Cancer Treatment of the Future

Baptist Health Lexington: Cancer Treatment of the Future

Oncologist Firas Badin, MD, discusses how clinical trials help researchers discover new ways of overcoming cancer and how Baptist Health makes those treatments available to its patients.

Cancer Treatment of the Future HealthTalks Transcript

Firas Badin, MD
Oncology is a very dynamic field. We’re getting a lot of new treatment modalities, and we’re moving away from the traditional way of how we used to treat cancer with toxic treatment using the big guns of chemotherapy. Today, we are trying to use individualized treatment for our patients. When I see the patient in the clinic and try to discuss their best treatment options, I always look at my available clinical trials for that particular type of cancer. If the patient is a candidate, I make sure that before they leave my office they know their options. When we talk about research, really what we are trying to do is to bring the future to my clinic today. I don’t think it’s going to help my patients to tell them the future looks bright. They really care about what’s going to happen today for them. And that’s what research really helps us to do — to have access to future treatments that may make a big difference in their treatment. Certain patients who would like to have access to newer treatment that’s not approved, I think those patients would be perfect candidates for research. To have a cancer diagnosis is very stressful, and we do feel that for our patients. At Baptist Health Lexington, it’s personal to us. We treat everybody like our own family.