MD-PhD Candidate Brandon Cuevas is a member of the inaugural class of the Pat and Ian Cook Doctoral Program in Cancer Engineering, the first such program in the world.
Brandon Cuevas was just a sophomore in high school when he set his sights on becoming a physician-scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). “My aunt was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer,” says Brandon, who grew up in and around New York City. “It was the first time I had seen someone close to me face such a serious illness, and each visit to the hospital was filled with uncertainty.”
That intimate experience with the impact of cancer inspired him to train to become an oncologist, with the hope, says Brandon, of one day conducting meaningful research that would directly impact the lives of patients like his aunt. Twelve years later, he is an MD-PhD candidate in the Tri-Institutional Program and one of 13 students in the inaugural class of the Pat and Ian Cook Doctoral Program in Cancer Engineering, the first such program in the world.
Brandon and fellow students in MSK’s Cancer Engineering Program review data together.
It was during his surgery rotation at MSK as a medical student that Brandon witnessed firsthand how engineering disciplines such as robotics and artificial intelligence can improve patient outcomes. “That instantly lit a lightbulb in me,” he says, “that opportunity to revolutionize cancer treatment using these new technologies.”
Daniel Heller, PhD, one of Brandon’s mentors and the co-director of the new Cancer Engineering program, encouraged him to apply. Brandon says he’s learning as much from the questions asked by his classmates, who come from diverse backgrounds and disciplines, as from formal instruction.
“MSK places a big emphasis on teamwork and group activities, so we’re invited to tackle real problems that haven’t been solved,” says Brandon. “Like how to treat a glioblastoma, which is an aggressive brain tumor with a very low survival rate — less than 10% of patients survive within five years. It’s very tough to treat pharmacologically, but the instructor encouraged us to split up into groups and to think about ways to do it anyway, and that discussion actually led to an interesting idea.” Even as students, Brandon and his classmates have the chance to be pioneers.
Brandon hopes to eventually run a lab focused on finding better cancer therapeutics: “Just being able to be that bridge between medicine and research is such a privilege, one that not many places can offer.”