From Diagnosis To Purpose: Glenn Sturm On Integrated Cancer Care

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A single phone call at Gate B13 changed everything for Glenn Sturm—and then he changed the playbook for how to live with cancer. Glenn’s rare T cell lymphoma set off a 17-year run of oral and IV chemo, 55 surgeries, and a minefield of side effects. Yet what emerges is not a story about disease; it’s a masterclass in agency, teamwork, and purpose. Glenn breaks down the mindset that kept him moving—“leave cancer in Connecticut,” pay the “chemo tax,” and put a smile on someone’s face every day—while donating all astrophotography revenue to children’s health and cancer causes.

We dive deep into why multidisciplinary, integrated cancer care teams outperform siloed treatment. Glenn maps the real roster: oncologists and surgeons for the core plan; psychiatrists to tackle fatigue and narcolepsy; pharmacists to prevent deadly interactions; neurologists to decode complex symptoms; physical therapists, genetic counselors, and social workers to protect function, tailor therapies, and sustain life outside the clinic. He shares hard-won lessons from retinal detachments and liver enzyme spikes to an ER steroid misstep that led to ketoacidosis—then shows how coordinated reviews and vigilant advocacy can prevent the next near-miss.

The numbers are stunning: large cohort studies and meta-analyses link team-based oncology to lower mortality and longer survival across lung, renal, liver, breast, and head and neck cancers. Glenn pairs those stats with a practical blueprint—document every med, reconcile before any new prescription, train consistently, and build a care team before you need the full bench. Along the way, we talk purpose as medicine: writing books, planning eclipse shoots, mentoring patients, and reclaiming identity from a diagnosis that once signaled finality.

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