Surgery Professor of the Gangnam Severance Hospital Jeong Joon, 54, could have ended up a pathologist in the US. In the autumn of 2003, when he was training at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in the US, Professor Jeong was looking for a place to stay after he accepted a proposal from his mentor Professor Bogdan A. Czerniak, M.D., Ph.D. who said, “If you take pathology, I will recommend you to any medical institution you wish.” At that moment, he received a phone call from his former medical school classmate and Surgery Professor Chung Woong-youn of the Severance Hospital who then passed the phone to Manager Park Cheong-soo. Manager Park broke out the news: “Professor Lee Hy-de’s cancer has recurred. You should come back and help.”

When Professor Jeong was a fellow, he majored in gallbladder and pancreas surgery and decided to take training in the US for in-depth studies in cancer. Now, he was asked to come back to operate on breast cancer. Professor Jeong then decided to observe a skilled surgeon for breast cancer conduct surgery on 5-6 patients a week for 6 months. Early next year, he returned home to find Professor Lee, his “new mentor,” taking care of patients when he was fighting colorectal cancer himself.

Professor Lee was a capable person full of wisdom and good people surrounding him, who was working as the Planning Office Director of the hospital even after he underwent surgery for colorectal cancer. He studied the latest trends of the world’s societies to save the ‘symbol of womanhood.’ In 1991, when other doctors completely removed the breasts of patients with breast cancer, Professor Lee was the first physician that implemented breast-conserving surgery. In 1998, when conventional breast cancer surgery unconditionally removed the lymph node by the underarm concerning transference, the professor examined the pathway in which cancer is transferred to the lymph node, and if the latter was safe, he conserved it, implementing the ‘underarm sentinel lymph node dissection.’ He was a patient himself, but always took care of his own patients by hosting weekly praying sessions and walkathons that patients can participate in. Professor Jeong learned love toward patients through his mentor.

Professor Jeong assisted his mentor in his operating theater for 6 months before he went ‘independent.’ Professor Lee taught Jeong, “A good surgeon shall operate with an eagle eye, a lion’s heart, and a woman’s hands. Professor Lee brought along Professor Jeong, who was rather considered a ‘rebel’ in the breast cancer society, to various medical gatherings to get to know other physicians in the field. In 2010, when he was already undergoing multiple radiation therapy sessions due to several recurrences of his cancer, Professor Lee called Jeong and suggested, “It is time you go for overseas training. Don’t worry about me.” Professor Jeong then left for Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center to study the nature of cancer cells moving around in the blood in search of a place to metastasize. Two years after Professor Jeong returned to his home country, his mentor passed away after ten years of fighting cancer. Professor Jeong recollected, “I regret not having expressed all the respect I had for him because of my introverted personality.” However, the people around him say the late Professor’s doctor spirit and love for patients was directly handed down to Professor Jeong.

In 2011, when General Director Lee Byung-seok asked for the directions for the development of the breast cancer center, Professor Jeong suggested the ‘radiation therapy during surgery’ to be implemented, which was trending in Europe. If radiation therapy was done while conducting cancer surgery, the number of follow-up radiation therapies can be reduced. The safety and effectiveness of this technique was certified by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety; however, it was not approved as a new medical technology by the National Evidence-based Healthcare Collaborating Agency. Professor Jeong convinced a medical device company to conduct surgeries at no charge. He conducted surgery on 215 patients and proved that the technique was ‘effective on Asian women with smaller breasts as much as on Western women,’ publishing it on the US Breast Cancer Research and Treatment journal. Professor Jeong said, “I proved this technique minimizes patients’ inconvenience whilst being as effective as the existing technique. We are verifying the effectiveness from over 40 hospitals in the world whether it is more preferable than the conventional surgery methods.”

Professor Jeong takes extreme care of his patients. In other hospitals, doctors do not meet their patients after five years without a special reason. Jeong, on the other hand, meets his patients at least once a year. That is why he has about 300 outpatients a week.

“Recently, a healthy person who had surgery 14 years ago came to my consultation room. At that time, she had metastasis in over 10 areas of the lymph node, but now, she is very healthy. This was one of the greatest moments of my career,” Professor Jeong said.