Troy A. Gatcliffe, M.D.

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

Troy A. Gatcliffe, M.D., Gynecologic oncologist with Miami Cancer Institute
[TRANSCRIPT]: – My name is Dr. Troy Gatcliffe and I am a gynecologic oncologist. Always knew in my heart that I wanted to be a physician. My grandfather, who was a policeman in Trinidad was very, very good friends with an orthopedic surgeon that operated for free on disadvantaged kids, correcting scoliosis and different other pediatric orthopedic problems. I asked him to let me come to the operating room when I was 12 years old which was a little uncommon. And after that surgery, I walked back to school to be picked up by my parents. And on the way back, I was like, I’m gonna do that. I’m gonna do surgery. I’m gonna be a surgeon. And that’s never changed. In med school, I fell in love with obstetrics and gynecology. Right about the same time that that was happening, I discovered gynecologic cancer patients and I was truly drawn to their whole fight, their whole struggle. They became my heroes. And when those two things came together for me, I figured this is what I want to do. I want to be a gynecologic oncologist. One particular exciting field that is exploding at the current time is the realm of immunotherapy. Being able to utilize the body’s immune system to fight cancer, using patients‘ individual tumors to create vaccines and employing the various pathways of the immune system to fight cancer. Large number of patients travel to south Florida as a medical destination from the islands of the Caribbean and from the Caribbean basin in Latin America for care. We want patients choosing to come to south Florida to know that if they have a cancer diagnosis and require the cutting edge of cancer care that the Miami Cancer Institute is the place that they want to come to. When a patient comes to me with a cancer diagnosis, I really try to encourage them to bring a family member with them. Cancer makes people very nervous. Having family and friends not just be there with them for those tough visits but be present throughout their treatment as their various pillars of support. You don’t treat a cancer patient. You treat their family.