Ellen Braunstein
When Dr. Rita Susan Axelrod was 10 years old, she reportedly sat down and mapped out every class she would need to take to become a doctor. Nothing about the following seven decades suggested she ever strayed from that plan.
Axelrod, a nationally respected oncologist, longtime physician at Thomas Jefferson University and mentor to generations of cancer specialists, died March 20 from an aggressive form of lung cancer. She was 80.
“She was extremely determined and one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met,” said her brother, Eliot Axelrod. “Once she set her mind on something, she pretty much saw everything through.”
Born in Brooklyn and raised in Plainview on Long Island, Axelrod grew up in a Jewish household that emphasized education, discipline and intellectual curiosity.
She attended New York University, where she excelled in chemistry. She entered the university’s medical school in an era when women made up only a small fraction of medical students.
“She knew she had to be serious and focused to succeed in medicine at that time,” her son, Scott Naidech, said.
After earning her medical degree in 1970, Axelrod trained in internal medicine at Roosevelt Hospital in New York and at the Medical College of Georgia, later completing fellowships in hematology and oncology through the University of Pennsylvania and Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood.
Her son Andrew Naidech, a neurologist, said she remembered having to develop a “thick skin” and push herself constantly to succeed in a field still dominated by men.
“She wanted to do hematology and oncology, and that’s what she did,” he said. “She was uncompromising in what she thought was the right thing to do.”
Her career eventually centered in Philadelphia. After joining Thomas Jefferson University in 1976, she later returned in 1997 and helped shape the institution’s most influential oncology fellowship programs.
“She was a real Philadelphia doctor,” Naidech said. “She loved the people of Philadelphia and believed everyone deserved access to excellent medical care.”
Before returning to Jefferson, she spent many years at Temple University Hospital, where relatives said she valued caring for working-class and lower-income patients. Family members said she intentionally remained in academic medicine because she believed high-level medical care should be available to everyone regardless of income or background.
Axelrod specialized in head and neck and lung cancers, fields known for medically difficult cases. Relatives said she was drawn to complicated diagnostic puzzles and difficult treatment decisions.
“She could look at things and figure them out almost instantly,” her brother Eliot Axelrod said. “It would take other people two weeks sitting with a notepad. She just saw the answer.”
Patients and colleagues described her as rigorous but deeply compassionate. Her son, Andrew Naidech, said she viewed medicine as both a profession and a moral obligation rooted partly in Jewish values.
“It’s very consistent with the Jewish concept of tikkun olam and the importance of saving life,” he said.
Axelrod became active nationally in cancer research and clinical trials through the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group and the National Cancer Institute’s Rare Tumor Task Force. Over her career, she authored or co-authored more than 40 peer-reviewed publications and more than 90 abstracts.
Relatives said many younger doctors — especially women entering oncology and academic medicine — viewed her as both a mentor and example of what was possible.
Outside medicine, Axelrod immersed herself in the arts and culture. She loved ballet, opera, jazz, museums and travel, often reading extensively about places before visiting them. She studied dance in New York at Martha Graham’s studio and continued taking ballet classes well into her later years. She also played piano and performed with a group for fun.
Family remained central throughout her life. She and her husband, radiologist Dr. Howard Naidech, raised their children in Philadelphia’s Wynnefield neighborhood. The death of a young son, Seth, from congenital heart disease profoundly affected her, relatives said, and she stepped away from her cancer work for about two years.
According to her brother, Axelrod worked at a Jewish elder-care facility researching geriatric conditions before returning to oncology.
She later devoted much of her personal energy to caring for another son, Justin, with autism and developmental disabilities.
“She was fiercely devoted to Justin,” said Eliot Axelrod. “She wanted him to have as full a life as possible.”
Despite her demanding career, relatives said she rarely missed hockey games, family gatherings or Passover celebrations. Over the years, the family created a tradition of holding Passover dinners at a Chinese restaurant in Philadelphia’s Chinatown, bringing Haggadahs and conducting portions of the seder around large family tables.
“She loved having family together,” Scott Naidech said. “She really liked being a mom.”
Even as she balanced family life, Axelrod remained strongly committed to her profession and to the generations of physicians she trained. Over nearly five decades in oncology, she became known not only for her clinical expertise but for the intensity and discipline she brought to every aspect of her work. Former colleagues and students remembered her as demanding, intellectually rigorous and unwaveringly devoted to her patients.
Axelrod never fully retired from medicine and remained committed to her work until near the end of her life. She was gone six months after being diagnosed with a virulent form of lung cancer.
Relatives said her legacy will live on, not only in the patients she treated, but in the physicians who she trained and inspired throughout her long career.
“The world was really lucky to have someone like her,” Scott Naidech said. “She was exceptionally gifted, hardworking and completely dedicated to helping people.”
Ellen Braunstein is a freelance obituary writer. She welcomes suggestions for individuals who had meaningful ties to the Philadelphia Jewish community. Email [email protected].