Aleena S. Itani, M.D., hematologist and medical oncologist, is now seeing patients at
Texas Oncology–Flower Mound and
Lewisville Castle Hills. Dr. Itani shares what she looks forward to in the future of cancer care and her favorite documentary series.
1. What is the most valuable lesson you have learned in your medical education?
During residency and fellowship, I learned the importance of getting comfortable with being uncomfortable. There are a lot of difficult questions we must ask our patients in medicine to help diagnose or assess them. There may also be times when we don’t know the answer and need to ask colleagues for help. All of this can be hard, but I believe it’s the irreplaceable human aspect of medicine that training has prepared us for.
2. Do you have any family members in the medical field?
My husband is also a physician. We met in medical school and matched for residency in Oklahoma. After residency, he went on to specialize in radiology and now works as an emergency teleradiologist.
3. What are you most looking forward to as cancer treatment continues to evolve?
I’m looking forward to more precise cancer treatments. The field has made significant progress, particularly in the last few years, in understanding tumor biology. This has helped us develop molecularly targeted treatments, also called precision medicine, which are effective even in patients with advanced cancers. I hope with continued research we’ll have more available treatment options that are tailored to patients’ individual disease biology and can mitigate side effects.
4. What are you regularly tuning into right now (e.g., podcast, show, music, book, etc.)?
I’m a big fan of documentaries about true crime, sports, and nature. I recently watched “Receiver” and “Island of the Sea Wolves.”
5. What is one thing most people don’t know about you?
I worked as a substitute teacher before medical school. Although I tutored kids throughout high school and college, commanding a class of teenagers on my own was a challenging and humbling experience. I have so much respect for our educators.
6. What is your morning routine?
Much of my morning is dictated by my two-year-old son. I usually try to sneak out of bed before he wakes up to get some exercise in and catch up on emails and chores. Then, the rest of my morning is spent cleaning up whatever he had for breakfast and convincing him to get dressed.
7. Are you more of an indoor or outdoor person?
I grew up in Northern California, so I spent most of my childhood outside. I may not run outdoors as much as I used to, but even with the Texas heat, I still consider myself an outdoorsy person. Our son is also a big fan of being outdoors, so we try to take him out as much as we can. Right now, we’re getting to know the parks in our neighborhood.