CARMS Profile - Dr. Rebecca Auer

Where did you train?
I did my BSc at University of Toronto, MD at Queen's University, Residency at University of Ottawa and Fellowship in Surgical Oncology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

What do you like about general surgery?
I dont like surgery, I love surgery. I dont believe anyone would accept the lifestyle, the emotional investment and the daily pressure to perform and improve if they didnt feel this way. I fell in love with the intensity and adrenaline of being on call, doing trauma and the high stress situations in the OR but now what i truly value is the meaningful and profound relationships I have with my patients. It is a priviledge to be part of their journey with cancer.

What is your sub-specialty?
Surgical Oncology

What is your research interest?
I have a translational research program (wet lab and related clinical trials) investigating how surgery-induced immune supression increases cancer metastases and how to prevent or reverse this with perioperative immunotherapies.

What do you like about this program?
I have amazing colleagues. The kind that share your accomplishments with pride and your failures with compassion and reassurance, the kind that drop everything to help you in the OR when called, the kind that make you laugh until tears roll down your face and your sides are hurting.

What is your hope for this program?
I hope that the residency program remains a place where everyone strives to achieve excellence but where failure is seen as a learning opportunity that we can all take away.

Do you have a special role in the residency program? What do you do?
Within the residency program I do not have a specific role. I am the Director of the Cancer Research Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the Translational Research Lead for the Department of Surgery.

What do you like about training residents?
I like it when residents challenge me and when they ask questions that I have not thought of before or raise issues that I may not have considered.

What is your favourite thing to teach?
I love teaching about the latest discoveries in cancer and the immune system that impact on surgical oncology.

What is the thing you're the most proud of in your professional life?
I am the PI of 4 clinical trials of perioperative cancer therapies that are based on preclinical research findings from my lab.

What do you do outside of work?
I am the mother of three boys...that pretty much takes up the remaining time in my ilfe.

Tell us something people should know about you?
I am a storyteller.