I'm doctor Heather Manuel, I'm an assistant professor of medicine at the
University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center.
And I have actually had all of my training here from medical school up,
so I know the facility very well.
At this time, my specialty at the Cancer Center is genitourinary malignancies.
So my focus is primarily on cancers of the prostate, the urinary
system and bladder, the kidneys and the testicles.
So I see you a wide variety of patients of different genders and ages
that are dealing with various stages and forms of this disease,
or these diseases.
My interest is twofold, first in performing excellent standard of care
procedures and treatments with patients that
have these types of diseases.
Secondly, with finding better clinical trials and
better research tools to help us come up with improved treatment
for cancers that are more difficult to treat
or that have progressed beyond the standard of care,
where these patients need to be evaluated outside the box.
I treat both men and women.
Clearly, prostate cancer and testicular cancer
I'm going to have a variety of men that are treated in a variety of ages.
But renal cancer and cancers of the bladder,
basically occur equally across both sexes.
Again, I see men and women of varying ages with these
diseases and treat all of these patients.
In terms of how we treat them, one thing that excites me about
the Cancer Center is that there's a strong focus on multidisciplinary care.
And in certain of these cancers, including bladder and
prostate cancers,
there's a need for very intensive
multiple management strategies
by various specialists.
So we work together, very closely, with neurologists
with the radiation oncologists and then with medical oncologists,
such as myself.
We're able to come up with a tailored treatment plan to evaluate the
individuals type of cancer, or stage of cancer
and be able to best treat how this patient is going to do in the future.
I think that although we have excellent
standard of care regimes for testicular cancer, for example,
other cancers, such as
urinary cancers, cancers of the bladder still are somewhat challenging to treat.
And being involved in clinical trials from the up front
from the get-go of diagnosis I think is very important for these patients.
It's a way to optimize their options.
It's a way to really try to give them the best chances of doing well,
for a long time and hopefully completely undergoing remission into the future.
So I think we combine a very good program of clinical
trials as well as really good standard of care management here.
I would definitely encourage patients to ask about clinical trials
regardless of their cancers.
We try to, again, think outside the box here at the Cancer Center
and see how we can apply good treatment and good standard of care
treatment with excellent clinical care,
but also thinking one step beyond.
Seeing if there's anything new, unique that can can benefit patients.
It's an exciting time for a lot of genitourinary malignancies,
kidney cancer in particular.
There are a lot of new drugs.
We're learning how to combine them to be more
effective and more successful.
And I would say the same is going on for
prostate cancer and for cancers of the urinary bladder.
So I think we're rising to meet the challenge here.
I think the diagnosis and the treatment with the
chemotherapy and surgery and radiation and so forth,
is just really the tip of the iceberg because
as we're treating the cancer, we really have to focus on
treating the whole patient.
And I think that's one thing that is really really
strong at the University
Greenebaum Cancer Center.
We have a survivorship committee that's working on ways to really optimize
the patient's quality of life
from the diagnosis, till the day they hopefully walk out the door
cured and don't have to see us that often.
But they really remain our patients forever.
So we have excellent facilities for social work, for financial
services, case management services, a way to really kind of get them back into to
their life in their community.
And in the meantime, while we're treating them we acknowledge the
problems and the side effects that can come up
while they're getting through this.
So our nursing services, our nutrition services,
physical and occupational therapy,
are really an integral part of
everyday treatment for patients.
We really have to look at the whole person.