A Rossmoor resident named to lead an area cancer treatment center says he owes his passion for the profession of oncology to his parents, who taught him the value of developing a “rewarding relationship” with his patients.
The board of the Long Beach Memorial Care Medical Center this week named Dr. Nilesh L. Vora, of Rossmoor, as the medical director of its state-of-the-art Todd Cancer Institute.
Vora also serves as Chair of Hematology and Medical Oncology for the MemorialCare Medical Foundation and is passionate about the profession.
“The practice of oncology is light years ahead of where it was 30 years ago,” said Vora, “and I’m grateful and excited that the board selected me for this role.”
Vora grew up in El Dorado Estates and is a 1996 graduate of Los Alamitos High School. He graduated from Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California as a Dean’s Scholar and class president. He completed his residency at Harbor – UCLA Medical Center and a fellowship in hematology and medical oncology at The City of Hope.
He is a board-certified hematologist who spent his weekends growing up watching his parents, both radiology professionals, treat patients at the City of Hope.
“Since then,” said Vora, “I knew this is what I wanted to do.”
Moreover, the empathy he learned watching mom and dad has etched in him deep compassion for patients that is a critical element of Vora’s practice.
“You always have to put yourself in the position of the patient,” said Vora, adding that he believes it is critical to form a bond between doctor and patient.
“Oncology brings two random people together,” said Vora.
“Practicing requires a tremendous amount of compassion,” he said. “When you spend that much time with a patient, it is rewarding for the doctor and rewarding for the patient,” said Vora.
That bond, he said, will eventually guide many patient decisions regarding surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and other aspects of treatment that will bind doctor and patient to create more effective treatments, he said.
While the profession enjoys state-of-the-art technology, Vora said he will place also strong emphasis on alternative methods of care, including yoga, natural medication, mental fortitude, and telemedicine, among others, all of which optimize care.
Vora said the oncology profession now recognizes the value of external exercises and activities that amplify positive patient outcomes.
Regarding modern medical technology available to fight cancer, he said he is routinely amazed.
In a modern oncology clinic, specialists can map out a patient’s DNA sequence to determine the microscopic makeup of a tumor at the molecular level, said Vora.
Doctors then use the DNA sequence to design individualized medicines for patients then safety deploy them with targeted precision.
The results of the entire process can be dramatic, or even ‘magical,’ as Vora characterizes it.
For example, a stage-four lung cancer diagnosis in 2001 would have produced an average survival rate of seven months,” he said.
“Today, using targeted amino acid therapies created around the exact type of molecule identified in the cancer, patients with that same diagnosis have in some cases developed clean scans,” said Vora.
“A clean scan,” he added, “suggests that this person no longer needs treatment for this period.”
Technology aside, cancer sometimes wins. Not as often today, but “even when we lose a patient to the disease, there is a reward knowing you have made the patient’s life better and longer,” said Vora.
While in private practice, Vora is a generalist with a specialized interest in lung cancer; gastrointestinal cancers including colorectal, pancreatic, and gastric; and malignant hematology disorders.
Dr. Vora serves as a cancer liaison physician for the American College of Surgeons (ACS). He is an active member of American College of Physicians (ACP), American Society of Clinical Oncologists (ASSO) and the American Society of Hematology (ASH).
In his free time, Dr. Vora said he enjoys spending time with his wife and three children in Rossmoor. Vora says he has a passion for exercise and staying in shape and has made Orangetheory Fitness his side job. He lives by the motto– “live life well– one day at a time”.