All Health Topics & Resources | Alex Ehsan, MD, PhD

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Read a guideExplore a condition at your own pace.Watch an explanationHear Dr. Ehsan explain cancer topics.Prepare your questionsUse a checklist for your next visit.

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Read six original health explainers with NIH and CDC sources

Symptoms that may need emergency care

Call 911 or your local emergency number for severe chest pain, major trouble breathing, signs of stroke, uncontrolled bleeding, loss of consciousness, or another possible emergency. Do not wait for an online response.

Entries include brief summaries and repeated topic perspectives. Search phrases are not unique medical conditions. Posters share a general safety template. This collection is not a set of 10,000 individually reviewed clinical guidelines. Read our source and review policy.

Prepare for care

Bring the right questions to your oncology appointment.

Use these practical guides before a visit, after a scan, or while you are reviewing a new diagnosis.

Prepare for an oncology visitQuestions about diagnosis, treatment goals, side effects, and the next step.Understand imagingLearn the role of PET, CT, MRI, and other diagnostic scans.Guías para su visitaPrepare sus preguntas para la próxima consulta.

A guide to understanding your diagnosisSix questions to organize your conversation with your care team.

A path through the diagnosis

Six questions to understand any cancer

Use this framework to organize what you hear, read, and discuss with your own cancer team.

What exactly is it?

Learn the organ or cell of origin, pathology, subtype, grade, and the words in the biopsy report.

How far has it spread?

Understand the staging system, imaging, lymph nodes, distant disease, and what the stage means.

What makes it unique?

Ask whether biomarkers, inherited genetics, or tumor genomic testing may affect treatment.

What is the goal?

Clarify whether treatment aims to cure, reduce recurrence risk, control disease, relieve symptoms, or several of these.

What are the options?

Compare surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, targeted treatment, immunotherapy, and trials.

How will we know?

Review symptoms, examination, laboratory trends, imaging, response, side effects, and the follow-up plan.

Genes and genetic variants

Start with CDH1. Find the gene on your report.

Search 1,510 genes, aliases and related conditions. Browse 40 hereditary cancer starting points in a suggested reading order, or look up an exact variant in ClinVar.

The list begins with CDH1, BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2 and the Lynch syndrome genes. Reading order is not a ranking of personal cancer risk.

Search genes and mutations Read about CDH1 Look up an exact variant

Read the CDH1 visit guide CDH1 en español

For Dr. Ehsan’s patients

Appointments and locations

Dr. Ehsan currently practices at Starling Oncology, formerly The Oncology Institute (TOI). His clinical work at Starling Oncology is separate from this personal, free educational website.

His ongoing schedule alternates one week in California and the following week in Texas. The pattern below does not identify your appointment week. Starling Oncology must confirm your appointment date, location, and whether it is in person or by telemedicine before you travel.

California week · Monday through Thursday

In person in Downey

Starling Oncology
11525 Brookshire Avenue, Suite 202
Downey, CA 90241

Call Downey · (562) 869-1201
Official Downey clinic information

California week · Friday

In person in Culver City

Starling Oncology
9808 Venice Boulevard, Suite 603
Culver City, CA 90232

Call Culver City · (424) 389-0037
Official Culver City clinic information

The following week · Texas

Telemedicine appointments

Dr. Ehsan provides telemedicine from Texas during this week. He is not physically present at the California offices.

Ask Starling Oncology how to join your visit and whether you should connect from home or an office. Do not travel based only on this general schedule.

Need to check or change an appointment?

Please contact your Starling Oncology clinic through its official scheduling channels. This website and Dr. Ehsan’s Facebook and other social media accounts cannot schedule, confirm, cancel, or change appointments. Social messages are not a reliable way to reach your care team and are not monitored for urgent care.

Please do not send medical records, test results, or other private health information through this website or social media. Contact your clinic for care questions. For an emergency, call 911.

Independent education, separate from clinical care

This is Dr. Alex Ehsan’s personal website, provided for free public education. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by, endorsed by, or operated on behalf of Starling Oncology or any other current or former employer. The educational content and views expressed here are Dr. Ehsan’s own and do not represent his employers.

Practice details are shared only to help patients contact the appropriate clinic. This website is not a patient portal or a clinical service. Using it or contacting an educational social media account does not establish a doctor-patient relationship or replace care from your own medical team.

Watch and listen

Hear Dr. Ehsan explain cancer

Clear explanations you can pause, replay, and share with family before or after a medical visit.

Prostate cancer

Warning signs, diagnosis, staging, and treatment.

Hairy cell leukemia

A rare but highly treatable blood cancer.

Multi-cancer blood tests

What MCED testing may and may not tell us.

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