Dr Kathy Miller remembers two influential women in the breast cancer field, Dr Worta McCaskill-Stevens and Dr Edith Mitchell.
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This is Dr Kathy Miller from Indiana University (IU), coming to you with a heavy heart today. I'm hoping you will join me in remembering two giants of our field who we lost recently. Dr Worta McCaskill-Stevens died in mid-November of 2023, and we lost Dr Edith Mitchell [this past January].
Those names may not be as familiar to you as their illustrious careers suggest they should be. Please allow me to share with you a bit about these two amazing women. I was honored to know and work with both of them, and I will miss their counsel and the quiet strength and grace with which they carried themselves.
Dr McCaskill-Stevens was one of my early mentors in the breast cancer program at IU as a fellow. She left IU not long after I finished my fellowship and moved to the National Cancer Institute, where she ultimately became one of the leaders of the Division of Cancer Prevention. While there, she helped bring forward the STAR trial, evaluating breast cancer prevention strategies; the TMIST trial, evaluating screening strategies; and most recently, she helped guide the approval for the EAZ171 trial, the first - and to my knowledge, still only - therapeutic clinical trial specifically focused on Black women with breast cancer.
Dr Edith Mitchell was a longtime faculty member at Thomas Jefferson University, where she led the Center to Eliminate Cancer Disparities. Edith began her career in the Air Force, accepting a scholarship there at residency. She ultimately served our country in the Air Force for 36 years, blazing many trails and breaking down many barriers. Edith became the first woman physician to achieve the rank of brigadier general, and she went on to serve many presidential panels and advisory groups.
Always, Edith Mitchell's message was that cancer affects all of us, and for all of us to benefit from our clinical research, it needs to include all of us. She also was a staunch advocate for the EAZ171 trial, and the EAZ171 trial team is sad that those women would not see the full results of that important trial that they helped bring forward.
Personally, both of these women played critical roles in my own career development, by Dr McCaskill-Stevens early in my career, and she continued to be a mentor throughout my time on our faculty. Dr Edith Mitchell was someone I could count on for sage advice when I served the ECOG-ACRIN Breast Committee as their chair.
I will miss these women dearly, and more importantly, our field will miss their influence. Thank you for taking time to remember them with me.
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