Joey Steele says having cancer has made him a better doctor. He’s encountered his patients in the oncologist’s waiting room, at the lab and radiation therapy. He’s formed a special bond with the cancer patients he treats because he’s a patient too.

“I can tell it’s changed me as a doctor, and it’s changed how I interact with my patients and how they interact with me knowing I’m just another patient plugging it out with them,” Dr. Steele says.

Late last fall, Dr. Steele was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He’s had surgery and radiation therapy, but his diagnosis is so new that he doesn’t call himself a survivor – yet.

Dr. Steele is an interventional radiologist at Radiology Imaging Associates in Englewood, Colorado. He combines imaging technology such as CT scan and MRI with surgery to provide minimally invasive cancer surgery. Most of his patients have failed other cancer therapies, so he says he pushes the limits of medicine to do what he can to help them. Data gathered about patients’ treatment is used for clinical trials.

When faced with his own cancer, Dr. Steele was acutely aware that testicular cancer has a high cure rate due to clinical trials conducted over the past 30 years.

Cancer has changed Dr. Steele in a myriad of ways. “I have become a better father, husband and doctor,” he says. He’s also changed his approach to cycling. He used to ride to race and now he rides because he can. “The fact that I’m able to do it is a reason to ride,” he says. “I ride for cancer patients who aren’t as fortunate as I am.”

As a member of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope™ Team, Dr. Steele wants people to see him and realize you can be healthy and have cancer. “I’m healthy because of cancer research,” he says.