Chapter 03: Coming to MD Anderson to Link Discovery to Delivery of Care
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Description
In this chapter, Dr. Jones explains that his mother's breast cancer diagnosis motivated him to leave the University of California and come to MD Anderson. He comments on attitudes toward breast cancer in the African-American community. He recalls his realization at the time: "No matter how many discoveries I made, it's hollow if there's no impact on people I love." He looked for an institution with more connection and was also interested in being closer to Baton Rouge, where his mother lived. He notes that he knew about the history of racism in Houston. He recalls his conversation with mentor, Dr. Pentti K. Siiteri about MD Anderson.
Identifier
JonesLA_01_20140115_C03
Publication Date
1-15-2014
Publisher
The Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Collection, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Lovell A. Jones, PhD, Oral History Interview, January 15, 2014
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - Joining MD Anderson/Coming to Texas; Personal Background; Inspirations to Practice Science/Medicine; Cultural/Social Influences; Faith, Values, Beliefs; Professional Practice; Experiences re: Gender, Race, Ethnicity; On Texas and Texans
Transcript
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
I wanted to go back in time just a little bit and ask you how it was that you came to MD Anderson, because it sounds like when you were in San Francisco, you were in that hub of important research being done. So what was that move about?
Lovell A. Jones, PhD:
Well, it had a lot to do with the disconnect between discovery and delivery. As I said in the interview that was done by HistoryMakers, it had a lot to do with my mom developing breast cancer and the disconnect that she felt between being diagnosed and what was available to her in terms of treatment and that sort of thing, and that she-
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
When was your mother diagnosed?
Lovell A. Jones, PhD:
In 1978.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So you were aware of treatments that could have been provided that were not available to her? Is that what the situation was?
Lovell A. Jones, PhD:
Well, she didn't even make it. I didn't find out until May of '79 that she had been diagnosed, and that was because she finally agreed to undergo surgery at that time.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Why was that information kept from you?
Lovell A. Jones, PhD:
I think because she thought it was an automatic death sentence, and she didn't want people to feel sorry for her. Today not as much, but still today cancer is still a stigma, and there are populations and groups that when you develop the disease, people think that this is it, this is the end, and begin to treat you in a different way.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Was that more the case in the African American community in the late seventies than in other groups at that time? Or was that a general approach, a general feeling about breast cancer at the time?
Lovell A. Jones, PhD:
I think that was a general feeling. I think it was probably more so in African American and probably Latino community, and I'd say poor white community as well. But there was still a stigma, I think. Betty Ford, in her coming out in the mid-seventies, '74, '75, began to remove that stigma at least in terms of white people saying, "I've got breast cancer. I'm going to get treatment. I think I'm going to be okay," and as a First Lady doing that, that brought a lot of recognition and a lot of visibility. But that didn't transcend down to a lot of groups. You know, people say, "Well, she is the First Lady, she has access to x, y, z. Sure, she's going to be fine. I don't have access to x, y, z. Therefore I'm not going to be fine." And I think my mom, because of that generation, assumed that things weren't available to her and that even if they were, she was going to die anyway. So my finding out about it made me realize that no matter how many discoveries I would make, if they didn't impact the people I cared about the most, then it would be a hollow victory. And I began to look at places that I thought would have more of an impact. Although San Francisco was a hub, a lot of people didn't pay attention to San Francisco in terms of cancer. Maybe in terms of other things, but not in terms of cancer. The three main places at the time that attracted a lot of attention was Anderson, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Roswell Park, because those are the three places that were the original Cancer Centers. Seventy-'72 was Nixon's War on Cancer. These were the first three designated places to launch that, and I figured if there was any place that was going to get attention, it was going to be one of those three or at NCI. I had already spent some time at NCI. I'm not a government person. Roswell, I didn't know anything about, other than Roswell in Buffalo. Didn't like New York. And the biggest thing going for Anderson was its location, less than five hours' drive from my mom. I had lived in Houston. I knew MD Anderson. As a kid, I came here to visit relatives, friends of my family, knew about the segregated facilities, which was still late sixties here, but figured this was the place to try and come to. I informed my mentor and the head of the departments, the two departments I had faculty positions in, Francis Ganong [phonetic], who headed Physiology, and Finn Siiteri, and let them know that I was looking and that I was interested in moving to MD Anderson. The first response I got from them was, "How much money are they paying you?" And I said, "They don't even know about me." They said, "What?" And I told them the reasons behind it. They thought I was crazy. But I told them that even if I had to go and get a lesser position, that that's what I was going to do, that I wasn't going to leave instantaneously, but that was the direction I was going to go in. I still had a little more than a year on my funding, which paid my salary, and there were plans there to keep me on, how they were going to support me. But one day Siiteri called me in the office and he says, "I've been offered this position at MD Anderson to create this new department, and how would you like to go?" And I said-
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
There it is.
Lovell A. Jones, PhD:
There it is. And I'm a firm believer in what's meant to be will be, and that's how I ended up here.
Recommended Citation
Jones, Lovell A. PhD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 03: Coming to MD Anderson to Link Discovery to Delivery of Care" (2014). Interview Chapters. 599.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/599
Conditions Governing Access
Open
