Podcast: Listen
Hesham Gayar, M.D., a board certified radiation oncologist, is Medical Director for the McLaren Proton Therapy Center, part of the Karmanos Cancer Network. He also serves as Vice President for the Particle Therapy Co-Operative Group (PTCOG) -North American Chapter and as a board member and Steering Committee member for PTCOG worldwide. His involvement in proton therapy also includes membership on the Executive Committee of the Proton Collaborative Group Medical Societies and as a member of the World Forum on Particle Therapy Strategic Planning for 2030. He holds numerous leadership positions at McLaren, including serving as chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology at McLaren Flint, Associate Medical Director of the Karmanos Cancer Institutes at McLaren Flint and Lapeer, Chairman of the Research Advisory Board at McLaren Health Care, and Chairman of the Karmanos Cancer Institute Clinical Leadership Council.
Dr. Gayar earned his medical degree from the Alexandria School of Science in Egypt and completed a residency at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York and a fellowship at Ohio State University. He also completed training in proton therapy at the Paul Scherrer Institute. He is past president of the Board of Directors of the Genesee County Medical Society, a RTOG Principal Investigator with the Michigan State Medical Society, an American College of Surgeons Liaison Physician and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Cancer Terminator Foundation.
In 2018, Mary Jo Dorotinsky learned she had cancer in her right breast. “I actually went in for a mammogram a few months late when they discovered a very small tumor,” Mary Jo said. “It felt like fate. The doctor told me that if I had gone in on schedule, they might have missed the lump because it was so small.” Mary Jo had a lumpectomy and traditional photon radiation to treat the stage one cancer. When her treatments were over, her doctor recommended Mary Jo alternate between a mammogram and MRI...
Mary Lou Brose never imagined having a CT scan of her back could be life-changing, but results from the test turned her world upside down. A surgeon ordered the CT to get a closer look at what was happening with Mary Lou’s sciatic nerve, and what he found – a mass in her lung that turned out to be cancerous – brought the discussion about her back pain to an abrupt halt. “The surgeon noticed something in my lung,” Mary Lou said. “He said I was not going to have back surgery until this was taken car...
When Laurie Tucker found a lump in her left breast during a self-exam in June 2023, she did not waste any time getting in to see her doctor. “She sent me for a mammogram. I had not had one since 2019,” Laurie said. “After the test, I had to go into a separate room and talk to the radiologist. He saw something suspicious.” Laurie has dense breasts, which can make it hard to see abnormalities in the breast. Her doctor ordered a biopsy. “They called me the next day and said it was cancer,” Laurie exp...
Hersham Gayar, M.D., discusses the advantage of McLaren's Proton Therapy Center, which is part of the Karmanos Cancer Network.