05/19/2023

Friends of Franz Podcast S2 E20: Into the Meta-stasis with Dr. Sanjay Juneja (TheOncDoc)

The fingers on my hands are not enough to enumerate the number of television shows and films I have watched since childhood where cancer is made to be the death sentence and the divider of the families of either the main or supporting character. The protagonist feels a certain pain, is shown inside the doctor's office, and the physician somberly states, "You have cancer" or "You have six months to live." There is something so draconian about cancer that a book about the disease was titled "The Emperor of All Maladies." But is cancer truly a death sentence? What is the actual definition of cancer? What makes it different from a tumor? What do the infamous four stages mean? Is there a way that we can now track cancer's origins and hopefully evade the ultimatums that most shows have set? How toxic is chemotherapy, and what other treatments do we have available in the current age?

We are joined today by Dr. Sanjay Juneja (aka TheOncDoc), a board-certified hematologist and oncologist, to tackle all things about the emperor of afflictions. Dr. Suneja currently stands as an attending cancer specialist in Louisiana, the Chief of Oncology Service Line, and the Assistant Medical Director of Hospice. Online, he provides education on cancer and the importance of screening as the host of the Target: Cancer Podcast.