W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, MMHC

I did not find the process of being suddenly without employment as refreshing as one might think. It did, however, provide a forced opportunity to engage in self-reflection, to critically analyze the situation around cancer, and to face the complex set of problems that cancer, and society, present to us. 

When I started this column, I was wanting to retain the sense of connection that I had to the greater cancer community as I stepped away into a period of disconnection.

Just consider for a minute if this was the first year of running your lab, if you were on the job market as a physician or scientist right now, if you were a resident contemplating a career in cancer research after fellowship, if you were a graduate student or postdoc, if you were an undergraduate or a technician who was looking toward graduate school.

Although this column is running in The Cancer Letter, where we turn for timely insights and information relevant to the cancer community, I suspect that a lot of our readers are watching college basketball this week.

I was really excited to get to talk about the role that mentorship plays in women’s leadership development. It’s a topic that I’ve thought a lot about, and also that I’ve benefitted from, and that I think is not always applied with enough intention. There is an art to mentorship, and I want to share some of how that has helped me navigate career transitions and pivot to leadership roles.

As cancer specialists, we have to constantly be on the lookout, alert for trends as they emerge—because they might impact the way we best deliver advice or care, or because trends may inform us about specific influences that drive cancers.

Knowledge is power, and this information, true for many cancers, is valuable for everyone to know—either to have an awareness of their own bodies and the factors that they can control, or to create spaces for empathy with persons they might encounter with cancer. 

Today, our world is small. It feels smaller all the time. In a few hours we can get to any point on the globe.

Being summarily dismissed, denigrated, and divided is both dehumanizing and taking place in a radical and disorienting manner. The effect is traumatizing.

Isolating science by shutting down communication risks building up silos, stymying scientific innovation and dissemination, and creating a culture that excludes rather than includes.

This column is a love letter of sorts to our field, a recognition of all that we have accomplished and an acknowledgement that we need to find a path forward that supports and empowers the best of what it is to invest in cancer research.