Dr. Mary-Claire King

My best friend had died of what subsequently much later I understood to be a Wilms tumor when we were both teenagers.

But I hadn't had at that point any close friends die of breast cancer.

But clearly for women, and this was of course the period of the women's movement, it was enormously important.

And

It was and remains a major cause of death in women.

And the physicians caring for these women, who were, as you would expect, overwhelmingly male, cared about these families enormously.

And they had my back also.

And so trust me, when the major breast surgeons of the entire world say, oh, yes, I have a family you need to look at.

Mary Claire, I'm going to send you this family by curly facts, you know.

You take it seriously.

The experience of these very senior colleagues so much resonated with my understanding of the problem from a quantitative point of view that it really became irresistible.

Exactly.

You're absolutely right.

And to have those people be able to talk with each other easily.

I think, again, for me, this is, of course, it's easy to say this in retrospect, but for me, it was an advantage that I was not a physician.

So there was no question of my...

moving in on the patients of anyone as their oncologist, although the people who were helping me out were so senior that, believe me, that would not have been an issue.

But they appreciated that someone, this woman the age of their daughters coming from another field, was interested in what they were working with day in and day out in trying to save these women.

And, I mean, the stories I would hear from concerned surgeons, you know, I cared for Jane Doe, and now, God help me, I'm caring for her daughter.

You know, MC, you've just got to take care of this.