Multidisciplinary, Patient-Centered Care: This team will get you through

“It’s amazing how quickly life can change in a single day – and so drastically.”  

Matthew Hudson isn’t exaggerating.  

Just as he was beginning a new job, conducting interviews and hiring a team, a cancer diagnosis upended his life. What first appeared as hives, which he treated daily for months, proved to be a tumor at the base of his tongue.  

Ray Blanco, MD, FACS, Medical Director of GBMC’s Milton J. Dance, Jr., Head & Neck Center, diagnosed Matt’s cancer and quickly connected him to a team ready to treat him. Together, Dr. Blanco, Medical Oncologist Mei Tang, MD, and Geoffrey Neuner, MD, Chair of Radiation Oncology, recommended a course of concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The team advised surgery was not an option, as the tumor had crossed the midline of Matt’s tongue.  

Like many people facing a cancer diagnosis, Matt and his wife Rebecca sought a second and third opinion, visiting two other oncology programs in the area. One initially suggested surgery but changed their recommendation when the Hudsons inquired about the location of the tumor. When the heads of both other cancer centers ultimately agreed with the GBMC plan, the couple returned to GBMC’s Sandra & Malcolm Berman Cancer Institute. Following a tumor bleed that landed Matt in the emergency room and resulted in him being placed on a liquid-only diet, they promptly began treatment. Thanks to the individualized treatment and comprehensive care Matt received, he is now fully recovered and cancer free, almost two years post treatment.  

Matt was also grateful for the mix of kindness and candor he found here.

“Dr. Neuner told me, ‘The good news is that you have a highly treatable and potentially curable form of cancer. The bad news is the treatment is hell. I’m not going to sugarcoat it for you, it is really rough! But we are here for you, and we will get you through it,'” Matt said.  

All of that has proven true. The team at GBMC stayed in regular contact with Matt and Rebecca. The oncologists and other clinicians met weekly, evaluating Matt’s progress and making any adjustments to his treatment program deemed necessary.

And they weren’t the only ones ready to help. The Hudsons’ family and friends rallied around them, delivering meals and support. One friend even made time to join Matt for his weekly five hours of chemotherapy infusion. The love surrounding them is the family’s brightest memory of an intensely difficult time.  

Mat said Houlihan Lokey, the firm where he is an investment banker, was also supportive, flexible and accomodating.

In an odd way, his heavy workload was also a blessing.

“The added level of intensity gave me something to focus on other than cancer and all the challenges of treatment,” he said. “Days went by really quickly.”

Matt and Rebecca’s three children: Lauren, 26; William, 23; and Martha, 19, joined them in the Radiation Oncology department in November 2022 when Matt rang the bell for his final treatment. It was a beautiful, hopeful moment, but it wasn’t quite the end of the family’s cancer experience.  

Due to the location of his cancer, Matt was unable to eat solid food until just before Christmas. Several weeks after that, another problem arose—an ulcer developed and became infected in a hole where the tumor had been. Dr. Neuner started Matt on antibiotics and arranged for hyperbaric oxygen treatments to accelerate healing. Treatments were two and half hours a day, five days a week for three straight months. Eventually, the treatment worked, and he recovered.  

Today, with those difficulties overcome, Matt remains grateful that he was treated at GBMC.

“The team gets you through it all,” he said. “Everyone who took care of me, from radiologists and chemotherapy nurses to the lymphedema experts after my cancer treatment, and of course my wonderful doctors—Drs. Neuner, Tang, and Blanco—all worked to assure us that we would be okay. And, thanks to them, we are.”