On the Warpath for Health:
Dr. Sam Mazj
Originally from Tehran, Iran, Dr. Sam Mazj escaped with his family when he was thirteen years old in search of a better life far away from the political duress that had recently befallen his country. His family moved to America and he began the journey that would eventually lead him to his position as director of the cancer center at Feather River Hospital in Paradise. After completing his internship at Cornell Medical School, Sam began his residency at at New York Hospital; it was here that he met his wife Colleen, who at the time was an oncology nurse. Sam not only quickly fell in love with her, but also the field of medicine she had decided on. Their time together encouraged him to pursue a fellowship in oncology at the prestigious Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Hospital in New York, and it was his work and experience here that eventually landed him at Stanford Hos22
pital where he completed his bone marrow transplant fellowship. In 2006, after a few years at Stanford, Sam was scouted by Enloe Hospital and offered a job in their expanding oncology department. The developing cancer center with a younger base of surgeons was attractive enough to encourage him to split his time between Stanford and Enloe, and eventually move his family to Chico permanently. A short while later, he was offered the position as director of the cancer center at Feather River Hospital and has been there since. Discussing cancer with Sam is unlike discussing cancer with anyone else. The conversation, usually grim and full of sorrow, is quite the opposite here. Though there’s no lack of empathy for those afflicted with the disease, the picture painted is significantly brighter than ever before. In 1972, as Sam mentions, the survival rate for cancer patients
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was less than ten percent — a literal death sentence. In 2013, that percentage rose to nearly ninety percent, and with the rate of technological advancement, Sam sees no reason why science can’t bridge the final ten percent gap within the next decade. In the last four years alone, four million survivors were added to the cancer survivor list, and treatment has progressed from a “carpet-bombing” style treatment with chemotherapy to DNA targeted treatment that often times is an outpatient procedure. As he puts it, we have entered the golden age of cancer treatment. Undoubtedly encouraging, Sam also regards the growing belief that cancer is an epidemic, which in fact, it is not. Historically, cancer has always had a high incidence rate throughout populations, the difference now is that our populations have grown exponentially and, at least on the average, we tend to live significantly longer than generations before us did. The disease however, is far more treatable now than it ever has been before. Although things are looking up for those afflicted with the disease, it is no excuse for the rest of us not to remain vigilant against its existence. Cancer still remains the number two killer of human beings, directly behind heart disease, and not taking proper precautionary measures may only encourage its proliferation. At this point, the majority of cancers can be cured before they reach stage 4 through more simplistic forms of outpatient surgery. Nobody is immune and only five percent of cancer is known to be hereditary. In other words, family history does not necessarily beget the disease. Screening for breast cancer should begin at forty if not earlier and a colonoscopy should be completed by the time you’re fifty (or forty as well if there is a case of family history with the disease). Early screenings save hundreds of thousands from the disease each and every year, and with the more modern forms of treatment, there is no reason to wait. Sam’s outlook is one of optimism, not just for his patients, but for his own family and future generations to come. The smile on his face as he talks about his work, and that of his colleagues, is the same you would expect to see on the face of any hero winning a war waged against a villain. Luckily for our community, he is no further than a short drive away.
Aveed Khaki Frank Rebelo