Balancing Service and Science: How Military Experience Shapes Dr. Avishek Kumar’s Approach to Cancer Care

Following in His Family’s Footsteps While Carving His Own Path

Healthcare is a family business for Dr. Kumar.

“Both of my parents are doctors. I have grandparents and cousins who are doctors,” he says. “Growing up around your family, you have a tendency to follow in their footsteps.”

Surrounded by a family dedicated to medicine and high-quality care, Dr. Kumar understood the impact of compassionate, leading-edge healthcare. But while he always knew  that he wanted to pursue a medical career, another influential passion took root in his childhood—aviation.

“I watched Top Gun as a kid. That’s what started my interest,” Dr. Kumar says. “I loved taking trips on airplanes to different places. I was learning about military history and different types of airplanes. In college and medical school, I took flying lessons. I was always drawn to it.”

Despite his interest, Dr. Kumar says he never considered a military aviation career, choosing to keep his focus on medicine. He pursued degrees in biology and archeology at Rutgers College before earning his medical degree at Saint George’s University of Medicine.

After graduating, he learned about opportunities in the Air Force Reserves that would allow him to chase both of his passions.

“I realized I could be a doctor and break the sound barrier in a fighter jet, both of these personal aspirations of mine,” he says. “I could serve my country and meet all these people from all walks of life and learn from their perspectives. And that’s influenced my approach to healthcare.”

Dr. Kumar continued his medical training with an internal medicine residency at St. Michael’s Medical Center, a geriatric medicine fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, a hematology and oncology fellowship at the University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center, and completed flight surgeon school with the Air Force Reserve.

Meeting Patient Needs with Geriatric Oncology

During his internal medicine training, Dr. Kumar began to explore oncology, a field he grew more interested in the more he learned about it. After rotating with different faculty members who were oncologists, he was drawn to the idea of seeing patients and managing their care over longer periods of time.

“People always think of oncology as depressing,” he says. “But in reality, I’m seeing these patients over and over again on a frequent basis. I’m getting to know them, learning their stories, becoming their friends. You want to take care of your friends. There’s a longitudinal benefit to that kind of long-term care and teamwork I was drawn to.”

Dr. Kumar says the perspective he has gained from the different needs and experiences of the people he serves alongside in the military informs his approach to geriatric oncology.

“Obviously, older people are just a different type of adult. Many of my patients lead active lives with their families,” he says. “I saw that older people have specific needs both in general and when they have cancer. You have to tweak and adjust what you’re doing accordingly, because when we address those needs, we can dramatically improve patients’ quality of life while they’re being treated for cancer.”

Looking to the Future: Improving Quality of Life with Treatment Advancements

Dr. Kumar believes treatment for cancer should be a part of a patient’s life, not their whole life. His practice is driven by focusing on each patient and their well-being in addition to treating their cancer. He believes recent treatment advancements and evolving technologies are key to preserving quality of life in older cancer patients.

“In general, people are living longer now. Older adults are still playing pickleball and taking trips. They’re running marathons and doing things that were considered inconceivable decades ago,” Dr. Kumar says. “Cancer is often considered a disease of aging, but many people aren’t sitting in a rocking chair, reminiscing about the old days, they’re living active lives. We want them to be able to continue to do that.”

He says targeted therapies and immunotherapies allow physicians to treat cancer in a more efficient way, often leading to more effective treatment results and lessened side effects. He also notes that patients can be treated close to home without being hospitalized, allowing them to remain engaged in their lives and communities.

“You can have the best cancer treatment in the universe, but if you’re driving two hours to get it, or if you’re sick and miserable all of time, that affects your quality of life,” he says. “Ideally, it should be a balance. We’ve already come a long way in finding that balance, and the beauty is that the technology’s still evolving.”

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Avishek Kumar is one of more than 90 medical oncologists and hematologists who practice with RCCA at New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and the Washington, D.C., area. RCCA’s cancer specialists see more than 26,000 new patients each year and provide care to more than 245,000 established patients, collaborating closely with those patients’ other physicians. RCCA physicians offer patients innovative therapies, including immunotherapies and targeted therapy, as well as access to approximately 300 clinical trials. In addition to serving patients who have solid tumors, blood-based cancers, and benign blood disorders, RCCA care centers also provide infusion services to people with a number of non-oncologic conditions, including multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, asthma, iron-deficiency anemia, and rheumatoid arthritis—who take intravenously-administered medications.

To learn more about RCCA, call 1-844-346-7222 or visit RCCA.com