Doctor Comes Full Circle:

Cancer Survivor Returns To St. Jude As Medical Student

By Mary Powers
Memphis Commercial Appeal
Saturday, February 28, 2009

The faces of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital patient's parents lit up like a ballpark JumboTron when the tall young man in the white lab coat extended his hand.

Gustavo Furas is what Kim and Randy Dyer hope their son, Andrew, will eventually become -- a long-term survivor of childhood cancer.

Fifteen years ago, Furas and his mother were seated in a similar St. Jude exam room. Back then, Furas was poised to begin an experimental treatment for an aggressive tumor known as rhabdomyosarcoma.

But on a recent sunny morning when Furas followed Dr. Alberto Broniscer into the St. Jude exam room where the Dyers waited, Furas was wearing a lab coat.

At 28, he is in the final years of medical training in Montevideo, Uruguay. With Furas' permission, Broniscer mentioned his status as a former St. Jude patient.

The exchange between medical student, patient and family was brief, but Kim Dyer of Forsyth, Ga., said it was reassuring. Since her son was diagnosed with a brain tumor two years ago, the Dyers have collected childhood cancer success stories as if they were lucky pennies or four-leaf clovers.

Furas understood.

"It is nice to see someone (who survived childhood cancer) standing right there in front of you," he said. "It shows that (surviving cancer) is not just a legend."

St. Jude's professional ranks include other childhood cancer survivors. But hospital officials said Furas is among just a handful to return as either a medical student, physician or scientist.

Furas graduated from St. Jude's care in 2004, five years after his cancer was diagnosed.

His decision to return for a month through the hospital's international outreach program was easy.

"Cancer is one of the best things that happened in my life," he said, crediting his diagnosis and treatment with helping him learn to find the positive in any situation and to slow down long enough to enjoy the moment. "If you only keep working and racing around and going to school, it is as if life is passing you by."

Furas had his sights set on a research career even before his cancer diagnosis. But he credits the time spent at St. Jude with expanding his vision to include a medical career.

"I felt I just wanted to give something back," he explained. "I wanted to be on the other side" of the doctor-patient relationship.

Broniscer was completing his training as a St. Jude fellow when he met Furas in 1994. He said it is not unusual for young patients to volunteer plans for a medical career.

"It is one thing to say you are going to become a doctor and another thing to do it," Broniscer said. "It is very gratifying to see him back here 15 years later."

-- Mary Powers: 529-2383