/ Updated October 30th, 2025

Offering Empathy and Hope In Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Treatment

Creator: Dr. Rodrigo Leão Edelmuth
Published: 2025-10-20T17:17:58-04:00

: Dr. Natalie Rafaeli Medical Source: Dr. Adan Rios
Memorial Hermann Cancer Center Written by: Dr. Rodrigo Leão Edelmuth
Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein

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“The patient has to feel the empathy,” says Dr. Adan Rios, a medical oncologist at Memorial Hermann Hospital and one of many dedicated cancer specialists in the Houston area, a region renowned for its groundbreaking institutions leading the charge in cancer care innovation.

“When you explain and really exercise emotional empathy, the patients realizes you are offering what you would do for yourself. And, that’s a good path to effective communication,” he explains.

An expert on diffuse Large B-Cell lymphoma, Dr. Rios has treated blood cancer patients for over forty years. Decades of treating patients has taught Dr. Rios a great deal about testing, effective treatment options, managing side effects, and supporting long-term recovery, as well as the importance of bringing empathy into the hospital.

“The patient has to feel that you really believe in what you’re doing and that you have their best interest at heart,” says Dr. Rios.

His perspective on empathy is made even more compelling by his own experience of becoming a cancer patient during a decades-long career treating cancer.

Read more about his journey here.

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Dr. Rodrigo C. Leão Edelmuth is a board certified digestive surgeon at Einstein Hospital Israelita in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Einstein is internationally acclaimed, ranked 22nd best hospital in the world by Newsweek, and the highest position in the Southern Hemisphere. He underwent a postgraduate course on Surgical Leadership at Harvard Medical School and attended Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, as visiting fellow in the Department of Surgery. Dr Edelmuth holds his General Surgery and Digestive Surgery degree from Sao Paulo University Medical School. Read More