blog

Our June Faculty Member of the Month is Maria-José Molina Garrido, Head of Cancer in the Elderly Consultation at the Hospital General Virgen de la Luz in Cuenca, Spain. Maria-José is a Medical Oncologist, with a Masters in Geriatry and Gerontology from University of Barcelona.

In this Q&A, she tells us more about her speciality in Geriatric Oncology, focusing on geriatric assessment and frailty in elderly cancer patients.

What triggered your interest in oncology?

My interest in Oncology was encouraged when I checked the high number of people affected by cancer, and that, among them, there were also loved ones. Among this high percentage is a predominance of elderly patients, in whom it was more difficult to control the disease without causing harm to the patient, which greatly interested me about this population group.

What do you most enjoy about your current work?

From my point of view, what makes oncology, especially Geriatric Oncology, different from other specialties, is the closeness with the patient, and the possibility of accompanying and watching his/her health throughout the entire course of his/her illness.

These are patients who, on a regular basis, are cited on many occasions in the consultation, and this facilitates a more direct and intense relationship with them.

Along with this, oncology offers many possibilities to investigate and deepen the knowledge and treatment of tumour diseases, to better our understanding the behaviour of the tumoral cell and the mechanisms inherent in the ageing cell process. Geriatric Oncology allows us to combine all this knowledge.

Please tell us about one of the recent articles you recommended on F1000Prime, why you picked it, and how it fits into the current research landscape?

I recommended an excellent manuscript by Ferrat et al that was published at the beginning of 2017. The authors compared, for the first time in the scientific literature, different classifications of the older patient with cancer that facilitates decision making in this population group. It is a very interesting article, and the authors are great specialists in this area.

What, in your opinion, should be the main focus of cancer research?

The main focus should be the tumoral cell, considering the signaling pathways it uses, and how it relates to the environment that surrounds it; but it is also very important to control oncological patients’ symptoms and preserve their quality of life and their autonomy. Much research is needed in both fields.

What piece of career advice would you like to pass on to early career researchers?

Thinking about the patient first and foremost. Cancer is a disease that affects a patient, and that the disease is not the only thing that should be taken into account, but also the person who suffers from it.