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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.
Jun 23, 2014
As 2013 closed, I received an invitation from ASCO to become a mentor in their International Development and Education Award (IDEA) program. As is the case when it comes to ASCO, I reacted just like Pavlov’s dog and said yes before learning what I was agreeing to (note to self—might want to work on...
Jun 02, 2014
“Your cancer has come back.” These are words no one treated for cancer wants to hear, yet they are words I have said far too often in my own career. In this case, I had said this to a patient I had cared for ever since her initial diagnosis. At that time, she had stage III breast cancer. After her...
May 15, 2014
The world is a big place and here in the U.S., we are fortunate to live in a part of it where we have access to technology and advanced medical care, clinical trials, and new therapies, even before they are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Indeed, even new agents approved for one...
Apr 24, 2014
I was invited to participate in the 2014 Rev Forum, a “big-tent” type of event sponsored by LiveSTRONG and Genentech, and featuring the participation of ASCO’s Conquer Cancer Foundation, who had extended the invitation to me. The Rev Forum...
Apr 10, 2014
Martha* had recurred yet again—her third in as many years. Despite our best attempts, remission proved fleeting. Fortunately, she had few (if any) symptoms of the cancer in her abdomen; no bloating, no nausea, no difficulty moving her bowels. Her concerns were more psychological—anxiety and...
Mar 27, 2014
As characterized by Dr. Rita Charon in her JAMA article almost 15 years ago, narrative medicine is “the ability to acknowledge, absorb, interpret, and act on the stories and plights of others.”1 It is the recognition that scientific knowledge alone is not enough—not enough for our patients, for...
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