SEEING THE PATIENT
BEHIND THE DISEASE

From Poland to the United States, Marcin Chwistek has lived in many places, but now his second home is Fox Chase Cancer Center, where he is the Director of the Supportive Oncology and Palliative Care Program.

Chwistek was born and raised in a small town in southern Poland. While still in high school, he met his future wife, Marta. “This was before the internet and well before dating apps became a standard, so you typically met people in your school or neighborhood,” Chwistek said with a chuckle. They married while Chwistek was still in medical school and today have two children, Phil and Lena.

In Poland, medical school starts right after high school and is a six-year program. Chwistek went to Jagiellonian University Medical College in Kraków. “Once I got into my clinical years, I really felt I had found my place.”

Years later, Chwistek found his place once more at Fox Chase when he arrived in 2006. He started as a pain and palliative care physician and worked his way into becoming program director. In his role, Chwistek takes care of cancer patients with advanced disease and cancer survivors. With a team of other physicians, nurses, and social workers, he helps support patients and their families and caregivers throughout their disease trajectory, providing comprehensive supportive care.

Chwistek recalls two moments that pushed him towards palliative care in oncology. The first was during his early clinical rotations in medical school, when he encountered a patient with lymphoma. “You could clearly see enlarged lymph nodes in their neck from across the room,” Chwistek said. “It deeply affected me to see how a disease can so dramatically alter one’s life. I remembered thinking, ‘This is something I could do, to help someone during a time of great uncertainty in their life.’”

The second moment was when Chwistek’s mother got sick during his third year of medical school. She had colon cancer and passed away within six months of her diagnosis. “She died in the university hospital where I had my clinical rotations,” he said. It was then that Chwistek was able to see the delivery of cancer care from the point of view of a caregiver, not a clinician.

He remained in Poland for a part of his residency in radiation oncology and later moved to the United States for an internal medicine residency program at Yale University-Bridgeport Hospital in Connecticut. “That was probably the boldest thing I’ve ever done in my life. My wife was pregnant with our son, and we were starting a new life in a country we had never visited before and had no friends or family.”

After that, Chwistek worked as a primary care physician, became a U.S. citizen, and began an integrative medicine fellowship at the University of Arizona. While in primary care, he encountered many patients with cancer, which made him realize that he missed oncology. “I wanted to focus on taking care of patients who were going through the experience of facing a life-threatening disease.”

Chwistek then went to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York for a pain and palliative care fellowship. A few years later, when an opening at Fox Chase came up, and with it, an opportunity to focus solely on taking care of patients with cancer, his family was on the move one last time.

In addition to his other work with Fox Chase patients, Chwistek is involved in pain management research, much of which is based on questions that come up while caring for patients in the clinic.

A few years ago, his team received a grant to purchase a new device that uses electrical stimulation to diminish pain caused by nerve damage. A research program to explore the benefits of the treatment compared to standard drug therapy will start soon at Fox Chase.

“We are also researching buprenorphine, a painkiller, and how it fits into the current models of treatment for cancer pain. We’re excited about the research because buprenorphine offers many benefits over other standard opioid analgesics like morphine or oxycodone. It is better tolerated, has fewer side effects, and remains effective over a more extended period.”

COLIN LENTON

Chwistek and his team are also researching patients’ experiences of life-threatening illnesses, including how to most effectively promote care that best aligns with patients’ values, wishes, and preferences.

In addition to his research, mentoring the next generation of physicians who are receiving training in medical oncology and/or palliative medicine is a priority for Chwistek, an endeavor he can pursue as a Professor in the Department of Hematology/Oncology at Fox Chase and at Temple University’s College of Public Health.

When he has the time, Chwistek takes a well-deserved break to play tennis, which he learned from his grandfather and father when he was young.

“As physicians and researchers, our days are filled with diverse activities that we all try to squeeze into 24 hours,” said Chwistek. “Sometimes it’s hard and challenging, but at the same time, realizing that we all do this for the benefit of our patients is very rewarding.”