What’s the Best Way to Help Someone With Cancer? | A Panel Discussion

by Anthony Effinger

The Think Neuro podcast from Pacific Neuroscience Institute takes you into the clinic, operating room and laboratory with doctors and surgeons who are tackling the most challenging brain diseases and disorders. Host: Anthony Effinger

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Episode 41: Show Notes

Tatiana Sarkisian lives with a brain tumor that causes pain like the very worst migraine. Van Nessa Manlunas had a sarcoma in her cheekbone and has had eight surgeries. Ben Stein-Lobovits suffered an inoperable brainstem glioma that is kept in check with a new drug. Do you have someone in your life who is coping with cancer?

Tatiana, Vanessa and Ben have some thoughts on how to help them. For Ben, the best thing was when a friend just left dinner on the porch and didn’t even ring the doorbell because he had a baby at the time and a barking dog. Tatiana likes it when friends check in, not with her, but with her mother, who is “in it with her everyday.”

Dr. Akanksha Sharma, a neuro-oncologist at Pacific Neuroscience Institute who has helped hundreds of patients on their cancer journeys, helps moderate this discussion on what helps and what doesn’t when someone is facing the toughest diagnoses.

About Dr. Sharma

Akanksha Sharma, MD, is board certified in neurology, neuro-oncology and palliative medicine. She is experienced in the treatment of primary/metastatic brain tumors, neurological complications of cancer, and disease-related burden and symptoms.

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Anthony Effinger

Think Neuro's host is Anthony Effinger, an award-winning journalist who is fascinated with neuroscience and the workings of the brain. Anthony spent 24 years at Bloomberg News, where he covered all aspects of finance, with forays into science and health. In 2006, the Association of Health Care Journalists awarded him first prize for Playing the Odds, an in-depth piece on the changing strategies used to treat prostate cancer. These days, he is a staff writer at Willamette Week, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper in Portland, Oregon, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Last updated: August 31st, 2023