ph ysici a n profile
ROBERT “BRIAN” BERRYMAN, M.D.
18
It has been 18 years since Robert “Brian”
Berryman, M.D., lost his mother, Mary Frances
Berryman, to a form of blood cancer called multiple myeloma. At the time, he was in the middle
of his training to become a cancer specialist.
“I remember what it’s like to be a caregiver — a family member — of someone fighting cancer,” he said.
“You hope someday, because of what you do, it will
save somebody else’s mother — that you actually
make an impact in your patients’ lives. I try to do this
as a doctor, but there are many other ways, too.”
As a hematologist/oncologist on the medical
staff at Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center,
he has a tremendous impact on the patients he
cares for. And as an advocate for multiple myeloma
research, and as an athlete, Dr. Berryman’s contributions have a much broader reach. In the last several years, he has run marathons in New York,
Boston, Chicago, Dallas and London to benefit
the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation
(MMRF), which helps to develop treatments for
myeloma patients that will extend their lives, and
hopefully one day cure the disease.
Dr. Berryman’s latest fundraising adventure will
take him to the highest freestanding mountain in
the world: Mount Kilimanjaro. He’s the only
M.D. among a group of 16 hikers, who have each
agreed to raise at least $10,000 for the MMRF.
As the hikers make the trek over several days, they
pair up and sleep in tents. Dr. Berryman’s tent mate will
be Charles “Chuck” Wakefield, D.D.S., who recently
retired after 20 years as the Director of the Advanced
Education in the General Dentistry Residency Program
at the Baylor College of Dentistry. Dr. Wakefield was
diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2003 and has
been a patient of Dr. Berryman’s ever since.
“I’ve seen him for every month for the last 12
years of my life,” Dr. Wakefield says of Dr.
Berryman. “I knew him first as my doctor, then as
a colleague and now we’re good friends.” Multiple
myeloma and its therapies can cause lesions in
bones including the jaw. Many times, it is a
patient’s dentist who discovers these lesions.
Dr. Berryman and Dr. Wakefield have participated in fundraising events together for multiple
myeloma research before, and both have met their
fundraising minimum for the Mount Kilimanjaro
trip. A team will record the trip for a documentary
about the blood cancer, which has received more
recognition recently since Tom Brokaw, former
NBC Nightly News anchor, announced that he was
diagnosed with myeloma in 2013. Both Brokaw
and Dr. Wakefield are currently in remission.
What advancements have been made in
multiple myeloma?
Treatments have significantly improved over the
last two decades, prolonging and improving the
lives of those with myeloma. This is largely due to
myeloma research foundations and fundraising
events. That’s why for me it’s a win-win deal. It’s
obviously an amazing opportunity, and it’s raising
money for something that really matters. We’ve
been waiting anxiously for a new type of targeted
therapy for myeloma. My patient was one of the
first patients to receive it yesterday in clinic. It was
quite an ex