Learning to Overcome Barriers While Developing a Breast Oncology Career

News
Video

Tiffany A. Traina, MD, and Sherry Shen, MD, discussed barriers they have had to overcome throughout their oncology careers.

Having proper mentors and overcoming barriers within yourself is something that Tiffany A. Traina, MD, and Sherry Shen, MD, have both learned to climb over throughout their careers. During the Breaking Barriers: Women in Oncology episode, both women in the breast oncology space mentioned how welcomed they have felt by their community, citing few significant disparities in their field.

Traina, vice chair of Outpatient Operations in the Department of Medicine, and section head of the Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Clinical Research Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), spoke about how she discovered that she needed different mentors in different areas of her life. She feels that this approach helped her become a better clinician, partner, and mother, and led her to where she is today.

Shen, an assistant attending physician at MSKCC, noted that while external barriers haven’t been experienced, she has imparted them upon herself. While it can be intimidating to unearth her voice in a room full of senior colleagues, Shen noted she is finding her way.

Transcript:

Traina:

I was fortunate to have incredible mentors who I think were “gender blind.” It was more about helping to nurture and educate and being excited about introducing the field of oncology to someone. I always felt well supported and recognized that I needed different mentors for different parts of my personal and professional development. There were [mentors] who were incredibly helpful for my academic development. There were colleagues who were incredibly helpful for me to figure out how to juggle life as a physician, a partner, and a mom. I don’t think that I felt barriers ever, I just recognized that it took a tremendous amount of support, and mentorship to get where I am.

Shen:

Fortunately, our field has changed so much, and especially the environment we’re working in here has been so welcoming that I don’t think I felt so much external barriers as perhaps internal barriers. Some of the ways we as women grow up and are raised, I think I have some things that I’ve struggled with, like speaking up in meetings where I felt like my expertise as a junior faculty attending was not at the level where I had a meaningful contribution to make, for example. That’s something I’m working on, internally, and over time [I am] becoming more confident speaking up. Those are the barriers that I’ve encountered.

Recent Videos
Heather Zinkin, MD, states that reflexology improved pain from chemotherapy-induced neuropathy in patients undergoing radiotherapy for breast cancer.
Study findings reveal that patients with breast cancer reported overall improvement in their experience when receiving reflexology plus radiotherapy.
Patients undergoing radiotherapy for breast cancer were offered 15-minute nurse-led reflexology sessions to increase energy and reduce stress and pain.
Whole or accelerated partial breast ultra-hypofractionated radiation in older patients with early breast cancer may reduce recurrence with low toxicity.
Ultra-hypofractionated radiation in those 65 years or older with early breast cancer yielded no ipsilateral recurrence after a 10-month follow-up.
The unclear role of hypofractionated radiation in older patients with early breast cancer in prior trials incentivized research for this group.
Patients with HR-positive, HER2-positive breast cancer and high-risk features may derive benefit from ovarian function suppression plus endocrine therapy.
Paolo Tarantino, MD discusses updated breast cancer trial findings presented at ESMO 2024 supporting the use of agents such as T-DXd and ribociclib.
Paolo Tarantino, MD, discusses the potential utility of agents such as datopotamab deruxtecan and enfortumab vedotin in patients with breast cancer.
Paolo Tarantino, MD, highlights strategies related to screening and multidisciplinary collaboration for managing ILD in patients who receive T-DXd.
Related Content