Pulling Back the Curtain
Ranjana Advani, MD
In this edition, Ranjana Advani, MD, talks about the importance of education,
a balanced life, and being open to opportunities. Dr. Advani is a professor of
oncology at Stanford University Medical Center and the Saul A. Rosenberg
Professor of Lymphoma at Stanford University School of Medicine in California.
Dr. Advani (left) with her
husband and three children
on a recent trip.
When did you know that
you wanted to pursue
medicine as a career?
My parents told me that I wanted
to be a doctor like my grandmother ever since I was two years
old. She lived with us while I
was growing up in India and had
graduated from medical school
in 1929, practicing “women and
children’s health,” which included
primary care, pediatrics, and OB/
GYN care. Apparently, I never
went through the phase of saying I wanted to be a teacher like
many young girls do – I always
said I would be a doctor.
Why did you decide to
specialize in hematology?
There are a couple of reasons:
Around the time I entered medical school, my grandmother died
of chronic myeloid leukemia. In
those days, there were few treatment options available, so that
sparked my interest in learning
more about leukemia.
Then, when I was in my final
year of medical school, I was
diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. This was the early 1980s,
when I was still living in India
and malignant hematology wasn’t
a very well-developed specialty.
My father did some research
20
ASH Clinical News
and discovered
that Stanford
University was
on the cutting
edge of Hodgkin lymphoma
treatment, so
my parents
brought me
to Stanford to
see leaders in
the field, Saul
A. Rosenberg,
MD, and Henry
Kaplan, MD.
Being a patient
and undergoing treatment
for Hodgkin
lymphoma
was a career-defining moment.
I decided then that my calling
was to train in the hematologic
malignancies, conduct research
in the field, and care for patients
with these diseases. I didn’t know
at the time that I would end up
coming back to Stanford for the
rest of my medical career, and
that Dr. Rosenberg would become one of my most important
mentors.
Were there any other
mentors who helped
further shape your career?
During my fellowship, Stanley
Schrier, MD, was my mentor
when I was first exposed to formal hematology training. I had
never worked in a lab; working
with Dr. Schrier was an outstanding experience. The first exposure
I had to actually conducting
clinical trials with new drugs
was with Peter Greenberg, MD.
Training under him was an amazing opportunity at an exciting
time when growth factors were
starting to enter clinical trials.
Then, during my oncology
fellowship training, I was able
to work with Dr. Rosenberg and
several other outstanding mentors including Sandra Horning,
MD, Charlotte Jacobs, MD, and
Brandy Sikic, MD. I have been
blessed with the opportunity to
work with and learn from leaders
in the field. They set very high
standards of excellence, which
I’ve tried to model on a day-today basis.
They taught me how to be a
critical thinker, analyze data, give
a good presentation, and simplify
complex concepts so that you
can be a better teacher. More
importantly, I learned how to be
a compassionate physician; Dr.
Rosenberg, in particular, taught
by example that it was okay to
hold your patients’ hands, to hug
them, and to ultimately develop
deep relationships with them.
Having been on the other side of
the doctor−patient relationship, I
understand how important it is to
connect with patients.
What advice would you
pass on to your own
mentees?
Everyone needs mentorship, but
just getting assigned a mentor is
not enough; you have to develop
a relationship with him or her
and take advice seriously. I never
said no to an opportunity or
task my mentors sent my way –
whether it was seeing patients
on a non-clinic day, helping with
a research project, or writing a
simple report or a major paper.
All of these experiences helped
me develop as a physician and
ultimately opened other opportunities.
Next, I would tell younger
hematologists not to impose
timelines or artificial boundaries
on themselves. For the first seven
or eight years of my career, I
worked part-time as an instructor
so that I could spend more time
with my three young children.
When my youngest started
kindergarten, I joined the faculty
full-time. Of course, I was lucky
that I had a husband who could
support that career decision, but
it was very important for me to
have that time with them. When
I look back, I know that I became
an assistant professor seven years
later than I should have; however,
it was wort h it. And, because it
was a productive seven years, I
made up for the “lost time” by
getting an early promotion. At
the end of the day, the time from
my appointment as an assistant
professor to a full professor was
seven years, so eventually everything fell into place. The ultimate
honor for me was receiving an
endowed chair, titled the Saul A.
Rosenberg Professor of Lymphoma, 32 years after first being
treated by him. Life had truly
come full circle.
Witnessing how my mentors
were innovators in their respective fields instilled in me a true
love of academia. Returning that
great mentorship by teaching and
working with residents, fellows,
and medical students is important to me. I’m involved with the
Stanford Immersion in Medicine
Series, a program for undergraduate students interested in pursuing medicine. Students shadow
a physician mentor in clinics
and on rounds. My interaction
with these young and very bright
individuals keeps me going, and I
think those are opportunities you
get only in academia.
Who were your role models
growing up?
I grew up with self-made people.
My mother was a homemaker
and my father was educated as
a lawyer. Circumstances were
tough for that generation. My
father was set to take the bar
exam in England in 1947, and at
that time, the British separated
India into India and Pakistan. He
and his family moved as refugees
from what is now Pakistan to
India. With just the clothes on
their backs and – most importantly – their education, they
had to start their lives anew. My
grandmother was a doctor and
May 2016