In Good Company: Matt and Mary find friendly faces at GBMC

A lot of stars seem to be aligning for Matt Ciociolo, if you can say that about a cancer patient. 

Matt noticed swollen glands for a few years. His primary care physician prescribed antibiotics, and that seemed to be enough. Finally, his wife’s ear, nose, and throat specialist recommended he see Ray G. Blanco, MD, FACS. 

“Dr. Blanco knew instantly,” Matt recalls. “He performed the biopsy and called me two days later when he had the results.” 

Within a week, Matt was undergoing treatment. Matt was impressed the Medical Director of the Milton J. Dance, Jr., Head & Neck Center had time to call his patients. Since then, he has seen that personal, individualized care is what sets GBMC apart. He and his wife, Mary Rohe, have gotten to know his multidisciplinary care team well, including medical oncologist David F. Gottlieb, MD, (pictured with Matt and Mary), Infusion and Radiation Oncology staff members. 

He started treatment on the first day the Herman & Walter Samuelson Infusion Center opened, which felt good. And when she arrived with him, Mary spotted a friendly face in a portrait in the atrium of the newly opened Sandra R. Berman Pavilion. 

A portrait of Sandra and Malcolm Berman hangs in the atrium, alongside a description of the family’s contributions to cancer care at GBMC. When she was just 18 – and then for 18 years – Mary worked for Malcolm Berman as an employee of Fairfax Savings & Loan. 

“He was wonderful to work for,” she says. 

Matt’s own career offers a direct link to our earliest awareness of cancer-causing elements in our environment. For 39 years, until retirement was a sensible response to the pandemic, he ran Towson Chimney Sweep, specializing in cleaning soot and creosote from chimneys. He approached his work with care, not just to serve his clients but also to protect himself. 

“Creosote,” he explains, “was the first carcinogen that was known.” Late in the 1700s, an English surgeon discovered the link between creosote, the tar that can build up and block chimneys, and an outbreak of cancer in the young boys hired to clean because they were small enough to fit inside. It was the first example of occupational cancer. Today, sweeps wear gear designed to protect them from creosote, from breathing it and even from touching it. 

Matt took every possible precaution on the job, and the cancer that struck his tongue was less aggressive than most. He and his wife are happy to benefit from having their cancer care team in a single location and grateful that, if he had to become a cancer patient, it happened after GBMC opened the Sandra R. Berman Pavilion. 

Now, Matt has completed treatment and rung the Hudson Family Bell to celebrate. He isn’t exactly his old self – cancer and treatment have done some harm he and the team are working to repair – but he is feeling good about the future again.