While learning about cancer, KCU medical student discovers his own
It started as a joke. Thomas Parpana was in a lecture about cancer when he felt a lump in his neck.
“I noticed there was a growth under the right side of my jaw,” Parpana said. “My friends and I who were in the same class joked about us all having cancer of some kind.”
At the time, cancer seemed like a distant concern for a group of young, healthy medical students. But over the following weeks, Parpana’s concern grew. He reached out to his primary care physician back home in Hawaii and made an appointment over winter break.
That December, during his second year of medical school at Kansas City University (KCU), he received a life-changing diagnosis.
“It was very surreal,” said Scott Wilson, Parpana’s KCU classmate. “We were learning about these diseases, and it felt academic. Then suddenly, it was very real — it was our friend.”
Parpana’s oncologist in Hawaii recommended chemotherapy and radiation. It would be a demanding treatment plan, one that could have disrupted his path through medical school. But Parpana was determined to keep going. He began exploring treatment options closer to school, in Kansas City.
Further testing at The University of Kansas Health System revealed a surprising twist. Parpana had a rare cancer subtype that required radiation only, not chemotherapy. This change significantly reduced the intensity and duration of his treatment.
“There was only a 2 percent chance that I could have this subtype, but if I did, the treatment plan would be a lot less taxing,” Parpana said. “When we got that confirmation, it changed everything.”
Armed with that news and an unshakeable determination to graduate on time, Parpana made a plan — one that would require immense physical, emotional and logistical support.
From the beginning, his circle rallied. Before he even asked, his classmates at KCU created a rotation to get him to and from treatments.
His family flew from Hawaii to be by his side. His mother and wife stayed with him during his first half of treatments; his father came for the second half. It was early in his marriage, only six months in, but the experience bonded them deeply.
“It was a whirlwind,” his wife Shay said. “We had to ‘adult’ fast. But we grew a lot through it.”
On the day he rang the bell to mark the end of his treatment, it was his father standing next to him. But his whole support system, from Hawaii to Kansas City, was with him in spirit.
In the spring following his treatment, Parpana received the news he had hoped for: he was in remission. He stayed on track with medical school and didn’t miss a beat.
In May 2025, Parpana graduated from KCU with his Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree. Right on time.
“Medical school is very difficult on its own,” said Youshaa El-Abed, Parpana’s KCU classmate. “But to go through all that and still finish with us? It shows how strong he is. A lot of people were rooting for him, even people he didn’t know.”
Long before Parpana started medical school, he shadowed a pediatrician in high school — an experience that inspired his path.
“He treated his patients and their families with so much respect. That stuck with me, the idea that you’re not just treating the symptoms,” Parpana said. “You’re supporting someone’s life.
Now, after becoming a patient himself, that lesson carries an even deeper meaning and something he’ll take into every room he walks into as a physician.
“As a patient, yes, I want good medicine, but I also want someone who cares. The relationship between a physician and patient really impacts treatment,” he said.
Parpana’s experience left a lasting mark, not only on his own path, but on the peers who walked beside him.
“This experience made what we do more real,” said Praveen Sanmuganathan, Parpana’s KCU classmate. “When we go out to practice medicine, everyone is someone’s family member or friend. It’s personal.”
Now, Parpana steps into an internal medicine residency at Kaiser Permanente Hawaii.
His friends and family all express a unanimous vote of confidence about his future in internal medicine. They’ve seen firsthand the empathy, resilience and determination he brings to everything he does.
“He was already a great person,” Shay added. “But this experience will make him an even more empathetic doctor.”