Maha Hussain: Thank you so much, Andrea.
Andrea Miyahira: So first, tell us about your many roles and a little bit about your career path and how you got to where you are today.
Maha Hussain: Sure. So I am a physician and I graduated from medical school in Baghdad and landed in the US and was very much enlightened by interactions with my mentors. I really liked academics, and while I started a little bit work in the lab, I decided I am more attracted to handling patient care more and do research, and so began writing clinical trials and collaborating with scientists and things like that. And I've been very fortunate in that at every institution I've been, there's been a fantastic collaborative environment where we have done a lot of different works that really led to major impact in the field over time. It's been really a wonderful journey overall and partnering with foundations, the PCF, partnering with pharma, partnering with other resources and access to different agents and things like that. So it's been wonderful opportunity. And I've been lucky also to collaborate and work on different clinical trials, several of which actually led to changing the standards of care in prostate cancer.
Andrea Miyahira: That's really wonderful. So what were some of the key decisions that you had to make along the way and how did you make those decisions?
Maha Hussain: Well, part of it was, perhaps I should mention my uncle who was an academic medical oncologist at Wayne State. He was a head and neck oncologist and he basically, the guy that came up with the 5-FU platinum, this is decades ago, that was the first essentially combination treatment that led to responses in head and neck cancer. And so from those times, he was pretty much mentoring me on the importance of academic work and research and things like that. I started working a little bit in the lab, but did not feel comfortable working with mice and stuff like that, so transitioned my thing to more like translational work and did some work on different projects and things like that, that's sort of more like a biomarker type thing. But I really pretty much felt like clinical research and clinical trials are my key things and have been fortunate to be involved literally from the original days of Taxotere, one of the two trials that led to the FDA approval. And then you can take it from there, darolutamide, triplet in hormone-sensitive disease, PARP inhibitor in castration-resistant disease, and on and on stuff, enzalutamide in people who are non-metastatic castration-resistant disease and things like that, so it's been really a very wonderful journey overall.
Andrea Miyahira: Yeah, that's wonderful. And you've led quite a few phase-three trials; it's really incredible. But very few women are leading clinical trials, especially at the phase-three level, so what tips do you have for women that are looking to get into clinical trials and clinical trial leadership and what should the field be doing to encourage more women?
Maha Hussain: Well, I feel like from my end, it's not about the gender, it's about the spirit, the brain, the desire to make an impact. And so to me, I feel like one thing in the field which was surprising to me in the beginning, the connection that I had with my patients was absolutely amazing. What I found out actually as a woman in the field, patients opened up to me more so than my colleagues who were their care providers also, urologists or something like that. And I don't know whether it's just the cultural aspect of things or what, or it's the personality where you're sitting and opening up to the patients, but you feel like you are making a difference for these patients and that really helps in terms of how you are designing clinical trials and things like that.
Andrea Miyahira: That's great advice.
Maha Hussain: Yeah. Again, I think it's the human to human level of interaction. It's not about, and this is how I was raised, it's not about who you are, what you are, what you look like, where you come from, are you rich, are you poor, and all of that. When we chose medicine, whether it's nursing, whether it's medical physician, it's all about the human to human interaction and making a difference.
Andrea Miyahira: So you've held quite a few influential leadership roles. What tips do you have about leadership and what are your thoughts on leadership?
Maha Hussain: Well, I feel like leadership is critical from the perspective of impact. And I do think that from my end, the way I see it is it's not about the title, it's about your expertise and could you make a difference in terms of the leadership at that particular role? And I do think that's critical part to do. And ultimately, you want to do it not because of a title, you want to do it because you want to make a difference and afterwards pass on the baton to the next generation of leaders from that perspective. And one of the big things from my end as I go from a career perspective is really the issue of bringing in, sort of crossing the gap between the bench and the bedside and trying to explain and bring in the, from a human perspective, what is it the critical questions and what are the critical needs? And then from the lab perspective to have a better understanding of why things are happening. So why does the cancer, when you have prostate cancer, which can be very aggressive or very mellow type cancer but ultimately it's a killer, and the issue comes up, how does things evolve and what do we need to do? And why is it when you have a sphere this big with cancer cells, not every cell dies when you're starving it from testosterone and things like that. So to me, the biology and everything else becomes very critical, and narrowing the gap again between the two, because clinical observations make a difference.
Andrea Miyahira: Thank you. And we all face barriers in our career path, so do you have any tips for overcoming barriers?
Maha Hussain: I think if you don't believe in yourself, nobody will. And you have to stand up for what's right and do it. The point of it is not a freebie. You have to hustle. There are a lot of smart people around you and around us, and what we need to do is make sure that we are working as a team. It's not just about getting a title, and that's it. It's really the impact ultimately. And remembering that everybody remembers Einstein, right? He was a genius guy, but it's not because of his name, it's just what he had done. There's different people coming in from the old country, Hammurabi came up with the laws. So there's different things that happen and people till today would remember these things, and I think that ultimately it's the impact from the work you're doing.
Andrea Miyahira: That's wonderful. And talk about mentorship. What sort of messages or advice do you have about mentorship?
Maha Hussain: So I actually learned mentorship from the days when I was a trainee and a fellow with my mentors, and I have to say, I've been very fortunate. I trained at Wayne State and I've had several mentors and they were guys and girls, basically, men and women, oncologists and some urologists and all of that, and it was really a wonderful experience. From my end, I do the same, try to do the same with my mentees, the fellows, residents who come to rotate, sometimes urology residents coming to rotate. And the critical part is this, is not everybody is going to see the world the way you see it, but the point of it is this, there are opportunities for them based on what they feel like, whether they feel into quality of life, clinical trials, more of a clinical approach, laboratory, something. The key point is this, we want to conquer cancer and ultimately I always say if I become jobless because of no more cancer, that would be the dream of my life, literally. So we need all the brains to come in together. And I have to say, I've been very lucky to see so many of the people that I interacted with and mentored have moved on to productive careers.
Andrea Miyahira: I think that's really great advice.
Maha Hussain: Yeah.
Andrea Miyahira: Do you have any advice for resilience or motivation?
Maha Hussain: Well, I'd say you have to hustle, not Stevie Wonder hustle, but another hustle. No, you have to hustle. Don't get heartbroken when you do a project and it doesn't deliver. There are times where you're sitting and talking to patients and it's really heartbreaking what they're going through. Just you need to kind of chill a bit and try to recover. And ultimately, as I said, our goal is to conquer cancer and reduce the suffering of patients. And so that's the critical part from there. And I would say if you never do an experiment, you're never going to get success, because research is ultimately what will cure cancer and whether you're in the lab or translation or PopSci, research, whatever it is that you feel, all of it together is what will make a huge impact. The other thing I would say, advocacy for funding, that's a critical part. And it's not like no money, no mission. There is money somewhere, but the reality of it is federal funding and charity funding and all of that stuff is very critical. Again, the money is to conquer the cancer and to come up with new approaches and new things, and unfortunately, it cannot be done without the cash. So we need that funding and to advocate for that at all levels is critical.
Andrea Miyahira: I couldn't agree more.
Maha Hussain: Yeah.
Andrea Miyahira: And are there any things you're working on today that you're most excited about?
Maha Hussain: Well, there is different projects. So we are, myself and Dr. Sarki Abdulkadir, we are the two PIs for the Prostate Cancer SPORE at Northwestern. Wish us luck; we just submitted it again for renewal. And there are several really evolving strategies and approaches. So there are different pathways that are part of the research that we're doing as part of the different projects. I would say one area that is a big gap in prostate cancer is immune therapy and till today, it's amazing, you have the bladder, you have the prostate, immune therapy works great for bladder cancer, prostate cancer, no matter what it is you hear about, there's really not anything that's very impressive. So this is an area of a gap. I think the other areas would be is looking into intensified strategies in the context of hormone-sensitive disease with the hope of potential cure. I sort of call it "à la" testis cancer. Testis cancer metastatic, you give three cycles of chemotherapy and you're done. That's it, cured. And so the question is, is there feasibility to do that? And I also want to see is you can get two twins with a similar cancer.
One does very well, one doesn't, the question is why. And some of these subtle things I think are going to be very critical ultimately. Now, one of the, I think, exciting parts is that I have many patients who are literally almost 10 years out despite having metastatic disease and remission. And this is wonderful because people are living longer. The question comes up is what I call treatment holiday. At what point could we stop treatment and then will the testosterone recover or not? So there's different things that we're looking at.
Andrea Miyahira: Well, that's all very exciting. And do you have any other take-home messages for the next generation who want to follow in your footsteps?
Maha Hussain: Yeah. I feel like it's very critical to do what you feel deep in your heart that you enjoy. There are times where sleep is overrated; you have to hustle and you have to work hard. And the advantage the younger, the newer generation coming into the field bring in is they have not been corrupted by their own experiences. And I don't mean in a bad way, corruption, but meaning like we're all kind of used to what we are used to, and coming in, and this is the same thing when I was sort of a new kid on the block coming into the field, is like would go to my mentors and say, "How come no one has done this?" and they say, "Oh Maha, yeah, that's a very good point. Let's look into it." So things like that I think are very critical. There are rough times, but ultimately our goal is to conquer cancer and cure patients and ultimately enhance quality of life. And what I would say also, because there is a lot of talk about quality of life versus things, the reality of it is this, if we're all dead, we're asymptomatic. Ultimately the goal is to keep us alive and yes, life is going to have symptoms and things like that, but it needs to be managed properly.
Andrea Miyahira: Well, thank you so much, Dr. Hussain, for joining me and sharing all of this wonderful advice with us today.
Maha Hussain: It's absolutely my pleasure and I'm truly honored to be included in this.