Dr. Cole: UT Southwestern

Interview Assessment #4

Date: February 4th, 2021

Interviewee: Dr. Cole, Medical Director of the University Hospital Simmons Cancer Clinic at the

UT Southwestern Medical Center in the Richardson Plano area.

Assessment:

Two weeks ago, I interviewed Dr. Suzanne Cole. She is the Medical Director of the University Hospital Simmons Cancer Clinic at the UT Southwestern Medical Center in the Richardson Plano area. Dr. Cole earned her medical degree at UT Southwestern. She also completed her internal medicine residency after that received advanced training in hematology and medical oncology through a fellowship at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

During this interview, I learned how to balance one's creative side and scientific side, finding out how Dr. Cole had double-majored in science and performing arts. Specifically, she double majored in Modern Dance and Biology. She told me how she took a performing arts class such as dance for every science class she took. I found it fascinating how Dr. Cole decided to pursue her undergraduate education with that type of balance, and it reminded me to keep the right balance not only in school but also in the choices we make in life. Dr. Cole continues to use combination treatments in her current research to make novel combinations in her chemo-therapy research. She works with combination treatment and regimens, which comprises immunotherapy and TKI inhibitors, which have yielded significant benefits in terms of overall survival. One of the most exciting things is how it induces progression-free survival with acceptable safety in patients with renal cell carcinoma. The only problem is how the cost of these regimens may negate the impact of these advances. Dr. Cole examines the results of research with immunotherapy/TKI combinations alongside that of doublet immunotherapy combinations. One of the articles I have further read about her speaks about how she has emphasized that while combinations such as nivolumab and ipilimumab (Yervoy) have four years of OS data, immunotherapy/TKI combinations are relatively new, with younger trials; therefore, longer-term data are not yet available. She did note, however, that the combination of ipilimumab plus nivolumab has yielded very deep and long-lasting responses, with a great cure fraction. Currently, it's not clear whether this will prove to be true with immunotherapy/TKI combinations.

Dr. Cole continues to balance multiple responsibilities of patient care medical director and research and is doing a fantastic job. When asked about what advice she had for someone my age, Dr. Cole spoke about how, when choosing a college, she decided to get more early research opportunities and attention from professors since you will want to be involved in research during your undergraduate education.

When asked about what personality would succeed in her field, Dr. Cole spoke about how multiple personality types could find their niche in her career field. When asked about one of the most critical factors in getting to know people well to form their treatment plan, she spoke about keeping a good relationship with patients. Throughout her occupation, Dr. Cole has cared for many patients dealing with cancer and hematology. Since treating cancer, a patent is putting their life in the care team's hands; it is essential to form a strong personal connection with the patent.