Prof. M.D. Banu Atalar

My 82-year-old father was diagnosed with an inoperable spinal metastasis that left him in constant agony. Dr. Banu Atalar didn't just see a case file—she saw a person who loved gardening and classical music. She designed a highly targeted stereotactic body radiotherapy plan that spared his spinal cord completely. What moved us most was her Saturday morning visit when she brought him a recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons to listen to during treatment. His pain decreased by 80% within two weeks, and he's back tending his roses. Her combination of technical precision and profound humanity is something I've never witnessed in medicine before.

When our 7-year-old daughter needed proton therapy for a recurrent optic pathway glioma, we were terrified. Dr. Atalar created a 'space adventure' story for her treatment—the machine became a spaceship, the immobilization mask her astronaut helmet. She developed a colorful countdown system and let our daughter decorate the treatment room with her drawings. The precision was millimeter-perfect, preserving her remaining eyesight while targeting the tumor. At our 6-month follow-up, MRI showed remarkable reduction. Dr. Atalar remembers every child's favorite cartoon character and treats them as whole people, not just patients.

I arrived at Acibadem Maslak as an emergency referral with superior vena cava syndrome from an aggressive mediastinal lymphoma—I was literally suffocating. Dr. Atalar met me in the ER at 11 PM, coordinated with thoracic surgery and medical oncology within the hour, and initiated emergency radiotherapy that same night. She explained the complex vascular anatomy using a 3D reconstruction on her tablet, showing exactly how radiation would relieve the obstruction. Within 48 hours, my breathing normalized. Her ability to orchestrate urgent, multidisciplinary care while maintaining astonishing calm saved my life during those critical hours.

As a stage IV breast cancer patient with five previous lines of treatment, I came to Dr. Atalar for palliative radiation to a painful hip metastasis. Instead of just offering standard fractionation, she proposed an innovative single-fraction volumetric modulated arc therapy approach she'd researched, explaining it would give equal pain relief with one-third the hospital visits. She spent 45 minutes discussing the physics behind the plan, showing me dose distribution curves. The treatment lasted 8 minutes. Two days later, my pain score dropped from 9 to 2. At my virtual follow-up, she'd already coordinated with my pain management team. Her approach transforms even palliative care into something scientifically elegant and deeply respectful.