Helena de Souza e Mello Kremer

Helena de Souza e Mello Kremer graduated as a Medical Doctor in June 2019, a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic. She completed her Internal Medicine training during the pandemic, a period that was challenging in many ways. Several rotations in emergency and intensive care departments gave her extensive experience in managing critically ill patients.

During this time, most surgeries were either oncological or emergency procedures, and her first contact with oncology patients came through pre- and postoperative care, often involving patients with multiple comorbidities. This experience sparked her strong interest in Oncology because of its interaction with other specialties and the complexity of the cases involved.

During her Oncology training, she continued to experience the challenges of caring for patients in a limited-resource setting. At the same time, she found it rewarding that, even when conditions were not ideal, solutions could still be found to provide patients with the best possible care available at that moment.

Helena de Souza e Mello Kremer is a Brazilian oncologist interested in learning from different places and professionals about advances in oncology and how these advances can be made available to the Brazilian population. By connecting with a global network of oncologists, researchers, and industry representatives, she aims to exchange experiences and bring knowledge back to improve oncology care within Brazil’s public healthcare system. Her local oncology landscape includes Rio de Janeiro and Niterói.