This oncologist has had cancer 6 times. He says his early detection due to his medical training likely saved his life.

Courtesy of Dr. Arthur Hamberger Dr. Arthur Hamberger was in his medical residency when he found a lump in his testicles.

His treatment inspired him to focus on radiation oncology. He’s since had five more cancer diagnoses, most of which he caught early. In 1971, Arthur Hamberger was completing his residency in internal medicine.

One day, as he was reading the New England Journal of Medicine to keep up with the latest research, an article about testicular cancer in young men piqued his curiosity, so he examined himself. He found a lump. “I discovered it myself,” Hamberger said.

Hamberger was diagnosed with pure seminoma, a type of testicular cancer. Today, survival rates for people with the cancer are high, but back then the diagnosis was terrifying — Hamberger was only 26 and had a newborn daughter. Hamberger made it his goal to live for 15 years, long enough to watch his daughter grow up.

He far exceeded that: Hamberger is now 77. But cancer has continued to shape his life. He decided to focus on cancer treatmentAfter undergoing radiation as part of his testicular-cancer treatment, Hamberger decided to change his specialty to radiation oncology.

“While I was going through this rough treatment, I was reading about radiation oncology,” he said. “I realized this is a field I’d be interested in. “He completed his internal-medicine residency, then did more training focused on radiation oncology.

He joined the staff at Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, where he practiced until his retirement. Throughout his career, Hamberger knew he needed to be conscious of his cancer risk. He’d had a previous diagnosis and an increased risk from the radiation he’d received.

In addition, he had a family history of cancer: His brother and his uncle had prostate cancer, and his mother died of biliary-tract cancer, which would later kill his brother too. Another aunt had cancer as well. When he was in his 70s, cancer returnedHamberger said that despite the risk, “things were going along pretty smoothly.

” He was having his prostate-specific-antigen levels checked regularly, which is important for detecting prostate cancer. In 2017, when Hamberger was 71, his test showed that his PSA levels were elevated. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

He said that while he was dedicated to his team at Memorial Hermann, he decided to get care at a different hospital system. “I didn’t want to be treated by friends. It’s not a good idea to be treated by people you know,” he said.

“Sometimes friends can’t be as objective. A physician should be empathetic but maintain objectivity. “Still, given his expertise, Hamberger worked closely with his doctor.

He said he was wary of more radiation, since the area would overlap with where he’d had radiation treatment in his 20s. “I said to the urologist, ‘What about surgery?'” Hamberger recalled. “And he said, ‘We’ll give that a try.

‘”The surgery led to another cancer diagnosisThe surgery was a success; doctors removed his prostate and some of his lymph nodes. When those were analyzed, they showed a less aggressive form of leukemia. It was Hamberger’s third cancer diagnosis, but it might have gone undetected.

“My immune system was fighting it,” he said. “It wouldn’t have been picked up without this surgery. ” His doctors agreed that no treatment was needed.

“I was going along my merry way,” Hamberger said, until one day in 2018 he noticed a tinge of blood in his urine. He grabbed a cup to bring a urine sample to his urologist friend. His intuition was right: Hamberger had a 4-centimeter tumor on his bladder.

Imaging to look at the bladder tumor also revealed a growth on his pancreas. For his fourth and fifth cancer diagnoses, he needed surgeries and an intensive chemotherapy regimen. Though the typical approach was to do chemo first, then surgery, he requested the opposite approach.

“On paper, the chemo looked like it could kill you,” he said. “There was no evidence that the opposite was better, and I wanted to be in good shape for surgery. “Hamberger says he’s fortunateHamberger underwent chemo from April to September 2019.

Today he has residual effects of treatment, like tingling in his hands and feet. He gets scans every six months — one of them revealed a sixth cancer, a small tumor on his kidney that doctors are monitoring. Hamberger said that despite his many diagnoses, “I was very lucky.

“His bladder tumor allowed him to pick up the pancreatic cancer, which often goes undetected until it’s too late. His brother’s prostate-cancer diagnosis motivated him to check his PSA levels regularly. Hamberger said that while a cancer diagnosis in his 70s is almost expected, it’s the young people with cancer who break his heart and inform his approach to life.

“Having been an oncologist and seeing what other people go through has given me a sense of perspective,” he said. “Small things don’t upset me. Any extra time is good.

“Read the original article on Insider.