cancers. And always tell my patients the only way patients got those medications initially. But through clinical trials.- What's your most memorable case, would you say? Is that, is that even possible to pin that down?- You know, it's very difficult because all my patients are very near and dear to me. I've had several cases that frankly were so far advanced and the initial part of the journey, this is mostly breast cancer cases that are early stage that happen in young women, that the patients were so nervous, so anxious when they started the treatment and they went ahead regardless because that was the best thing for them to do. And six months down the road, they finished their chemotherapy, went through surgery, and were got got cured and are now living- Normal lives, a normal- Life. And to me that is very rewarding. And all those cases are memorable. So you know, when you first get diagnosed with cancer, you are in so much into the treatment part. Once you're finished with the treatment, you go into the survivorship mode. In those survivorship mode, you learn to live with the anxiety that comes with cancer surveillance. The fact that they've had it once does not make them immune from a future cancer or a second different cancer. So we always stem them to make sure that they are getting their surveillance mammograms, surveillance tests, CT scans, blood work, clinical appointments per the guidelines to ensure that they stay cancer free.- When you're meeting with your patients in the early part of their journey and you're sharing the results of a biopsy or now I'm sure across the board, whatever the cancer is that they have and whatever the diagnosis is that they have, you are telling them don't smoke. What else should they not do and what should they do?- That's an excellent question. So I usually tell patients what we are giving you in our cancer center is chemotherapy and immunotherapy, and that's treatment. But there's a whole different treatment that you need to do at home that includes good nutrition. There's enough data out there staying that patients who continue smoke through treatment do much worse than those who quit smoking. So quitting smoking is a very essential aspect of treatment. Avoiding alcohol, getting enough rest. High protein diet is very important. I've seen patients have much easier time when they have a good nutritional status as compared to somebody who is malnourished. They have more side effects. Exercise is a big part, you know, chemotherapy causes a lot of fatigue. The only way to combat it is exercise. And I've seen patients who actively go to gym or have been more exercise in the before they got cancer diagnosis actually sailed through their chemotherapy without much effects, to my surprise, to a point that I started telling patients that hey, they need to exercise as much as they can. So their body's stronger, their heart status is better. Mindfulness can never discount getting enough sleep, making sure you're surrounded by family at all times and have social support. So there's a whole set of things that you need to do at home so that you know you're easy, it's easier for you to get treated for your cancer.- So for someone listening right now who was recently diagnosed and feeling scared or has a loved one who has been recently diagnosed with cancer, what would you say to them?- So I would tell them to take one step at a time. You have a diagnosis, the next best thing you can do is meet an oncologist, develop your care plan, write down all the questions that you have about your diagnosis, possible treatment options, get your scans done in a timely fashion. Get started on your treatment for the best outcome.- Perfect. I want to remind the listeners of this before each visit, write down your questions and bring someone you trust to help listen and take notes. Keep track of any medications, tests, or next steps. And don't hesitate to repeat information back to your care team to be sure you understand it.- Yes. So you know, I've learned through experience, whatever I'm telling them about 50% will stick, a lot will not stick because you're not in a usual state. You've- Just- Been told about a diagnosis that will be life altering for some period of time. And to digest that and grasp that information and have your treatments, your surgery, so many things going on in your mind that you only grasp 50% of what's being told. And that's why we kind of become redundant and discuss a lot of it again on the following visits. We keep discussing our overall plan at different times of the treatment and after. I've noticed that once people start their treatment process, they're much less anxious, they're much more in control of the situation and they're much, you know, in a much better state to move ahead with treatment- And ask questions.- Always,- Always ask- Questions. You know, always find it interesting when I find questions that are different. Like the other day, somebody asked me about lunch, can I have lunch during my chemotherapy session? Nope. Something as basic as that has never been asked. Sure. So I always encourage they can,- They can eat,- They can eat.- Interesting.- I've had cases where the patients had their treatment approved by the insurance, had treatment on the schedule, medication ordered, but the patient was not ready for the treatment because they're still thinking about the treatment, processing the information, deciding which one to move forward with. We've had to hold treatments to give patients a time to come to terms with what kind of treatment they want. Coming back to the patient autonomy, it's a shared decision making. We discuss with the patient and move forward with the plan that is best for both of us.- Well that's interesting because that sort of counters the thing that we talked about earlier where I thought patients would be more of in a hurry for treatment to happen. But like you said, everybody's different.- Everybody's different. No two people are alike.- And no two cancers are alike.- No two cancers are alike. No two people are. Some people want the treatment next week. Some people want to think through the process and start when they want to. And some people don't want treatment and you have to respect all three of them.- Why did you go into oncology and hematology? Did you know that you wanted to do that while you were in medical school or before you went to medical school?- Actually I decided that in my internal medicine residency, you know, I like to have long-term relationship with the patient's medical health. I found myself to have that comforting personality for a patient with cancer.'cause I've always felt like empathizing and connecting with people is my forte. Like I can do that well. And to have somebody like that be a part of a diagnosis that is life changing, I will be of more help and I'll be, I'll gel along with that and I'll follow them throughout their process. You know, we cannot cure everybody, but we can help and treat everybody. So that's what kind of drew me into oncology and I love doing it.- Well, I'm glad that you have, I'm glad that you made that choice. What motivates you in the work that you do?- You know, what motivates me most is to see somebody and possibly one of the most difficult phases of their life, having been told that they have cancer, to treat them to a point that they get cured, to treat them and give them a life before this diagnosis, which was a normal life. To be able to give, get them back to their work normally is a big joy. And I cite the example of my own brother two years ago was diagnosed with acute leukemia and he's my age and he was very sick at that time. He spent five months in the hospital getting chemotherapy every month and getting admitted twice a month, going through bone marrow biopsies as a daughter that's young. And to see him today in 2026, cancer free.- Wonderful.- Working every day is a big joy.- Yes.- And I was a part of that journey. I worked closely with his cancer doctor and you know, makes it all worthwhile.- Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for sharing your expertise and your compassion today with us on MedStar Health doc talk. We've been talking with Dr. Anki Maddon, an oncologist and and hematologist at MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center in Clinton, Maryland. If you are in the area of MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center and would like to make an appointment, call 3 0 1 8 7 7 4 6 7 3. Or for more information about oncology at MedStar Health, go to MedStar health.org/cancer.