I spend the first hour or two of each morning returning phone calls and e-mails, mainly requests for second opinions or referrals from physicians from all over the country. Duke has clinical trials that aren’t open anywhere else, so if a physician wants to put a patient on a trial, I call back quickly because they usually need to make immediate decisions.

On Wednesdays, I’m in the multidisciplinary Breast Clinic, and it’s extremely busy. We usually see four to six new patients and 18 to 20 total patients on a given day, from 8 a.m. straight through to 6 p.m. My particular clinical interest is taking care of young women with breast cancer.

I have an amazing physician assistant, Lee Daly, who helps me take care of patients. Lee is one of the best breast cancer providers I’ve ever seen. She also helps me run many of the clinical trials. Lee and I usually meet once a week to focus on clinical trials and to go over plans for our returning patients.

On the other days of the week, I meet with people sponsoring our clinical trials, MD/PhD candidates, and medical students. I might also have a teleconference with other researchers about one of our clinical trials or a laboratory project. I usually meet with my lab manager, Stacey Snyder, who’s another critical person; she carries out many of the experiments wedo in the laboratory.

My research is based on questions that arise from caring for patients in the clinic, so my research team and I study approved drugs to figure out how they work and why tumors become resistant to them. I also study research drugs that are promising but not yet FDAapproved to determine how we can combine them with treatments we already have. In addition, I’m working with one of the medical residents, Carey Anders, MD, to begin studying fertility issues in very young women who have had breast cancer.

At the end of each day, my husband picks our son up, and I go home at about 7 p.m. I bring the horses in and feed them, then we eat, put my son to bed, and that’s my day! I usually go to bed around 10 or 10:30 p.m.

When I was in high school, I wanted to be a large-animal vet, but in college at Duke, I realized I was more interested in women’s health issues. I started the undergraduate AIDS volunteer program and worked for the Cancer Information Service (1-800-FORCANCER), which is sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and based at Duke for this region. Through these experiences, I realized I really wanted to work with breast cancer and take care of younger adults. So I went to medical school at the Mayo Clinic with that goal in mind. Then I returned to Duke for my residency and fellowship and joined the Duke faculty.

I love this cancer center. It’s one of the top cancer centers in the country—there’s not a better place to be doing breast cancer research than Duke right now. Our director is a breast cancer surgeon, we have one of the largest clinical breast cancer operations in the nation, and we have a Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in breast cancer. This is one of the few places where a physician can merge really good science and really good patient care.

Breast cancer specialists get to see many aspects of a person’s life: her goals, what she’s done, what she wants to do. You get to know your patients so well, and 99 percent of the time, you get to share the happiest moments with them. And if you can help them in some way, it’s an incredibly powerful thing.

As a physician assistant in the Duke Breast Program, Lee Daly says that the most rewarding part of her job is “knowing that I can make a small difference in patients’ lives.”

Patient Eloise McCoy would say that Lee is underestimating the impact she has on the women she helps care for. In fact, Daly is the reason that McCoy decided to come to Duke for treatment when other hospitals gave her little hope of survival.

“Lee Daly is the one who told me, ‘No situation is impossible,” says Ms. McCoy. “She made me feel that I could live, and without her and Dr. Blackwell, I couldn’t have done it. She’s awesome—I love her!” (Read Ms. McCoy’s own story on this page.)

Daly modestly deflects the credit. “It really was Eloise’s courage and strength that made things happen,” she says. “She was willing to take a risk on a medication. We were unsure what the effect would be, but she had faith it would work. She’s an amazing woman—I’ve gained a lot from working with her.”

A graduate of the Duke Physician Assistant Program, Daly has worked with several physicians at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center over the years, both caring for patients and doing research. She currently works with Dr. Kim Blackwell in the Duke Breast Clinic and laboratory.

Daly sees patients on Wednesdays and Fridays. She and Dr. Blackwell work closely together, consulting with each other and drawing on the expertise of the Cancer Center’s surgeons, radiation oncologists, social workers, pharmacists, and other health care professionals. Daly also teaches in the Physician Assistant Program, shares her experience with residents and fellows, and conducts clinical research with Dr. Blackwell. She is particularly interested in issues that affect the quality of life of breast cancer patients during and after treatment, such as weight gain, lymphedema, and other side effects.

Dr. Blackwell is one of Daly’s biggest fans. “She’s taken excellent care of Eloise and so many other patients. She also helps run our clinical trials. She makes it possible for me to see the number of patients I see and still get things done in the laboratory. We make a good team.”