What Makes an Exceptional Cancer Patient?

Why to Suffer: Hope, Healing, and the Power of Meaning in Cancer Care

I want to share something with you that has been central to how I practice medicine and how I see healing—especially when the diagnosis is cancer, especially when it's advanced. This is for patients, loved ones, and anyone seeking to make sense of suffering.

Let me start with a story.

When I was in medical school, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Twice. It devastated me. I didn’t even want to finish school because I couldn’t bear to keep studying breast cancer. But I had to get over it—because not studying meant not graduating. And I did become a doctor. That experience planted a seed that would later grow into my passion for integrative and functional medicine.

Some of the most powerful lessons I’ve learned came from two books: Love, Medicine and Miracles by Dr. Bernie Siegel, and Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. I ask my patients to read both—especially those who want to go beyond conventional care and become what Dr. Siegel calls “exceptional cancer patients.”

Now, Bernie Siegel isn’t easy reading. A lot of people get upset because it can feel like he's saying the illness was your fault. But that’s not what he’s saying. He’s saying that your biology, your emotions, your spirit—they all contribute. You didn’t choose the disease. But the path forward can be shaped by how you respond.

The Biology of Hope

Dr. Siegel was a Yale-trained surgeon, and he noticed something: traditional medicine gave too much power to pathology—the disease—and not enough to the biology of the individual. He believed in the biology of hope, that there is power in love, in meaning, in miracles. And he documented case after case of patients who defied the odds.

Enter Viktor Frankl

Frankl was a psychiatrist, a Holocaust survivor. He lived through Auschwitz, endured horrific medical experiments, and lost his entire family. Yet he survived. Why? Because he had a reason to survive. He wanted to tell the world what had happened. He observed that people who had a reason to live often outlived those who had lost their will.

That’s why I ask my patients a hard question: “Do you think your chances of surviving cancer are worse than a Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz?” No one has ever said yes. And if Viktor Frankl could survive that, then so can you—if you find your why.

Why to Suffer

This idea—“why to suffer”—has changed the way I practice medicine. It changed my life. It’s not about romanticizing suffering, but about transforming it. Having a why gives you the strength to endure the how.

When I started my hybrid integrative practice, it wasn’t just about business. It was about freedom. Freedom to treat patients in ways that Medicare and Medicaid often restrict. Freedom to advocate, to educate, to bring functional and integrative oncology to patients who can afford concierge care. That’s my why.

Some of my patients are on advanced therapies: LDN, off-label drugs like mebendazole and ivermectin, medicinal mushrooms, Chinese herbs. I tailor their care individually. And yes, there are supplements and immune-optimizing protocols. But none of that works without belief. Without why.

Empowered Patients Survive Longer

I’ve seen patients who were told they had no chance live for years—thriving. Why? Because they were proactive. They researched. They questioned. They empowered themselves. In today’s world, you can learn as much as your physician—sometimes more. Use Google Scholar. Use ChatGPT. Don’t just ask “What treatment should I take?” Ask “What is the attributable benefit of this chemo in someone like me?”

And don’t forget the inner work.

Self-love. Forgiveness. Purpose. These are harder than taking supplements or showing up for chemo. But they matter more.

Final Thought

In integrative oncology, we talk about energy—gold energy, metal energy. People who can’t be bribed to hurt others. People who value integrity. Often, they are the most harmed when the world betrays them, because betrayal makes no sense to them. But that too can become part of the why. Why to suffer? So you can transform that pain into healing. For yourself. And maybe for others.

So start with these two books:

• Love, Medicine, and Miracles by Bernie Siegel

• Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

Read them. Reflect. And then ask yourself, Why to suffer?Because the answer to that question might just change your life.