By Regina Nuzzo
A Doctor’s Devotion
Pediatric oncologist Aziza Shad is on call for her patients 24 hours a day
By Regina Nuzzo
Up-and-coming doctors who work with Shad can’t help but take note. “What I’ve learned from her is, No. 1, don’t rush anything,” says Matthew Ronan, a Georgetown University medical student. Her visits with patients last as long as two hours. “You’d expect patients to get upset with waiting, but instead they understand why they’re waiting,” he says.
Not only are patients happy to wait for the famous Shad care, many find her clinic environment surprisingly welcoming. In the waiting area—equipped with musical instruments, games and a bustling arts-and-crafts studio—families sit and chat. Between appointments, Shad drops by to 
dole out hugs and introductions. “It’s like a huge family kitchen,” says Bridget Abid, 16, who is being treated for lymphoma. “It’s where all the life is. Dr. Shad is like the mother moving around, coordinating everything. You get such an emotional connection with everyone.”
Every August, Shad—along with her husband and three sons, now ages 26, 23 and 16—hosts a backyard picnic for her patients at her home in Rockville, Md. Survivors and their families return from all over, reconnecting with old friends and serving as mentors for current patients. What started as a modest gathering of 40 people has swelled to an event of more than 200.
Shad would be delighted if all childhood cancer survivors stayed so connected. Research results increasingly point to the seriousness of “late effects”—the challenges and risks these children will continue to face throughout adulthood as a result of their cancer and its treatment. For example, children who receive bone marrow transplants will later be at increased risk of skin cancer, and some types of chemotherapy can lead to heart disease.
In 2003, Shad started the Pediatric Cancer Survivorship Clinic at Georgetown, which has continued to grow over the years. In 2007, she spearheaded the creation of The Next Step—Crossing the Bridge to Survivorship, a handbook for cancer survivors and families that she co-authored. Shad is now at work on an educational book for primary care physicians. “I passionately believe that we owe this to every cancer survivor,” she says. “We have a responsibility to the children from the day they walk into our clinic to make sure [that] after they have done the treatment, they are ready to have their life again.”
Shad has not forgotten the poor fishmongers’ children in the rest of the world. She is the director of the U.S. division of the International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research, a nonprofit nongovernmental organization sponsored by the NCI, and chairwoman of the palliative care steering committee for the Middle East Cancer Consortium. She travels the globe to help give health care workers in other countries the benefits of the education she left Pakistan to get.
“It’s about giving back now,” she says. “It does not matter what country it is, what race, what ethnicity, what economic status. The important thing is that children should not die of cancer if you can prevent it. It’s not just about being a physician. It’s about being a humanistic physician. It’s not about caring for the patient. It’s about caring for the person.” 