Read Time: 3 Minutes
Video transcript
My name is Heloisa Soares. I'm a medical oncologist. I specialize in neuroendocrine cancers and GI cancers, and I work here in Huntsman Cancer Institute. I'm also the medical director for our Clinical Trials Office, providing clinical trials to our patients
What brought you to Huntsman Cancer Institute?
I did my med school in Brazil, and I always knew that I wanted to take care of patients with cancer. I really felt that in the U.S. we provide one of the most specialized and best care for cancer patients, and I wanted to be able to do that.
Why is specialized care so important for your patients?
Our patients that have neuroendocrine cancer, they have a very rare and unique cancer that can present in very different ways. So they face a lot of lack of understanding from many their health care providers in how to navigate the symptoms and the treatments of the disease, and I'm very proud that here at Huntsman Cancer Institute, we have a team of experts that gets them, that gets what the patients are going through.
I think we bring hope here, and that's what I'm proud of. Because when patients come, they want us to give them hope and time with quality of life, and I think we can do that.
What sets Huntsman Cancer Institute apart?
We have an outstanding experimental therapeutics unit for Phase 1 trials, or early-on drug development trials. We are bringing some of the very cutting-edge drugs to our patients. We also have a very strong program for radioligand therapy, or theranostics, which, in a very simplistic way, is you can see if a tumor lights up on the scan for a particular target, and if it does, then you can infuse liquid radiation through the vein that goes to that target. Not every single place in the country has that, but now, thanks to our very strong research infrastructure at Huntsman Cancer Institute, we are bringing this technology, which is so novel, to many more cancers. Only in a place like Huntsman Cancer Institute can we do that, and that's amazing.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your work?
I love my interactions with patients. I love to see who they are as people—what is important to them. I love to get to know their families. I think that's very important, because I'm not treating a disease; I'm treating a person, so it's very rewarding to me to get to know my patients, understand their values, and develop a treatment plan that is in agreement and compatible with their values.
Another thing that I love is when a patient is on a clinical trial, and we have amazing shrinkage of the tumor, and I walk into the room and I show how much shrink and how much the treatment is being impactful. Getting that smile and that hug is so priceless, and that's what I live for, to make my patients smile with some good news and hope.
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