I kept getting this call from this oncologist named David Agus.

I danced through chemo and radiation cycles, much to the dismay of my oncologist.

Right, I'm an oncologist and I have to say most of what we give is actually poison.

My oncologist and I talk a lot these days because I try to keep my talks technically accurate.

Which is why I was surprised a few months later to see her back in our own town, getting her subsequent care with her private oncologist.

It was enough for her to make the decision to get her subsequent care with her private oncologist who, every time she went, examined both breasts including the axillary tail, examined her axilla carefully, examined her cervical region, her inguinal region, did a thorough exam.

And it is childhood cancer that has the greatest potential to catapult a remote fear into an unimaginable reality. As a pediatric oncologist, having cared for children with cancer and their families for more than 25 years, I know that only a parent who has confronted such a diagnosis truly understands the depth of this fear, as it touches the core of who we are as parents.