by W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD
Volume 3/Number 1
|  | | Dr. Rathmell (right) and her lab staff (from left) Natalie Carraway and Christie Chmielecki. | NOTE: Dr. Rathmell was awarded a V Scholar grant in 2003. The grant was funded by the Jimmy V Celebrity Golf Classic and named in memory of JVCGC volunteer John Geddes.
Many people ask me why I chose the field of oncology, and the answer is simple. I chose oncology because as a basic scientist and as a physician it is the field that for me forms the best congruence of fascinating biology and intense patient care experience. To give you a better perspective, I started medical school at Stanford University with the desire to become a doctor. I had an idea that I might enjoy clinical research, but my main motivation was to be a healer. However, as I began to explore basic science research, I discovered the immense satisfaction of being able to create in vitro model systems and using them to indisputably answer discreet biologic questions, something that is not realistic in experiments designed around patient participation in clinical studies. I decided to get a PhD and do both.
I feel incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to explore basic science research questions in a richly collaborative and stimulating environment such as we have at UNC-Chapel Hill. Additionally, basic science research, although extremely competitive, is ripe with stimulating findings and continually evolving questions to explore. My research uses cell culture and animal model systems to investigate the molecular biology of kidney cancer. We use information obtained from previous studies of the inherited disease von Hippel-Lindau syndrome to formulate hypotheses about how mutations in the same gene affect the progression of cancers in patients without a heritable genetic predisposition. Our work with specific mutations in the VHL gene will provided insight into the blood vessel formation in tumors and the molecular genetics of this difficult disease.
I study and treat kidney cancers for several reasons. Kidney cancer has historically been a tremendously difficult disease to treat. It is counted as one of the rare malignancies, but has an incidence of 32,000 new cases diagnoses annually in the United States.
Furthermore, at the time of diagnosis 30-50% of patients will already have metastatic disease, and despite complete surgical resection another 30-50% will develop recurrence at a later time. This cancer is highly resistant to traditional forms of chemotherapy, but can respond dramatically to modulation of the immune system, making it one of the few tumors that we can consider as potentially curable in the metastatic setting. However, this happy outcome is a realistic possibility for only a tiny fraction of patients, as the treatment is very toxic, and only a small percentage of patients will respond to the treatment. It is for the remaining patients that I have chosen to specialize in this field. Largely because of advances in our understanding of the genetics and molecular biology of this disease a number of biologically targeted investigational drug products are undergoing investigation, which inhibit blood vessel formation.
Only through continued advancements at the laboratory bench, and rapid and efficient progression to clinical trials can we realistically bring forth effective and innovative treatments to a large proportion of renal cancer patients.
This is an incredibly exciting time to be involved in the treatment of cancer and kidney cancer especially. We are really at the cusp of a new era of kidney cancer management that takes aim at the biologic cause of this dreadful disease. I am privileged to be able to treat patients with cancer with whatever tools are available. However, every time I return from the clinic I feel encouraged to redouble my efforts, because no matter how enthusiastic I am about the realm of kidney cancer treatment a few years from now, it remains heartbreaking to have so many limitations in currently available treatment options. My patients provide me with drive to advance our basic science research and build our clinical research program, and they bring me relevant questions to explore in the laboratory. And it goes both ways, our progress at the bench provides me a constant source of enthusiasm to bring hope, one of our most valuable tools of treatment, to the clinic, and provides the necessary platform for designing clinical studies.
Because kidney cancer affects a relative few number of patients it has not been a priority of most national cancer research initiatives, this makes such research and clinical projects more difficult to finance. This makes funding grants like the V Scholar Award so valuable. The foresight of the leadership in The V Foundation for Cancer Research to fund young investigators like myself is truly remarkable, as launching an independent laboratory working in a new direction is a difficult task.
My laboratory is composed of myself, a marvelously talented research technician, Christie Chmielecki, and an undergraduate chemistry student, Natalie Carraway. We make an excellent team, but with the help of The The V Foundation funding, are hoping to grow soon.
I have a life outside the laboratory, too. I am thrilled to be at a university with a vibrant undergraduate campus, and I enjoy having a highly ranked, exciting team to root for in basketball. I also love to garden, and the wonderful North Carolina weather makes it appear for the first time that I can actually have some success at it (I’ve spent many years as a happy but unsuccessful Northern gardener). However, I could not do my job without the support of a marvelous family—my children, Peter and Dorothy, constantly enrich my life and keep me grounded in what is real (Pokemon and Cinderella), and by far my favorite pastime is spending time in their activities. My husband, Jeff, is a cancer researcher at Duke University, and keeps me focused on the goal at home, too, to “push back the frontiers” of cancer research.
Finally, I need to say that I have learned immensely from my patients about endurance, patience, and acceptance, and some of the things that are truly important in life: loving family, faith in greater power, and a sense of self. I wish that I could thank them for that. | ..............................................................................................................................
Editor's Note: |  | The Rathmell Family, Kim, Jeff, Peter and Dorothy. | W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD is a hematology/oncology instructor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. She received her undergraduate degrees in chemistry and biology at the University of Northern Iowa and her Ph.D. in Biophysics as well as her M.D. at Stanford University, followed by postgraduate training and fellowship appointments at both the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania where she was a post-doctoral trainee with Celeste Simon. She joined the faculty at Lineberger in 2003.
A native of Sheffield, Iowa, where she was a member of the high school band (playing trumpet, French horn, trombone, and tuba), and where she had her start in medicine working as a nursing assistant in the local nursing home. She attended college at the University of Northern Iowa, where she was a Presidential Scholar, chemistry laboratory assistant, member of the UNItuba tuba ensemble, and national qualifier for the speech team, and where she met her husband, Jeff Rathmell, who is an Assistant Professor of Cancer Biology and Pharmacology and a member of the Stedman Nutrition and Metabolism Center at Duke University. They have two children, Peter, 9, and Dorothy, 3. The family enjoys basketball, bicycling, and camping. In her spare time she attempts to garden.
She is the daughter of the late Dr. Edwin Meyer who was a school superintendent at districts in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Her mother, Sharon Meyer, is an architectural designer who recently relocated to Maine with her fiancee, Dr. George Habel, a retired minister. |
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My V Grant - Funded Researchers Tell Their Stories 
