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The doctor Elena Castro (41 years old) He has been researching cancer for more than 12 years that is foreign to his body but not to his mind, since she is one of the best prostate oncologists in our country (and from abroad, as her resume shows).
In fact, the research you are conducting now is key to knowing how genetic alterations can influence this type of cancer and others. That is, if a father who has suffered prostate cancer can genetically ‘bequeath’ the tendency to suffer from certain tumors that end up developing breast, ovarian, colon or pancreatic cancer, among others.
Some conclusions that can be very important both in prevention, with early detection and preventive screening, as well as in the prescription of the most effective drugs for each patient.
Elena Castro, with a Cris collaborator.
F. Cris
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And all thanks to the BRCA2 gene, a traveling companion he brought back from his four years of research in London, where, thanks to another woman, she began to specialize precisely in prostate cancer.
“When I finished my career in Salamanca I went to do a fellowship in cancer genetics at The Royal Marsden Hospital & The Institute of Cancer Research in London. I started with prostate cancer because of a researcher who was there and who interested me a lot. The importance of references! And it occurred to me to propose the study of the influence of this gene on the disease. And up to here “, Elena sums up almost as if talent were a matter of coincidences.
Since then, BRCA2 has become his scientific day-to-day and a gateway to a career, sometimes more recognized outside than within Spain. In fact, in 2017, the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF), the world’s leading organization supporting this type of study, awarded her the Young Investigators award. Until that moment, only one other Spanish researcher had won the prestigious award, three years earlier.
As this boost award for your studies and career demonstrated, supporting foundations with a research funding system is the only way for the survival of many of these projects.
The formula is widespread in the United States and in other countries of the world, but in Spain it is not so popular. In fact, Elena Castro always insists on her luck with the support of the CRIS Foundation, which is currently financing her research and who has allowed me to continue drawing conclusions about this cancer.
Since 2012, CRIS has allowed investigations at the CNIO and IBIMA to become a reality with an investment that exceeds one million euros. But there is still a lack of incentives, as Castro acknowledges, to involve other associations: “In Spain, foundations such as CRIS or the Spanish Association Against Cancer have been helping these studies to go forward for years. But more support is needed for them because their contribution is crucial “, claims the doctor who starred in a shocking campaign on the importance of money to save lives.
The Salamanca is one of the visible faces of the Cris Foundation and the fight against prostate cancerBut she does not want to continue being the only photo of a woman that appears among the leaders of research groups, as happens right now if we enter that section of the IBIMA Malaga website, where she works.
“At the Prostate Cancer Foundation they do a lot of activities to encourage women’s research, to participate in panels and conferences. They are very careful with those subjects. Here in Spain, some organization too, like the CNIO, but you have to fight more“.
It is not that this researcher is very clear about the benefit of imposing quotas to improve the presence of women scientists in decision-making places, but he does know from his own experience that somehow you have to get that first chance.
“I always say give me the first chance. And if I’m not worth it, then don’t call me again. But if that first chance doesn’t come, it’s very difficult to change things.”
In fact, Elena Castro has suffered in her own flesh the difficulties that a woman often has in a highly masculinized sector such as prostate cancer. A scene that happened in her office showed her, thanks to the power of the networks, that she is not alone in that situation or in that fight for equality.
Yesterday the wife of a patient asked me if I was not too young to be an oncologist. 12 years ago they gave me the title. Do the doctors in my class continue to be asked this question so many years later?
– Elena Castro (@Ecastromarcos) September 10, 2020
It was not the first time that had happened but it would be nice if it was the last. “I am very small, physically I mean, I have many times to bring out the character so that I am heard in certain forums”.
What surprised him the most about the reactions to his tweet, where he told how a patient’s wife asked him if he was not too young to be an oncologist, after 12 years of research at the highest level, It was not only its repercussion (more than 500 comments) but that no male partner had gone through this situation and many women had suffered it.
“Many colleagues told me that it had happened to them many times. It is a cultural issue in which stereotypes continue to survive that we have to be the nurses and they the doctors. Luckily it’s changing. “
Many doctors and scientists have explained similar episodes. As the head of Urology at the Quirón Clinics, who related to Shop how when he went down to the emergency room they asked him when the urologist would arrive.
“I have had more problems with the women of my patients than with them. It is a cultural question”he insists.
And many experts warn that these scenes are only reversed with referents. “I just want to be the reference for my 6-year-old daughter “, Elena Castro jokes to insist that her entry into the world of prostate cancer was also thanks to a woman, his reference at that time, when he was in London.
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Even is a reference to follow when talking about conciliation and the internal problems that it entails. At first, she recognizes that it is not easy at all and not only because of the work of coordinating to be in 100 places at the same time, but because of the burden that many professional women become entangled in the feeling of guilt.
“Many times they try to blame us as bad mothers because you forget something about home or about my daughter, but I don’t feel that way. I am lucky because my husband supports me in everything, he is also a doctor and researcher. But I always say: Have you remembered? No, neither do I. And without more “.
Professionally, this award-winning researcher believes that the solution to attract more female talent in the highest positions has to go through collaborative work among the women themselves. “We have to create our support networks and help each other more to be able to be in conferences, panels, leading investigations …”. As men have been doing for centuries.
Elena Castro is an only child and her parents always raised her, making it very clear that she could be “whatever she wanted to be,” as she sang Bebe. But she knows perfectly that for something to change, there must be women opening doors and breaking ceilings even in the most traditionally masculinized corners. But above all breaking stereotypes, as she does in her day to day.
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