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Don S. Dizon, MD, FACP, FASCO
Don S. Dizon, MD, FACP, FASCO, is a professor of medicine and professor of surgery at Brown University, director of the Pelvic Malignancies Program and Hematology-Oncology Outpatient Clinics at Lifespan Cancer Institute, and director of Medical Oncology and the Sexual Health First Responders Clinic at Rhode Island Hospital. He also serves as the head of community outreach and engagement of the Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University. Dr. Dizon has served as past chair of ASCO's Social Media Working Group and the Cancer Communications Committee. In addition to his regular column on ASCOconnection.org, which has been honored with APEX awards in 2013 and 2014, he is a blogger for The Oncologist and a section editor of Gynecologic Oncology at UpToDate. Dr. Dizon is a member of the JCO Oncology Practice Editorial Board, and editor in chief of the ASCO Educational Book. Follow Dr. Dizon across social media channels @drdonsdizon.
Dec 12, 2013
She came to see me, alongside her husband. She was 26 years old, diagnosed with metastatic myeloma involving her bones, which had presented when she fractured her hip while jogging. Her disease had progressed on treatment and she was to start a clinical trial. Despite being pale, she looked well. I...
Nov 28, 2013
I am sitting in my kitchen having my first cup of coffee. The sun is shining through the windows, and upstairs, my kids are already awake- running from room to room, as if they are trying to catch a butterfly.
Nov 06, 2013
Every once in a while, something unexpected occurs that shakes me to my core--where I question the point of life, ask why we even bother; when in the end, it all just ends. This time, it happened on a Sunday morning. I woke up in a good enough mood-- the sun was shining through my windows, and my...
Oct 23, 2013
When I told my parents I wanted to be a doctor, they were worried—would I really want a life of being on call, could I handle the stress and the sleepless nights, wouldn’t I want a family some day? Yet even while they asked me questions, they were also very supportive and quite proud of me. I think...
Oct 07, 2013
Several weeks ago, I attended the Metastatic Breast Cancer Network (MBCN) Annual Meeting, hosted by MD Anderson Cancer Center. I had been invited to talk on sexual health and intimacy, and was delighted to do so. Right after...
Sep 24, 2013
I remember when Susan*, a close friend of mine with breast cancer (who had been living with metastatic disease for about a year before), was told she was terminal. Beyond the shock and fear, Susan felt grief and anguish that her life would end so much sooner than she (or any of us) had expected....
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