Oncologist Turned Caregiver Offers Guidance About Women's Cancers

Dr. Valena Wright has spent the last 25 years specializing in the treatment of gynecologic cancers. All that experience, however, did not prepare her for when her sister, Debbie, would be diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

“When you study and practice all of these years, and a member of your family is diagnosed with ovarian cancer — which is the most serious or difficult to treat — I got to see things from a different perspective,” Wright, who is the director of gynecologic oncology at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts, said in an interview with CURE®. “And I learned so much from being with my sister during her battle with ovarian cancer. I was disappointed in some of the correspondence or interactions that she had with the medical system.”

That disappointment led Wright to share her sister’s story, along with other women, in a recently released book, “It’s Time You Knew.” The reason for writing the book, according to Wright, is to raise awareness and help others avoid ever having to deal with a cancer diagnosis.

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