Prakash Chandran : One-on-one with Regional One Health is your inside. Look at how we're building healthier tomorrows for our patients and our community. Join us as we get to know some of the individuals who help provide life-saving, life-changing care in our community. I'm Prakash Chandran, and in this episode we're getting to know Dr. Evan Glazer. He's a surgical oncologist with Regional One Health Cancer Care, and he specializes in the surgical treatment of liver and pancreatic cancer. Dr. Glazer, thank you so much for joining us today. I truly appreciate your time. I wanted to get started by asking why exactly were you drawn to a career in the medical field and specifically to surgical oncology in the treatment of liver and pancreatic cancers?

Dr. Evan Glazer: Thank you so much for an invitation to be here and speak with you today. It really is my pleasure. I was drawn to medicine and healthcare primarily for my parents. Neither one of my parents are physicians. My mom is a teacher and my father was actually a juvenile probation officer. And so from the very beginning as a child, there was a real focus on, serving the community and taking care of people. And that I think really is what drove me to become a physician. I really enjoy the interesting nature of my job.

I enjoy working with the patients, the family, and it's really about the challenge between the science of medicine, the art of medicine. And just taking care of each other and taking care of people. And so I get to do that as a surgical oncologist, and a physician. As a surgery oncologist, it's really exciting because I get to both use my hands and my brain to take care of patients inside the operating room and outside the operating room. It's my privilege to work with medical oncologist, radiation oncologist, nutritionist, and other healthcare professionals that help us take care of the whole patient.

I also work with radiologists and gastroenterologists in working up and managing patients with liver and pancreas cancers, as well as many other gastrointestinal cancer. Using this team approach is exciting for me and adds to the enjoyment of taking care of patients and certainly help with the challenging situations that we care for.

Prakash Chandran : Yeah, so you talked about the joys of working with a multidisciplinary team, but I'd love to know for you personally, what is the most rewarding part about providing care to patients at Regional One Health Cancer Care?

Dr. Evan Glazer: The most enjoyable and exciting part is after we've patient, after we've done all the workup, chemotherapy. Is that we keep seeing patients, we, they come back and see me as part of surveillance. Anytime a patient has cancer, we often, after the treatment, we surveil them for recurrence as unfortunately, sometimes cancer can come back. During this time I get to know patients and their families and they come back and tell stories that they were able to attend a graduation or see their, grandchild do something or obtain something or in some way that's very rewarding. And so that's what's really most rewarding about my job, is the ability to help our patients have a future. How about tomorrow? That is better than it would've been otherwise.

Prakash Chandran : That's amazing. I know you've been a big part in helping establish a new oncology service at Regional One Health. What's that been like?

Dr. Evan Glazer: It's been very exciting. It's been very interesting, and to be very frank, it's been extremely rewarding. It's an opportunity to build a, new program a new service that we get, take care of people in downtown Memphis. Across the Memphis and the suburbs, and even the whole region of, of the Midsouth. And so patients are cared for here from all walks of life and all geographic areas across Memphis east Memphis, the suburbs, and even into rural, more rural areas around the region.

We have referrals and I see patients from two to 300 miles away. And so that really is a privilege for us to be able to do that. The University of is a national comprehensive cancer network, institution. And so by default, since I and my colleagues are faculty with the University of Tennessee Regional, one is a National Comprehensive Cancer Network facility. These facilities, about 40 of them nationwide, get together for all the different types of cancer and define the best practices and standard of care in this country and truly worldwide. And so I sit on the panels for the pancreas cancer panel.

And the liver cancer panel. And that's also a really phenomenal opportunity where I get to work with surgical oncologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologist, interventional radiologists, gastroenterologists across the country, and learn from them. And they learn from me in part, on how we can best care for patients with different types of cancer. Truly multidisciplinary care is the best care that we offer patients, and being able to be a forefront of that through the National Comprehensive Cancer Network is absolutely fantastic for myself as a provider and more importantly for our patients on the receiving end of this expertise.

Prakash Chandran : Yeah, that is absolutely amazing to hear. Talking about the patient experience itself, obviously patients with cancer can often be scared and overwhelmed, and I'm curious how you approach these patients and their families to provide the support and compassion that they need?

Dr. Evan Glazer: We always start with the patient. The patient's at the center of everything we do. But the family is right there with them. And very rarely is the patient truly alone. More often than not, there's a family, there's siblings, there's children, there's parents, and so we always start the conversation. I always start the conversation with the patient and their family fundamentally asking Where are we and what are doing right now in terms of the cancer care? It's very important that we start the conversation that I start the conversation understanding where they. And their story to get to this point.

Some people have lot of cancer in their family. They have inherited disorders. They're very familiar with some of these things. Other patients really don't have that, and so it's very important that we start in ther beginning and really understand what is it that they are going through on a very personal level, and then what are they going through on a cancer level? And those are two different things. As we work through that and get to know each other, I then explain my role as multidisciplinary care, a nurse practitioner and a nurse and medical assistant that work with me to care for, these patients and to go through with what their expectations are.

And that's also really important to understand where they are, what's going on currently and where do we think things are going in the future, and it requires that I work with other specialties as well to provide a multidisciplinary care.

Prakash Chandran : Yeah, I think like, you know, you keep coming back to this multidisciplinary care, and I think it's important because you have to holistically evaluate the person, like you mentioned, like there's their cancer, and then the broader life, and then the community that supports them. So you have to really look at the whole, individual and also the right type of care that you're going to give them. So I love that, It'd be great for you to share how your relationship with the patient evolves after that first meeting.

Dr. Evan Glazer: For a lot of people, a lot of patients when they have cancer and then cancer treatment, they have side effects or adverse effects, and this is on top of things that are already preexisting conditions, so to speak. And so some patients come in and they're otherwise pretty healthy. Other patients have a few things going on, and sometimes in terms of patients go to surgery, they need what's called pre rehabilitation. And what that referred to is working with physical therapists and occupational therapists to get patients healthier prior to surgery so they can have the least amount of risk with treatment. Chemotherapy can also debilitate patients. And so it's really important that we upfront address nausea or pain or other factors that are causing stress to the patient or to the patient's family.

Importantly, each patient's unique and so what may be a problem for one patient isn't really a problem for somebody else. And so one of the critical things we do is every visit my team and I ask the patients what's bothering you and what's going on? Cause as cancer care progresses, and as patients progress through their treatments, different things pop up, and I never wanna assume that I know what patients are going through without asking them. Tell me what you're going through and how can I help make this easier?

As patients communicate back, we then use our expertise and experience to customize and personalize their care plan and address issues that come up. Certain things for certain patients are higher priority, and we want to address those upfront and make sure that we not value the patient and their family, but the value their values. And that means personalizing care and customizing care to accomplish the goals that they want. Usually this is referring to as quality of. well as the goals of curing them or helping them live longer. That's quantity of life. That balance is important, and certainly each patient is unique and should be treated as such.

Prakash Chandran : I love that. I'd love to spend now this time just getting to know you a little bit like the, Dr. Glazer behind the MD. Tell us about your life outside of work. What are some of the things you enjoy during your free time?

Dr. Evan Glazer: Well, in addition to a clinician and surgical oncologist, I'm also a researcher. I have a research lab at the University of Tennessee. We study pancreas cancer progression primarily, but also liver cancers and how different treatments cause the body to react in a way that either permits cancer to grow or stops the cancer in its track. I'm also privileged to work with St. Jude and projects with them as we understand different aspects of cancer care and cancer therapy. They obviously are Children's Cancer Hospital, and I primarily take care of adults, but some of the fundamental concepts apply to both groups, and we wanna learn from each other and really work together to provide the best possible care.

So it takes up a lot of time, but in my personal life, I'll tell that I'm happily married to a wonderful woman. Michelle is my wife, and she allows me to, do all these things and stay very busy and take care of a lot of patients. residents and do research and care for people. And so I'm very privileged and forunate to be married to her and have two beautiful children that are in school, here and they love the area. I've been here about six years, a little bit longer than six years, and we've loved Memphis in the, and we enjoy being part of the community here. We made a lot of really great friends and it's a very special .

think some of the activities, we like go hiking. There's a number of state parks in the region. Fantastic. I've taken up cooking and so we can spend another 10 hours discussing different types of barbeque right. Specifically, I'm a brisket guy. I love barbecue or smoke brisket, I should say, and barbecue ribs. I know that the, a little hearsay here in the south where pork is, the name of the game, and so I look forward to heated debates and, discussions with my both first line professional colleagues as to how to best prepare barbecue and so forth.

But like many communities, like many things, food is a way to get to know the person and a way to open up relationships so Mid South and Memphis especially for that, and that all the food we have here really allows for experiencing both people's history and where people are going in the future. And, so my family and I very much enjoyed that.

Prakash Chandran : So just as we close, I'd love to ask some quickfire questions and have you answered them? Would that be okay?

Dr. Evan Glazer: Certainly.

Prakash Chandran : What was your first job?

Dr. Evan Glazer: I was a camp counselor.

Prakash Chandran : Okay. And you got paid to be a camp counselor?

Dr. Evan Glazer: The summertime, I was a camp counselor, a junior counselor at a high school. And I also taught TaeKwonDo during the school year as a, junior high and high school kid. so yeah.

Prakash Chandran : Nice. if you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go first that you haven't been?

Dr. Evan Glazer: Machu Picchu, the historic, the age of it. Second to none. There's a train involved. You can't just get there. It's an exciting place.

Prakash Chandran : Who is a hero or an individual that inspires you?

Dr. Evan Glazer: Albert Einstein is someone who really inspires me. He's very smart guy. A pretty wicked sense of humor and never took himself too seriously.

Prakash Chandran : Great answer. And finally, if you weren't doing this, like being in the medical profession, what would you be doing?

Dr. Evan Glazer: It's funny, sometimes we talk about what other skillsets do I have or do we have it as surgeons? Cause it's so many years of training and such a very specific job. But I think I would either be a barista, I can make a pretty mean espresso. Or I would smoke brisket, smoke barbecue, and make a life outta that.

Prakash Chandran : That is so interesting, the barista part. Can you even do the latte art and everything like that?

Dr. Evan Glazer: Depends on your definition of art. Like do some design, but I drank a lot coffee over there. I various forms barbecue and food, you know. Multicultural, it's multi-dimensional. Lots of people drink it. We can talk about tea. There's lots of things, but fundamentally, you, it brings people together that's really, I think, a really important part of life to share it.

Prakash Chandran : Well said Dr. Glazer, and I think that's the perfect place to end. Thanks so much for your time today.

Dr. Evan Glazer: My pleasure. Thank you.

Prakash Chandran : That was Dr. Evan Glazer. He's a surgical oncologist with Regional One Health Cancer Care who specializes in the surgical treatment of liver and pancreatic cancers. You can learn more about the amazing oncology team at Regional One Health Cancer care at regionalonehealth.org slash cancer care. For appointments, you can call 901-515-HOPE. That's 901-515-4673.

Thanks for making one-on-one with Regional One Health, part of your journey to better health. Join us next time as we cover another topic to keep you on the path to a healthier tomorrow. My name's Prash Shrin. Thanks so much and stay well.