Lahey Health is now part of Beth Israel Lahey Health

A team of nurses and doctorsThe Lahey Health Cancer Institute (LHCI) offers uniquely personal care from a team that supports you through each step of your cancer treatment and recovery. We are pleased to introduce you to some of the team members you may meet on your journey, as well as others who contribute to patient care “behind the scenes.”

Paul Hesketh, MD, FASCO

Paul Hesketh, MDDirector, Lahey Health Cancer Institute
Director, Sophia Gordon Cancer Center & Thoracic Oncology

Paul J Hesketh, MD, FASCO, wears many hats – among them Director of the Lahey Health Cancer Institute, Director of the Sophia Gordon Cancer Center, Director of Thoracic Oncology at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, and Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. But as an oncologist, his role as a provider is a special one.

“Cancer care is an area of extraordinary advances,” he says. “It’s gratifying to develop patient relationships and to be able to offer hope and opportunities. Cancer is not always curable, but we are increasingly making cancer a chronic disease that people are living with, and with a good quality of life.”

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Karin Leppanen, RN

Karin Leppanen, RNFor Karin Leppanen, RN, nursing is truly an inspired path.

Pre-med when she started college, Karin switched her focus to nursing after being inspired by her aunt, a nurse. Her aunt’s motivation to study nursing? Karin. Whose childhood illness resonated with her and drove her to pursue health care.

But inspiration wasn’t just the impetus for Karin to begin her career — it’s what motivates her every day.

“I’m humbled every day by the oncology patients,” Karin says. “It’s truly an honor to work with a patient and their family. It’s amazing to me how much trust they put in the staff from the moment they meet us. They really open their arms and see us as an extension of their family.”

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Janet Gallant Wood, MSN, ANP-BC

Janet Gallant Wood,MSN, ANP-BCJanet Gallant Wood, MSN, ANP-BC, Nurse Practitioner, Gynecologic Oncology at the Winchester Hospital Center forCancer Care, has never questioned her choice to work in health care. She did wonder at one point, though, whether to become a doctor or a nurse. She ultimately chose nursing because, at the time, it allowed her to treat people as a whole rather than just the specific disease they were facing. A lot has changed in medicine in the 30+ years Janet has been practicing, but nursing remains the best fit for her.

“Nursing is the perfect blend of loving the science of medicine and the art of healing,” she says.

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Shakeeb Yunus, MD

Shakeeb Yunus, MDIf you ask Shakeeb Yunus, MD, about being a doctor, he’ll talk about family — and the importance of human connection.

Dr.Yunus comes from a family of physicians and was struck early on by the power of the doctor-patient relationship. That is what drove him to study medicine and what motivates him every day.

 

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Corrine Zarwan, MD

Corrine Zarwan, MDCorrine Zarwan, MD, has an office full of photos. Pictures of family and loved ones and places she’s traveled line her walls and shelves. One image differs from the rest: it’s of clocks — taken by a patient and given to Dr. Zarwan as a gift.

“She said it’s because I gave her the gift of time,” says Zarwan, Director of the Women’s Cancer Program at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center and Associate Director and Clinical Research Director of the Lahey Health Cancer Institute. The patient is battling breast cancer, but thanks to treatment is feeling well enough to go back to school, where she’s enrolled in a photography class.

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