Advisory Board
Brain Cancer
Charles Cobbs, MD
Charles Cobbs, MD
Dr. Cobbs is currently the Director of the Ben and Catherine Ivy Center for Advanced Brain Tumor Treatment at Swedish Neuroscience Institute (SNI) in Seattle. He is an international expert in brain tumor surgery and molecular biology. Dr. Cobbs received his clinical training at UCSF in 1997. From 1997-2005 he was Chief or Neurosurgery at the Birmingham VAMC and faculty at UAB from 1997-2005. From 2005-2013, he practiced neurosurgery at California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC), and ran a brain tumor research lab at CPMC Research Institute and UCSF in San Francisco. In 2013 he moved to his current position in Seattle, where he oversees the largest brain tumor clinical and research program in the Pacific Northwest at SNI, where they treat over 1000 patients with gliomas, PCNSL, meningioma, pituitary and metastatic tumors per year. As director of the Ivy Research Center, he supervises a laboratory with over 6 grant-funded brain tumor research projects. Dr. Cobbs’ own research investigates the potential role of cytomegaloviru in glioma pathogenesis and therapy. Dr. Cobbs enjoys triathlons, rowing , skiing, and relaxing with his family.Anna Berry, MD
Anna Berry, MD
Dr. Anna Berry is the Deputy Director for Molecular Pathology and Genomics at the Swedish Cancer Institute, where she also serves as the Scientific Director of the Personalized Medicine Program. She is a graduate of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and completed her post-graduate training at SUNY Upstate Medical University, the Medical College of Virginia, and the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Berry is Board Certified in Molecular Genetic Pathology, Cytopathology, Anatomic Pathology and Clinical Pathology, and served previously as the Director of Molecular Pathology and the Director of the Molecular Genetic Pathology fellowship training program at UCSF. Her clinical focus is making genomic technologies accessible to patients, and integrating genomic data into patient care. She serves on several national committees, including the Personalized Healthcare Committee of the College of American Pathologists, and participates in several national genomics task forces.Edward R. Laws, Jr., MD, FACS
Edward R. Laws, Jr., MD, FACS
Edward Laws, Jr., MD, FACS, received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University with honors in Economics and Sociology in the Special Program in American Civilization, and then attended the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. He did his surgical internship and neurosurgical residency at Johns Hopkins. After completing his residency, he joined the faculty at the Johns Hopkins Medical School. In 1972, he moved to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota where he became Professor of Neurosurgery and developed major interests in Brain tumor treatment and research. In 1987 he became Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at the George Washington University in Washington, DC, and in 1992 joined the faculty of the University of Virginia as Professor of Neurosurgery and Professor of Medicine. Subsequently, he was Professor of Neurosurgery at Stanford University, and in 2008 established the Pituitary/Neuroendocrine Center at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston where he currently is Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School. During his surgical career he has operated upon more than 8000 brain tumors. Dr. Laws has served as President of the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies, President of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, Editor of Neurosurgery, President of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, and President of the Pituitary Society. He has been the fifth neurosurgeon to become President of the American College of Surgeons, and was elected to membership in the National Academy of Medicine. He remains actively involved in Brain and Pituitary tumor research and surgery.L. Burt Nabors, MD
L. Burt Nabors, MD
L. Burt Nabors, MD, received his medical degree from the University of Tennessee in Memphis in 1991 and interned at the National Naval Medical Center. He completed a residency in Neurology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1998 and a fellowship in Neuro-oncology in 1999 under the direction of Dr. Steven S. Rosenfeld. He joined the Neuro-Oncology Program in 1999 as an Assistant Professor of Neurology and assumed the position of Program Leader in 2005. He is board-certified in Neurology and holds medical licensure in Alabama. Currently Dr. Nabors is Professor and Vice-Chair of Neurology for Research. He serves as the Medical Director of the Clinical Research Unit of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Co-leader of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center Neuro-oncology Program. He maintains active basic, translational, and clinical research efforts. His laboratory is examining the role of RNA-binding proteins in neurological disease particularly cancer with an emphasis on therapeutic development.Patrick Y. Wen, MD
Patrick Y. Wen, MD
Dr. Wen is Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Director, Center For Neuro-Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, former Editor-In-Chief of Neuro-Oncology and current President of the Society For Neuro-Oncology.Michael Prados, MD
Michael Prados, MD
Michael Prados, MD
Michael Prados, MD, is the Charles B. Wilson Professor of Neurosurgery and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He has been involved in clinical and translational research in early phase clinical trials for both children and adults with CNS malignancies at UCSF since 1985. Previously, he served as Project Leader of the North American Brain Tumor Consortium and co-Project Leader of the Adult Brain Tumor Consortium, two NCI supported adult multi-institutional clinical trials groups. He was UCSF Member Institution Principal Investigator for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium; Project Leader of the Ivy Foundation Early Phase Clinical Trials Consortium; Program Leader for the Neurological Oncology Program for the Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center and Director of Translational Research in Neuro-Oncology. Currently, he serves as co-Project Leader for the Pacific Pediatric Neuro-Oncology Consortium (18 member institutions).Breast Cancer
Hope S. Rugo, MD
Hope S. Rugo, MD
Hope S. Rugo, MD, is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, where she is also the Director, Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education. In addition, Dr. Rugo is a member of the ALLIANCE Breast Committee and the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium, is the UCSF representative to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Guidelines Committee, serves on several committees for the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and is a voting member of the Advanced Breast Cancer Guidelines Consortium. With a summa cum laude undergraduate degree from Tufts University, Dr. Rugo received her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She then completed both a residency in internal medicine and fellowship in hematology and oncology at UCSF with a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship in immunology at Stanford University. An active researcher, Dr. Rugo has published many peer-reviewed papers and given presentations on a variety of breast cancer and supportive care-related topics. She is also an investigator and chair of the Safety Committee for the national multicenter ISPY2 trial, and is the principal investigator of a number of clinical trials. Her research interests include novel therapies for advanced breast cancer, immune modulation to restore chemotherapy sensitivity, evaluation of novel markers of response and resistance to therapy, neoadjuvant therapy, and supportive care. Dr. Rugo receives funding from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, is 2010 recipient of the Cancer Care Physician of the Year Award, and the PRIMO Women in Oncology Award and is a fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. She is on the Steering Committees for several international clinical trials.Colorectal Cancer
Christina Wu, MD
Christina Wu, MD
Dr. Wu is Associate Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine. She received her Medical Degree from Trinity College in Ireland. She completed her residency at University of Massachusetts Memorial Health Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, and her fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2016, Dr. Wu was Assistant Professor in Internal Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology at The Ohio State University. A board certified medical oncologist, Dr. Wu specializes in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers. Her research involves both translational and clinical studies, focusing on radiosensitizers for rectal cancer, analyzing colorectal cancers that carry microsatellite instable characteristics, and enhancing efficacy of immunotherapy in GI cancers.John Strickler, MD
John Strickler, MD
Dr. Strickler is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology at Duke University, where he is Co-Leader of the Molecular Tumor Board and Associate Director of Clinical Research – GI Oncology. His clinic focuses on the treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies, with a particular emphasis on esophageal, gastric, pancreatic, and colorectal cancers. His research focuses on the design and execution of first-in-human and investigator-initiated clinical trials with correlative studies. He has a particular interest in non-invasive testing to identify and treat genomic drivers of treatment resistance. He has served on the ASCO Guidelines Committee for Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer, and he is co-Chair of the GI Steering Committee for the Academic and Community Cancer Research United (ACCRU) clinical trial consortium.General Advisors
Douglas Blayney, MD
Douglas Blayney, MD
Douglas W. Blayney, MD is the Ann and John Doerr Medical Director of the Stanford University Cancer Center and a Professor of Internal Medicine. He is immediate past president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). He came to Stanford after 7 years in a similar position at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; previously he was with Wilshire Oncology Medical Group in Pasadena, California, where he practiced for 17 years. Dr. Blayney has served on the FDA’s Oncology Drug Advisory Committee, as founding editor-in-chief of ASCO’s Journal of Oncology Practice, and was a founder of ASCO’s internet site, Asco.org. He has authored or coauthored over fifty peer reviewed journal articles, and co-edited one book. His current research involves measuring and improving quality of cancer care using information technology. Dr. Blayney received a degree in electrical engineering from Stanford, went on to the University of California, San Diego, from which he received his medical degree in 1977, and was an intern and resident in internal medicine at their University of California hospitals. He trained in oncology at the National Cancer Institute and is board certified in internal medicine and medical oncology.Charles Cobbs, MD
Charles Cobbs, MD
Dr. Cobbs is currently the Director of the Ben and Catherine Ivy Center for Advanced Brain Tumor Treatment at Swedish Neuroscience Institute (SNI) in Seattle. He is an international expert in brain tumor surgery and molecular biology. Dr. Cobbs received his clinical training at UCSF in 1997. From 1997-2005 he was Chief or Neurosurgery at the Birmingham VAMC and faculty at UAB from 1997-2005. From 2005-2013, he practiced neurosurgery at California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC), and ran a brain tumor research lab at CPMC Research Institute and UCSF in San Francisco. In 2013 he moved to his current position in Seattle, where he oversees the largest brain tumor clinical and research program in the Pacific Northwest at SNI, where they treat over 1000 patients with gliomas, PCNSL, meningioma, pituitary and metastatic tumors per year. As director of the Ivy Research Center, he supervises a laboratory with over 6 grant-funded brain tumor research projects. Dr. Cobbs’ own research investigates the potential role of cytomegaloviru in glioma pathogenesis and therapy. Dr. Cobbs enjoys triathlons, rowing , skiing, and relaxing with his family.Susan Cohn, MD
Susan Cohn, MD
Susan L. Cohn, MD, is a highly respected expert in pediatric cancers and blood diseases. She is a leading authority on neuroblastoma, a cancer of nerve cells, and the most common type of cancer found in infants. Dr. Cohn is actively researching several aspects of neuroblastoma. She is one of the few pediatric oncologists in the U.S. who is conducting phase I clinical trials of promising treatments for the disease. Her research has received generous support from the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.E. David Crawford, MD
E. David Crawford, MD
E. David Crawford is Clinical Professor of Urology at the University of California San Diego and emeritus distinguished endowed Professor of Surgery, Urology, and Radiation Oncology, and Head of the Section of Urologic Oncology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado. Dr. Crawford received his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati. His postgraduate training included an internship and residency in urology at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati. He subsequently completed a genitourinary cancer fellowship at the University of California Medical Center in Los Angeles. Dr. Crawford is an internationally-recognized expert in benign prostate hypertrophy, urologic cancers, and in particular, prostate cancer. He has conducted research in the treatment of advanced bladder cancer, metastatic adenocarcinoma of the prostate, hormone refractory prostate cancer, and other areas of urological infections and malignancies. He has authored or coauthored over 810 scientific articles, has published seven textbooks and authored over 60 book chapters. Dr. Crawford was Chairman of the Genitourinary Cancer Committee of the Southwest Oncology Group for 28 years. He is also the Founder and Chairman of the Prostate Conditions Education Council which is responsible for screening nearly four million men for prostate health issues and reaches more than 200 million people each year with education and awareness information. Dr. Crawford has received many honors and awards, including the CaP Cure Annual Award for Scientific Presentation and has twice been presented with a “Freddie Award” at the AMA International Health and Medical Film Competition for best medical documentaries. He has been recognized as one of the Best Doctors of America for the past two decades, and is recognized as one of the top 20 urologists in the country, for men, by Men’s Health Magazine. In 2018 he received the honor of being named the Distinguished Alumnus of the Year from the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine. In May of 2019, he received the Presidential citation form the American Urological Association recognizing for his “tireless role in genitourinary cancer research that has benefited countless urologic cancer patients.” He accepted the position of Editor in Chief of Grand Rounds in Urology in June of 2019.George Demetri, MD
George Demetri, MD
George Demetri, MD, is a leader in translational research aimed at understanding and treating precisely-defined subsets of cancers. He was a pioneer in the development of the imatinib (Gleevec) as one of the first examples of targeted cancer therapies focused on gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) as a molecularly-defined subset of sarcoma. Subsequently, his work has led to the FDA and worldwide regulatory approval of several other “smart drugs” for cancer, including sunitinib (Sutent) and regorafenib (Stivarga) for GIST, as well as pazopanib (Votrient) and trabectedin (Yondelis) for other sarcomas. In a related contribution, Dr. Demetri served on the Scientific Advisory Board for Plexxikon and was a critical member of the team which developed the first mutant BRAF inhibitor, vemurafenib (Zelboraf), as a mutation-targeted therapy for a subset of melanomas. He received his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from Harvard College, then was a research fellow at the Universite of Besancon, France before receiving his medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine. Subsequently, he completed residency and Chief Residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Washington Hospitals in Seattle before training as a fellow in Medical Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, where he has served as an Attending Physician since 1989.
Dr. Demetri is now a Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School (HMS), where he is co-Director of the Ludwig Center at Harvard and a co-director of the HMS Global Education post-graduate course entitled High Impact Cancer Research. In addition, he serves as an Associate Director for Clinical Sciences at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, the NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center consortium of Harvard University. At the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, he directs the Sarcoma Center and serves on the Institute’s Executive Leadership Team as the Senior Vice President for Experimental Therapeutics.
A former member of the Board of Directors of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), Dr. Demetri chairs the AACR Science Policy and Government Affairs Committee. He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Blueprint Medicines and Translate Bio.
David Fisher, MD, PhD
David Fisher, MD, PhD
David E. Fisher, MD, PhD is a researcher, clinician, and academic, who is Chief of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He also serves as Director of the MGH Cutaneous Biology Research Center and Director of the Melanoma Center at MGH. Fisher’s research has focused on understanding the molecular and genetic events that underlie formation of melanoma as well as skin pigmentation. As a clinician, he has worked to translate these understandings into advances in diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of human diseases related to the skin and associated disorders. A graduate of Swarthmore College with a degree in Biology and Chemistry, Fisher is also an concert cellist and received a degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received his PhD under Nobel Laureate Gunter Blobel at Rockefeller University and his MD at Cornell University Medical College. Fisher’s specialty training in medicine, pediatrics, and oncology were carried out at Harvard Medical School, followed by postdoctoral studies with Phillip Sharp at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research interests span examination of molecular events controlling mammalian gene expression and their integration into diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities focused on human disease.Keith Flaherty, MD
Keith Flaherty, MD
Dr. Flaherty is Director of Clinical Research at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. As described in the more than 300 peer reviewed primary research reports he has authored or co-authored, Dr. Flaherty and colleagues made several seminal observations that have defined the treatment of melanoma when they established the efficacy of BRAF, MEK and combined BRAF/MEK inhibition in patients with metastatic melanoma in a series of New England Journal of Medicine articles for which Dr. Flaherty was the first author. Dr. Flaherty also has been a leader in assessing and identifying mechanisms of de novo and acquired resistance to BRAF inhibitor therapy and clinically evaluating next generation inhibitors, work that has had implications for resistance to targeted therapy regimens used to treat other malignant diseases. He is the principal investigator of the NCI MATCH trial, the first NCI-sponsored trial assigning patients to targeted therapy independent of tumor type on the basis of DNA sequencing detection of oncogenes. He serves ECOG as chair of the Developmental Therapeutics Committee and in 2013 was appointed as ECOG Deputy Chair for Biomarker Science. Dr. Flaherty joined the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors in 2018 and AACR Board of Directors in 2019. He serves as editor-in-chief of Clinical Cancer Research.Gilles Frydman
Gilles Frydman
Gilles Frydman is a pioneer of medical online communities. After working on government research programs involving telecommunication technology, he founded the Association of Cancer Online Resources (ACOR) [*] in 1995, after his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. ACOR was designed to leverage the communication tools on the Internet to optimize the care received by cancer patients worldwide. A founding member of the Cook’s Branch Initiative (a group formed by the late Dr. Tom Ferguson to promote a model of active patient participation in their care) Gilles has received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study the online patient. He has served on a number of communication expert groups at the National Cancer Institute. He currently serves on a number of advocacy and advisory committees in support of patient-centered computing. He consults, with Google and other Internet corporations, about the importance of the networked patients and the central role of the Internet in the long tail of medicine. He is a founding editor of the Journal of Participatory Medicine and founding member and current president of the Society for Participatory Medicine. His current projects are all related to the role of online virtual environments to facilitate and improve healthcare and promote accelerated scientific discoveries. [* To this day ACOR, after serving over 650,000 cancer patients and caregivers, remains the largest online social network for cancer patients, composed of close to 200 separate online support groups for individuals with cancer.]James Heywood
James Heywood
James Heywood is Co-Founder and Chair of PatientsLikeMe and d’Arbeloff Founding Director of the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI). As a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineer, Jamie entered the field of translational research and medicine when his brother Stephen was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 1998 at the age of 29. Since that time, Jamie’s scientific and business innovations have been transforming the intersection of biotechnology and pharmaceutical development, personalized medicine, and patient care. As chair of PatientsLikeMe, Jamie provides the scientific vision and architecture for its patient-centered medical platform. He co-founded the company in 2005 with his youngest brother, Benjamin, and friend, Jeff Cole. Named one of “15 companies that will change the world” by CNNMoney, PatientsLikeMe is a personalized research and peer care platform that allows patients to share in-depth information on treatments, symptoms, and outcomes. In 1999, Jamie founded ALS TDI, the world’s first nonprofit biotechnology company, where he served as CEO until 2007. Pioneering an open research model and an industrialized therapeutic validation process, Jamie led ALS TDI to become the largest and most comprehensive ALS research program. A published author, frequent speaker, media pundit, and active investment advisor, Jamie speaks at conferences around the world, including TEDMED, Milken Global Conference, Gov 2.0, Personal Democracy Forum, Institute of Medicine, NIH Directors’ Lecture, and MGH Grand Rounds. Jamie’s work has been profiled in the New Yorker, New York Times Magazine, BusinessWeek, 60 Minutes, CBS Evening News, NPR, Science, and Nature, and he was named to WIRED’s 2009 “Smart List” and Fast Company’s “10 Most Creative People in Healthcare.” Jamie and his brother Stephen were the subjects of Pulitzer Prize winner Jonathan Wiener’s biography, His Brother’s Keeper and the Sundance award- winning documentary, “So Much So Fast.”Stephanie Jeske, MD
Stephanie Jeske, MD
Dr. Stephanie Jeske is a hematologist/oncologist practicing for Sutter Health in the San Francisco office. She has a special focus on breast cancer and gynecologic malignancies (ovarian, cervical, and endometrial). Dr. Jeske attended Indiana University for both her undergraduate education and for medical school. She did her residency at University of Texas Southwestern School of Medicine and her oncology training at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, in parallel with a Masters degree in Clinical Research. Prior to joining Sutter she was at the Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara office, where she chaired the breast cancer program and was also instrumental in scaling clinical trials across the Kaiser system in Northern California. She remains active in clinical research, with an emphasis on breast cancer.Kevin Knopf, MD, MPH
Kevin Knopf, MD, MPH
Kevin Knopf MD, MPH is Division Chief of Hematology/Oncology at Highland Hospital, Oakland California and a practicing Hematologist/Oncologist. He is also a health economist and health services researcher whose research focuses on cost-effectiveness, patterns and quality of care in oncology, and health disparities in cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment. He trained at the National Cancer Institute Medicine Branch and the Health Services and Economics Research Branch after receiving an undergraduate degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his medical degree at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. He completed his clinical training at Northwestern Medical School, Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and received an MPH in Epidemiology and Statistics at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He is currently Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California, San Francisco and Associate Professor of Pharmaco-economics at the University of South Carolina School of Pharmacy. Twitter : @drkevinknopfHeinz-Josef Lenz, MD, FACP
Heinz-Josef Lenz, MD, FACP
Heinz-Josef Lenz, MD, is a professor of medicine in the University of Southern California (USC) Departments of Medicine and Preventive Medicine, Scientific Director of the Cancer Genetics Unit and Director of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Program, and Co-Director of the Colorectal Center at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Lenz earned his MD degree at the Johannes-Gutenberg Universität in Mainz, Germany. In 1991, he completed his internship, residency, and fellowship training at the Eberhardt Karls Universität in Tübingen, Germany. He had special fellowship training at Universität Wien (Austria), George Washington University, and Harvard Medical School. In 1991, he received the prestigious Research Fellowship Award from the Deutsche Krebshilfe (German Cancer Aid) in Bonn, Germany. He completed his research fellowship in biochemistry and molecular biology at the USC/Norris Cancer Center before joining the faculty of USC in 1994. He was awarded a Career Development Award from STOP CANCER (1994-1997). Based on his research, he also received in 1994 a Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). In 1995, Dr. Lenz was selected for the prestigious ASCO Career Development Award. The National Cancer Institute funded laboratory of Dr. Lenz has been interested in the identification and determination of molecular markers in precancerous and cancerous tissues that might predict for cancer risk and clinical outcome in gastrointestinal and breast cancer. Dr. Lenz is also the Institutional Principal Investigator on the UO1/NIH contract (California Cancer Consortium) in collaboration with City of Hope and University of California, Davis, which allows him to design innovative clinical trials with novel promising anticancer drugs.Frank McCormick, PhD, FRS, DSc (Hon)
Frank McCormick, PhD, FRS, DSc (Hon)
Frank McCormick, PhD, FRS, DSc (Hon), was Director of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, a multidisciplinary research and clinical care organization that is one of the largest cancer centers in the Western U.S, and he was also Associate Dean of the UCSF School of Medicine. A native of Cambridge, England, Dr. McCormick received his BSc in biochemistry from the University of Birmingham (1972) and his PhD in biochemistry from the University of Cambridge (1975). Postdoctoral fellowships were held in the U.S at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and in London, UK, at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. He has been a fellow of the Royal Society since 1996. Prior to joining the UCSF faculty, Dr. McCormick pursued cancer-related work with several Bay Area biotechnology firms, including positions with Cetus Corporation (Director of Molecular Biology, 1981-90; Vice-President of Research, 1990-91) and Chiron Corporation, where he was a vice-president of research from 1991-92. In 1992, he founded Onyx Pharmaceuticals and served as its chief scientific officer until 1996. Dr. McCormick’s current research interests center on the fundamental differences between normal cells and cancer cells that can allow the development of novel therapeutic strategies. In addition to the positions he has held at UCSF, he holds the E. Dixon Heise Distinguished Professorship in Oncology and the David A. Wood Distinguished Professorship of Tumor Biology and Cancer Research in UCSF’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Dr. McCormick is the author of more than 270 scientific publications.Robert Z. Orlowski, MD, PhD
Robert Z. Orlowski, MD, PhD
At Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Orlowski holds the Florence Maude Thomas Cancer Research Professorship in the Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma, and also of Experimental Therapeutics, and serves as the Chair, ad interim, for Lymphoma/Myeloma. He obtained an MD from the Yale University School of Medicine and a PhD from Yale University Graduate School. Prior to arriving at MD Anderson, he was the Lenvel Lee Rothrock Associate Professor in Hematology/Oncology and Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Currently, Dr. Orlowski leads both laboratory- and clinically-based research programs studying hematologic malignancies, with a focus on multiple myeloma. Dr. Orlowski’s research has been recognized through receipt of a number of awards, including a Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the Celgene Young Investigator Award for Achievements in Clinical Hematology Research. He has authored over 200 abstracts and publications, and serves as a reviewer on a number of study sections, and for several journals, including Blood, Cancer Cell, Cancer Research, the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nature Medicine, and the New England Journal of Medicine.Daniel P. Petrylak, MD
Daniel P. Petrylak, MD
Dr. Petrylak completed his medical degree at Case Western Reserve University School of medicine, and completed his internal medicine residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Jacobi Medical center and fellowship at Memorial SloanKettering cancer center. He is currently Director of Genitourinary Oncology, and Co Director of the Signal Transduction Program at Yale University Cancer Center. Dr. Petrylak is involved in clinical trials research on a local, national, and international level. He is the head of the advanced bladder subcommittee in the Southwest Oncology Group Genitourinary Committee. Dr. Petrylak served as PI or Co PI on 7 Southwest Oncology Group Protocols. Most notably, he served as the PI for a randomized trial comparing docetaxel and estramustine to mitoxantrone and prednisone in men with hormone refractory prostate cancer. This trial was one of two studies that demonstrated a survival benefit for docetaxel-based therapy in men with advanced prostate cancer. This trial supported the approval of docetaxel for hormone refractory prostate cancer by the FDA. He also help to design and served as principal investigator for the SPARC trial, an international registration trial evaluating the activity of satraplatin as a second line therapy for hormone refractory prostate cancer. Dr. Petrylak is a recognized international leader in the field. He has served on the program committee for the annual meetings of the American Urological Association (2003-11) as well as for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (1995-7, 2001-3). He also has served as a committee member for the Devices and Immunolgicals section of the Food and Drug Administration. He has published extensively, in the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, as well as Cancer Research and Clinical Cancer Research.Jerald Radich, MD
Jerald Radich, MD
Dr. Jerald Radich is a Member of the Clinical Research Division, the Director of the Molecular Oncology Lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He is Chair of the Leukemia Translational Medicine Committee of the Southwest Oncology Group, Chair Emertitus of the NCI/NIH Leukemia Steering Committee, and is on the Board of Scientific Counselors, NIH Genome Research Institute. He is the Chair of the CML Committee of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, a member of the European Leukemia Network CML committees, and is on the Scientific Board of the International CML Foundation and the Max Foundation. Dr. Radich’s laboratory work centers on the molecular biology of response, resistance, and progression in adult and chronic leukemia. He was awarded the International CML Foundation Award in 2017 for his lab’s work on diagnosing CML in the developing world.Hope S. Rugo, MD
Hope S. Rugo, MD
Hope S. Rugo, MD, is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, where she is also the Director, Breast Oncology and Clinical Trials Education. In addition, Dr. Rugo is a member of the ALLIANCE Breast Committee and the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium, is the UCSF representative to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Guidelines Committee, serves on several committees for the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and is a voting member of the Advanced Breast Cancer Guidelines Consortium. With a summa cum laude undergraduate degree from Tufts University, Dr. Rugo received her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She then completed both a residency in internal medicine and fellowship in hematology and oncology at UCSF with a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship in immunology at Stanford University. An active researcher, Dr. Rugo has published many peer-reviewed papers and given presentations on a variety of breast cancer and supportive care-related topics. She is also an investigator and chair of the Safety Committee for the national multicenter ISPY2 trial, and is the principal investigator of a number of clinical trials. Her research interests include novel therapies for advanced breast cancer, immune modulation to restore chemotherapy sensitivity, evaluation of novel markers of response and resistance to therapy, neoadjuvant therapy, and supportive care. Dr. Rugo receives funding from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, is 2010 recipient of the Cancer Care Physician of the Year Award, and the PRIMO Women in Oncology Award and is a fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. She is on the Steering Committees for several international clinical trials.Laura J. van ‘t Veer, PhD
Laura J. van ‘t Veer, PhD
Laura van ‘t Veer received her MSc degree in Biology (1984) at the University of Amsterdam and a PhD in Medicine (1989) at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands. She did her postdoctoral training at the Cancer Center of the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, (1989-1991) and the Netherlands Cancer Institute (1992-1993). From 1993 until 2007, she initiated and held the positions of head of molecular pathology and head of the Genetic Counseling Clinic at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. In 2003, she was one of the founders of the Netherlands Cancer Institute spinoff, the molecular profiling company Agendia. From 2007 to 2010, she became division head of diagnostic oncology, including clinical operations and research of five clinical departments. Since 2010, she is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where she leads the Breast Oncology Program. Dr. van ‘t Veer is first author of a study showing that microarray genomics technology can predict which breast tumors will likely metastasize and which will not (Nature, 2002; NEJM, 2002). When these findings are implemented into daily clinical practice, the amount of so-called adjuvant treatments with chemotherapy for (premenopausal) breast cancer patients could be reduced by up to 30%. This microarray test now called MammaPrint, is central to the work of the translational research network TRANSBIG (Translational Research Breast International Group). The MINDACT trial is worldwide the first large-scale clinical trial implementing genomics. MammaPrint is an FDA-cleared in vitro diagnostic multigene index assay (IVDMIA), included in several international and national guidelines for breast cancer management. At UCSF, she coordinates the tissue and biomarker activities of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health-sponsored multicenter adaptive clinical trial I-SPY. Dr. van ‘t Veer received for this work the 2007 European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Lifetime Achievement Award for translational research in breast cancer.John Wilbanks
John Wilbanks
John Wilbanks is Vice-President for Science at Creative Commons. He was previously a fellow at the World Wide Web Consortium in Semantic Web for Life Sciences and founded and led to acquisition Incellico, a bioinformatics company that built semantic graph networks for use in pharmaceutical research and development. Before moving into technology, he was the first assistant director at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School and also worked in U.S. politics as a legislative aide to U.S. Representative Fortney (Pete) Stark. John holds a BA in Philosophy from Tulane University and studied modern letters at the Universite de Paris IV (La Sorbonne). He serves on the Board of Directors for Sage BioNetworks, DuraSpacem, and AcaWiki.Christina Wu, MD
Christina Wu, MD
Dr. Wu is Associate Professor in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine. She received her Medical Degree from Trinity College in Ireland. She completed her residency at University of Massachusetts Memorial Health Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, and her fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Prior to joining the faculty at Emory in 2016, Dr. Wu was Assistant Professor in Internal Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology at The Ohio State University. A board certified medical oncologist, Dr. Wu specializes in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers. Her research involves both translational and clinical studies, focusing on radiosensitizers for rectal cancer, analyzing colorectal cancers that carry microsatellite instable characteristics, and enhancing efficacy of immunotherapy in GI cancers.Peter Paul Yu, MD
Peter Paul Yu, MD
Peter Yu is the 2014-2015 President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). He is in clinical practice at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF), a multi-specialty medical group serving the San Francisco Bay area. Dr. Yu is Director of Cancer Research at PAMF and graduated from the combined undergraduate and medical school program in Medicine at Brown University. His residency was at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Medical Center in New York City where he was Chief Resident. After a fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Center (NYC), Peter completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (NYC) in the laboratory of Dr. John Mendelsohn. He is board certified in both Medical Oncology and Hematology. He has served as president of the Association of Northern California Oncologists, chief of Medicine at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, member of the Board of Directors of Pathways Homecare and Hospice, and is a member of the Audit Committee of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. Peter is past-chair of the ASCO HIT Work Group. Past ASCO activities have included chair of the Clinical Practice Committee, member of the Cancer Research, Information Technology, Grant Selection, Audit, and Nominating Committees, chair of the Best of ASCO San Francisco 2005, chair of ASCO EHR Symposium 2009, Annual Meeting Educational Session Chair 2007, 2009 ,and 2010, and faculty of the Clinical Trials for the Community Oncology Team Workshop 2005. He has also served as co-chair of the Commission for Certification of Health Information Technology (CCHIT) Oncology work group, co-chair of the AMA-RAND Clinical Decision Support Oncology work group under contract to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, co-chair of the ASCO-NCI CORE project, and has participated in several Institute of Medicine health information technology workshops.Gynecologic Cancer
Summer B. Dewdney, MD
Summer B. Dewdney, MD
Dr. Dewdney is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. She has a busy clinical practice and is the cancer liaison physician for the American College of Surgeon’s Commission on Cancer for the medical center. She also is the PI for gynecologic clinical trials (including NRG/GOG). In addition, she is the robotic committee chair and serves as a patient safety officer. She is a vice chair for the Society of Gynecologic Oncology’s Quality and Outcomes committee and the chair of the clinical Outcomes Registry for the Society of Gynecologic Oncology. She also sits on the Oncology Leadership Council for the ASCO’s CancerlinQ. She has special interest in cervical cancer disparities and robotic surgery. She received her medical degree from University of Iowa. She then completed her obstetrics and gynecology residency at University of Chicago and her fellowship in gynecologic oncology at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Dewdney lives in Chicago with her spouse and two children.Leukemia
Jerald Radich, MD
Jerald Radich, MD
Dr. Jerald Radich is a Member of the Clinical Research Division, the Director of the Molecular Oncology Lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He is Chair of the Leukemia Translational Medicine Committee of the Southwest Oncology Group, Chair Emertitus of the NCI/NIH Leukemia Steering Committee, and is on the Board of Scientific Counselors, NIH Genome Research Institute. He is the Chair of the CML Committee of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, a member of the European Leukemia Network CML committees, and is on the Scientific Board of the International CML Foundation and the Max Foundation. Dr. Radich’s laboratory work centers on the molecular biology of response, resistance, and progression in adult and chronic leukemia. He was awarded the International CML Foundation Award in 2017 for his lab’s work on diagnosing CML in the developing world.Lung Cancer
Hatim Husain, M.D.
Hatim Husain, M.D.
Dr. Husain is a lung cancer medical oncologist pursuing a translational career in cancer therapeutic strategies in solid tumor malignancies. His passion is to be involved in early drug development, and his goal is to develop a translational laboratory for biomarker validation and drug testing in in vitro and in vivo models that can form the basis for early phase clinical trials. He works very closely to characterize technology development in the circulating tumor DNA space and applications about its utility. He has also recently been involved in understanding mechanisms of resistance to anti-EGFR directed therapies and further understanding the mechanisms of immunogenic cell death in cancer cells.Gregory Otterson, M.D.
Gregory Otterson, M.D.
Dr. Otterson is Professor in the College of Medicine at Ohio State University (OSU) Comprehensive Cancer Center James Cancer Hospital. Dr. Otterson is broadly interested in improving the care and understanding of thoracic malignancies (adenocarcinoma, squamous carcinoma, large cell carcinoma, never-smoking adenocarcinoma, small cell lung cancer, mesothelioma, and thymic cancers). His research centers around the genetic and epigenetic changes in lung cancers, particularly microRNAs. Therapeutically, he is interested in understanding how better to target specific therapies to specific patients, that is, understanding which patients will respond to which therapeutic maneuvers. Dr. Otterson has active collaborations within OSU, including in the Division of Cancer Genetics (Carlo Croce), the School of Public Health (Mary Ellen Wewers and Amy Ferketich), and the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine (Patrick Nana-Sinkam). Outside of OSU, he works with investigators at the University of Minnesota and also actively works with the Cancer and Leukemia Group B, having been National Principal Investigator on three studies through the Respiratory Committee.David Spigel, M.D.
David Spigel, M.D.
Dr. Spigel serves as Chief Scientific Officer, Director of the Lung Cancer Research Program, and Principal Investigator at Sarah Cannon Research Institute. He joined Sarah Cannon in 2003 and as chief scientific officer, he oversees all scientific aspects of Sarah Cannon’s clinical trial program, working with the research physician leaders to ensure the best new agents and studies are available to our patients. He serves as a primary contact for the pharma and biotech partners as well as the strategic site physicians with whom Sarah Cannon conducts cancer research. Spigel received his bachelor’s degree from Tulane University in New Orleans in 1992, and medical degree from The University of Tennessee in Memphis in 1996. After completing an internal medicine and chief residency at Indiana University Medical Center, he completed a fellowship in hematology and oncology at The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He is board certified in medical oncology. Additionally, he is an associate with Tennessee Oncology, PLLC.Emeritus Lung Cancer Advisory Board
Phillip Dennis, M.D., Ph.D.
Nicholas Campbell, M.D.
Raphael Bueno, M.D.
Ravi Salgia, M.D., Ph.D.
George Simon, M.D.
Lymphoma
Melanoma
David Fisher, MD, PhD
David Fisher, MD, PhD
David E. Fisher, MD, PhD is a researcher, clinician, and academic, who is Chief of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He also serves as Director of the MGH Cutaneous Biology Research Center and Director of the Melanoma Center at MGH. Fisher’s research has focused on understanding the molecular and genetic events that underlie formation of melanoma as well as skin pigmentation. As a clinician, he has worked to translate these understandings into advances in diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of human diseases related to the skin and associated disorders. A graduate of Swarthmore College with a degree in Biology and Chemistry, Fisher is also an concert cellist and received a degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received his PhD under Nobel Laureate Gunter Blobel at Rockefeller University and his MD at Cornell University Medical College. Fisher’s specialty training in medicine, pediatrics, and oncology were carried out at Harvard Medical School, followed by postdoctoral studies with Phillip Sharp at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research interests span examination of molecular events controlling mammalian gene expression and their integration into diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities focused on human disease.Keith Flaherty, MD
Keith Flaherty, MD
Dr. Flaherty is Director of Clinical Research at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. As described in the more than 300 peer reviewed primary research reports he has authored or co-authored, Dr. Flaherty and colleagues made several seminal observations that have defined the treatment of melanoma when they established the efficacy of BRAF, MEK and combined BRAF/MEK inhibition in patients with metastatic melanoma in a series of New England Journal of Medicine articles for which Dr. Flaherty was the first author. Dr. Flaherty also has been a leader in assessing and identifying mechanisms of de novo and acquired resistance to BRAF inhibitor therapy and clinically evaluating next generation inhibitors, work that has had implications for resistance to targeted therapy regimens used to treat other malignant diseases. He is the principal investigator of the NCI MATCH trial, the first NCI-sponsored trial assigning patients to targeted therapy independent of tumor type on the basis of DNA sequencing detection of oncogenes. He serves ECOG as chair of the Developmental Therapeutics Committee and in 2013 was appointed as ECOG Deputy Chair for Biomarker Science. Dr. Flaherty joined the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors in 2018 and AACR Board of Directors in 2019. He serves as editor-in-chief of Clinical Cancer Research.Marcus W. Bosenberg, M.D., Ph.D.
Marcus W. Bosenberg, M.D., Ph.D.
Marcus W. Bosenberg is Associate Professor of Dermatology and Pathology at Yale University. He completed medical and graduate education at Cornell University and clinical training in pathology and dermatopathology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Bosenberg’s research interests are focused on the genetics and cell biology of melanoma progression and metastasis. He has developed a series of conditional inducible mouse models of melanoma that have clarified the synergistic effects of particular genetic changes in human melanoma. These models are also being utilized to study the sequential steps required for clinically evident metastasis and how the immune system can be stimulated to produce effective anti-tumor responses. Using these models, he has defined a distinct melanoma cell subset that is uniformly capable of forming tumors following injection of single purified cells and from cells that only rarely form tumors. He is interested in studying how cancer cell heterogeneity is maintained and how heterogeneity affects responses to therapeutic intervention. He is also attempting to identify novel combination therapies that are effective in particular genetic or phenotypic subsets of melanoma.Jeffrey E. Gershenwald, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Jeffrey E. Gershenwald, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Dr. Gershenwald is Professor of Surgery, Department of Surgical Oncology and Professor, Department of Cancer Biology at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) in Houston, Texas. Dr. Gershenwald received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College. After completing his general surgery residency at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Gershenwald completed a fellowship in Surgical Oncology at MDACC before joining the faculty there. Dr. Gershenwald holds numerous academic administrative appointments, including serving as vice-chair of the Melanoma Committee of the American Joint Committee for Cancer (AJCC) and on the Executive Council for the Society of Surgical Oncology. He is also a co-director of the Melanoma SPORE and co-director of the Melanoma Informatics, Tissue Resource, and Pathology Core, both at MDACC. Dr. Gershenwald’s research focuses on prognostic assessment in melanoma and molecular mechanisms of melanoma progression. Most recently, Dr. Gershenwald has been a founding member and co-chair of the Melanoma Disease Working Group of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project. Dr. Gershenwald has published more than 130 articles in peer-reviewed journals, as well as more than 100 editorials, abstracts, invited articles, and other publications. His many honors include the Physician-Scientist Program Award from MDACC, an American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant Award to examine the “Biology and Significance of Melanoma Lymphatic Metastasis” and, for the past 8 years, Dr. Gershenwald has been listed in America’s Best Doctors.Meenhard Herlyn, D.V.M., D.Sc.
Meenhard Herlyn, D.V.M., D.Sc.
Dr. Herlyn is Professor and Chair, Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Program at The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is also the Associate Director for Translational Research in the Cancer Center and Director of the Melanoma Research Center. He has been a cancer researcher since his arrival at The Wistar Institute in 1976 and has worked in melanoma research since 1977. His research focuses on the biological significance of growth factors and adhesion molecules in skin morphogenesis; transformation to melanoma; and melanoma growth, invasion, and metastasis, using a variety of in vitro and in vivo models. He wants to know how a nevus develops in normal skin, when it becomes high risk for malignant transformation, and when and why dormant melanoma cells become activated, invading deep into the skin and spreading throughout the body. In recent years, his laboratory has expanded to research on stem cells and their role in skin and skin disease development. A major part of the laboratory is pursuing therapeutic strategies that take into account the genetic and biologic signatures of melanomas. Dr. Herlyn has over 500 publications, 90% of which are on melanoma, with the others on basic biological mechanisms in cancer.Harriet Kluger, M.D.
Harriet Kluger, M.D.
Dr. Kluger was born in South Africa and emigrated to Israel, where she obtained her M.D. from Tel Aviv University, graduating in 1993. Dr. Kluger completed her training in internal medicine in the United States and is board certified in medical oncology. She has been at Yale University since 1999, where she did her fellowship, and is currently an associate professor of medicine. Abundantly published for being so early in her medical academic career, she has served on multiple study sections and has received substantial grant support for the study of melanoma and renal cell carcinoma. Dr. Kluger is currently designated an American Cancer Society Research Scholar. With three sons who are all passionate about soccer, she spends a lot of time at games, where she has developed productive collaborations with other investigators on the sidelines. Her current research interests focus on predictive biomarker development and early drug development for patients with melanoma and renal cell carcinoma.Katherine L. Nathanson, M.D.
Katherine L. Nathanson, M.D.
Dr. Nathanson received her B.S. in Biology with Honors from Haverford College and her M.D. from The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She then trained in internal medicine at the Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, and did a fellowship in Genetics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She is doubly boarded in Internal Medicine and Genetics. She completed her postdoctoral laboratory training with Dr. Barbara Weber in the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, focusing on breast cancer genetics. Dr. Nathanson has had a long-standing interest in the genetics of breast cancer. Her studies in breast cancer have focused on characterizing BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in different patient populations; identifying genetic modifiers of penetrance in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers; examining both candidate modifiers of penetrance; and using linkage-based methods to identify novel modifiers of penetrance. Dr. Nathanson’s current efforts continue these studies and have expanded to include characterization of breast cancer on a genomic level to identify both somatic and germline genetic changes important in breast cancer.David Polsky, M.D., Ph.D.
David Polsky, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Polsky received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, completed his medical internship at Montefiore Medical Center, his dermatology training at New York University (NYU), and a postdoctoral fellowship in Molecular Pathology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Polsky is currently a full-time physician-scientist at NYU, with his research laboratory, clinical practice, and teaching activities focused on melanoma and atypical nevi. He is currently the Alfred W. Kopf MD, Professor of Dermatologic Oncology, and Director of the Pigmented Lesion Clinic at NYU Langone Health. In 2004 Dr. Polsky led the addition of the “E” for Evolving to the ABCDE acronym to help the public recognize cutaneous melanoma at early stages. Dr. Polsky’s laboratory is focused on the development of tissue- and blood-based biomarkers to assist clinicians in the management of patients with metastatic melanoma. He is also working to incorporate inherited genetic variations into new predictive models that will better assess an individual’s risk for developing melanoma than current methods. The overall goal of his research is to translate the knowledge gained into new tools for melanoma risk assessment, prognosis, and therapy.Lynn M. Schuchter, M.D.
Lynn M. Schuchter, M.D.
Dr. Schuchter, is a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology in the Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Schuchter has been on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania since 1989 after completing her medical oncology training at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Schuchter is a recognized expert in the field of melanoma and an experienced investigator in the development and conduct of melanoma clinical trials. She has extensive experience in melanoma translational research, and thus serves as an important link between basic scientists and clinical investigators. She the leader of the Melanoma and Cutaneous Malignancies Program at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania. She has been the principal investigator of numerous phase I, phase II, and phase III melanoma clinical trials. She is on the board of the Melanoma Research Foundation, where she is also the co- chair of the scientific advisory committee. The Melanoma Research Foundation is a nationwide organization that is the largest advocacy group for this disease. She also serves on the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Board of Directors and is the editor of the melanoma section for ASCO’s Cancer.net. Dr. Schuchter has authored numerous articles and book chapters on melanoma. As a clinician caring for patients with all stages of melanoma, she is dedicated to the development of new therapies for patients with melanoma.Jedd Wolchok, M.D., Ph.D.
Jedd Wolchok, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Wolchok is an assistant attending physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) with expertise in the treatment of metastatic melanoma. His specific area research interest is the preclinical and early clinical development of novel immunologic therapies. Most recently, Dr. Wolchok has initiated several clinical trials using plasmid DNA vaccines for patients with melanoma. He has been involved in the development of the DNA vaccine program at every level—from initial studies in mouse models, through all levels of regulatory review, and now as Principal Investigator of the clinical trials. Dr. Wolchok has authored numerous articles concerning DNA vaccines, cytokine biology, and clinical care of melanoma, and coauthored two chapters in the definitive textbook, Cutaneous Melanoma. Dr. Wolchok is also coeditor of the journal Cytotherapy. Most recently, Dr. Wolchok was appointed to be Associate Director of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy at MSKCC.Past Melanoma Advisors
Antoni Ribas, M.D.
Antoni Ribas, M.D.
Dr. Ribas is Associate Professor of Medicine and Surgery at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He was trained at the University of Barcelona, Spain, with postdoctoral research and clinical fellowship at UCLA. He is the director of the Tumor Immunology Program at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (JCCC), a permanent committee member of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant review panels, and an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI). Dr. Ribas is a physician-scientist conducting laboratory and clinical research focused in malignant melanoma, including adoptive cell transfer with T cell receptor (TCR)-engineered lymphocytes, anti-CTLA4 antibodies, targeted therapies for melanoma oncogenes, and nanoparticle-siRNA.Myeloma
Robert Z. Orlowski, MD, PhD
Robert Z. Orlowski, MD, PhD
At Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Orlowski holds the Florence Maude Thomas Cancer Research Professorship in the Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma, and also of Experimental Therapeutics, and serves as the Chair, ad interim, for Lymphoma/Myeloma. He obtained an MD from the Yale University School of Medicine and a PhD from Yale University Graduate School. Prior to arriving at MD Anderson, he was the Lenvel Lee Rothrock Associate Professor in Hematology/Oncology and Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Currently, Dr. Orlowski leads both laboratory- and clinically-based research programs studying hematologic malignancies, with a focus on multiple myeloma. Dr. Orlowski’s research has been recognized through receipt of a number of awards, including a Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the Celgene Young Investigator Award for Achievements in Clinical Hematology Research. He has authored over 200 abstracts and publications, and serves as a reviewer on a number of study sections, and for several journals, including Blood, Cancer Cell, Cancer Research, the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nature Medicine, and the New England Journal of Medicine.Prostate Cancer
E. David Crawford, MD
E. David Crawford, MD
E. David Crawford is Clinical Professor of Urology at the University of California San Diego and emeritus distinguished endowed Professor of Surgery, Urology, and Radiation Oncology, and Head of the Section of Urologic Oncology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado. Dr. Crawford received his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati. His postgraduate training included an internship and residency in urology at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati. He subsequently completed a genitourinary cancer fellowship at the University of California Medical Center in Los Angeles. Dr. Crawford is an internationally-recognized expert in benign prostate hypertrophy, urologic cancers, and in particular, prostate cancer. He has conducted research in the treatment of advanced bladder cancer, metastatic adenocarcinoma of the prostate, hormone refractory prostate cancer, and other areas of urological infections and malignancies. He has authored or coauthored over 810 scientific articles, has published seven textbooks and authored over 60 book chapters. Dr. Crawford was Chairman of the Genitourinary Cancer Committee of the Southwest Oncology Group for 28 years. He is also the Founder and Chairman of the Prostate Conditions Education Council which is responsible for screening nearly four million men for prostate health issues and reaches more than 200 million people each year with education and awareness information. Dr. Crawford has received many honors and awards, including the CaP Cure Annual Award for Scientific Presentation and has twice been presented with a “Freddie Award” at the AMA International Health and Medical Film Competition for best medical documentaries. He has been recognized as one of the Best Doctors of America for the past two decades, and is recognized as one of the top 20 urologists in the country, for men, by Men’s Health Magazine. In 2018 he received the honor of being named the Distinguished Alumnus of the Year from the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine. In May of 2019, he received the Presidential citation form the American Urological Association recognizing for his “tireless role in genitourinary cancer research that has benefited countless urologic cancer patients.” He accepted the position of Editor in Chief of Grand Rounds in Urology in June of 2019.Urothelial Cancer
Daniel P. Petrylak, MD