Vilma Pacheco Barcia, Medical Oncologist and Assistant Professor at University Francisco de Vitoria, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“I still remember my very first ESMO in 2017. I was a third-year resident, carrying a poster with data from my PhD thesis: 37 patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer, showing how higher systemic inflammation (measured by SIRI) was associated with poorer prognosis.
I was nervous, hoping to be up to the task, and deeply grateful to the scientific committee for selecting my work. I can still picture myself walking through the halls early in the morning, alone, with imposter syndrome whispering in my ear.
During my poster presentation, a colleague I truly admire stopped by and said, “Those Kaplan-Meier curves are really interesting, this is a great line of research.” That moment stayed with me. Years later, that project became my PhD, and later evolved into PANTHEIA-Sociedad Española de Oncología Médica (SEOM), where we’re studying how systemic inflammation impacts malnutrition, cachexia, and thrombosis in pancreaticcancer.
Then came COVID-19, and ESMO’s commitment to evaluating burnout among oncologists with the Resilience Task Force. I remember reading that survey and realizing it was an area I wanted to contribute to.
This year, I had the opportunity to attend the ESMO RTF Workshop, where I presented our work from Sociedad Española de Oncología Médica (SEOM) on professional well-being with my mentor in this research área, Dr. Elena Elez Fernández, and Dr. Luis León Mateos (photo attached with my great colleague and friend Dr. Jonathan Lim).
From that experience, new and meaningful collaborations began, such as joining the study on imposter syndrome led by Dr. Enes Erul and that we will be presenting data on a mini-oral at ESMO25, and co-leading the Open Doors, Drs. Ioanna and Vilma Podcast with Ioanna Nixon(hon).
And this year, I’ll have the privilege of starting to work within the ESMO Resilience Task Force, something I’m truly grateful for.
Thank you ESMO for supporting young researchers like myself, fostering collaboration, and promoting well-being within our community.
See you at ESMO25.”
More from Vilma Pacheco Barcia on OncoDaily.
