For researcher and thyroid cancer expert, career change has been ‘positive and energizing’
Marcia S. Brose, MD, PhD, said she is not the kind of person who typically seeks out change.
“I am not naturally a ‘change’ person, but I would say people who aren’t naturally inclined toward change need to do it anyway,” Brose, who took on a new role at Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center — Jefferson Health (SKCC), said in an interview with Healio. “I’ve found changing careers to be the single most energizing and positive thing I’ve ever done. I knew I would enjoy learning new things and taking on new challenges, but I underestimated what the opportunity for creativity would provide to my spirit, my heart and, ultimately, to my patients.”
Brose now holds the title of vice chair of medical oncology and SKCC regional chief of cancer services at Jefferson Torresdale Hospital in Northeast Philadelphia. She also will serve as medical co-director of community clinical research at SKCC’s clinical research organization. In this capacity, Brose will develop and initiate clinical research studies at the center’s advanced care hubs to ensure that trials at these sites serve nearby communities.
Brose said the job is “three pronged,” with various elements at the hospital, academic and cancer center levels that are ideally suited to her experience.
“The first part is that I am chief of cancer services at Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center — Jefferson Health Northeast, which is one of the three advanced care hubs,” Brose said. “They wanted someone to come in and bring the program together and make it an established cancer center. The goal and the vision is that people would get the same exact care here that they would be offered if they went into Center City.”
A tailor-made position
When interviewing for the position, Brose found it can be beneficial to be open about one’s interests and wants.
She was particularly excited when she learned that the job at Jefferson entailed developing an advanced care hub in a community outside the main location.
“I came from a community like this, and so it really resonated when Jefferson wanted that as part of the position,” she said. “I thought, ‘I’m just going to reach out and see what they say.’”
She liked what she heard. In addition to directing clinical operations at the advanced care hub, Brose learned that as the vice chair for hematology/oncology at the northeast location, she would be head of the academic department at the site.
“Jefferson has a philosophy that there is one Jefferson; we don’t have first tier and second tier,” she said. “This unites all our academic efforts, so that people can pursue academic work here in the community now.”
In addition to the responsibilities originally listed for the position, Brose discovered that it offered even more — in fact, the job was expanded to suit her skill set and interests.
“Clinical trials are where my heart is, and I said, ‘I’m interested in the job, but would it be OK if I worked with the cancer center to develop clinical trials in the community?’” Brose said. “They went crazy because they always wanted someone to be academic at that level, someone who could lead clinical trials. So, they added a third part to the position, co-director for community-based clinical trials.”
A career ‘reinvention’
Previously, Brose served as professor of otorhinolaryngology, head and neck surgery; director of head and neck clinical trials; and director of the thyroid cancer therapeutics program at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She also was the director of the center for rare cancers and personalized medicine at Abramson Cancer Center.
“I spent my entire career at Penn, from training all the way to full professorship,” she said. “I had a strong connection to the people I worked with, and all of my patients, but I really felt as though I had reached a point where there were limited options for the growth of my program and my career. Leadership was also changing at Penn, so it became clear to me that if I wanted to have the growth that I was looking for, I was going to have to reinvent myself.”
She had originally envisioned this reinvention occurring at Penn, but then Jefferson presented her with an irresistible position.
“The leadership team at Jefferson and Sidney Kimmel put together this offer that I couldn’t refuse,” she said. “It combined my interest in clinical trials with the opportunity to develop a leading academic cancer site. I couldn’t even begin to say ‘no’ to that, because improving access to trials is something I feel is very important. If we want to increase the level of care in the community, having access to clinical trials makes a big difference.”
Creating an infrastructure
Brose said many people in communities not in proximity to academic medical centers would like to participate in clinical trials, but this is not always feasible.
“Sometimes they can’t get downtown for any number of reasons,” Brose said, “It may be for economic reasons; maybe they can’t take a whole day off from work or ask a friend or relative to take time off from work. There are many patients who have previously wanted to enroll in clinical trials but were not able to handle the burden of traveling.”
She said clinical trial sponsors she has spoken to since taken the position have been “thrilled” at the possibility of adding community sites for their trials. As part of her job contract, she negotiated for a clinical trials lab and staff to support it.
“By creating the infrastructure and bringing the knowledge base, we should start seeing more clinical trials,” she said. “I’m not just coming out here 1 day a week; I am here, and I am here to bring knowledge into the community. I think all those things will ensure that the clinical trials enroll out here. Already, we are seeing an uptick.”
Brose acknowledged that in many ways, her work at University of Penn prepared her to take on this challenge.
“One of the cancer center directors, Chi Van Dang, MD, PhD, saw what I was doing, and he helped set me up as the director of the center for rare cancers and personalized therapy, which was the first time Penn had anything like that,” she said. “That provided me with the chance to grow my own program and infrastructure and to collaborate with people outside my group in the thyroid cancer field. That experience of working with many people from different backgrounds set me up to take on the additional administrative roles that I was going to get as part of this job.”
Being ‘100%’ at home
In addition to the three-pronged responsibilities of her new position, Brose also maintains the same work/life juggling act required of many professional women. She noted that throughout her career, her methods of balancing work with home and family life have evolved and changed.
“I had my kids when I was a fellow and a young assistant professor, and I would say my responsibilities at that time were focused on making sure my clinic was going OK, that I was writing the grants and reports that I needed to, and then I would be at home,” she said. “As my career evolved, I had to find ways to make more time. I had a mentor who was a bit ahead of me, and I watched them go through a period where they said ‘no’ to as many things as they needed to,” she said. “They took things off their plate that they did not have time to do, and they gave them away. This also gave a junior researcher or clinician a chance to get these things on their CV so they would have opportunities and promotions.”
Brose said as her children got older and became more involved in extracurricular activities, she made a point of attending as many of these events as possible.
“I made it a priority to go to every play and every concert,” she said. “I didn’t make it to every volleyball game, but I made it to quite a few.”
For Brose, the most important aspect of balancing work and home life was sometimes challenging but relatively straightforward: When she was at home, she was truly at home.
“I usually could get home by 5:00 or 6:00, and then I might be with my kids through dinner and homework and bed, a 3-hour period every night,” she said. “I made sure that during that time, there was no work, no pagers. I was 100% there.”
For more information:
Marcia S. Brose, MD, PhD, can be reached at marcia.brose@jefferson.edu.
Editor’s note: On Feb. 25, 2022, this article was updated to include the corrected email address for Marcia S. Brose, MD, PhD. The editors regret the error.
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