Throughout medical school, Katie Six, MD, and Paige Woodham, MD, practiced a pre-exam tradition: eating hibachi chicken and vegetables from Joy of Tokyo, an Upstate fast-food chain. As roommates, best friends, and members of the USC School of Medicine Greenville’s (SOMG) Charter Class, Six and Woodham held each other accountable throughout medical school. More than a decade later, their friendship remains strong, and their paths have led to distinct but connected roles in cancer and patient care.

Beginning in 2012, the SOMG Charter Class had a rare opportunity to help build their medical education and provide direct feedback about the curriculum as they advanced through it. While the newness of the experience sometimes made them “feel a bit like guinea pigs,” said Woodham, faculty and leaders listened, adjusted and guided the class forward, cultivating resilience, teamwork and trust in the Class of 2016.

"We tried one thing, and if it didn't work, we tried something different. We shifted to make the most successful training that we could,” said Six. “Everyone in our class was resilient and motivated, and our leadership and professors were very, very helpful in listening to our feedback.”

Medicine combined two of Six’s enduring interests: science and people. During college, research at a pediatric obesity clinic and connections with Greenville Health System (now Prisma Health) physicians introduced Six to SOMG in 2011, one year before the school officially opened its doors. How deeply the school’s physicians cared for patients and learners alike powerfully resonated with Six.

Today, Six is a pediatric hematologist-oncologist. Pediatric hematology-oncology encompasses blood disorders ranging from iron deficiency anemia to bone marrow failure, as well as cancers including leukemia, solid tumors and brain tumors. The specialty requires physicians to care for children while also helping the patients’ parents understand and work through frightening, life-changing information.

"Parents need someone there who not only knows the medicine and can help their kid, but who can also support them,” said Six.

The everyday humanity of pediatric practice also shapes Six’s approach to patient care. Serious conversations can happen while a toddler sits in her lap and plays with her stethoscope. Such moments reflect Six’s larger commitment to meeting patients and families, from toddlers to parents, where they are, a lesson Six learned at SOMG.

Woodham arrived at SOMG with an early inspiration for medicine instilled in her by her grandfather, an OB-GYN, and her grandmother, a nurse. SOMG’s curriculum and mentorship introduced Woodham to pathology. Learning from and shadowing pathologists in the hospital "really laid the framework for my interest in pathology," said Woodham.  

Now, Woodham is a general pathologist with additional subspecialty in cytopathology. Pathologists study patient samples in lab settings to diagnose various disease processes, both benign and cancerous. These diagnoses enable treating physicians to offer appropriate plans to patients in need of treatment. The details within a pathology report – including hormone-receptor status and other molecular information – can help guide a patient's care and inform prognosis. In Woodham’s words, pathologists are “the doctor’s doctor”: the person treating physicians call when they need answers.

That responsibility gained a deeper personal dimension after Woodham was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer in 2024. She continued working through treatment, and her experience sharpened the gravity behind every diagnosis.

Cancer also brought new meaning to Woodham's connection with the Charter Class. When planning began for the 10-year reunion, she immediately volunteered as a class ambassador, motivated by the chance to reconnect with people who understood the formative years they shared in medical school.

"You're not promised a future. Making every single day matter, keeping in touch with people, and seeing people that you haven't seen in a long time, that’s all so important for me," shared Woodham, who finished her cancer treatment in 2025 and has thankfully had “no evidence of active disease” since.

Through careers, families, moves, and different corners of medicine, Woodham and Six’s friendship has endured. Both physicians are still part of a lively group chat with fellow Charter Class members – Six calls the chat their "multidisciplinary conference" – and both recognize how profoundly their friendship shaped them.

“Paige helped get me through medical school,” said Six. “We were roommates, yes, but also friends, and we also studied together. We got each other through a hard four years. I am the physician I am today because of Paige and USC SOMG.”

"People say you don't have to be best friends with your roommate, and that is true, but for us, we were best friends,” said Woodham. “We truly pushed each other to study and work hard. Sometimes, that was challenging because we had different things we were trying to balance outside of school too, but we really held each other accountable through the easier times and the more challenging times. Katie was also my go- to person through every aspect of my cancer treatment.”

“She’s still my best friend to this day,” said Six.