"Why oncology? It's tempting to just say, 'Someone's got to do it.' The truth is that the reverence for life is directly proportional to the dangers to it, and you can't get any more dangerous than cancer. In striving and struggling to keep life going--in partnership with a patient--with a hope of eliminating the disease altogether, I find it a very powerful reverence for life and very beautiful. This is the beauty I see in my field and makes its price for admission worth it."

This is such a predictable question as to be a cliche. Nevertheless, you can count on it being asked. What's different in a setting involving an Oncologist is that it's not just a question of why you wanted to be a doctor (that is the cliche), but why choose a specialty in which you're sure to see a lot of people die. You have to express something positive about a specialty that often fails to cure its patients, and that is difficult to do. As such, you best place of refuge is probably that you want to help people any way you can, even when the odds of success are very low. Don't be afraid to wax philosophical, because after all you're answering a question that centers on a patient's very existentialism.

"As a person who became a doctor for wanting to help others, I felt that helping the most vulnerable and endangered--even when tainted with a poor prognosis--would be the most fulfilling for me."