Women in Oncology: Leaving Passionate Legacies

Catherine E. Lai, MD, MPH, an associate professor and physician leader of the Leukemia Clinical Research Unit at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine, moderates a discussion with Courtney DiNardo, MD, MSCE; Eunice Wang, MD; and Jessica Altman, MD, on the scientific achievements they have witnessed in the field of leukemia and their hopes for the future of treating this disease.

DiNardo is an associate professor in the Department of Leukemia and Division of Cancer Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Wang is chief of Leukemia Service, medical director of Infusion Services, professor of Oncology, and an assistant member of the Tumor Immunology Program in the Department of Immunology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. Altman is a professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University.

In this episode, DiNardo, Wang, and Altman reflect on the leukemia treatment advances they have witnessed and helped facilitate, and express their gratitude for these therapies, many of which did not exist until recently. They cited the timeline of their careers as a transformational time in leukemia therapy.

Additionally, the leukemia experts look to the future and express their desires to make even more progress in the field and leave it better than it was when they started their careers. They also shared their hopes that the people they mentor will carry on their passions for developing better treatments and caring for patients in the best ways possible. They concluded by stressing that their jobs will not be finished until every leukemia patient is cured.