When presented with an opportunity to work as a radiation oncologist at GenesisCare in Las Vegas, Edward Jung jumped at the chance.
A Midwest native, Jung went to medical school in Rhode Island before making stops for residencies or jobs in three states. When he’s not working for GenesisCare, he spends time mentoring young people who are thinking of a career in medicine through an organization called MedSchoolCoach.
Jung moved to the Las Vegas Valley several months ago from California, a state he believes has too many doctors.
In Las Vegas, there’s a well-publicized shortage of medical doctors, but Jung, 44, believes that problem can be remedied.
Vegas Inc spent some time with Jung at the GenesisCare offices in Henderson to talk about his career path, his job and the reasons why he was attracted to Southern Nevada. Here are highlights of the conversation:
Why did you want to become an oncologist?
I come from a family of doctors. My parents are both doctors. Both of my grandfathers are doctors. My brother is a doctor, and most of my uncles are doctors. When I was a senior in high school, I told my parents I was thinking of becoming an English teacher and they almost threatened to disown me. In medical school, I was always fascinated by medical technology. How cancers grow in the body, that all also made sense to me, as opposed to, say, infectious diseases and viruses, which kind of seemed like witchcraft to me. I was drawn to radiation oncology partly because I find it so interesting. We’re using X-rays to kill cancer cells.
You’re from the Detroit area, went to Brown University and later spent time in Maryland and California. How did you end up here?
My parents decided move to Orange County to retire and my brother was already a doctor in Arizona. I decided that I’d move out West, too. Prior to Las Vegas, I was practicing in California, but I thought Las Vegas would be a great opportunity for a physician. In California, they’re kind of oversaturated with doctors. ... Las Vegas is such a booming city and the trajectory of this place is going to continue to explode, especially now that it’s getting to the point where it’s almost unaffordable to buy a home in California.
With the recent addition of a medical school at UNLV, could that change the landscape here?
Traditionally, I think the quality of care here was not on par with other surrounding cities in the region. As we continue to grow, that will improve. With the medical school being in existence for a few years now, that’s big. Even if those graduates don’t all choose to stay in Las Vegas, it’s still big for the city. Now, you have students learning from other doctors, so doctors have to be up on their game and current with all the standards of care. Also, there’s an effect on the equipment that doctors use because a med school has to have up-to-date equipment and technology. That all helps the quality of care across the board.
When you talk to people in the profession about Las Vegas, what do they say?
More doctors could be interested in coming here. Even when I told my colleagues in California that I was coming out here, they told me I should stay in California. Look, the cost of living is a lot lower here and California is close, so I can go back anytime. Overall, I see a lot of potential in practicing out here. I like to mentor young people who are interested in going into medicine, and I’d like to do more of that here. I’m thrilled to be here.
What have you noticed, if anything, so far that’s unique here with the patients you’ve been seeing?
One thing about Las Vegas is that there’s a ton of skin cancer here, even more than in California, I think. The sun here is really severe. Especially this older generation, a lot of people didn’t use sunscreen years ago, so that’s partly why you see all these 70-year-olds with skin cancers.
What do you do during your free time?
I have four hobbies and Las Vegas satisfies three of them. I golf, so there’s great golf out here, and it’s actually affordable. I also do some rock climbing. I was recently out at Red Rock Canyon and that was awesome. I also like to swim. The fourth one is surfing, which I can’t do here, but, again, the California coast is close.
What’s the future of radiation therapy?
You can always improve the precision of radiation therapy. Historically, people have been scared a bit by radiation therapy. By improving accuracy while limiting exposure to normal parts of the body, you’re going to improve cure rates and lower side effects or toxicity. Radiation is kind of a custom-tailored suit to a person’s body. We can do what’s called HDR brachytherapy, which is basically a little robot that injects a radioactive source that’s attached to a wire that traverses through a catheter to deliver radiation to an area. The good thing about that is that we can treat skin treatment in only six treatments. Normally, skin cancer will take four or five weeks of daily radiation.
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