Fatima Sheriff has been MD Anderson’s chief of staff since September 2018 and a health care professional for more than 25 years. But the Canadian transplant was still caught off-guard when her husband, Marc Frappier, received a stage II throat cancer diagnosis this past spring.

“First, I went into shock,” Sheriff recalls. “Then I was in denial. After that, I was an emotional wreck. I had hoped in this initial consultation we would...