For this edition of Making the Rounds we interviewed Dr. Mautin Barry-Hundeyin, a surgical oncologist at the Markey Cancer Center specializing in cancers of the liver, pancreas and stomach.
Dr. Barry-Hundeyin graduated from Pennsylvania State University Medical School, completed general surgery training at Harvard Medical School and surgical oncology training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
We recently spoke with Dr. Barry-Hundeyin about her journey to becoming a physician, and what makes her work at Markey so special.
When did you know you wanted to pursue this career?
My earliest memory of wanting to become a physician is when I was about six or seven years old. At that time in my family, we had a period where many of us had malaria. At that moment, I realized that I wanted to care for patients and help educate patients and get them through difficult times in their lives.
How does your team approach cancer treatment?
There are basically three major ways that we treat most solid organ tumors: surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.
The fourth pillar, which is an emerging pillar that we're all very excited about, is using immunotherapy. Immunotherapy uses the body's own immune system to fight cancer at its core. In some solid organ tumors not only do patients have complete responses and become cured, the effects are durable and the cancers don't come back.
The hope is that with novel immunotherapies, we can expand the responder pool and make it so that more patients can benefit from such a promising, effective treatment.
Part of the philosophy here, in addition to excellent patient care, is developing research programs to help facilitate new ideas and develop new therapeutics. I am a surgeon scientist, so I wear two hats. Half of my time is spent in the operating room taking care of patients. The other half of my time is developing a research program.
What makes Markey Cancer Center so special?
The Markey Cancer Center incorporates the best of both worlds, where you have physicians, surgeons, oncologists who are extremely compassionate, care about their patients, and work their hardest to make sure patients get the best care possible. It also has access to cutting edge research, innovative technologies, and also to clinical trials, all of which have the common goal of improving the outcomes of patients with cancer.
Watch our entire interview with Dr. Barry-Hundeyin below:
