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Susan J. Mellette, M.D., arrived in Richmond in 1954 and began her career as a research fellow at what was then the Medical College of Virginia (MCV). Mellette, a 1947 graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, had conducted both laboratory and clinical research and clinical training at several institutions.

Soon after arriving at MCV, Mellette received a faculty appointment and worked closely with the Richmond division of the American Cancer Society. Walter Lawrence Jr., M.D., founding director of what became VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, wrote in a historical manuscript that Mellette was instrumental in maintaining MCV’s oncology program. He also said the multidisciplinary approach the oncology program eventually took prospered in the early 1960s under Mellette’s guidance.

Mellette was the director of the Division of Cancer Studies at MCV from 1960-1966. Despite her leadership in the areas of research, education and patient care, Mellette faced obstacles by superiors who preferred having men in high-level positions. Lawrence wrote that he felt Mellette never got the credit she deserved for her contributions.

In recognition of Massey's 50th anniversary and Women's History Month, Massey asked Mellette’s son Peter Mellette to share more about her legacy and contributions to the foundation of the center.

Why was Dr. Mellette so passionate about what was then MCV and oncology, in general?

[My mother] Susan Mellette’s career path took her through the nascence of medical oncology. She was part of the development of the first chemotherapy agents. While she was in graduate school at the University of North Carolina, she did research on the use of nitrogen mustard in treating solid tumors. She also saw the first response to estrogen therapy in the treatment of breast cancer while working at a hospital for incurable patients in New York City. She moved with my father to Richmond in the mid 1950s.

At a time when opportunities for female physicians were limited, she brought a National Institutes of Health grant to MCV and became the only medical oncologist in the entire state of Virginia between 1960 and 1965. Her experience in treating patients led her to realize that there were cures for cancer using chemotherapy and that she had a special calling for treating patients.

There is a Mellette scholarship available at the VCU School of Medicine in honor of Dr. Mellette, who is considered to be a Massey pioneer. How would you also want Dr. Mellette's legacy to be remembered at VCU and Massey?

In addition to being remembered for her gifts in treating patients with the chemotherapeutic agents available, my mother saw new opportunities for patients who were in remission. She established a cancer rehabilitation program that became a model for cancer centers nationwide.  She also took time to share her journeys with patients in her writings. Her poetry still offers hope and inspiration to patients and their physicians today.

The scholarship arose as a result of my mother's concern about how the cost of medical school would affect career choices for physicians that she trained. My mother had worked to pay her way through college and medical school. She saw the importance of being debt-free in making career choices. She believed that the many contributions she received toward her work were best used to educate the physicians of tomorrow. Her scholarship provides seven to eight students in each medical school class with a significant reduction in their medical school debt, so that they may make important career choices like choosing a career in oncology.

Any personal stories or memories about Dr. Mellette's time at MCV?

Dr. Mellette ran a predecessor to [Massey], the Division of Cancer Studies, in the early 1960s, and she continued to have an active medical oncology practice through the mid-1990s. My recollections were of long days and nights spent treating patients and teaching students, as well as directing patient and animal research in new treatments. My mother would routinely see dozens of patients in the outpatient clinic and a dozen or more inpatients in the hospital daily. Her 12-14 hour days often included meetings and medical school applicant interviews. There were many days in which my sister and I would barely see our mother because of her dedication to her profession.

I worked in her clinic as a youth - in part as a way to spend time with my mother. I saw the reverence with which she was held by her patients. Many patients felt her empathy and benefitted from her knowledge and experience in the use of available treatments. My mother sought the right treatment and had her patients’ interests at heart.

In a history book he wrote, founding director Dr. Walter Lawrence said he was committed to giving Dr. Mellette opportunities that other women were not afforded at the time. Why do you think he was so invested in who she was as a physician?

Probably because he realized that she had opened the door to him running the cancer center, and he felt gratitude for her collaboration in patient treatment. My mother predated Dr. Lawrence at MCV/VCU and had directed the cancer center effort before his arrival. Their medical and surgical oncology specialties overlapped, and they worked together in the successful care of many patients. That track record inspired confidence on his part that he had a true partner in patient treatment, one worthy of support.

Anything else you want to add?

My mother had a remarkable life at the forefront of medical oncology treatment. Her career made possible the opportunities now available for many oncologists and the extension of useful lives for many patients. She also had the opportunity to influence patient choice for millions of others through her role as a member of the subcommittee that wrote Virginia’s Natural Death Act, the predecessor to the current Health Care Decisions Act. And she had an indelible impact on cancer treatment and education through her work on NIH grant committees, her service as president of the American Association of Cancer Education, her more than 30 years as a member of the VCU School of Medicine Admissions Committee and her two turns as chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine (in which she served as a non-physiatrist to protect the nascent cancer rehabilitation program she established). Despite her many general contributions to VCU and medical oncology, she never lost sight of her primary role as a physician to her patients.

Article and interview by: Amy Lacey