Periodically, the Office of Philanthropy invites City of Hope® leaders, faculty and researchers for conversation to learn more about them and their groundbreaking work.
We spoke with Tanyanika Phillips, M.D., M.P.H., a medical oncologist and hematologist who joined City of Hope in 2019. Based in Antelope Valley, she focuses on improving clinical research and care for older patients.
Q: What sparked your interest in becoming an oncologist?
Unfortunately, there is a lot of cancer in my family. I’m from Louisiana, and my mom is a two-time breast cancer survivor. When I was in my early teens she got breast cancer, and within a year her sister also had breast cancer. The two responded very differently. My aunt was very challenged by the body image issues from the surgery; she was not talking about it. My mom was the woman in the elevator who would tell you about her experience. Even as a young girl, I thought: How can they have the same disease but have such different experiences? That piqued my interest.
Q: How did you choose to specialize in geriatric oncology?
When I went on to residency, I noticed just how many older individuals had cancer. But there was an attitude that I would call quite dismissive of older individuals, just assuming what their thoughts were without talking to them, which bothered me a lot because they had a lot to say. At the time there was not a field called geriatric oncology, so I contacted the NIH. They said: As a matter of fact, we’re thinking about developing a geriatric oncology program. And I was really excited about that. Most of my mentors said “It’s depressing that you want to study older patients and cancer.” I thought: That’s not depressing. Isn’t that the world we live in?
That’s how I ultimately got to Johns Hopkins. By the time I got to Hopkins, the field had finally been defined, and I was glad to be a part of something that was pioneering.
Q: Close to 50% of the City of Hope patient population is 65 or older. Tell us about the research you have begun for older patients at the Antelope Valley site.
So, in the last four years — the last 18 months — we have opened the research site here. We have 10 active clinical trials. We have another 10 or 12 that are pending to open so we will have a total of 20. That’s all in therapeutics. But then we also have non-therapeutic studies. So we work with investigators like Virginia Sun, Ph.D. in population science. We work with investigators like Dr. William Dale looking at patient-oriented research. We now have an entire research team that is dedicated to Antelope Valley and space that has been carved out for a coordinator, for a research nurse and for a research nurse manager.
Q: Tell us about your focus on health equity.
The thing that I want to do is expand how we see aging. Because older adults are key to cancer. But if you work in an underserved area like Antelope Valley, just coming up with an idea wasn’t how we could build that here. More than 25% of people here have food insecurity. Another 26% have home insecurity. We couldn’t get to cancer management because someone was in either a mental health crisis or a social crisis. One gentleman I’m thinking about was homeless but had come and gotten his management and treatment every day. He did not want to share any outward look that he was struggling. And one day he asked me for $5 — his wife was in the car hungry. He was so embarrassed to have to share that. They had been living out of their car. He was an older individual, and we had to integrate aging, cancer and program development here. We needed more resources, like a social worker. It was his patient example that allowed people at my site to see how program development is important.
Q: What would be your dream for older cancer patients in the next five years?
There are still many providers who don’t quite know the utility in evaluating somebody 83 or 85. My older individuals, they’re not necessarily referred. They’re actually the ones championing for themselves or their families. I see a lot of well adults who aren’t frail. Or I have a 91-year-old, he still opens for an Inyo County store and he goes to work every day. And people make assumptions about him and when his appointments can be because he’s 91. They assume he should just be at home and waiting for an appointment. And I love that he gives it back to our staff, saying, ‘I am working at this time. I can’t come during that appointment. I’m just like the 50-year-olds, I have a work schedule, and we need to work around my schedule.’
I think we will shift where we are with care once we start to think about changing our perspectives. Agism is still alive and well.
“We will shift where we are with care once we start changing our perspectives. Agism is still alive and well.”
-Tanyanika Phillips, M.D., M.P.H.