Mentor and leader
The warm demeanor and positive, straightforward approach — sprinkled with a touch of humor — that endear Kantoff to patients are the same skills he's used to build Dana-Farber's genitourinary (or GU) cancer program into a world-class unit since coming to the Institute in 1987. The Lank Center today encompasses a 43-person group of clinicians, lab scientists, nurses, technicians, and other support staff. Its excellence was recognized this spring when the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC), of which the Lank Center is a part, was awarded a five-year, $15 million grant from the National Cancer Institute. The distinction created a Specialized Program of Research Excellence — or SPORE — for prostate cancer research, with Kantoff as its principal investigator.
"The most important principle that everybody, including myself, needs to remember is that patients and clinical problems always come first."
— Philip Kantoff, MD
Like other SPOREs established through DF/HCC in recent years for breast and skin cancer, the prostate cancer grant joins laboratory scientists and clinical researchers from the Lank Center and other Harvard affiliates on projects designed to transform lab findings into new treatments, diagnostic techniques, and prevention strategies.
Kantoff says with a smile that the secret behind such successes is that he has "assembled a team of people who are smarter than I am." But whether they first met him while in fellowship training at Dana-Farber or Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), or whether his reputation compelled them to seek positions at DFCI from elsewhere in the country, his staff cite Kantoff as a key reason they came to the Institute and have flourished here.
"When I was a fellow at Dana-Farber trying to decide what to do in my research career and who might provide the best leadership as a mentor, his name kept coming up," recalls William Oh, MD, a clinical investigator at the Lank Center. "There's a long history of people here doing translational research in the hematological program, but Dr. Kantoff was one of the few to bridge that laboratory and clinical gap in genitourinary malignancies. Because of what I heard about him, I chose a field I knew less about — and it was the best decision I ever made. He's able to marshal people who have different skill sets into doing the same kind of work."
Dan George, MD, and Tim Gilligan, MD, two other clinical investigators recruited to the center by Kantoff, offer similar praise.
"He's been a role model, a facilitator, and even a guidance counselor for me," says George, "and he's created an environment where people can both enjoy individual success and be part of a greater common goal." Adds Gilligan, "Phil's group is very non-hierarchical; people can always speak their minds. He feels it's his job to help you get where you want to be as a researcher and clinician, not to define where you're supposed to go."
No matter how serious the topic, Dr. Kantoff's visitors all seem at ease by the time they leave.
In this environment, it is not only physician-scientists who appear to genuinely love what they do. Things often move at a frenetic pace in the genitourinary clinic, yet Kantoff 's cool-headed, democratic leadership style results in far more smiles than tense moments. The departmental softball games, snowboarding expeditions, and barbecues he hosts each year surely help.
"Dr. Kantoff considers all members of this department to be essential to its operation, no matter what their job description," says nurse practitioner Sandra Kelly, MS, RN, CS. "He makes everybody feel that their contribution is critical to the overall mission, and that makes them feel valued."
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