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Howard G. Muntz, M.D.
Specialty: Gynecologic oncology
Practice: Women’s Cancer Care of Seattle
Hospital affiliation: Northwest Hospital & Medical Center
Medical degree: Harvard Medical School

Why did you pick your specialty?
It’s 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Anything else was just really boring. I was drawn more and more to the surgical aspects of the field. We get to operate and do very challenging surgeries. And then, unlike other cancer surgeons, we keep on taking care of patients after surgery.

What keeps you going?
I’m taking care of only women, and women come with families attached to them. It’s not at all unusual for a patient to have in common with other family members a genetic risk for breast or ovarian cancer, so a daughter can also be identified early, and we can possibly take prophylactic interventions. Or I’ll take care of a sister for preventive intervention. So it’s a whole family tree.

Originally published in July 2010