Stanford Medicine’s Bryant Lin, MD, a primary care doctor who has turned his personal cancer journey into a real-time educational opportunity, will be this year’s keynote speaker at the School of Medicine’s graduation ceremony.
The ceremony will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 14 in Maples Pavilion. Tickets are required.
Lin was not quite 50 when he learned he had advanced metastatic lung cancer, despite never having smoked. The director of the Medical Humanities and Arts program turned that tragic turn of events into a lesson for the Stanford University students — and the world — by telling his story.
He created a class, MED 275: From Diagnosis to Dialogue: A Doctor’s Real-Time Battle with Cancer, open to undergraduate as well as graduate students. The course took place in the fall quarter of 2024 and was overflowing with people who wanted to learn about his journey. Multiple national news outlets covered the course as well as Lin’s open-book approach to coping with such a diagnosis.
Guest speakers included Natalie Lui, MD, assistant professor of cardiothoracic surgery who runs the lung cancer screening program at Stanford Medicine; Lin’s primary care doctor, Paul Ford, MD; his oncologist, Heather Wakelee, MD; spiritual leaders; and his wife, Christine Chan, who spoke about supporting a terminally ill spouse.
The class also covered the high rate of his type of cancer among Asians. Lin, co-founder of Stanford Medicine’s Center for Asian Health Research and Education, hopes knowledge about the higher risk among Asians will encourage better screening policies.
“It’s an honor you would want to sign up for my class,” he told students on the first day. “My dream is that you will go into cancer care. It would be great if even just one of you dedicated some part of your career to cancer.”
More about Bryant Lin:
- A doctor, his cancer journey and a uniquely teachable moment
- A very personal mission
- Health Compass podcast: Lessons from lung cancer with Bryant Lin
