Andrea Miyahira: Hi, everyone. I'm Andrea Miyahira with the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Thank you for joining me for a special Women in Science episode. And joining me is Dr. Tanya Dorff, a professor and medical oncologist at the City of Hope, where she runs clinical research and numerous trials in GU oncology and prostate cancer, including CAR T-cell projects that she and her team have been developing. Dr. Dorff, thanks for joining us.

Tanya Dorff: So great to see you.

Andrea Miyahira: So first, describe your career path and how you came to where you are as a medical oncologist and clinical researcher.

Tanya Dorff: I think many people have a clearer path than I do. I sort of was a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed person who always knew I wanted to be a doctor, but was open and interested in various aspects of medicine. But eventually I learned that my favorite patients were cancer patients because I felt I could develop very meaningful relationships with them and be there with them in a very difficult time of their life. And the science actually became so fascinating. Everything that we thought we knew and clearly didn't understand.

And then the fact that my own mother had APL (acute promyelocytic leukemia) and really thought she would die from it, except that she got all-trans retinoic acid, which is one of the most beautiful stories in cancer research. We actually took an understanding of the biology of a cancer and could develop a drug that would make cancer cells become normal again. So I think that experience really drove me into not just medical oncology, but the research aspect, the fact that if you could study the biology, you could actually find something that then could translate into a treatment that would make a difference in people's lives.

Andrea Miyahira: That's so inspiring. And I'm glad to hear that your mother did well. So describe the roles that you have now as a chief medical oncologist.

Tanya Dorff: Going into fellowship, again, was pretty open and then landed with a mentor who did prostate cancer research. And I think that's how a lot of researchers find their way. It's at your own institution, where are the opportunities? And who's doing research that you find compelling? I think many of us don't come into it having an idea. I want to treat this cancer and I want to study this science. You get exposed to it.

So prostate cancer has been a really phenomenal space to be involved in over the last 15, 20 years. We went from having only docetaxel chemotherapy and androgen deprivation to having a whole host of different treatments. And being part of the big clinical trials, but also the smaller efforts with more deep science embedded has really helped me understand the complexities of prostate cancer. People think of it as one cancer, and it's clearly not, it's so many different types of cancer.

Andrea Miyahira: Yeah, that's very true. And I'm glad that we're making progress in so many ways. So what advice would you have for younger women who want to follow in your footsteps? And also, if you could speak to leadership, what qualities do you think are important for attaining leadership positions in your field?

Tanya Dorff: Well, the most important thing is to speak up and speak your needs. I think when I look at women and men in my organization or in prior positions I've held, it surprises me that often the men will just say, I need this to do my job, or here's how I think this should go. And I feel that the women maybe don't always speak up. And I wonder if that's part of why we see men advancing in both scientific careers as well as leadership positions more often.

I think the gap is closing, but what I would say to young women who are interested in a career in academic oncology is speak up. Ask when you're joining a project how this is going to not only advance the field, but what skills would be gained, what publication or presentation opportunities might there be for you so that the work you're doing gets rewarded.

When it comes to leadership, we don't get training, and I've been very grateful that City of Hope really recognizes and invests in human capital and has actually offered several different leadership training opportunities to me over the years. I think being a leader is a completely different mindset from being the scientist and the physician who cares for patients. You have to look at information in a completely different way, and I think very few people can do that without some time and attention.

So the leadership courses have been really helpful in learning the language of how one aligns individuals towards a goal and motivates. And true leadership is creating something that wouldn't have existed were it not for your idea and then your implementation. So learning not only to have ideas, but how to work with others to implement is so important on that journey to leadership.

Andrea Miyahira: OK, those are all really great tips, and it's great to hear that City of Hope has leadership classes. So there is, and we are seeing a narrowing in the gap between women and men when it comes to leadership positions. But the gap is still there. So what other tips would you have for people who hold leadership positions now, or allies who are trying to nurture the pipeline of women to become leaders. And I guess if there's anything that helped you along or that you wish had been there to further guide you up.

Tanya Dorff: The number one thing, and it's so simple, but it really, for me, took someone looking at me and saying you can do this. I see in you something that says you can be the academic oncologist, in the case of Derek Raghavan, who was one of my mentors at USC. Or you can be the leader, which has happened more recently. I think sometimes we don't even recognize that in ourselves until someone tells us from the outside that we can.

So for everyone out there, whether male or female, if you see a trainee and you see the right qualities and the right motivation, say something. It's unbelievable how much of a difference that one small act can do. Of course, then it takes mentorship and opportunities.

So the second thing I think is not being afraid to move if opportunities are not present and that can be really challenging with work-life balance. We often don't want to uproot our families or disrupt where our roots are or our relationships, but career-wise, sometimes it's just necessary to make a move in order to have room to grow into a larger position.

Andrea Miyahira: That's definitely true and such great advice. And finally, could you just tell us about some of your ongoing work that you're really excited about?

Tanya Dorff: Yeah. Prostate Cancer Foundation has been a huge part of most of the work that I'm doing that I'm excited about. I love that Prostate Cancer Foundation finds exciting science and supports it. So we're doing a lot of work with cellular immunotherapy, and our CAR T work is challenging.

We see such potential, we see some dramatic responses, but understanding what's different in one patient versus another, or how to make the CAR T-cell better, or what adjunctive strategies are needed to prepare the tumor microenvironment, these are some of the ongoing challenges that we're working through with help from Prostate Cancer Foundation.

Also, some of the novel therapies like PARP inhibitors. And we are about to complete our triplet trial for metastatic hormone-sensitive using a PARP inhibitor with some very interesting digital spatial pathology and immune correlatives as well as genomics and AR trinucleotide repeats. So I think these teams that Prostate Cancer Foundation brings together to study disease from various aspects, and to take a leap and really innovate is critical. And it's been such an important part of my scientific research career.

Andrea Miyahira: Well, thank you so much. And I really look forward to the outcomes of these trials. And they're just so exciting. So thank you for your leadership and for your work. Thank you.