Giving Full Circle

I come from a UC Irvine family. My parents were UCI professors, and I grew up surrounded by students they mentored. My mother, Sujata, studied alcohol effects on brain chemistry, while my father, Krishna, was chair of biochemistry for 15 years, inheriting a department of six and leaving it with 31 faculty funded by the National Institutes of Health.

I’ve been practicing gynecologic oncology at UC Irvine for 19 years, and there’s not a month that goes by without a former student of my parents introducing themselves to me and sharing a wonderful memory of their time together. My wife, Meagan, trained at UCI; my brother is a “UCI lifer” (undergraduate, medical school student, resident, fellow, Paul Merage School of Business student); and my sister-in-law, Nita, is a UCI alumna.

To honor our parents’ memory, my brother and I established the Krishna & Sujata Tewari Scholar Award, which is bestowed annually (by an independent selection committee) on a graduate student in biological sciences and on a medical student who each demonstrate high academic promise. Our parents’ spirits must be smiling knowing they are still touching future generations of students.

When I finished my medical training, it was important for me to join a practice that would allow me to both pursue cutting-edge medicine and give back by engaging with the community.

My father had been on the search committee that recruited Dr. Philip J. DiSaia to UCI. He was an exemplary surgeon and cancer researcher whose UCI career spanned 42 years. Together with Drs. Michael Berman and Alberto Manetta, he established an academic powerhouse at UCI that aligned with my core values and drew me here. UCI’s School of Medicine mission statement also resonates deeply with me: Discover. Teach. Heal. To this day, I remain committed to developing clinical trials to help patients with gynecologic cancers live longer and live better (discover), to training the next generation of doctors (teach), and to being the best surgeon patients who entrust me with their lives can have (heal).

But to do all this, philanthropic support is invaluable. I cannot thank donors enough for their support of gynecologic oncology. Without continued funding, I would not be able to realize my goals to run large clinical trials to improve patient survival and the patient experience. For almost 50 years, UCI has been on the forefront of gynecologic cancer treatment, with faculty members having designed and completed clinical trials leading to many FDA-approved medicines that have transformed clinical practice.

It has been a long time coming, but finally, after nearly 60 years, UCI Health has opened the doors to the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center on Jamboree Boulevard in Irvine, close to the UCI campus. I have been seeing patients and operating at the UCI Health — Irvine medical complex for 14 months, and patients and families continue to remark on how beautiful the hospital is and the high quality of the patient experience.

While it’s rewarding to run clinical trials that improve the lives of thousands of patients (many of whom I will never meet), at the end of the day, I’m a doctor. There is nothing more fulfilling than bonding with an individual patient and accompanying her on a journey that may involve life-saving surgery, clinical trials or cancer surveillance as we strive for a cure.

September was Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and I’d like to leave you with the story of Bernadette Briseno, an ovarian cancer warrior who has given me permission to share. She was diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer while pregnant and endured chemotherapy until it was time to deliver baby Angel. This was followed by five hours of surgery to remove all cancer. Since this was amid the pandemic and no visitors were permitted, she took comfort during her seven-day hospitalization watching through the window as her family tailgated outside the hospital in her honor. She went on to receive more chemotherapy, get COVID-19 and then not only build back her energy but train to win several gold medals in a fitness competition before her hair even grew back. It’s now been five years, and on Sept. 28, an amazing Wings for Hope Ovarian Cancer 5K Run/Walk in Yorba Linda organized by Bernadette raised both awareness and research funding for the nonprofit Ovarian Cancer Coalition of Greater California. It was a spectacular day attended by hundreds from the community.

It’s a reminder of hope, of perseverance, and that nothing occurs in a vacuum. UCI’s infrastructure, talented collaborators and philanthropic support make such stories possible.