Worta McCaskill-Stevens
Worta J. McCaskill-Stevens was an American physician-scientist and medical oncologist specialized in cancer disparities research, management of comorbidities within clinical trials, and molecular research for cancer prevention interventions. She was chief of the community oncology and prevention trials research group at the National Cancer Institute.
Early life and education
McCaskill-Stevens was born in Louisburg, North Carolina on July 26, 1949. She attended Washington University in St. Louis and the American College of Switzerland. McCaskill-Stevens worked as an intern for Time and as a medical editor for Marcel Dekker and the Guttmacher Institute. At Georgetown [University School of Medicine], she started medical school at age 30, earning a M.D. in 1985 and completing an internal medicine residency. McCaskill-Stevens did a medical oncology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic.Career and research
McCaskill-Stevens, a medical oncologist, joined the National Cancer Institute in 1998 as the program director for the study of tamoxifen and raloxifene, and assumed responsibilities for breast cancer prevention with the community clinical oncology program. She chaired the 2009 National Institutes of Health State-of-the Science Conference on ductal carcinoma in situ; was a member of the early breast cancer clinical trialist group in Oxford; and was a member of NCI's breast cancer steering committee. McCaskill-Stevens co-directed the breast care and research center at the Indiana University Cancer Center.McCaskill-Stevens was chief of the community oncology and prevention trials research group, which houses the NCI community oncology research program, a community-based clinical trials network launched in 2014. As NCORP director, she oversaw the program supporting community hospitals, physicians and others to participate in NCI-approved cancer treatment, prevention, screening, and control clinical trials, as well as cancer care delivery studies.
McCaskill-Stevens' interests included cancer disparities research both nationally and internationally, management of comorbidities within clinical trials and molecular research that helps to identify those individuals who will best benefit from cancer prevention interventions. She worked with the Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene, as the program director.