( CNN ) -- A simple goal brought Alyssa Rieber to attend medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham 15 years ago . `` Just helping people , '' she says . `` And I know that sounds so trite , and that 's what everybody says , but that 's really why I wanted to be a doctor ... to help people . '' Rieber says she loved the movie `` Doc Hollywood '' with Michael J . Fox , in which a doctor is sentenced to work in a small-town hospital . `` I was like , 'That 's what I want to do . ' So I was all ready to move out into a small town and take care of everybody and be the town doctor . And then during my first few months of med school , things shifted quite a bit ( when ) I was diagnosed with cancer . '' Rieber says learning about the different types of cancer and the latest research inspired her to study oncology . But it was meeting the other cancer patients in the waiting room that cemented her career path . I found 'life 's calling ' after paralyzing injury . `` Getting to know them and their stories ... I just decided that that 's what I wanted to do . '' Rieber 's cancer diagnosis was actually the result of an anatomy lesson three months into medical school . Her class was discussing an esophageal cancer patient who had a lymph node in his neck . `` I was assigned to evaluate the lymphatics of the thorax and so this was my assignment for this one case . And I did it , I gave a presentation , all of that . '' The next week , she felt a lump in the same place the patient had it . `` Of course , as a hypochondriac medical student , ( I thought ) I had esophageal cancer and I was going to die . '' It took a month before Rieber knew what exactly what she was dealing with . The diagnosis : Hodgkin lymphoma , a cancer of the lymph tissue found in the lymph nodes , spleen , liver , bone marrow and other sites , according to the National Institutes of Health . Rieber says she knew her prognosis was good and was determined to continue medical school while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments . She went on to start a fellowship at one of the premier cancer centers in the world , the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston , and she 's never left . She now heads the oncology department at Houston 's Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital . Having been a cancer patient has influenced how she interacts with patients , she says . Chopper crash survivor helps others heal with art . `` I understand how they feel with the nausea . I understand how they feel when they do n't want to eat and their family is pressuring them to eat , '' Rieber says . `` Some people I tell that I had cancer , and some people I do n't . It just depends on if it 's going to help them in the situation . '' Rieber admits her personal experience makes her treatment style a little different . `` I cry with my patients . I laugh ... I feel like I 'm more emotionally connected with the patients . I 'm a hugger , I 'm a crier , and everybody knows it . And they 're all used to it . And I think the patients like it . ''
Alyssa Rieber was a medical student when she was diagnosed with cancer . She continued with school while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation . She says her experience makes her treatment style a bit different .