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Your Stories: Conquering CancerAuthor: Conquer Cancer, the ASCO Foundation The American Society of Clinical Onco
Your Stories features candid conversations between patients, the people who love them, and the researchers looking for new treatments each day. Language: en Genres: Health & Fitness, Relationships, Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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From a Life Saved to Saving Lives
Episode 8
Tuesday, 19 August, 2025
As the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, a teenaged Yelena Y. Janjigian fled with her family from Azerbaijan to California. Little did she—or anyone else—know that when she first stepped off that airplane, she was taking the first of countless steps, ultimately leading her down a path of discovery with the potential to save innumerable lives. “As an Armenian individual growing up in Azerbaijan, going by my parents’ and my family’s experience, I don’t think I would have had an opportunity to be a physician there,” Dr. Janjigian says. “There was a clear limitation on who got to be a physician, and it’s a prestigious position anywhere in the world. As a relative minority, I wouldn’t have been able to do that. My parents certainly had the courage it took to leave and to come to a foreign country.” In this episode of Your Stories, Dr. Janjigian speaks with host Dr. Mark Lewis about her journey from Soviet-born refugee to groundbreaking oncologist, along with her vision for a world where a cancer diagnosis isn’t nearly as frightening as it is today.
