For many people who have endured a cancer diagnosis, then arduous and sometimes devastating treatments, the best way forward is to put the entire experience behind them.

David Tseng plans to do just the opposite. Next fall, the biomedical engineering major will enter the UC San Francisco School of Medicine with one goal: to become a doctor who treats people with cancer.

The 24-year-old Tseng is one of 5,725 students who will receive a bachelor’s degree at UC Davis this month. He is one of 430 engineering students slated to receive a bachelor’s of science degree on June 12.

Tseng, originally from San Jose, had never even considered a career in medicine before being diagnosed with advanced Hodgkin’s lymphoma four years ago.

“I went to San Jose State University to study computer engineering,” he said. “My dad was a computer engineer, so I followed in his footsteps.”

Tseng’s college education was interrupted during his junior year, when odd symptoms began to surface.

“It came on as night sweats,” he said. “I would wake up and the whole bed would be soaked. I was young and clueless, and blew it off as something random.”

Later, the itching on his arms and feet started, and then he developed a cough and wheezing. Within a couple of months he was losing his appetite, and a lot of weight.

Finally, after a visit to his primary care physician, an X-ray revealed a large mass in his chest. An appointment for a biopsy resulted in a weeklong stay in a hospital intensive care unit with a breathing tube.

“The tumor was so large they were afraid if they took out the tube I wouldn’t be able to breathe,” he said.

Chemotherapy in the hospital worked to shrink the tumor so he could be released and begin standard chemotherapy and radiation. After completing the treatments in August, 2005, Tseng re-examined his career choice.

“If it wasn’t for what they did, I’d be dead,” he said. “I had to put my life back together, pick up the pieces. I decided I wanted to become a doctor.”

Tseng’s experience in the ICU, in particular, had left an imprint. “That whole experience of being saved and seeing the doctors care for me — they were full of energy. You could see that they cared. They wanted me to get better.”

‘Someone saved my life’

UC Davis offered the best resources to make his dream a reality, he decided. Biomedical engineering was a great fit. His latest project at Davis: building a portable anesthesia machine to be used to treat animals in captivity.

“It’s my dream to become a doctor and to give back,” he said, “because someone saved my life, and I want to pass on that gift to someone else.”

Dorsey Griffith is a senior public information representative for the UC Davis Health System.