Episode 5 with Dr. Soirindhri Banerjee – Cancer Through My Eyes

In this fifth episode of Cancer Through My Eyes, we spotlight a clinician whose journey spans continents, disciplines, and deep personal purpose. Through determination, advocacy, and academic excellence, she represents a powerful force in global oncology.

Today, we feature Dr. Soirindhri Banerjee, Senior Clinical Fellow in Clinical Oncology at Guy’s Hospital, part of Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in London. Her path reflects not just a commitment to cancer care, but a life shaped by advocacy, academic rigor, and a steadfast belief in service.

Dr. Soirindhri Banerjee’s Story

After completing school in 2013, Dr. Banerjee was awarded the INSPIRE Scholarship by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India to pursue research in Basic Science. Instead, she chose to follow her dream of becoming a physician. She trained at ESIC Medical College in Kolkata, where her academic focus was matched by an equally strong drive for service.

During her medical studies, Dr. Banerjee joined the South Asian Medical Students’ Association (SAMSA) in 2016, where she played a leadership role in organizing academic seminars, workshops, health camps, and international student exchanges. She also led the first International Medical Students’ Conference in Kolkata as Organising Chairperson.

Graduating in 2019 with honors in multiple disciplines, she completed her internship at ESIC Hospital, Joka, then practiced as a Resident Doctor in ENT and later in Obstetrics and Gynecology at M.R. Bangur Hospital, gaining wide clinical exposure.

In 2020, she began her postgraduate training in Radiation Oncology at IPGMER & SSKM Hospital in Kolkata. Her commitment to cancer care deepened with the Fight Cancer Fellowship from the Association of Radiation Oncologists of India, which she pursued at Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute & Research Centre in New Delhi. After completing her MD in 2023, she continued to serve as a Senior Resident while working on numerous public cancer awareness campaigns across India.

Now based at Guy’s Cancer Centre in London, Dr. Banerjee’s international experience continues to shape her work at the forefront of oncology.

Q&A with Dr. Banerjee:

1. Your journey in oncology spans both clinical practice and public advocacy. Could you share a defining moment in your early career that shaped your decision to focus on cancer care?

There is a particular occasion I remember from my primary medical training (MB BCh) days when I was attending a clinical case discussion in the wards. I met a young lady in her mid-thirties, mother of two, diagnosed with lung cancer a year back which had rapidly spread to her spinal bones and brain, despite best efforts at aggressive treatment.

On the day i saw her, she was in a lot of pain that she was unable to describe or localise, pain that had started in her back a couple of months back, had now become more widespread and intolerable. She was propped up in her bed, struggling to breathe despite high oxygen support.

Sceptical about being able to gather any history of her disease, I attempted chatting up with her. In the little conversation that she was able to make amidst her suffering I realised what the past year had been like for her and her family – a perfectly happy young couple, discovering the joys of parenthood suddenly met with a life changing diagnosis of cancer that has the potential to kill within months.

The pain of going through a series of tests and difficult treatments in the hope of cure, all leading up to this moment of lying in a hospital bed, devastated and hopeless at the thought of leaving behind two infants motherless. I went back to see her the next day only to find an empty bed, being prepared by the ward staff for the next admission.

That moment in my life remains irreplaceable. This dying lady with her tragic story taught me what Cancer can do to a family, to dreams and goals, to hope and faith. Fighting this emperor of all maladies is essentially a race against time and I wanted to train to help win against this destructive entity in this race.

2. You’ve been actively involved in philanthropic and community-based initiatives since medical school. How have these experiences influenced your approach to oncology, both in the clinic and beyond?

Being involved in community based philanthropic activities has given me the opportunity to meet and communicate with more and more common lives affected by disease. I frequented heath outreach camps during medical training.

The people I met had all kinds of diseases belonging to all age groups and social backgrounds, some in the early stages of a diagnosis while most with a chronic illness but one thing bringing them all together was fear and stress about prognosis.

Prognosis refers to the expected course of a disease, simply put – chances of survival with a good quality of life.

When we talk about Cancer, we talk a lot about prognosis. What a patient is most keen on understanding is how long he/she will live and how easy that life is going to be. As an oncologist, decoding this while gaining trust takes excellent communication and patience.

More and more experiences in breaking bad news, discussing pros and cons of treatment options, providing solutions to social problems arising from disease and treatment or just lending a patient ear is vital in this specialty and that is how my community-based experiences in the past have positively impacted my encounters with patients.

3. What advice would you give to aspiring oncologists seeking international opportunities or cross-cultural training experiences?

Oncology is hugely rooted in research and real-world evidence shared across geographical and cultural borders. The way anticancer therapy works is sometimes dependent on ethnicity and race. Therefore, the acceptance of overseas doctors, coming with their own set of experiences and training is high.

The idea of practicing abroad in a foreign healthcare system may appear daunting but a global experience in provision of cancer care helps compare compliance and response of patients to various treatment modalities while understanding the financial and social concerns affecting cancer care.

It is crucial to be open minded to learn about the needs and expectations of patients belonging to a different culture, especially end of life care which differs vastly across nations.

4. Working at institutions like ESIC Medical College, SSKM Hospital, and now Guy’s Cancer Centre has exposed you to diverse patient populations. How have these different settings shaped your perspective on patient care and clinical challenges?

Although populations change across centres and countries, the basic medical and social needs of patients remain unchanged. From my training in three diverse institutes, I have gathered that the key to being a competent clinician lies in the ability to listen carefully, filter out vital information from a detailed history and clinical examination and execute a quick diagnostic workup and treatment plan.

It is also extremely important to support the patient through treatment toxicities, poor outcomes and address social and spiritual concerns, especially common in oncology.

5. Radiation oncology is constantly evolving with technological advancements. What initially drew you to this specialty, and what excites you most about where it’s heading?

Radiotherapy is an ablative form of anti-cancer treatment which has the potential to radically cure cancer while preserving the diseased organ, unlike surgery. What attracts me most towards this specialty is its precision – delineating the exact tumour extent to target using high dose ionising radiation beams avoids unnecessary systemic side effects common with anticancer drugs.

Although its efficacy depends on the stage and type of the cancer, its mechanism of killing malignant cells and eliminating/reducing the likelihood of recurrence or spread is fascinating. New data revolving around more precise techniques of radiotherapy like stereotactic radiotherapy, aiming to increase dose of radiation delivered to a very small region of cancer with high precision is what’s most exciting.

The shift of focus from the primitive idea of surgical removal of a diseased organ leading to numerous morbidities to now preserving the organ by locally targeting only the cancerous area with radiation is sure to be a game changer in improving quality of life.

6. From organizing international medical conferences to leading awareness campaigns, you’ve had a leadership role since your student days. What leadership lessons have you learned that young oncologists might find helpful?

Be receptive to new ideas. The world changes faster than one can imagine, and it is helpful to be able to adapt fast. Listening more than talking yields better outcomes. Compassion towards team members goes a long way in improving service delivery. Looking out for each other ensures easy teamwork and efficiency in services.

7. Cancer care can be emotionally taxing. What personal strategies or daily habits help you manage the stress of this field and maintain compassion for your patients?

Pursuing a hobby helps a great deal in relieving the stress of dealing with morbidity. Finding time is difficult, especially in one’s early career, but if done it can really take off the mental weight of navigating a terminal disease on a daily basis.

Spending some time with nature, even if it simply means walking past some green grass on one’s way back home can be great relaxation. An uninterrupted nap has no alternative in calming down one’s nerves and recharging for the next day.

8. Your work spans direct clinical care, research observation, and public education. Where do you see the greatest need for bridging gaps in oncology, and how can early-career doctors best contribute?

There exist some practical differences in translational research, clinical trials and the real world setting. This can be best outlined by more and more real-world evidence on new treatment regimens tested on different population cohorts worldwide.

Investigating factors leading to variation in treatment outcomes across race, ethnicity, age and gender is essential.

It helps in decision making while choosing the most effective modality of cure with minimum side effects. Young oncologists can help bridge this gap by dedicating some time to collecting and sharing real world data.

Additionally, the eternal need to educate people about known risk factors of avoidable cancers sadly remains till date. Young doctors advocating against such risks with the help of media has and will continue to be impactful.

9. Reflecting on your journey from INSPIRE Scholarship to Senior Clinical Fellow in Clinical Oncology, what key message would you share with young medical professionals who aspire to excel in both patient-focused care and cutting-edge research?

The hack is to understand that patient care and clinical research go hand in hand and one cannot survive without the other. Clinical research is simply documenting what we observe in our patients clinically, pooling and analysing that data to conclude on findings.

Acquainting oneself with published trial outcomes aids in innovating one’s practice and boosts one’s confidence in treating challenging clinical scenarios. Publishing one’s own findings adds to the ever-growing literature in oncology and that is how we contribute to its evolution.

10. Spotlight Question, submitted by reader Danna Robayo Rodriguez: “How are oncologists able to balance giving hope while also being honest with patients?”

Watch her full response on OncoDaily TV or read the complete transcript below:

“Hi, I am Soirindhri. I am a clinical oncologist working in the NHS in the UK. I think the most challenging part of being an oncologist is to have long, difficult conversations with your patients when they come with a new diagnosis of cancer to discuss the extent and the stage in which the disease has presented.

And to talk about the various treatment modalities and the options of cure that we can offer to them. And a very important part of this conversation is to try and achieve that balance between giving full, detailed information about what the cancer looks like, how bad it is, how aggressive it is, what the prognosis can be, which simply means the outcome, the expected outcome with or without treatment of the disease in itself.

And to be honest and to provide hope about the treatment options that can be explored and what each of them entails. The pros and cons of each of those options, how we intend to treat and how we intend to potentially cure a patient. So talking about survival data, talking about the effects on quality of life from the treatment, and to letting them know that this is not a dead end and there is always a way forward.

I think these conversations have become easier with time now because of the massive progress advancement in research and clinical trials in cancer care over the last few decades, and we’ve now moved to a time when we talk about minimally invasive surgeries to remove only the tumor.

Leaving behind the rest of the organ and not remove the whole of the organ. So better surgical outcomes, better quality of life. Post-op, we talk about precision radiotherapy where we are able to selectively precisely delineate the tumor and target it with ionizing radiation while sparing the normal adjacent organs, again, minimizing side effects of treatment.

We also talk about massive advancement in systemic anti-cancer therapy in the sense that we are now treating cancer, especially metastatic cancer, cancer that spread to other organs, by things called immunotherapy, targeted therapy, monoclonal antibodies, anti-umca hormones, anti-cancer vaccines. And these essentially target genetic mutations and specific proteins that only the cancer cells are positive in and not the normal non-cancerous cells. So again, end result is minimum side effects. So with this kind of advancement in cancer care, we are now looking at better cure.

More survival and better quality of life. Less side effects from each treatment. So less toxic treatment and more hope is what we are now at.

I think the success of these conversations also depends a lot on the reception of the patients, because oftentimes we find that the patient suffers from information overload when these conversations are over and there’s too much that has been shared, not meaning much to the patient.

So essentially, a hack to make these conversations successful is to bring up the scan reports and the reports which show the tumor on the scan, so MRI, CT scans that may have helped in diagnosing the condition, to bring them up on the computer while you are talking to the patient to show your patient what exactly the cancer looks like.

The area in specific that harbors the disease or how big the tumor is, how much of it has gone to the adjacent organs or how localized it is. It just helps in simplifying the whole thing to the patient, helps the patient understand what the patient is suffering from, and then to talk about the mode of treatment, the mode of action that each of the treatments entail and how exactly we intend to specifically kill the cancer cells while sparing the normal tissues.

So essentially talking about the mechanism of action of the treatment in question. So this is, I think, what makes these conversations easy, the conversation successful, and with good outcomes for the patient to understand that there is hope.

It’s not that every cancer at every stage is incurable. I do agree that when a patient comes with metastatic disease that has spread to other organs, the conversation is more difficult because hope is minimum. We don’t talk about curing the disease, but to palliate symptoms and to increase longevity and survival as much as possible to give a better quality of life instead of making a patient cancer free.

So in that setting, definitely, it is very difficult to achieve that balance between giving correct information, honestly talking about poor prognosis of a disease, as well as to give hope to a patient. But we are getting there with more and more research. We will potentially have easier conversations even when we talk about metastatic disease. Thank you.”

Dr. Soirindhri Banerjee’s journey reflects a generation of oncologists who are not only trained to treat disease but inspired to drive change; within hospitals, across borders, and throughout communities. Her story is a testament to the power of purpose-driven medicine, where advocacy, education, and empathy are as vital as clinical skill.

Through her lens, we see cancer care not just as a medical specialty, but as a calling. One that demands resilience, cultural understanding, and the courage to serve where the need is greatest.

Have a question or perspective you want to share?

We’re always listening. Drop us a comment or reach out directly. Your voice could spark the next conversation.

Cancer Through My Eyes will return soon with more impactful stories, deep reflections, and global voices shaping the future of oncology.

By Semiramida Nina Markosyan, HBSc.

Read and watch more dialogues and series by OncoDaily.

Episode 1 with Dr. Hadeel Hassan – Cancer Through My Eyes

Episode 2 with Ziad Abuhelwa – Cancer Through My Eyes 

Episode 3 with Jasmin Hundal – Cancer Through My Eyes

Episode 4 with Angelo Pirozzi – Cancer Through My Eyes