In general, the first thing a person might know about their physician is where they practice.

Institutions screen and vet their doctors.

Often the most important referral for cancer care comes from a patient 's own primary physician, somebody they 've had a relationship with for a long time, somebody who really cares about them,

somebody that they know and trust, somebody who knows them as an individual will often make the right referral.

Whoever you wind up with as your first visit, you shouldn't necessarily feel that you 're committed to having all of your care with that person forever and ever amen.

I think that if you can establish a good rapport with the person that you happen to come in contact with first that's great, if not, seek a second opinion.

Do it openly, I mean, I, the only rule I have about second opinions with patients is, " Please tell me that you're interested in doing that. We 'll facilitate it."

" Wherever you wanna go, whoever you wanna see. It doesn't matter to me. We 'll make it easy for you."

Otherwise you show up for a second opinion and all the tests get repeated,

all the information gets gathered anew and you wind up spending an enormous amount of time and energy just covering the same ground that you 've already covered.

People often ask me whether they should get a second opinion and I say yes.

I often learn from a second opinion. I know the patients learn from a second opinion.

If somebody has a different opinion I want to hear about it.

We get a second opinion as part of the natural course of our treatment by discussing our patients at our multidisciplinary conference

where I would sit with other medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, surgeons, diagnostic radiologists, pathologists, and everyone 's opinion would count.

Don't let the cancer and the environment intimidate you to the point where you say,

Well, you know, I'm uncomfortable there but it must be right because that's where my family doctor wanted me to go, or that's where my neighbor wanted me to go.