Meet Dr. Michael DiGiovanna

Transcript

• 00:00I'm doctor Michael di Giovanna
• 00:02and I'm a professor of internal
• 00:04medicine and medical oncology,
• 00:06as well as pharmacology and I
• 00:08treat people with breast cancer.
• 00:10When I was in training,
• 00:12I wanted to be a physician scientist
• 00:14and initially I thought I would
• 00:16be a pure scientist and to be
• 00:18a better medical on scientist,
• 00:21I decided to pursue both the MD
• 00:23and the PhD degrees during my MD
• 00:25training as a surprise to me,
• 00:28I realized how much I enjoyed
• 00:30taking care of patients.
• 00:32And so I decided to choose a field where
• 00:34the science was really close to the bedside,
• 00:38and I was particularly fascinated
• 00:39and intrigued by cancer biology,
• 00:41and I thought that there was no
• 00:43field where the basic science was
• 00:45more closely applied to the bedside
• 00:48than in cancer,
• 00:49and hence I decided that I would
• 00:51become a cancer physician scientist.
• 00:53The best way for patients to
• 00:55prepare is just to be relaxed,
• 00:57because I'll be the host,
• 00:59and I'll teach patients about their disease.
• 01:01Ask them questions about their history.
• 01:04And together we'll make a plan.
• 01:06It's always a good idea to bring
• 01:08somebody with you on the 1st appointment.
• 01:11Especially,
• 01:11there's so much to hear about and
• 01:14so much to learn that it's good
• 01:16to have a second set of years
• 01:18to help take it all in and then
• 01:21even talk about it later on.
• 01:23With most types of cancer and
• 01:25breast cancer in particular,
• 01:26it requires a multidisciplinary
• 01:28team of specialists to take care.
• 01:30Essential specialists are the
• 01:31medical oncologists like myself,
• 01:32a surgeon and a radiation oncologist.
• 01:35And we have many ancillary people
• 01:37on the team to help to get guide the
• 01:40patient through all of these treatments.
• 01:42My research has focused on all
• 01:44areas of breast cancer,
• 01:46spanning basic science to
• 01:47translational research,
• 01:48and even to clinical trials with patients.
• 01:50The focus of my research has been
• 01:53on the interactions of hormones that
• 01:55are important in breast cancer with
• 01:57a particular protein receptor called her two.