“There’s No Diet That Starves Cancer” | Dr. Megan Melody 

In this episode, Kerri Fitzgerald speaks with Dr. Megan Melody, an oncologist at Tampa General Hospital. Filmed at the 2025 Society of Hematologic Oncology (SOHO) Annual Meeting, Dr. Melody talks about the types of rare cancers patients can have, how an accurate diagnosis is paramount, and how societies like SOHO advance the research and development of treatment and care for patients affected by cancer.  

Key Highlights: 

• Hear about the work Dr. Megan Melody does in the oncology field. 
• Learn why Dr. Melody supports patients’ decision to get a second opinion.
• Hear Dr. Melody’s advice for patients facing a cancer diagnosis. 
• Be inspired by the work that Dr. Melody, SOHO, and other clinicians and researchers in the field do to advance patient care and outcomes. 

Transcript:

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Hi, I am here at the SOHO 2025 Annual Meeting. This is the Society of Hematologic Oncology, and today I’m speaking with Dr. Megan Melody for My Hero 360. Megan, it’s great to speak with you.

Dr. Megan Melody:

Thanks, it’s so nice being here with you.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Typically, we interview patients or families and caregivers about their health journeys, but doctors and other healthcare providers are obviously super important to the care that patients receive. I want to talk a little bit about your role and how you work with patients. Can you just tell me a little bit about yourself?

Dr. Megan Melody:

Yeah. I work out of a cancer institute called Tampa General, so Tampa General Hospital Cancer Institute out of Tampa, Florida. It’s a newer oncology center; it’s been around about a little over 4 years. I primarily focus on the treatment of lymphoma, which is a disease of a white blood cell called the lymphocyte and, in particular, focus on a few subtypes of lymphoma. There are many, many different subtypes of lymphomas, and I focus on a few of those. I also utilize a therapy called cell therapy, which is where we often harness a patient’s immune system to help fight their lymphoma.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Can you tell me, you mentioned different subtypes, what are some of the rarer lymphomas that patients can experience?

Dr. Megan Melody:

In particular, B-cell lymphoma. There’s a subset of lymphomas, which I see occasionally, but is not my specialty, called T-cell lymphomas. This is a cancer of a T-cell lymphocyte. But primarily what I do is B-cell lymphomas, which is a different type of white blood cell called a B-lymphocyte. It’s a cancer of the B-lymphocyte. Like I said, there are many subsets of that. We defined these B-cell lymphomas, we divide them into 2 categories, typically, more indolent or slow-growing lymphomas, and then more aggressive subtypes of lymphomas. Each one of these types of lymphoma has multiple different subtypes as well, but each one has a unique, rarer phenotype. One of the ones I really wanted to speak about today was something called an indolent lymphoma; there’s a rare subtype called marginal zone lymphoma. Often, this is a very low incidence in the United States; I think there’s less than 19 cases per million patients.

Very low incidence in the United States. It’s primarily very difficult to diagnose because it has a multitude of ways that it can present. It can present primarily in the lymph nodes, which are a set of vessels that run in a patient’s body kind of parallel to the blood system where your immune system lives, but it can also present outside the lymph nodes. It can present in the GI tract. It can present, often one of the primary presenting features when it presents in your GI tract is it can present as stomach ulcers and can be associated with H. pylori. It can present in the eye. We actually define marginal zone lymphoma in 3 different categories: nodal, extranodal, or even splenic marginal zone lymphoma, but I think given its variety of presentations, it can be quite difficult to diagnose.

Then, on the aggressive side of things, one of the rarer aggressive forms of lymphoma is something called Burkitt’s lymphoma, and this lymphoma is a rapid-onset, rapidly-growing cancer of the B-lymphocytes as well. It’s defined by very specific genetic mutation, which confers the ability for cells to grow very quickly, and that can sometimes be hard to diagnose just because these patients sometimes will have so much lymphoma in their nodal system that often we see a lot of lymphoma cells also in their peripheral blood. Sometimes they can be misdiagnosed as a leukemia instead of a lymphoma. I think sometimes that can be very difficult for patients, and so I think both of these diseases, it’s really important to get the input of an academic cancer center just to confirm the diagnosis and make sure that the patients are on the appropriate treatments.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

In addition to being difficult to diagnose, what are some other challenges that these types of patients may face?

Dr. Megan Melody:

I think for marginal zone lymphoma and Burkitt’s lymphoma, like I said, these are rarer subtypes, and so the research in the areas for treatments for these diseases is a bit more sparse. I think one of the hardest things for lymphoma patients is making sure you get the correct diagnosis. Truthfully, for both of these rarer lymphomas, I do think ensuring the correct diagnosis is the most important thing. Whenever my patients, if ever they ask, “Would you be okay if I got a second opinion?” I always tell them, absolutely. First off, I love when my patients get second opinions because I love to confirm that what I want to do for the patient is truly what another expert in the field would like to do for the patient, or if ever there are some dissenting opinions, I think it really fosters a great communication.

I feel that same way about pathology as well. If there is any ambiguity on your pathology, which is how we actually obtain a diagnosis for patients, and by reviewing the cancer tissue under a microscope and confirming the diagnosis, if there’s ever any discrepancies or any confusing parts about pathology, it’s always great to get a second opinion just to really confirm that diagnosis because that’s truthfully going to make sure you’re on the best therapy. Although, like I said, these subtypes of lymphoma are all arising from the B-lymphocyte, treatments between Burkitt’s lymphoma and marginal zone lymphoma, which are both B-cell lymphomas, are vastly different because the diseases present vastly different and their disease course is markedly different as well.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

It’s important to get the right diagnosis so you can get the right treatment.

Dr. Megan Melody:

Yes.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Obviously, dealing with cancer is an incredibly scary thing for anyone. You’ve worked with many patients and their families. What do you think is important to help them get through this time in their life?

Dr. Megan Melody:

That’s a really good question. I think maintaining as much as possible a sense of normalcy, and making sure that you’re taking care of yourself. I think a lot of patients will come to me and say, “ I know now that I have cancer and we’re going to do this treatment, but what else can I do?” I always tell them, “All the things that your doctor has been telling you to do since we were little.” Make sure you’re getting enough sleep, getting 8 hours of sleep a night, make sure that you are moving your body every day. That doesn’t mean you have to go to the gym and run. If you never ran 10 miles a day, I don’t want you to start doing it now that you have cancer. But getting out and moving your body each day, making sure you’re eating a well-balanced, healthy diet, and I always include this when I tell my patients that there is no specific diet that we know of that treats cancer.

There are some diets that have been suggested maybe help prevent cancer, but so far, as of right now, there are no diets I know that starve your cancer. Anything you are doing to your body, if you think you’re starving your cancer, you’re also probably starving your body. I tell people, make sure you eat a well-balanced diet, and sometimes that diet can include a cupcake, and that’s okay.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Yeah. Of course. Thank you for talking with us at My Hero 360 about this. I want to ask you a couple more things. You host a podcast as well.

Dr. Megan Melody:

Yes.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Can you tell us about that podcast?

Dr. Megan Melody:

I am one of a few hosts for SOHO Insider Podcast. We interview experts in the field about pressing issues that are developing in the field of malignant hematology. Most recently we just did, I hosted a podcast looking at a combination of glofitamab-polatuzumab for the treatment of Burkitt’s lymphoma actually, and we are having a new podcast episode come out in the near future looking at bringing bispecific antibodies, which are a novel treatment for the treatment of B-cell lymphoma into the community and how we can help improve patient access for that. It’s a really great asset to the field of malignant hematology to have this information from experts in the field available on your phone, in the car. We can listen to them on our way to work. It’s been a really wonderful experience.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Yeah. As I mentioned in the introduction, we’re here at the SOHO meeting. One of the missions of the society is about research and being able to provide excellent patient care. Any final words you want to say about the meeting and the impact that research has on patients specifically?

Dr. Megan Melody:

Yeah. I think in the past, I will say maybe about 7 years, the advances, particularly in the treatment for lymphoma, have just grown exponentially, and that cannot happen without clinical research, that cannot happen without the support of research funding, from the support of our pharmaceutical companies, and so I am just so grateful to be able to be a part of this community as these advances are made, but just we can’t make these leaps and bounds for patients and the treatment for our patients without the research that’s being done and presented here.

Kerri Fitzgerald:

Yeah, absolutely. Megan, thank you so much.

Dr. Megan Melody:

Thanks so much for having me.

–

Connect with SOHO:  
https://www.sohoonline.org/ 
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https://www.youtube.com/@SocietyofHemOnc  
https://www.instagram.com/socofhemonc/  
https://www.linkedin.com/company/societyofhemonc  

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