Breast oncologist aims to normalize challenges, ‘give back’ in new leadership positions

Maryam Lustberg, MD, MPH, has made it a priority to support patients and their families, give back through mentoring and normalize struggles women oncologists face.

Lustberg aims to achieve these goals during her tenure as president of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer (MASCC), an international organization that seeks to help patients with cancer throughout their journey via supportive care practice, education and research.

In March 2021, Lustberg also was appointed director of the Center for Breast Cancer at Smilow Cancer Hospital and chief of breast medical oncology at Yale Cancer Center before becoming president of MASCC this June.

In these new roles, Lustberg aspires to give back to early-career oncologists in the way she received help along the way.

“I see [my past positions] as a natural progression of everything that I have worked hard for in my career and all the skills that I've learned along the way,” Lustberg told Healio. “I see it as a juncture where I have matured into these more senior roles where, as a leader, I actually have the opportunity to help others, to mentor more and to sponsor more.

“Mentoring is something that I take seriously,” she added. “It is a time investment and something I enjoy, but I think I'm in more of a position in these roles to essentially give back. I do appreciate how I was helped along the way, so I would like to do the same for others.”

Taking care of the whole patient

In addition to falling in love with oncology research and scientific discovery, Lustberg’s interest in breast cancer began when she was shadowing physicians in clinic. She told Healio that during this experience, she saw her preceptor’s close relationships with their patients and families, which brought her to a focus on breast cancer and supportive care.

“There were multiple opportunities throughout my training where I noticed that in addition to therapeutics, there are so many junctures where we could have profound influences on how to manage symptoms, improve quality of life and take care of the whole patient and family,” Lustberg told Healio.

“I saw supportive care as a complementary approach to not simply selecting a treatment for my patient but really looking at the consequences of the treatment and how it was affecting their body, their relationships and their life,” she added. “Supportive care was a natural umbrella where I could work with other disciplines and really figure out ways that we could support the patient better.”

Over her years working, Lustberg has had several mentors who have influenced her. All these experiences helped her realize the immense value of having different types of mentors.

“I think the idea of a group of mentors is a really important lesson,” she said. “One person cannot be all to you, so having that balanced mentorship and really having exposure to a diverse set of mentors is really important.”

Challenges, goals as president

When asked about a challenge she faced in her career, Lustberg drew attention to a common feeling women in medicine struggle with when advancing in their career: imposter syndrome.

“Particularly as women, we often perhaps have constant thoughts of, ‘Am I good enough to be in this leadership position?’ or, ‘Am I senior enough?’ I’ve worked hard to not let impostor syndrome stop me from applying for different positions or assuming certain leadership roles, but it's something that is a challenge because it can take time,” she said.

Despite this challenge, Lustberg plans to help normalize these feelings for younger women through her new leadership position.

“One of the ways I can give back is to openly talk about it because when I tell people that I'm feeling that way, they say, ‘No, we would have never guessed, how surprising,’” she said. “The more we openly talk about the challenges that we have faced, we help others know that they're not alone.”

Along with this intention, Lustberg outlined three major goals she would like to accomplish during her presidency.

“Our goals in the next few years are really to look at access issues throughout the globe, including disparities in the care delivery of supportive care,” she said.

“We also want to continue to focus on educational opportunities and scholarship to really expand the supportive care knowledge base of both health care workers and patients in terms of knowing what is available and all the various evidence-based approaches that we have to deliver supportive care, and sometimes they're underutilized,” she added.

The third focus is to expand MASCC’s partnerships with patients.

“I see this as a bidirectional, collaborative relationship where it's not health care workers or providers deciding what supportive care should look like but really partnering with patients and families to figure out what's important to them and how they would like supportive care to really look like in the 21st century,” she said.

‘Marathon, not a race’

With her past year and 3 months involving significant career growth and change, Lustberg offered some tips for women in the early stages of their oncology careers.

“Having a group of other professional women within your specialty, whether it be oncology or other subsets of the medical field, is really important,” she said. “Being able to share challenges, share ideas and even pure mentoring is a really important piece of this. Having some type of an online presence where you celebrate others, as well as your own accomplishments, can absolutely open doors.”

She concluded her advice by emphasizing the significance of personal reflection.

“Take the time and do not wait for things to necessarily be thrown at you with a certain trajectory and realize that this is what I envision my ideal job to look like, these are the things that are important to me, and then focus on what is important,” Lustberg said. “Know it's more of a marathon, not a race, and that we'll have different seasons in our lives. We may work more in certain seasons and less in others as we have different priorities. That should be normalized; not everything has to happen all at once.”

For more information:

Maryam Lustberg, MD, MPH, can be reached at maryam.lustberg@yale.edu.