Victoria and Alex Gabayan raised a quintessential Pacific Palisades family that has stayed together and created a successful and unusual medical practice. The Gabayan’s four grown children all have professional degrees and have contributed their talents to the creation and growth of the Beverly Hills Cancer Center, which is dedicated to helping cancer patients receive state-of-the-art treatment in an unique environment. Victoria Gabayan, a chemist, and husband Alex, a real estate investor, moved to the Palisades with their four children, Eli, Ari, Shervin and Sharon, in 1979. The kids attended Marquez, Paul Revere and Palisades High School, where they all had Rose Gilbert for AP English, and played on local YMCA, AYSO and Palisades Recreation Center teams. ’We are the product of the public school system,’ said Ari, 36, who with his brother, Eli, 44, founded the Beverly Hills Cancer Center in 2007. Sharon, who graduated with a master’s degree in business administration from USC, runs and manages the office. Shervin who graduated from UC Berkeley law school (Boalt) in 1997 and joined the firm of Latham and Watkins before starting his own practice, Gabayon & Associates in 2004, is the center’s attorney. The Center has open, spacious rooms with natural lighting and features advanced diagnostic machines: (MRI, CT, PET/CT and bone scans); a radiation machine with intensity-modulated radiation therapy and image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT); and robotic on-board cone beam and kV (a new IGRT technique for imaging and treating cancer). Surprisingly, the Cancer Center has an intimate, boutique feel with a cheery, hopeful atmosphere that includes free valet parking, an on-site caf’ with organic teas and coffees, a Zen patio, personal computer stations and wireless Internet access, and private infusion rooms with music and plasma televisions. The Center also provides integrative medicine through a nutritionist, psychosocial therapy, massage therapy, acupuncture and Chinese herb therapy. ’This looks more like a spa than a hospital. You don’t feel like you’re in an institutional setting,’ said Sharon. ‘We know that environment is important in healing.’ The Gabayans also wanted to have everything under one roof, from diagnosis to treatment to alternative medicine. ‘Our goal is treating the whole individual and not just the disease,’ Sharon said. ’The goal is to make cancer chronic, rather than a death sentence,’ said Eli, who graduated from USC Medical School in 1994. ‘I wanted to create a private center for patient comfort that didn’t seem to be so overwhelming and where patients weren’t lost in bureaucracy.’ During residency at UCLA Oliveview in Sylmar and then the V.A. Hospital in West L.A. and the UCLA Medical Center, where he served as chief resident, Eli was trying to decide between internal medicine and oncology, but elected the latter because of the advances in the field. ’It used to be that if someone was diagnosed with advanced-stage colon cancer, they were given six to nine months. Now with new treatments, patients have two years or longer and some even go into remission,’ Eli said. ‘There are also new treatments for GI, stomach, rectal and lung cancers.’ Eli initially worked in a major Los Angeles hospital in oncology but became frustrated because patients had to travel from one location to another for doctor visits, tests and treatment. ’There were bureaucracy issues and an impersonal atmosphere,’ he said. ‘Sometimes it would take weeks between seeing a patient and starting the appropriate treatment. At our Center, we can do everything in two or three days, as opposed to several weeks. Time is survival in cancer cases; if we can catch it early enough we can cure people. ’In the HMO world that same treatment can take months,’ Eli continued. ‘The field is more hopeful with new medications, new radiation therapies and more precise techniques with fewer side effects. We keep people alive longer with a better quality of life. If you can’t cure it, the person can still live longer and function better.’ Ari, who majored in neuroscience at UCLA, graduated from UCLA Medical School in 2001. Initially, he thought would go into orthopedics, but Eli urged him to look into radiology. ’I checked it out and I loved the field,’ said Ari, who joined with his brother to open the Center five years ago with 12 other employees on staff. Now the Center employs six doctors, two radiologists and 42 support staff. ’Our facility is comprehensive and we are a high-end cancer center, without being a hospital,’ Ari said. ’Life doesn’t have to stop if a person has cancer,’ Sharon said. ‘We make the entire treatment process easier and more convenient for patients. With all necessary treatment under one roof, we can provide more efficient care, which is essential, especially when dealing with life-threatening diseases for which treatment can be time-sensitive. With the top technology and equipment, including an electronic medical records systems, our patient don’t get lost in paper charts.’ Although it is not clear what causes cancer, Eli recommends that people maintain a lower body mass index (from 18.5 to 25). ‘Many cancers are connected to body fat, including breast, colon, pancreatic and prostrate,’ he said. ‘It is thought that fat cells create an inflammation that could cause cancer.’ He also encourages regular screenings, a healthy diet and being physically active. ‘Not only does exercise seem to help with prevention, it also helps in response to cancer treatment and those who are active generally have a lower rate of occurrence,’ Eli said. The Beverly Hills Cancer Center can be reached at (310) 432-8900 or by visiting BHCancerCenter.com.
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