Showhouse Dedication 2022 Honoree

2022 Showhouse Dedication

Marja Nevalainen, MD, PhD

Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) physician scientist Marja Nevalainen, MD, PhD carries prestigious academic titles reflective of her expertise, talent and commitment to medicine and research: Professor, Eminent Scholar, MCW Department of Pathology and Pharmacology/Toxicology; Co-Director, Prostate Cancer Center of Excellence (PC-COE) within the MCW Cancer Center; and MCW Assistant Dean of Research. In December 2020, Dr. Nevalainen added a title to the personal side of her life equation: breast cancer patient.

In a recent interview, Dr. Nevalainen spoke about the realization she faced with this new and unwelcome personal challenge. “A cancer diagnosis can strike, non-exclusively, anyone. A cancer diagnosis gives a renewed sense of meaning to the phrase that life is very short. My breast cancer diagnosis shocked my family, especially my teenage daughters, causing them varying levels of depression, as they also dealt with the isolation and social restrictions of Covid at the same time.”

Looking at her diagnosis from a clinical perspective, Dr. Nevalainen felt she was in a privileged position to address her daughters’ emotions with knowledge and information, both as a cancer scientist and as a physician, to help manage their fears about what the future might hold. Professionally, she observed, it was renewed validation of her research philosophy: “While basic science in cancer research is important, it is equally important to make sure that what is being done at the bench side can be translated and will be translated to actual therapy development and patient stratification methods to improve cancer care at the bedside.”

Dr. Nevalainen was recruited to MCW in 2015, when her spouse, Hallgeir Rui, MD, PhD, was successfully recruited to MCW as the Founding WBCS, Inc. Endowed Professor of Breast Cancer Research. She left academic roles as Cancer Center Associate Director (Education/Training), Co-Director, PhD Program, Genetic, Genomic and Cancer Biology, Thomas Jefferson University, and Co-Director, Greater Philadelphia Prostate Cancer Working Group, Department of Cancer Biology and Urology, the NCI designated Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center.

When asked what inspired her to accept an MCW faculty appointment, Dr. Nevalainen responded, “The opportunity to work in an emerging new cancer center in the active growth phase in an academic institution with basic science integrated tightly with the clinical enterprise was intriguing. This setting provides an excellent opportunity to bring mature cancer biology findings to the clinical space. I saw the opportunity of building prostate cancer research within the MCW Cancer Center.” In addition, Dr. Nevalainen credits William A. See, MD, now retired MCW Department of Urology Professor and Chair, as critical for her recruitment to MCW. Dean Joseph E. Kerschner, MD, Provost and Executive Vice President, The Julia A. Uihlein, MA, Dean of the School of Medicine, impressed her as an excellent, supportive and friendly leader.

In partnership with the MCW Cancer Center, WBCS focuses its support on research to defeat both breast cancer and prostate cancer. Ironically, added to the good fortune of MCW’s ability to attract together two nationally recognized physician scientists who are specialists in these fields, Drs. Nevalainen and Rui purchased the 2015 WBCS, Inc. Showhouse for a Cure as their new residence. One might easily assume their relocation to MCW and to Milwaukee was written in the stars.

Dr. Nevalainen‘s aspirational goals as co-founder and co-director of the Prostate Cancer Center of Excellence are many. Among the top priorities, she includes building an excellent, multi-disciplinary prostate cancer research program that will help MCW obtain National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation by supporting the key research programs critical for the MCW Cancer Center Support Grant (Discovery and Developmental Therapeutics Program, Cancer Biology Program and Cancer Prevention and Outcomes Program). Another critical goal is to build a highly collaborative group of faculty and trainees whose shared focus is on prostate cancer research and improvement of cancer care, in addition to expanding collaborative papers and grants. When asked about what the PC-COE is achieving that is translating into better treatments and increased patient survival, Dr. Nevalainen responded, “We are identifying new therapeutic targets, bridging developmental therapies to new clinical trials in the prostate cancer space, refining innovative new imaging for improved diagnostics of prostate cancer, improving radiation therapy (RT) of prostate cancer by better patient stratification and development of adjuvant therapies for RT, and, not least, insuring improved community outreach programs for prostate cancer patients and survivors.”

In recognition of her outstanding contributions to prostate cancer research and to advancing better treatments for a disease that affects one in nine men, WBCS, Inc. is privileged to dedicate its 2022 Showhouse for a Cure to physician scientist, prostate cancer expert and breast cancer survivor, Marja Nevalainen, MD, PhD. ~