Fawzi F. Abu Rous, MD
Medical Oncologist,
Henry Ford Health
Detroit, MI
Mehmet Altan, MD
Associate Professor
Department of Thoracic-Head & Neck Medical Oncology
Division of Cancer Medicine
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Valsamo Anagnostou, MD, PhD
Professor of Oncology
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD
Mara Antonoff, MD, FACS
Associate Professor
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Division of Surgery
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Zhaohui (Ann) Liao Arter, MD
Assistant Clinical Professor
Thoracic Oncologist
Division of Hematology/Oncology
University of California Irvine Medical Center
Orange, CA
Matthew Bott, MD
Associate Attending Surgeon
Department of Surgery
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, NY
David P. Carbone, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine
Director, James Thoracic Oncology Center
Barbara J. Bonner Chair, Lung Cancer Research
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH
Jamie E. Chaft, MD
Attending Physician
Thoracic Medical Oncologist
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, NY
Devika Das, MD, MSHQS
Associate Professor-Clinical
Associate Director, Clinical Affairs
Division Director, Hematology and Medical Oncology
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Madison, MS
Afshin Dowlati, MD
Professor of Medicine and Oncology
Case Western Reserve University
Director, Early Phase Therapeutics Program
Director, Thoracic Oncology
University Hospitals
Cleveland, OH
Renata Ferrarotto, MD
Professor
Thoracic Head and Neck Medical Oncology
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Mary Jo Fidler, MD
Alice Pirie Wirtz Professor of Medical Oncology
Section Chief of Medical Oncology
Rush University Medical Center
Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Cell Therapy
Chicago IL
Shirish Madhav Gadgeel, MD
Chief of Division of Hematology & Oncology
Associate Director, Medical Oncology,
Henry Ford Cancer Institute
Department of Internal Medicine, Henry Ford Hospital
Detroit, MI
Marina Chiara Garassino, MD
Professor of Medicine
Director, Thoracic Oncology Program
The University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
Erin Gillaspie, MD, MPH
Associate Professor
Department of Surgery
Chief of Thoracic Surgery
Creighton University School of Medicine
Ohama, NE
Richard D. Hall, MD, MS
Associate Professor of Medicine
Thoracic Medical Oncology
Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology / Oncology
UVA Health
Charlottesville, VA
Zhonglin Hao, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine, Cancer Biology
Donna and William Shively Professor of Translational
Clinical Oncology
Co-Leader, Thoracic Oncology Program
Division of Medical Oncology
Department of Medicine and Markey Cancer Center,
College of Medicine, University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY
Raffit Hassan, MD
Chief, Thoracic and GI Malignancies Branch
Center for Cancer Research
National Cancer Institute
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD
Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD
Deputy Director, Yale Cancer Center
Chief of Medical Oncology and Hematology
Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital
Ensign Professor of Medicine
Program Director, Master’s Program in Clinical Investigation
Professor of Pharmacology
Yale School of Medicine
New Haven, CT
John Heymach, MD, PhD
Chair; Professor
David Bruton, Jr Chair in Cancer Research
Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology
Division of Cancer Medicine
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,
Houston, TX
Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD, FASCO
Executive Director, Center for Thoracic Oncology
Professor in Medicine and Pathology
Ning Zhao Chair Professor in Lung Cancer
Icahn School of Medicine
Associate Director, Tisch Cancer Institute,
Mount Sinai Health System
New York, NY
Aditya Juloori, MD
Assistant Professor of Radiation and Cellular Oncology
The University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
Michael J. Kelley, MD
Professor of Medicine
Member of the Duke Cancer Institute
Duke University
Durham, NC
Hina Khan, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Thoracic Oncologist
Brown University Warren Alpert School of Medicine
Attending Physician, Hematology/Oncology
Lifespan Cancer Institute
Providence, RI
Brendan Knapp, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Division of Oncology
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis, MO
Corey J. Langer, MD, FACP
Director of Thoracic Oncology
Abramson Cancer Center
Professor of Medicine
Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
Xiuning Le, MD, PhD
Associate Professor,
Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology,
Division of Internal Medicine,
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,
Houston, TX
Jay Moon Lee, MD
Associate Professor and Chief, Department of Surgery,
Thoracic Surgery
Surgical Director, UCLA Thoracic Oncology Program
Surgical Director, UCLA Center for Esophageal Disorders
Member, Tumor Immunology & Immunotherapy
UCLA Health
Los Angeles, CA
Matthew Lee, MD MPH
Assistant Professor
Thoracic Medical Oncology
Department of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research
Associate Member in Developmental Cancer
Therapeutics (DCT) program
City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center-Duarte
Duarte, CA
Percy Lee, MD, FASTRO
Medical Director
City of Hope
Department of Radiation Oncology
Irvine, CA
Natasha Leighl, MD, MMSc, FRCPC, FASCO
Lead Medical Oncologist
Clinician Investigator
Clinical Research Unit (CCRU)
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
Professor
Department of Medicine
University of Toronto
Toronto, ON, Canada
Steven H. Lin, MD, PhD
Professor
Department of Radiation Oncology
Division of Radiation Oncology
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Thomas U. Marron, MD, PhD
Director, Early Phase Trials Unit
Associate Director, Tisch Cancer Center
Professor of Medicine, Hematology & Oncology
Professor of Immunology & Immunotherapy
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
New York, NY
Erminia Massarelli, MD, PhD, MS
Professor
Division Chief Hematology/Oncology,
University of Texas Health East Texas
Tyler, TX
Bharathi Muthusamy, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Department of Hematology/Oncology
Indiana University School of Medicine
Indianapolis, IN
Misako Nagasaka, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
Division of Hematology/Oncology
Department of Medicine
University of California Irvine School of Medicine
Orange, CA
Matthew Oser, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA
Henry S. Park, MD, MPH
Professor of Therapeutic Radiology
Vice Chair for Clinical Research, Health Services
Research, and Faculty Development
Chief of Thoracic Radiotherapy and PET-guided Radiotherapy
Assistant Medical Director, Clinical Trials Office,
Yale Cancer Center
Head of Advisory House, Horstmann House, Office of Student Affairs
Yale School of Medicine
New Haven, CT
Sandip P. Patel, MD
Professor, Member
Thoracic Oncology, Cancer Immunotherapy Programs
Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology
UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
La Jolla, CA
William Jeffrey Petty, MD
Professor of Medicine
Section on Hematology and Oncology
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Winston-Salem, NC
Jonathan W. Riess, MD, MS
Medical Director of Thoracic Oncology
Professor of Medicine
Division of Hematology/Oncology
UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center
Sacramento, CA
Helen J. Ross, MD
Professor of Medicine
Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Cell Therapy
Rush University Medical Center
Chicago, IL
Julia Rotow, MD
Physician
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Clinical Director, Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology
Director of Clinical Research
Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA
Joshua K. Sabari, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
NYU Langone Health
Director, High Reliability Organization Initiative
Perlmutter Cancer Center
New York, NY
Ravi Salgia, MD, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research
Arthur & Rosalie Kaplan Chair in Medical Oncology
City of Hope
Duarte, CA
Jonathan Schoenfeld, MD, MPhil, MPH
Director, Melanoma Radiation Oncology
Director, Head and Neck Radiation Oncology
Senior Physician
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Professor of Radiation Oncology
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA
Triparna Sen, PhD
Professor (Tenured)
Max Moore Chair of Cancer Research
Associate Director of Research
Director, Lung Cancer Preclinical Therapeutics Platform
Division of Medical Oncology
Department of Internal Medicine
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH
Misty D. Shields, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Indiana University School of Medicine
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medical &
Molecular Genetics
Associate Member, Experimental and
Developmental Therapeutics
Department of Medicine, Division of
Hematology/Oncology, Thoracic Oncology
Indiana University Melvin & Bren Simon
Comprehensive Cancer Center
Indianapolis, IN
Elaine Shum, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
New York, NY
Surbhi Singhal, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Clinical-X series
Division of Hematology and Oncology
University of California Davis,
Comprehensive Cancer Center
Sacramento CA
Ferdinandos Skoulidis, MD, PhD, MRCP
Associate Professor,
Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Stephen Swisher, MD, FACS
Professor
Charles A. LeMaistre Distinguished Chair in Thoracic Oncology
Division Head, Division of Surgery
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Gregory Videtic, MD
Professor
Section Head for Thoracic Malignancies
Department of Radiation Oncology
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland, OH
Everett E. Vokes, MD, FASCO
John E. Ultmann Distinguished Service Professor
Chair, Department of Medicine
Physician-in-Chief,
University of Chicago Medicine and Biological Sciences
Chicago, IL
Heather Wakelee, MD, FASCO
Winston Chen and Phyllis Huang Professor
Professor of Medicine/Chief-Division of Oncology
Stanford University School of Medicine
Deputy Director, Stanford Cancer Institute
Past President, International Association for
the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC)
Stanford, CA
Timothy A. Yap MBBS, PhD, FRCP
Head of Clinical Development and
Vice President, Therapeutics Discovery Division
Ransom Home, Jr. Endowed Professor for Cancer Research, Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics
(Phase I Program); Department of Thoracic/Head and
Neck Medical Oncology
Associate Director of Translational Research,
Khalifa Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Fawzi F. Abu Rous, MD
Medical Oncologist,
Henry Ford Health
Detroit, MI
Dr. Fawzi Abu Rous is a medical oncologist at Henry Ford Health Care. He is a specialist in the care of patients diagnosed with lung cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma, and other thoracic malignancies. Dr. Abu Rous graduated from the University of Jordan Faculty of Medicine in 2015. He completed his Internal Medicine residency from Michigan State University/Sparrow Hospital in 2019 and Hematology/Oncology fellowship from Henry Ford Hospital in 2023.
Dr. Abu Rous conducts research on lung cancer, specializing in developing biomarkers to guide treatment decisions. He secured funding from the ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation in 2023 for his work on squamous cell carcinoma biomarkers. Additionally, he designs and leads clinical trials for lung cancer treatment, exploring innovative combinations such as immunotherapy, targeted therapies, and antibody-drug conjugates.
Mehmet Altan, MD
Associate Professor,
Department of Thoracic-Head & Neck Medical Oncology,
Division of Cancer Medicine,
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,
Houston, TX
Mehmet Altan is a board-certified medical oncologist and clinical investigator in the Department of Thoracic and Head and Neck Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. His research focuses on immuno-oncology, with specific interests in: (1) clinical trial designs to overcome primary resistance to anti–PD- (L)1 and targeted therapies in non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); (2) development of novel targets and therapies for pleural mesothelioma and thymic malignancies; and (3) elucidating the mechanisms and risk factors underlying treatment-related pneumonitis.
He is leading studies at MD Anderson Cancer Center focused on the mechanisms, risk factors, and early detection of immune checkpoint inhibitor–related pneumonitis. His group was the first to identify pre-treatment interstitial lung abnormalities and the MUC5B rs35705950-T polymorphism as potential risk markers for the development of ICI-related pneumonitis.
As a clinical investigator he is serving as PI for the studies below:
- A Phase 3, Randomized, open-label Study of Nivolumab + Relatlimab Fixed- dose Combination with Chemotherapy Versus Pembrolizumab with Chemotherapy as First-line Treatment for Non-squamous Non-small Cell Lung Cancer
- A Randomized, Phase 3, Open-Label Study To Evaluate PF-08046054 versus Docetaxel In Previously-Treated PD-L1 Positive Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer
- A Phase 2 Study to Investigate Ubamatamab with and without REGN7075 in previously treated Advanced/Metastatic NSCLC
- A Phase Ib/II, multi-site, open-label, two-part trial to evaluate the efficacy, safety, pharmacokinetics, and recommended combination dose of BNT324 with BNT327 in participants with advanced lung cancer
- A Phase I Clinical Study to Evaluate the Safety, Tolerability, and Pharmacokinetic Characteristics of HLX43 (Anti-PD-L1 ADC) in Patients with Advanced/Metastatic Solid Tumors
- A Phase 1 Study of SynKIR-110, Autologous T cells Transduced with Mesothelin KIR-CAR, in Subjects with Mesothelin-Expressing Advanced Ovarian Cancer, Cholangiocarcinoma, or Mesothelioma
Valsamo Anagnostou, MD, PhD
Professor of Oncology
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD
Dr. Anagnostou is Professor of Oncology in the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. She graduated from the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece and received a PhD in cancer biology from the same institution. Dr. Anagnostou completed her internal medicine residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital and subsequently trained in Medical Oncology at Johns Hopkins. She has established the Molecular Oncology laboratory that seeks to understand the genomic wiring of response and resistance to immunotherapy through integrative genomic, transcriptomic, single-cell and liquid biopsy analyses of tumor and immune evolution.
Dr. Anagnostou is also the Director of the Thoracic Oncology Biorepository at Johns Hopkins. Her group has discovered novel mechanisms of response and resistance to immunotherapy and is also developing liquid biopsy assays that capture the dynamics of response and may more accurately predict emergence of resistance to immunotherapy. Her work has provided the foundation for a molecular response-adaptive clinical trial, where therapeutic decisions are made not based on imaging but based on molecular responses derived from liquid biopsies. Overall, Dr. Anagnostou focuses on studying the temporal and spatial order of the metastatic and immune cascade under the selective pressure of immunotherapy with the goal to translate this knowledge into “next-generation” immuno-oncology clinical trials and change the way oncologists select patients for these therapies.
Mara Antonoff, MD, FACS
Associate Professor
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Division of Surgery
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Dr. Antonoff completed her undergraduate studies in Chemistry and Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, after which she earned her medical degree at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis. She completed her internship and residency in General Surgery at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, where she served as Chief Administrative Surgical Resident. During her surgical residency, Dr. Antonoff completed 3 years of dedicated research time, including basic science benchwork examining the roles of heat shock proteins in cancer proliferation. During this period, she additionally focused on research in the areas of thoracic surgical clinical outcomes and surgical education, while completing the Association for Surgical Education’s Surgical Education Research Fellowship. Following her residency training, Dr. Antonoff completed a fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, with a clinical focus in the General Thoracic track. She then joined the faculty at MD Anderson in the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery in 2014, where she is currently an Assistant Professor and Assistant Program Director for Education. Dr. Antonoff is certified by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery, having trained in all aspects of cardiothoracic disease, with special concentration on thoracic oncology, lung transplantation, and diseases of the foregut, and an emphasis on minimally invasive surgical therapies.
Dr. Antonoff’s clinical research interests include pulmonary metastatic disease, early detection of lung cancer, and localized therapy for metastatic lung cancer. She is the primary investigator in a multi-institutional trial for lung-limited metastatic colorectal cancer, and she is the surgical PI for multiple trials evaluating the role of local consolidative therapy for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. She continues to be involved in educational research, aiming to improve curricular design and assessment tools in Thoracic Surgical training. She holds leadership roles in the Women in Thoracic Surgery, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, and the Thoracic Surgery Directors Association. She is recognized as a founding member of both the Thoracic Education Cooperative Group and the Thoracic Surgery Social Media Network. She holds Editorial Board positions for the Annals of Thoracic Surgery, the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, CTSNet, and the Journal of Thoracic Disease.
Zhaohui (Ann) Liao Arter, MD
Assistant Clinical Professor
Thoracic Oncologist
Division of Hematology/Oncology
University of California Irvine Medical Center
Orange, CA
Dr. Zhaohui (Ann) Liao Arter, MD is a thoracic medical oncologist and Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California, Irvine Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. She specializes in the care of patients with lung cancer, with a strong focus on precision oncology and early-phase clinical trials. Dr. Arter currently serves as principal investigator on more than 10 clinical trials and as sub-investigator on more than 30 trials.
She has published more than 30 peer-reviewed articles in leading oncology journals, including Journal of Thoracic Oncology, JCO Global Oncology, and Nature Reviews, and has presented her work at major national and international conferences such as ASCO, AACR, ELCC, ESMO Asia, and ASCO Breakthrough. Dr. Arter is actively engaged in professional service and leadership, having served as a session chair and invited speaker at multiple conferences, including the WCLC. She also serves as an ad hoc reviewer for several oncology journals and is a member of the IASLC Early Career Development Committee. Her contributions have been recognized with multiple national and international awards for research excellence, education, and early-career leadership, including the ASCO Merit Award, ESMO Merit Award and IASLC Education Award.
Matthew Bott, MD
Associate Attending Surgeon
Department of Surgery
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, NY
Dr. Matthew Bott, MD, is a thoracic surgeon and Associate Attending Surgeon in the Department of Surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). He earned his medical degree from the University of Virginia after completing undergraduate studies at Duke University, then completed general surgery residency training at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, including a dedicated research fellowship at MSK. He went on to complete a cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis/Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and is board certified in general surgery and cardiothoracic surgery.
Clinically, Dr. Bott focuses on thoracic surgical oncology, treating cancers of the chest such as lung and esophageal cancers, thymic tumors, mesothelioma, and neuroendocrine tumors, with expertise in minimally invasive approaches (including VATS) and advanced endobronchial/diagnostic technologies such as robotic bronchoscopy. His research program spans basic and translational studies, including work on tumor biology and cellular responses to therapy in lung cancer. He also serves as a co-investigator on clinical trials evaluating treatments (including immunotherapy strategies) in earlier-stage disease. Most recently, he was appointed to the Lung Cancer Research Foundation (LCRF) Scientific Advisory Board, reflecting his ongoing contributions to the lung cancer research community.
David P Carbone, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine
Director, James Thoracic Oncology Center
Barbara J. Bonner Chair, Lung Cancer Research
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH
David Carbone is Professor of Internal Medicine, Director of the James Thoracic Oncology Center at the OSUMC. He graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College in 1977 and received an MD and a PhD in Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins University in 1985. After an Internal Medicine internship and residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, he did a Medical Oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, MD. At Vanderbilt he was Director of the Thoracic/Head and Neck Cancer Program, Director of a SPORE in Lung Cancer for 11 years. He was recruited to The Ohio State University in 2012 to direct the James Thoracic Oncology Center. His research interests have been focused on lung cancer and specifically proteomic and expression signature development, lung cancer genetics, tumor-associated immunosuppression mechanisms, proteogenomic profiling of lung cancers to guide the development of novel therapeutics and targeting novel immunosuppression mechanisms. He has over 300 peer-reviewed publications, has served on the Board of Scientific Counselors, and has continuous NCI funding since early in his career. He was previously Past-President of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC).
Jamie E. Chaft, MD
Attending Physician
Thoracic Medical Oncologist
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
New York, NY
Dr. Chaft specializes in Medical Oncology, with a special focus on Lung Cancer and is affiliated with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She graduated from NYU School of Medicine in 2006 and completed her training at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology. She is the lead investigator on all trials evaluating multimodality treatment for non-small cell lung cancers. Dr. Chaft’s research interest lies in identifying biomarkers to preferentially select a drug treatment regimen that is likely to be more effective against that individual’s lung cancer.
Devika Das, MD, MSHQS
Associate Professor-Clinical,
Associate Director, Clinical Affairs,
Division Director, Hematology and Medical Oncology,
University of Mississippi Medical Center,
Madison, MS
Dr. Devika G. Das, MD, MS is an Associate Professor (Clinical) in the Department of Medicine (Hematology/Oncology) at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC) and serves as Division Director/Chief of Hematology and Oncology and Associate Director of Clinical Affairs for the UMMC Cancer Center and Research Institute. She earned her medical degree from Grant Medical College (India), completed internal medicine residency and a hematology/oncology fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), and holds a Master’s in Healthcare Quality and Safety from UAB.
Dr. Das’ academic focus spans thoracic oncology and the integration of quality improvement/implementation science to improve real-world cancer care delivery, particularly in areas such as lung cancer screening and multidisciplinary care. Her work has included leadership and funded initiatives in lung cancer screening implementation and VA-based collaborative efforts in precision oncology and value assessment, reflecting a sustained commitment to evidence-based program building and measurable improvements in outcomes.
Afshin Dowlati, MD
Professor of Medicine and Oncology
Case Western Reserve University
Director, Early Phase Therapeutics Program
Director, Thoracic Oncology
University Hospitals
Cleveland, OH
Afshin Dowlati, MD is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and serves as Associate Director for Clinical Research at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center in Cleveland, Ohio. He is also a Member of the Developmental Therapeutics Program at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Dowlati earned his medical degree and completed advanced training in internal medicine and medical oncology, followed by a career focused on academic oncology, clinical investigation, and leadership in cancer research infrastructure. He is a board-certified medical oncologist with long-standing involvement in early-phase and investigator-initiated clinical trials.
Dr. Dowlati’s research focuses on thoracic malignancies, particularly lung cancer, with an emphasis on early-phase clinical trial development, novel therapeutics, and biomarker-driven treatment strategies. He has served as principal investigator on numerous Phase I and II studies evaluating targeted agents and immunotherapies and has played a key role in translating promising therapies from bench to bedside. Dr. Dowlati has authored extensively in peer-reviewed journals and continues to lead multidisciplinary efforts to advance innovative clinical research and improve outcomes for patients with lung cancer.
Renata Ferrarotto, MD
Professor
Thoracic Head and Neck Medical Oncology
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Dr. Ferrarotto is a Professor and Director of Head and Neck Oncology Clinical Research of Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical. In this role, she dedicates time to patient care as well as to clinical and translational research. Her work focuses on clinical development of new personalized cancer therapies for patients with head and neck malignancies, with a particular interest in salivary gland cancers and other rarer tumor subtypes. She has conducted multiple investigator-initiated trials. Dr. Ferrarotto was a recipient of the MD Anderson Jeffrey Lee Cousins Fellowship in Lung Cancer in 2013, the ASCO Career Development Award in 2016, the Khalifa grant in 2016, a Stiefel grant in 2018, an Institutional Research Grant in 2020, three pilot grants from the Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma Research Foundation in 2000, 2021, and 2022, a DOD Impact Award in 2021, R03 grant in 2022 and a R01 grant in 2024.
Mary Jo Fidler, MD
Alice Pirie Wirtz Professor of Medical Oncology,
Section Chief of Medical Oncology,
Rush University Medical Center,
Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Cell Therapy,
Chicago, IL
Dr. Fidler is the section chief of medical oncology and professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology, Oncology and Cell Therapy at Rush Medical College.
Dr. Fidler attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York for undergraduate work. She received her medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx , New York and then went on to complete her internal medicine residency at the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University in Chicago and Fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at Rush University Medical Center.
Dr. Fidler specializes in the treatment of thoracic and head and neck cancers. Her translational research interests focus on mechanisms of chemotherapy and radiotherapy resistance, predictors of response to immune check point inhibitors, and cancer cachexia. She has enrolled patients on several clinical trials testing both immune checkpoint inhibitors and targeted therapies. Dr. Fidler has authored and co- authored several manuscripts, publications and abstracts.
She has served on the Boards of Trustees for the Chicago Medical Society and the Illinois State Medical Society and has chaired various advocacy groups through these organizations.
Shirish Madhav Gadgeel, MD
Chief of Division of Hematology & Oncology
Associate Director, Medical Oncology, Henry Ford Cancer Institute
Department of Internal Medicine, Henry Ford Hospital
Detroit, MI
Dr. Gadgeel is the Vice-Chief of Division of Hematology/Oncology for Academics at Henry Ford Health. He is also Professor of Internal Medicine at Michigan State University.
After graduating with his MBBS medical degree from the University of Bombay in Mumbai, India, he completed his Internal Medicine residency in Mumbai. He also completed residency in Internal Medicine as well as his Hematology/Oncology residency at Wayne State University, in Detroit, MI. Following his fellowship, Dr. Gadgeel served as director of the Thoracic Oncology Program and co-leader of Molecular Therapeutics Program at Karmanos Cancer Institute.
Prior to Henry Ford, Dr. Gadgeel was a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and the Mary Lou Kennedy Research Professor in Thoracic Oncology at the University of Michigan/Michigan Medicine.
He is the principal investigator on numerous clinical trials, and has published extensively in peer-reviewed literature, with over 200 publications.
His clinical research experience spans 20 years. He is the Associate Editor of Clinical Lung Cancer and a reviewer for many journals, including Clinical Cancer Research, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lancet Oncology, and Journal of Thoracic Oncology. He has served as faculty for the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and as a member of the education committee of ASCO. He is a member of the Communications committee of the International Association of Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). He was awarded by the National Cancer Institute the Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award in 2012.
Marina Chiara Garassino, MD
Professor of Medicine
Director, Thoracic Oncology Program
The University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
Dr. Marina Chiara Garassino, MD is a Professor of Medicine and Director of Thoracic Programs in the Section of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Chicago, where she leads multidisciplinary clinical care and research in thoracic malignancies. She earned her medical degree from the Università degli Studi di Milano in Italy and completed oncology training there, followed by clinical fellowships at San Raffaele Scientific Institute, the Istituto Nazionale deiTumori (INT) in Milan, and Christie’s Hospital in Manchester, UK. Prior to joining UChicago in 2021, she served as Chief of the Medical Thoracic Oncology Unit at INT Milan, one of Europe’s premier cancer centers, and also holds a Master’s in Oncology Management from Bocconi University.
Dr. Garassino’s research focuses on advancing precision medicine, immunotherapy, and novel therapeutic strategies in thoracic cancers, including non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), small cell lung cancer (SCLC), mesothelioma, and thymic malignancies. She has been pivotal in global trials that reshaped standards of care—serving as global principal investigator for the KEYNOTE-189 trial that established chemo-immunotherapy as first-line therapy in metastatic NSCLC and contributing to landmark studies like PACIFIC and KEYNOTE-671. Her work spans clinical trials, biomarker research, and AI-driven individualized therapy approaches, and she has authored 350+ peer-reviewed publications in leading oncology journals. Additionally, she founded the TERAVOLT global registry for thoracic cancer patients with COVID-19 and is active in initiatives promoting women in oncology.
Erin Gillaspie, MD, MPH
Associate Professor
Department of Surgery
Chief of Thoracic Surgery
Creighton University School of Medicine
Ohama, NE
Erin Gillaspie, MD, MPH, FACS is an Associate Professor with tenure in the Department of Surgery at Creighton University School of Medicine and serves as Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Creighton University Medical Center – Bergan Mercy/CHI Health in Omaha, Nebraska. She earned her medical degree from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and completed her General Surgery internship and residency at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, NY, followed by a thoracic surgery fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Dr. Gillaspie also holds a Master of Public Health from Vanderbilt University and is board-certified in General and Thoracic Surgery. Prior to joining Creighton, she held faculty roles at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where she directed thoracic robotics and medical student surgical education.
Dr. Gillaspie’s clinical and research interests focus on the surgical management of lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies, the integration of minimally invasive and robotic techniques, and advancing multidisciplinary peri-operative care. She has authored numerous scientific publications and book chapters and has been instrumental in establishing advanced thoracic surgical programs in Nebraska, including robotic lung cancer resections, complex airway procedures, and comprehensive mesothelioma care. Since her arrival at Creighton, she has expanded access to high-complexity thoracic surgery statewide and continues to lead initiatives in lung cancer screening, surgical innovation, and collaborative clinical research.
Richard D. Hall, MD, MS
Associate Professor of Medicine
Thoracic Medical Oncology
Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology / Oncology
UVA Health
Charlottesville, VA
Dr. Richard D. Hall, MD, MS, is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology & Oncology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and a faculty physician with UVA Health’s Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center in Charlottesville, VA. He earned his MD from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 2007 and an MS in Clinical & Translational Research from the University of South Florida. Dr. Hall completed his Internal Medicine residency (including Chief Residency) at UVA and a Hematology–Oncology fellowship at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute.
Dr. Hall’s research focuses on clinical trial design and the development of novel therapeutics and immunotherapy for thoracic malignancies, including non–small cell and small cell lung cancer, thymoma, and mesothelioma. He serves as principal investigator on multiple early-phase lung cancer trials at UVA Cancer Center and has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in leading oncology journals. Notably, Dr. Hall led the UVA Cancer Center team to become the first in Virginia to offer a newly approved immunotherapy for small cell lung cancer, and he is regularly invited to present his work at national conferences such as ASCO and SITC.
Zhonglin Hao, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine, Cancer Biology
Donna and William Shively Professor of Translational Clinical Oncology
Co-Leader, Thoracic Oncology Program
Division of Medical Oncology
Department of Medicine and Markey Cancer Center,
College of Medicine,
University of Kentucky,
Lexington, KY
Dr. Hao got his medical degree from Inner Mongolia Medical College in Northern China. He subsequently pursued his passion in research and earned a PhD in molecular biology and biochemistry in the University of Tokyo. Following a productive postdoctoral period in the University of Virginia, he trained in internal medicine in Mercer University School of Medicine and in Hematology and Oncology in Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute. He is currently co-leader of thoracic medical oncology program in Markey Cancer Center, Professor of Medicine and Cancer Biology at the University of Kentucky’s Markey Cancer Center. He is also medical director of the Markey Clinical Research Organization and the founding medical director of Markey’s Multisite Research Operations and Donna and William Shively Endowed Professor in Clinical Translational Oncology. His research interests include molecularly targeted therapy and immunotherapy in lung cancer. He coauthored ~ 60 peer reviewed scientific papers and is PI of multiple Investigator Initiated Clinical Trials and PI of the first in human CART cell and Tri-specific engager in small cell lung cancer.
Learning objectives:
There is unleashed power of our immune system to tap for cure for locally advanced NSCLC
Raffit Hassan, MD
Chief, Thoracic and GI Malignancies Branch
Center for Cancer Research
National Cancer Institute
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD
Dr. Raffit Hassan, M.D., is a Senior Investigator and Chief of the Thoracic and Gastrointestinal Malignancies Branch in the Center for Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland. He earned his medical degree from the University of Kashmir, India, in 1988, completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Sisters Hospital, University of Buffalo, and subsequently trained as a medical oncology fellow at the NCI. After serving on the faculty at the University of Oklahoma from 1998 to 2002, he returned to NCI as a tenure-track investigator, achieving tenure in 2008.
Dr. Hassan’s laboratory leads the development and clinical translation of mesothelin-targeted therapies, ranging from immunotoxins and antibody–drug conjugates to cancer vaccines and checkpoint inhibitors, for malignant mesothelioma and other solid tumors. He has served as principal investigator on numerous early-phase trials of agents such as SS1P, Amatuximab, BAY 94-9343, and CRS-207, and is exploring combinations with PARP and mTOR inhibitors. His contributions have been recognized with the ASCO Career Development Award, the NIH Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award, and the Pioneer Award from the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation; he was also invited to the ASCO expert panel that authored the 2018 mesothelioma practice guidelines.
Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD
Deputy Director, Yale Cancer Center
Chief of Medical Oncology and Hematology
Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital
Ensign Professor of Medicine
Program Director, Master’s Program in Clinical Investigation
Professor of Pharmacology
Yale School of Medicine
New Haven, CT
Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, is ensign professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine, deputy director for Yale Cancer Center (YCC), chief of medical oncology and hematology, and program director, Master of Health Science—Clinical Investigation track at Yale School of Medicine. He is the principal investigator (PI) of the Yale SPORE in Lung Cancer, PI of the YCC Advanced Training Program for Physician-Scientists, PI on the National Cancer Institute (NCI) NCTN LAPS Grant, and PI of the Yale-AstraZeneca Alliance, which has 12 projects spanning various cancer types.
Dr Herbst has led Phase I development of multiple targeted agents for non-small cell lung cancer, including gefitinib, cetuximab, bevacizumab, axitinib, atezolizumab, and anti-PD1/PDL1 therapies. Additionally, he has helped bring targeted therapy to early-stage disease as the PI of the adjuvant osimertinib study (ADAURA). He co-led MD Anderson’s BATTLE-1 effort, which led to the BATTLE-2 trial defining biomarkers as standard for the use of targeted therapies. He served as the national PI of the SWOG S0819 trial and held the role of founding PI for the NCI Lung Cancer Master Protocol (Lung-MAP, S1400) for a decade. He has authored or coauthored more than 450 publications, and his work published in Nature was awarded Clinical Research Forum’s 2015 Herbert Pardes Clinical Research Excellence Award.
Dr Herbst is a member of the National Cancer Policy Forum for which he organized National Academy of Medicine meetings focused on policy issues in personalized medicine and tobacco control. He is an elected member of the NCI Thoracic Malignancies Steering Committee and the chair of the American Association for Cancer Research Science Policy and Government Affairs Committee. He is a member of the Association of American Physicians.
Dr Herbst received the 2022 Giants of Cancer Care® award for lung cancer as one of their 25 scientific and advocacy leaders who have been instrumental over the course of the last 25 years in making significant advancements for patients. Most recently, Dr. Herbst received the 2024 Ezra Greenspan Award from the Chemotherapy+ Foundation for the work he has done throughout his career and the work he continues to do for lung cancer patients.
Scholar, she integrates learning science principles into curriculum development, equipping her trainees with essential skills for excellence in patient care and research. She was inducted into the Weill Cornell Institute for Health Equity and Advocacy Leaders (I-HEAL) and serves as a mentor for faculty scholar projects in health equity. Dr. Garcia received her undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an M.P.H. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and her medical degree with Distinction in Research from St. George’s University. She completed her residency at Stony Brook University Hospital and her fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Outside of her professional achievements, Dr. Garcia values the support of her family, including her husband, Nick; daughter, Brett; and their Shetland sheepdog, Meeko. She enjoys cooking, yoga, art and volunteering in her free time.
John Heymach, MD, PhD
Chair; Professor
David Bruton, Jr Chair in Cancer Research
Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology
Division of Cancer Medicine
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,
Houston, TX
Dr. Heymach is the Chair of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He holds the David Bruton Endowed Chair in Cancer Research. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and his MD/PhD from Stanford. He completed his Internship and Residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and his fellowship in Medical Oncology from the Dana Farber/Mass General Brigham program. As a physician-scientist, Dr. Heymach’s research focuses on investigating mechanisms of therapeutic resistance to targeted agents, understanding the regulation of angiogenesis in lung cancer, and the development of biomarkers for targeted agents and immunotherapy. His research has led to new therapeutic approaches for KRAS mutant lung cancer, small cell lung cancer (SCLC), EGFR mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), adenoid cystic carcinoma, and oligometastatic NSCLC, many of which are now considered standard of care regimens or undergoing clinical testing. He serves as PI on 4 R01 awards investigating molecular subsets of lung cancer, and on an U01 focused on SCLC. He serves as the MDACC PI for the SU2C-ACS Lung Cancer Dream Team targeting KRAS mutant lung cancers, as the leader of the Lung CCSG Program, and the co-leader of the Lung Cancer Moon Shot. He is also the co-PI and project leader of the Lung SPORE. As a clinical investigator, he leads a number of biomarker-directed clinical trials using targeted and immunotherapy agents in lung cancer. He has directly mentored numerous fellows, including physician-scientists, and serves as chair of the NCI Molecular Cancer Therapeutics-1 study section.
Fred R. Hirsch MD, PhD, FASCO
Executive Director, Center for Thoracic Oncology
Professor in Medicine and Pathology
Ning Zhao Chair Professor in Lung Cancer
Icahn School of Medicine
Associate Director, Tisch Cancer Institute,
Mount Sinai Health System
New York, NY
Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD is Executive Director of the Center for Thoracic Oncology and Co-Director of the Center of Excellence for Thoracic Oncology at The Tisch Cancer Institute within the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. He holds the Joe Lowe and Louis Price Professorship of Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology) and serves as Associate Director of Biomarker Discovery for the institute. Dr. Hirsch earned his MD, PhD, and BA from the University of Copenhagen and completed his medical and research training before embarking on an academic career that included 18 years as Professor of Medicine and Pathology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He also served for five years as Chief Executive Officer of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), a global organization advancing research and care in thoracic malignancies.
Dr. Hirsch’s research career spans more than 25 years with a focus on lung cancer translational research, targeted therapies, early detection, biomarker discovery, and personalized treatment strategies. His work has identified and validated key prognostic markers and biomarkers that guide tailored therapies, and he has authored hundreds of peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Hirsch has received numerous honors including the IASLC Mary Matthews Award for Translational Research, Japanese Lung Cancer Society Merit Award, Addario Foundation Lecture Award, and Wuan Ki Hong Lectureship Award in recognition of his contributions to thoracic oncology research. At Mount Sinai, he leads multidisciplinary initiatives to improve early detection, therapeutic innovation, and biomarker-driven clinical care for patients with lung cancer and related diseases.
Aditya Juloori, MD
Assistant Professor of Radiation and Cellular Oncology
The University of Chicago
Chicago, IL
Dr. Aditya Juloori, MD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation and Cellular Oncology at the University of Chicago, where he practices as a radiation oncologist specializing in cutting-edge cancer care. He earned his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine and completed his residency in Radiation Oncology, with further clinical training at the Cleveland Clinic before joining the faculty at UChicago. In his clinical role, Dr. Juloori treats a broad range of malignancies with advanced radiation techniques, including stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and other targeted modalities designed to maximize tumor control while minimizing harm to healthy tissue.
Dr. Juloori’s research focuses on integrating radiotherapy with systemic therapies to improve outcomes across lung, liver, head and neck, and other cancers. His scholarly work includes investigations into the synergistic effects of ablative radiotherapy and immunotherapy, clinical trial design, and translational studies on treatment response and adaptation, with publications in high-impact journals such as Clinical Cancer Research, JAMA Oncology, and the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, and Physics.
Michael J. Kelley, MD
Professor of Medicine
Member of the Duke Cancer Institute
Duke University
Durham, NC
Dr. Michael J. Kelley, MD, is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Medical Oncology at Duke University School of Medicine and Chief of Hematology–Oncology at the Durham VA Medical Center. He also serves as Executive Director of the VA’s National Oncology Program, where he shapes policy and program development for cancer care across the U.S. . He earned his MD from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1985 and completed his Internal Medicine residency at Duke University from 1985–1988. Dr. Kelley is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology.
Dr. Kelley’s leadership has been recognized nationally through his appointment as National Program Director for Oncology at the VA. His research is devoted to the biology of lung cancer and improving patient outcomes through translational and clinical investigations. Current projects include Department of Defense–funded studies on targeting the tumor microenvironment to enhance immunotherapy for small-cell lung cancer and on modulating MHC class I expression to improve immunotherapy responses in non–small cell lung cancer. . He has authored over 220 peer-reviewed articles and holds numerous NIH and DOD grants.
Hina Khan, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Thoracic Oncologist
Brown University Warren Alpert School of Medicine
Attending Physician, Hematology/Oncology
Lifespan Cancer Institute
Providence, RI
Hina Khan, MD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine (Clinician Educator) in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and serves as Director of the Thoracic Multidisciplinary Clinic and the Multidisciplinary Lung Nodule Management Program within the Brown University Health Cancer Institute at The Miriam Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. She is a board-certified medical oncologist specializing in thoracic cancers and practices at Rhode Island, The Miriam, and Newport hospitals. Dr. Khan earned her medical degree from Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in India, completed her residency in internal medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and pursued her hematology/oncology fellowship at Albert Einstein College of Medicine–Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.
Dr. Khan’s research focuses on improving outcomes in lung cancer through translational and clinical investigation, including enhancing responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors, identifying biomarkers of immunotherapy response, and addressing disparities in lung cancer screening and care. She has led multiple University-, pharmaceutical-, and NIH-funded projects as principal investigator and serves as site investigator for major registries such as CCC-19 and TERAVOLT, studying COVID-19 impacts in patients with thoracic malignancies. Dr. Khan’s work also encompasses community outreach to increase equitable access to lung cancer screening and she has been recognized with awards such as the Robert A. Winn Career Development Award for her research on underserved populations.
Brendan Knapp, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Division of Oncology
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis, MO
Brendan J. Knapp, MD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and a medical oncologist at the Siteman Cancer Center. He earned his MD from Indiana University School of Medicine and completed his Internal Medicine residency (2022) and Hematology/Oncology fellowship (2025) at Washington University School of Medicine/Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. Dr. Knapp is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Hematology, and Medical Oncology and provides clinical care for patients with lung, head and neck, thyroid, and related cancers, practicing across Barnes-Jewish Hospital and affiliated Siteman Cancer Center locations.
Dr. Knapp’s research focuses on clinical trial development and translational oncology research for patients with relapsed lung, head and neck, thyroid, and salivary duct cancers, with particular interest in relapsed small cell lung cancer. He is also investigating predictors and mechanisms underlying bone metastases and strategies to optimize their management. In addition to his clinical work, he contributes to academic teaching and mentorship for medical students, residents, and fellows, and has authored research on metastatic outcomes and tumor biology in solid tumors.
Corey J. Langer, MD, FACP
Director of Thoracic Oncology
Abramson Cancer Center
Professor of Medicine
Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA
Dr. Langer is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, where he serves as Clinical Director of Thoracic Oncology in the Abramson Cancer Center. Professor Langer received his medical degree from Boston University in 1981 and completed his residency in medicine at the Graduate Hospital, University of Pennsylvania, and his hematology/oncology fellowship at Presbyterian University of Pennsylvania and Fox Chase Cancer Center in 1987.
Professor Langer served in the Oncology division of Fox Chase Cancer Center from 1986–2008, leading its Thoracic Oncology Program from 1994–2008. He moved to the University of Pennsylvania in 2008, where he currently leads clinical research efforts in thoracic malignancy as part of the Interdisciplinary Thoracic Oncology Program (I-TOP) and conducts research studies focused on the role of targeted therapy and immunotherapy in NSCLC. He also co-directs the Thoracic Translational Center of Excellence, where he concentrates on the clinical end of bench to bedside projects.
Professor Langer is Co-Chair of the Medical Oncology Committee for NRG Cooperative Oncology Group and serves on the core thoracic committees of both NRG and ECOG. Professor Langer is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). Since 2016, he has been Editor-in-Chief of the International Lung Cancer News (ILCN) under the aegis of the IASLC.
For the past 34 years, since completing his fellowship, Professor Langer has led or co-led over 140 clinical trials in both small cell (SCLC) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as well as mesothelioma and head and neck cancer. Professor Langer has contributed numerous articles and abstracts to the medical literature and is the author or co-author of over 270 peer-reviewed papers.
Xiuning Le, MD, PhD
Associate Professor,
Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology,
Division of Internal Medicine,
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center,
Houston, TX
As Assistant Professor in the Thoracic/Head and Neck department Dr. Le has contributed her knowledge via trials, clinical journals and lectures with focus non-small cell lung cancer with actionable oncogenes.
Le earned her medical degree from the Peking Union Medical College. She then went on to earn a degree in Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Harvard Medical School in Boston. She completed her internship and residency at The University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester, MA, an additional residency at the University of Texas. Prior to joining the staff at M.D. Anderson, she also completed a fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School. Board certified in both internal medicine and medical oncology, Dr. Le specializes in thoracic, head, and neck oncology.
Dr. Le has published more than 40 articles in the field of lung and head and neck cancer. She was first- or last author of many high-impact papers, including New England Journal of Medicine, Cancer Discovery, Clinical Cancer Research and Journal of Thoracic Oncology.
Just recently Dr. Le received the ASCO Young Investigator Award, SU2C-TVF Convergence Program, Claudia Adams Barr for Innovative Cancer Research, ASCO Career Development Award, Paul Calabresi NIH K12 Award and more.
Jay Moon Lee, MD
Associate Professor and Chief, Department of Surgery, Thoracic Surgery
Surgical Director, UCLA Thoracic Oncology Program
Surgical Director, UCLA Center for Esophageal Disorders
Member, Tumor Immunology & Immunotherapy
UCLA Health
Los Angeles, CA
Jay M. Lee, MD is an Associate Professor of Surgery (Tenure Track) at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and serves as Surgical Director of the Thoracic Oncology Program within the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA Health in Los Angeles, California. He earned his medical degree from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and completed rigorous postgraduate training including general surgery residencies at Georgetown University Medical Center and Duke University Medical Center, a thoracic research fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and cardiothoracic surgical training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Lee has also held leadership roles such as Chief of the Division and Section of Thoracic Surgery and Surgical Director of the Center for Esophageal Disorders at UCLA.
Dr. Lee is an internationally recognized thoracic surgical oncologist whose clinical expertise encompasses lung cancer, esophageal malignancies, mesothelioma, and complex chest tumors, with a strong emphasis on minimally invasive and robotic surgical techniques. His research integrates translational and clinical trial work, particularly in immunotherapy, gene-modified cellular therapies, and modulation of the tumor microenvironment for thoracic malignancies. He has been principal investigator on investigator-initiated immunotherapy trials and served on steering committees of multiple perioperative and targeted therapy studies in resectable non-small cell lung cancer, contributing substantially to the field’s understanding of surgical and systemic therapeutic integration.
Matthew Lee, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor,
Thoracic Medical Oncology,
Department of Medical Oncology and Therapeutics Research,
Associate Member in Developmental Cancer Therapeutics (DCT) program,
City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center-Duarte,
Duarte, CA
Matthew Lee, M.D., MPH, is an assistant professor of medical oncology at City of Hope® Cancer Center Duarte, specializing in diagnosing and treating patients with lung cancer, including small cell lung cancer. His commitment to compassionate, patient-centered care is deeply rooted in his personal experience with cancer in his family, shaping his approach to individualized treatment plans for every patient.
Dr. Lee earned his medical degree from the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical School and completed an internal medicine residency at Hofstra University’s Northwell North Shore University Hospital. He further honed his expertise with a fellowship in hematology/oncology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center. He also holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Epidemiology from SUNY Downstate, reflecting his strong interest in public health, socioeconomic determinants of health, and real-world data utilization.
His research focuses on targeted therapies, antibody-drug conjugates, cellular therapies, immunotherapy, and liquid biopsies (ctDNA) for risk stratification and diagnosis. He is actively involved in ECOG-ACRIN, ETCTN, Hoosier Cancer Research Network, and the Small Cell Lung Cancer Consortium.
An active researcher, Dr. Lee has published over a dozen peer-reviewed articles, contributed to multiple clinical trials, and participated in global health initiatives in Thailand, Uganda, and Honduras. His contributions to lung cancer research have been recognized with awards from the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.
Percy Lee, MD, FASTRO
Medical Director
City of Hope
Department of Radiation Oncology
Irvine, CA
Dr. Lee is Professor and system-wide Vice-Chair for Clinical Research in radiation oncology at City of Hope National Medical Center (Los Angeles County, Orange County, Atlanta, Chicago, and Phoenix). In addition, he serves as the Medical Director for Orange County and the Coastal Regions in the Department of Radiation Oncology at City of Hope National Medical Center (City of Hope Orange County, Lennar Foundation Cancer Center in addition to 3 other radiation oncology network sites in the region). Previously, he served as Section Chief for Thoracic Radiation Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) from 2019-2022, and Executive Section Chief for the Department of Radiation Oncology at MDACC from 2021-2022. Dr. Lee started his career at UCLA (2008-2019) where he rose to the rank of Professor and Vice Chair for Education for the Department of Radiation. At UCLA, he served as Chief of Thoracic Radiation Oncology, Residency Training Program Director, and Director of the Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy Program (SBRT), a program he founded in 2008. He is an internationally recognized subject matter expert and thought leader in the clinical applications of SBRT. He has over 220 peer-reviewed publications on the clinical use, evidence for, and application of SBRT in the clinic. Dr. Lee has an international reputation in the treatment of thoracic and GI malignancies. He pioneered novel radiosurgery and SBRT technologies such as MRI-guided radiation therapy in the clinic with more than 55 peer-reviewed publications on this subject. He led the clinical implementation of MRI-guided radiation therapy program at UCLA as the 3rd site in the world with this innovation. In addition, he is a clinical trialist who is interested in combining novel radiation therapy approaches with new drugs to achieve improved outcomes in thoracic malignancies. He has served on various leadership roles within national organizations such as ASTRO, RSS, ABR, and ARS.
Dr. Lee was born and grew up in Taipei Taiwan until the age of 9 and has family throughout the island.
Natasha Leighl, MD, MMSc, FRCPC, FASCO
Lead Medical Oncologist
Clinician Investigator
Clinical Research Unit (CCRU)
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
Professor
Department of Medicine
University of Toronto
Toronto, ON, Canada
Dr. Natasha Leighl leads the Thoracic Medical Oncology Group at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, and is Professor in the Department of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. She holds the OSI Pharmaceuticals Foundation Chair in Cancer New Drug Development through the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation. After receiving her MD from the University of Toronto, Canada, Dr. Leighl completed residencies in internal medicine at the University of Calgary and in medical oncology at the University of Toronto. She subsequently completed her fellowship in thoracic oncology at the Princess Margaret Hospital, Canada and a fellowship in clinical oncology at the University of Sydney, Australia. She received her Masters in Medical Science (MMSc) in clinical epidemiology at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Dr Leighl’s main interest is in developing new treatments in lung cancer and improving lung cancer diagnostics. She is involved in clinical studies of novel agents for the treatment of thoracic cancers, has led several international and cooperative group studies in lung cancer and has served as a member of the Lung Disease Site Group Executive of the Canadian Cancer Clinical Trials Group. She was Co-Chair of the CCTG Committee on Economic Analysis, Congress Co-President of the 2018 WCLC, and serves on multiple committees including the ASCO Thoracic Guidelines Advisory Group, is co-section editor of The Oncologist and Current Oncology, an editorial board member of the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, British Journal of Cancer, a member of the IASLC Quality and Value Committee, on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lung Cancer Foundation of America, and was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Americas Health Foundation.
Steven H. Lin, MD, PhD
Professor
Department of Radiation Oncology
Division of Radiation Oncology
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Dr. Steven Lin received his medical training in the MD/PhD program at The University of California Irvine Medical School and Residency Training in Radiation Oncology at The Sydney Kimmel Cancer Institute at Johns Hopkins. He is currently a tenured Professor and Director of Research in the Department of Thoracic Radiation Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is a Physician Scientist with his clinical practice directed at thoracic cancers and oversees several clinical trials including the use of proton beam therapy for esophageal cancer and in the combination of immunotherapy with radiotherapy in lung and esophageal cancers. Dr. Lin’s lab focuses on novel approaches that enhance radiotherapy and immunotherapy combinations in lung cancer that could be translated to innovative clinical trials. Dr. Lin also directs a translational research team that evaluates biomarkers for early cancer diagnosis and treatment response and disease outcomes after cancer therapy.
Thomas U. Marron MD, PhD
Director, Early Phase Trials Unit
Associate Director, Tisch Cancer Center
Professor of Medicine, Hematology & Oncology
Professor of Immunology & Immunotherapy
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
New York, NY
Thomas Marron MD PhD is the Director of the Early Phase Trials Unit (EPTU) and Associate Director for Translational Research at the Tisch Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is also a Professor of Immunology and Immunotherapy as well as Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He holds a PhD in immunology and is a practicing thoracic medical oncologist. His research program focuses on development of novel immunotherapies and combinatorial therapeutic approaches for solid tumors. Alongside EPTU he leads a translational oncology bench-to-bedside-to-bench program in partnership with Miriam Merad and her laboratory focused on developing novel therapeutic approaches, and repurposing available biological therapies.
Erminia Massarelli, MD, PhD, MS
Professor
Division Chief Hematology/Oncology,
University of Texas Health East Texas
Tyler, TX
Dr. Erminia Massarelli, MD, PhD, MS, is Chief of Oncology and Hematology at the UT Health East Texas HOPE Cancer Center and Division Chief of Oncology and Hematology in the Department of Internal Medicine at the UT Tyler School of Medicine. She earned her Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, her PhD in Molecular Oncology and Endocrinology from the University of Naples Federico II, and her MD from the University of Naples Federico II. Dr. Massarelli completed her Internal Medicine residency at Methodist Hospital in Houston, followed by clinical fellowships in Medical Oncology at both MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Naples Federico II, and a postdoctoral fellowship in Thoracic/Head & Neck Medical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Her research focuses on thoracic malignancies, particularly lung and head & neck cancers, with an emphasis on translational studies and the development of targeted and immunotherapeutic strategies. She co-directs the Lung Cancer and Thoracic Oncology Program and leads investigator-initiated and cooperative-group trials in mesothelioma and other thoracic tumors. Dr. Massarelli’s honors include the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Team Science Award (2020), Top Doctors recognition by Pasadena Magazine (2017), the Jeffrey Lee Cousins Fellowship in Lung Cancer Research (2012–2013), and the ASCO Conquer Cancer Foundation Young Investigator Award (2011–2012). She has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications and serves on national advisory panels for thoracic oncology research.
Bharathi Muthusamy, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Department of Hematology/Oncology
Indiana University School of Medicine
Indianapolis, IN
Dr. Bharathi Muthusamy, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology at Indiana University School of Medicine and an Associate Member of the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, Cancer Prevention and Control Program. She earned her MD from Indiana University School of Medicine in 2016, completed her Internal Medicine residency there from 2016–2019, served as Chief Resident at IU School of Medicine from 2019–2020, and finished a Hematology/Oncology fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation from 2020–2023.
Her research focuses on cost‐effectiveness analyses in early-stage non-small cell lung cancer, the abscopal effects of stereotactic body radiotherapy combined with pembrolizumab in phase II trials, and stigma studies comparing lung cancer to other lifestyle-associated malignancies. She is actively developing thoracic and sarcoma clinical trials while continuing her niche in health‐economic research. Dr. Muthusamy has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications in leading oncology journals.
Misako Nagasaka, MD, PhD
Associate Professor
Division of Hematology/Oncology
Department of Medicine
University of California Irvine School of Medicine
Orange, CA
Misako Nagasaka, MD, PhD is an Associate Professor in Thoracic Oncology for the Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine at the University of California Irvine. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in NYC and fellowship at Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit. Her clinical and research interests are in molecular targeted therapy and immunotherapy in thoracic malignancies, with a special focus in medical ethics. She has more than 160 publications including the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine, the Journal of Clinical Oncology and the Journal of Thoracic Oncology. She has experience serving as the site principal investigator (PI) for over 20 interventional trials (and has served as a sub-investigator for a number of studies) and enjoys collaborating with other researchers across the country and around the world.
Matthew Oser, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Medicine
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA
Dr. Matthew G. Oser, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, an Associate Member of the Broad Institute, and an Attending Medical Oncologist in the Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He earned his MD and PhD degrees from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2011, completed his Internal Medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and subsequently trained in Medical Oncology through the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center fellowship program. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology (2016).
His laboratory and clinical research focus on small cell lung cancer (SCLC), with the goal of identifying novel therapeutic targets, biomarkers, and synthetic-lethal strategies to improve patient outcomes. He leads multiple NIH- and industry-funded projects, including studies dissecting NOTCH–TRIM28 synthetic lethality and biomarker-guided immunotherapies in SCLC. Dr. Oser has authored over 35 peer-reviewed publications, notably the Lancet Oncology paper on transformation from non-small-cell to small-cell lung cancer (2015) cited over 1,000 times and maintains an h-index of 26. His work was honored with the Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award in 2019, and he regularly presents his findings at ASCO, SITC, and AACR meetings.
Henry S. Park, MD, MPH
Professor of Therapeutic Radiology
Vice Chair for Clinical Research, Health Services Research, and Faculty Development
Chief of Thoracic Radiotherapy and PET-guided Radiotherapy
Assistant Medical Director, Clinical Trials Office, Yale Cancer Center
Head of Advisory House, Horstmann House, Office of Student Affairs
Yale School of Medicine
New Haven, CT
Dr. Henry S. Park is a board-certified radiation oncologist who serves as professor and vice chair for clinical research, health services research, and faculty development for the Department of Therapeutic Radiology at the Yale School of Medicine. He is also chief of the thoracic radiotherapy program and the PET-guided radiotherapy program for the department. For the Yale Cancer Center, he is an assistant medical director of the Clinical Trials Office, where he also leads the radiation oncology committee and is associate leader of the lung clinical research team. For the medical school’s Office of Student Affairs, he is the head of Horstmann House, one of the six advisory houses for medical and physician associate students. Dr. Park has co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed original research articles, reviews, book chapters, invited editorials, and practice guidelines. He serves as an oral and written boards examiner for the American Board of Radiology, an associate editor for Advances in Radiation Oncology and American Journal of Clinical Oncology, and an active committee member for the American Society for Radiation Oncology, American Radium Society, SWOG, and NRG.
Sandip P. Patel, MD
Professor, Member
Thoracic Oncology, Cancer Immunotherapy Programs
Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology
UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center
La Jolla, CA
Sandip Patel, MD is a Professor at UCSD and a Medical Oncologist focusing on early phase clinical trials of immunotherapy and thoracic oncology. He is the leader for the Experimental Therapeutics (Phase 1) Program and Deputy Director for the Center for Precision Immunotherapy at UCSD. He is co-leader of the NRG Developmental Therapeutics Committee and co-leader of the University of California Lung Cancer Consortium.
William Jeffrey Petty, MD
Professor of Medicine
Section on Hematology and Oncology
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Winston-Salem, NC
Dr. William J. Petty, MD, is a Professor of Cancer Medicine and Cancer Biology at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC, where he also serves as Director of the Thoracic Oncology Program within the Wake Forest Comprehensive Cancer Center. . He earned his MD with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine in 1998, completed his Internal Medicine residency at Duke University Hospital in 2001, and a fellowship in Medical Oncology at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital (Dartmouth Cancer Center) in 2004. Dr. Petty is board-certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in both Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology.
His research and clinical interests focus on thoracic malignancies, particularly lung cancer and malignant pleural mesothelioma, with emphasis on translational studies, biomarker development, and novel immunotherapeutic strategies. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, including work on molecular diagnostic panels for precise subtyping of non-small cell lung cancer, and is an active member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Association for Cancer Research, and American College of Chest Physicians
Jonathan W. Riess, MD, MS
Medical Director of Thoracic Oncology
Professor of Medicine
Division of Hematology/Oncology
UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center
Sacramento, CA
Dr. Riess is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology Oncology and Medical Director of Thoracic Oncology at UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center (UCDCCC). Dr. Riess’ research interests encompass novel diagnostics, targeted therapies and immunotherapies in lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies. He is the past recipient of the National Cancer Institute Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award given to researchers who are working to improve the lives of people with cancer through extensive involvement in NCI-funded collaborative clinical trials and whose leadership, participation and activities promote clinical trials and research. He is also the past (co)recipient of the Addario Lung Cancer Foundation and Van Auken Foundation Young Innovators Team Award.
Helen J. Ross, MD
Professor of Medicine
Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Cell Therapy
Rush University Medical Center
Chicago, IL
Helen J. Ross, MD is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Cell Therapy at Rush University Medical Center and a medical oncologist at the Rush Cancer Center in Chicago, Illinois. She earned her medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine and completed her residency in internal medicine and fellowship training in hematology and medical oncology at leading academic institutions. Dr. Ross is board-certified in medical oncology and has held academic appointments at multiple nationally recognized cancer centers, contributing extensively to clinical care, research, and education.
Dr. Ross’s clinical and research interests focus on thoracic malignancies, particularly lung cancer, with an emphasis on targeted therapies, biomarker-driven treatment strategies, and clinical trial development. She has served as a principal investigator on numerous cooperative group and industry-sponsored trials and has played a leadership role in advancing personalized treatment approaches for patients with lung cancer. Dr. Ross has authored widely cited peer-reviewed publications and remains actively engaged in multidisciplinary research efforts aimed at improving outcomes through precision oncology and translational science.
Julia Rotow, MD
Physician
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Clinical Director, Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology
Director of Clinical Research
Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA
Dr. Rotow received her MD from the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. She completed her residency training in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital and her fellowship training in Hematology/Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco. She practices as a thoracic oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute where she is and clinical director of the Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology and an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. Her research interests include the development of targeted therapies for the treatment of oncogene-driven lung cancer.
Joshua K. Sabari, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
NYU Langone Health
Director, High Reliability Organization Initiative
Perlmutter Cancer Center
New York, NY
Dr. Sabari is an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Thoracic Medical Oncologist and member of the Phase I Experimental Therapeutics Group in the Department of Medical Oncology at New York University School of Medicine, NYU Langone Health Perlmutter Cancer Center. Dr. Sabari’s research focus includes developing new treatments for people with lung cancers. His goal is to develop biomarker-driven clinical trials that offer patients unprecedented access to novel therapies and personalized treatments.
Ravi Salgia, MD, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research
Arthur & Rosalie Kaplan Chair in Medical Oncology
City of Hope
Duarte, CA
Dr. Ravi Salgia earned his PhD and medical degree from Loyola University of Chicago. He then pursued an internship and residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Internal Medicine. Upon completion of his residency, he was a clinical oncology fellow at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and a research fellow in the laboratory of Dr. James D. Griffin. Dr. Salgia is currently a medical oncologist at the City of Hope Cancer Center and is the Arthur and Rosalie Kaplan Chair in Medical Oncology. He also works collaboratively within the City of Hope Developmental Cancer Therapeutics Program to develop novel therapies for cancer. Dr. Salgia has over 25 years of accomplishments in translational research and the development of targeted therapies to improve the quality of life and survival of cancer patients, especially as related to small cell lung cancer. His laboratory was the first to identify the role of MET in lung cancer and identify the biological functions of MET and hepatocyte growth factor as well as the potential for novel therapeutic inhibition of this pathway. Dr. Salgia is the co-chief editor of the Journal of Carcinogenesis and is on the editorial advisory board of four other journals. He has authored over 375 peer-reviewed articles, reviews and editorials; one book; and over 30 book chapters.
Jonathan Schoenfeld, MD, MPhil, MPH
Director, Melanoma Radiation Oncology
Director, Head and Neck Radiation Oncology
Senior Physician
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Professor of Radiation Oncology
Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA
Dr. Jonathan Schoenfeld is a Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School and an MGB Endowed Cancer Chair. He serves as Director of Head and Neck, Cutaneous, and Melanoma Radiation Oncology at Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center, Senior Physician at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Associate Director of Clinical Research in the Department of Radiation Oncology.
Dr. Schoenfeld earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School following a research fellowship as a Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge. He completed his medical internship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and residency in radiation oncology within the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program. He also holds a Master of Public Health in Clinical Effectiveness from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
His research involves clinical trials involving radiation and integration with immunotherapy and other novel systemic therapies and innovative radiation techniques. Additionally, he leads trials integrating biomarkers such as circulating tumor DNA that predict response to radiation or immune therapies.
Triparna Sen, PhD
Professor (Tenured)
Max Moore Chair of Cancer Research
Associate Director of Research
Director, Lung Cancer Preclinical Therapeutics Platform
Division of Medical Oncology
Department of Internal Medicine
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH
Triparna Sen, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and a faculty member of the OSUCCC – James Comprehensive Cancer Center. She earned her PhD in cancer biology and completed advanced postdoctoral training in translational cancer research, with a focus on thoracic malignancies. Dr. Sen holds joint appointments in multiple research programs at Ohio State and is actively involved in mentoring graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-career investigators.
Dr. Sen’s research centers on the molecular biology and therapeutic vulnerabilities of lung cancer, particularly small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Her laboratory integrates functional genomics, epigenetics, and preclinical models to identify novel targets and resistance mechanisms, with the goal of translating discoveries into new treatment strategies. She has published extensively in high-impact journals and has received multiple competitive research awards, including NIH and foundation funding. Her work has significantly advanced understanding of lineage plasticity, transcriptional dependencies, and novel combination approaches in aggressive lung cancers.
Misty D. Shields, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medical & Molecular Genetics
Associate Member, Experimental and Developmental Therapeutics
Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Thoracic Oncology
Indiana University Melvin & Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center
Indianapolis, IN
Dr. Misty D. Shields, M.D., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, at Indiana University School of Medicine and an Associate Member of the Indiana University Melvin & Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center in Indianapolis. She earned her Ph.D. in Immunology from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in 2011, completed a Post-doctoral Fellowship there in 2012, followed by an Internal Medicine residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2019, and a Medical Oncology fellowship at the University of South Florida/Moffitt Cancer Center in 2022. She received her M.D. from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston McGovern Medical School in 2016.
Her research is driven by a personal commitment to improve outcomes in small-cell lung cancer (SCLC), inspired by her father’s loss to the disease. As a translational physician-scientist, she investigates mechanism-derived combination therapies, most notably the synergistic pairing of APR-246 with MCL-1 inhibitors and leads efforts to translate these findings into investigator-initiated clinical trials. . She was awarded an IASLC International Lung Cancer Foundation research fellowship and collaborates closely with basic scientists and clinicians to identify and address areas of unmet need in SCLC. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed oncology journals, and she continues to advance novel therapeutic strategies aimed at transforming the standard of care for this aggressive malignancy.
Elaine Shum, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
New York, NY
Dr. Elaine Shum, MD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and an Attending Medical Oncologist at NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center in New York City. She earned her MD with honors from Stony Brook University School of Medicine in 2011, completed her Internal Medicine residency at St. Luke’s–Roosevelt Hospital Center in 2014, and finished her Hematology/Oncology fellowship at Montefiore Medical Center in 2017. Dr. Shum is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology.
Her clinical and research focus is on thoracic malignancies, including non–small cell lung cancer, small cell lung cancer, and malignant mesothelioma, with particular interest in biomarker-driven targeted therapies and immuno-oncology trials. . She serves as Director of the Cancer Screening Programs at Perlmutter Cancer Center and is principal investigator on early-phase studies such as a Phase 1/2 first-in-human trial of the selective EGFR inhibitor BLU-701 in advanced EGFR-mutant lung cancer. Dr. Shum has authored over 40 peer-reviewed publications, including a pooled analysis of datopotamab deruxtecan in EGFR-mutated NSCLC, and contributed to more than 50 clinical research studies to date.
Surbhi Singhal, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Clinical-X series
Division of Hematology and Oncology
University of California Davis, Comprehensive Cancer Center,
Sacramento CA
Dr. Singhal is a medical thoracic oncologist at the UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center and Assistant Professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at UC Davis. Her research focuses on biomarker development and novel therapeutic strategies for thoracic malignancies, especially among older adults. She is the past participant of the National Institute on Aging Butler Williams Scholars Program, and she currently serves on the Analytics Core for the Cancer and Aging Research Group and the Young Committee for the International Society of Liquid Biopsy.
Ferdinandos Skoulidis, MD, PhD, MRCP
Associate Professor,
Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Dr Ferdinanados Skoulidis is currently a Tenured Associate Professor (Physician Scientist) at the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He obtained a Medical Degree from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece in 2000 and a PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK in 2011. He completed general medicine residency and medical oncology fellowship training in Cambridge and London, UK.
Dr Skoulidis’ laboratory is focused on (a) unraveling the molecular and clinical heterogeneity of KRAS-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and developing novel therapeutic strategies to target KRAS-mutant lung tumors; (b) maximizing the therapeutic potential of direct KRAS inhibitors and (c) elucidating the impact of individual somatic genomic alterations on the NSCLC immune contexture and immunotherapy response, with the goal of developing novel precision oncogenotype-tailored immunotherapeutic strategies. Dr Skoulidis has received several awards for his research including a 2019 AACR NextGen Star award. His work has been published in high-impact scientific journals including The New England Journal of Medicine, Cancer Discovery, Cancer Cell, Nature Reviews Cancer and his research has attracted research funding from the NIH/NCI, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas and the US Department of Defense.
Stephen Swisher, MD, FACS
Professor
Charles A. LeMaistre Distinguished Chair in Thoracic Oncology
Division Head, Division of Surgery
Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Stephen Swisher, MD is Division Head of Surgery, the Charles A. LeMaistre Distinguished Chair in Thoracic Oncology and Professor in the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery Department at MD Anderson Cancer Center. His research interests include neoadjuvant and oligometastatic lung cancer trials as well as selective organ preservation approaches in esophageal cancer.
Gregory Videtic, MD
Professor
Section Head for Thoracic Malignancies
Department of Radiation Oncology
Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland, OH
Gregory M. Videtic, MD, CM, FRCPC is a Section Head for Thoracic Malignancies and Residency Program Director in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, where he practices at the Main Campus and Hillcrest Hospital. He earned his medical degree from McGill University Faculty of Medicine in Montreal, Canada, and completed residency training in radiation oncology at the University of Western Ontario Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry. Dr. Videtic also completed a clinical research fellowship in geriatrics and a CNS radiosurgery/brachytherapy fellowship at Wayne State University and has held faculty and staff positions at leading cancer centers including the London Regional Cancer Centre and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is board-certified in radiation oncology and has over 35 years of clinical practice experience.
Dr. Videtic’s clinical interests focus on thoracic radiation oncology, with expertise in stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), altered fractionation, radiosensitizers, radioprotectants, and management of treatment toxicity for lung, esophageal, and pleural malignancies. In addition to his clinical leadership, he contributes to residency education and program development and has been recognized for teaching excellence. Dr. Videtic is active in professional societies including the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation Oncology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.
Everett E. Vokes, M
John E. Ultmann Distinguished Service Professor
Chair, Department of Medicine
Physician-in-Chief,
University of Chicago Medicine and Biological Sciences
Chicago, IL
Everett Vokes, MD, is the John E. Ultmann Distinguished Service Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago, and physician-in-chief at the University of Chicago Medicine
Dr. Vokes earned his medical degree at the University of Bonn Medical School in Bonn, Germany. He completed his clerkship at St Luke’s Hospital in Sydney, Australia, and an internship at Malteser Hospital in Bonn. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the Ravenswood Hospital Medical Center in Chicago, a senior residency in internal medicine at the University of Southern California-Los Angeles County Hospital, and a fellowship in hematology-oncology at the University of Chicago.
A clinical and translational investigator, Dr. Vokes focuses on the biology and treatment of lung and head and neck cancers and the interaction of chemotherapy and radiation and integration of targeted and immune-based agents. He established the intellectual and clinical basis of national trials investigating concomitant chemoradiotherapy and other approaches to providing multispecialty care and leads clinical and translational investigations both at the university and nationally.
Dr. Vokes is a member of professional organizations including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, among others. He is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and American Association of Professors and serves on the editorial boards of several oncology journals and is a reviewer for various publications.
To his credit are more than 80 book chapters and 500 papers published in such journals as New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Annals of Oncology, and Journal of Thoracic Oncology, to name a few. Dr. Vokes has presented his work at numerous medical congresses.
Heather Wakelee, MD, FASCO
Winston Chen and Phyllis Huang Professor
Professor of Medicine/Chief-Division of Oncology
Stanford University School of Medicine
Deputy Director, Stanford Cancer Institute
Past President, International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC)
Stanford, CA
Dr. Heather Wakelee is a Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Oncology at Stanford University, and Deputy Director of the Stanford Cancer Institute. Dr. Wakelee serves as the Past President of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) and she is a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (FASCO). She is a graduate of Princeton University and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed her post-graduate training at Stanford University. As an experienced lung cancer investigator, Dr. Wakelee has authored or co-authored over 300 medical articles on lung cancer and thymic malignancies and is involved in dozens of clinical trials involving adjuvant therapy, immunotherapy, and anti-angiogenesis agents. Her research focuses on many specific lung cancer subtypes defined by specific mutations in EGFR, ALK, ROS1, RET, BRAF and others. Her translational efforts to date have involved collaborations with colleagues in medical oncology, thoracic radiation oncology, thoracic surgery, radiology, pulmonary medicine, and population sciences.
Timothy A Yap MBBS PhD FRCP
Head of Clinical Development and Vice President, Therapeutics Discovery Division.
Ransom Home, Jr. Endowed Professor for Cancer Research, Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics (Phase I Program); Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology.
Associate Director of Translational Research, Khalifa Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Dr. Timothy A. Yap, MBBS, PhD, FRCP, is the Ransom Horne, Jr. Endowed Professor for Cancer Research and Vice President and Head of Clinical Development in the Therapeutics Discovery Division at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. He also holds professorships in the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics (Phase I Program) and the Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology. Dr. Yap earned his MBBS in Medicine (2002) and BSc in Immunology and Infectious Diseases (2000) from Imperial College London, his PhD in Molecular Pharmacology (2010) from The Institute of Cancer Research, London, and completed his MRCP and FRCP in General Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology at the Royal College of Physicians, London. His postgraduate training included clinical residencies and fellowships at St. Mary’s Hospital, Oxford University Hospitals, the Royal Marsden Hospital, and The Institute of Cancer Research in London.
His research program spans translational and clinical studies targeting the DNA damage response, with agents such as ATR, PARP, and DNA-PK inhibitors, and the development of novel immuno-oncology combinations directed against PD-1/PD-L1, ICOS, TGF-β, PI3K/AKT, TIM-3, STING, adenosine A2AR, LAG-3, and CDK2/4/6. He leads multiple early-phase trials of next-generation CDK inhibitors, YAP/TEAD inhibitors, metabolic targets (including glutaminase and OXPHOS), and epigenetic modulators (EZH2, BET), and serves as principal investigator on several NCI CTEP–sponsored biomarker-driven studies. Dr. Yap’s work has been recognized with the 2019 NCI Michaele C. Christian Oncology Development Award, the 2020 V Foundation Scholar Award, the 2021 Irwin H. Krakoff Award for Excellence in Clinical Research, and the President’s Recognition of Faculty Excellence at MD Anderson in 2021, among other honors.