Dr. Charles Fuchs Profile

Transcript

• 00:00I'm doctor Charles Fuchs and I'm the
• 00:03Kansas Anna director at Yale Cancer Center.
• 00:06Ann. The physician in chief
• 00:08at Smilow Cancer Hospital,
• 00:09I treat gastrointestinal cancers
• 00:11which includes cancers of the stomach,
• 00:13esophagus, colon, pancreas, liver.
• 00:15It's a large number of cancers,
• 00:17and in fact, when you look at aggregate,
• 00:20all of those cancers,
• 00:22it's about 23% of all cancer
• 00:24diagnosis in the United States,
• 00:26and I see new patients.
• 00:28We typically have the staff
• 00:30reach out to the family and
• 00:32coordinate getting us the records.
• 00:34The X Rays the pathology slides so that
• 00:37hopefully when I see patients I have
• 00:39the benefit of all that information
• 00:41so I can really speak educated
• 00:44about their particular diagnosis.
• 00:45I really like patients to bring
• 00:47family members or friends with them
• 00:49because you know, it's so complicated.
• 00:52I think it's helpful to have multiple
• 00:55pairs of ears and eyes so that a
• 00:57lot of people can hear about it.
• 00:59I frequently have patients or family
• 01:02members say do you mind if I record you?
• 01:05During the visit,
• 01:06perfectly happy to do it because
• 01:08people want to go back and make
• 01:09sure you know what they heard
• 01:11and obviously people can call me.
• 01:13They can,
• 01:13you know we'll go over it again in the
• 01:16second visit because I have the benefit of.
• 01:19You know 16 years of training and 20
• 01:21years of practice to go through this
• 01:24people newly diagnosed with cancer.
• 01:26Have to figure this out in days to weeks
• 01:29and so we want to help them and for the past,
• 01:33roughly 25 years I've been studying
• 01:36really the gamut of GI cancers and my
• 01:38research has spanned from prevention.
• 01:40Well,
• 01:41what are the things that put us
• 01:43at risk for these various cancers?
• 01:46GI cancers I've had work in biology,
• 01:48so my laboratory has tried to understand
• 01:51new targets for these cancers.
• 01:53And then I've LED clinical trials,
• 01:55novel therapies,
• 01:55and I've been very fortunate to be
• 01:58involved in two drug approvals for GI
• 02:00cancers just in the past five years.
• 02:02And and honestly,
• 02:03my commitment is a clinician.
• 02:05And when I care for patients is to
• 02:07take these scientific discoveries
• 02:09from my lab and other labs and move
• 02:12it into the clinic so we can really
• 02:15improve the outcome for patients.
• 02:16I've been doing this a long time
• 02:19and I've seen it from both sides.
• 02:21Candidly,
• 02:21I've seen it as a practitioner
• 02:23and I Feel like I understand what
• 02:25patients and families go through,
• 02:27and frankly I've had a lot of family
• 02:30members on the other side as a family member,
• 02:33I've seen it.
• 02:34Frankly, my wife is a colon cancer survivor.
• 02:36I've had many members of her family
• 02:39have been treated for cancer,
• 02:40and so I really have had the benefit,
• 02:43perhaps of seeing both sides
• 02:45and understanding.
• 02:45Obviously what had to be an effective
• 02:47clinician of compassion and expert clinician,
• 02:49but also what it goes through to be a
• 02:52patient in a family member here and.
• 02:55And I think that has made me
• 02:56a better physician
• 02:57in the process.