天美传媒

Director of Cancer Screening and Survivorship, Roswell Park Cancer Institute Areas of expertise: Lung cancer, cancer screening, cancer early detection, epidemiology, cancer prevention

Morhaf Al Achkar is a family medicine physician at UW Medicine who has been living with stage 4 lung cancer since 2016. Like many with the disease, he has a genetic type of lung cancer. He is an amazing advocate on resilience. He gathered 40 stories of inspiration that were published in the book, 鈥淩oads to Meaning and Resilience with Cancer.鈥�
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths. In 2019, alone, it is expected that 228,150 people will be diagnosed with lung cancer, and more than 142,670 will die from it, according to the American Cancer Society.
While a significant proportion of patients with lung cancer are diagnosed at advanced stages and have a survival rate of a few months, there are glimmers of hope.
 Al Achkar has a type of lung cancer has responded to treatment with targeted therapy in the form of pills he takes everyday.
As a qualitative researcher, Al Achkar knew stage 4 lung cancer was a novel area of research. He said the need for such work is enormous as the experience of people with advanced lung cancer has been associated with stigma and blame.
He wanted to break that cycle and help anyone dealing with a serious illness as well as inspire those he describes 鈥渨ith the gift of health.鈥�

Dr. Amy Moore is the Director of Science and Research at GO2 Foundation. Dr. Amy C. Moore is a PhD-trained virologist and cancer researcher and has spent over a decade working on large statewide and multi-institution initiatives in cancer and vaccines. She currently serves as Director of Science & Research for the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer and also works closely with GO2 Foundation's sister organization, the Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute (ALCMI), to build research capacity in emerging areas of concern to the lung cancer community.  

Because of her virology training and position as a leader in the advocacy community, Dr. Moore has become a highly sought-after expert to discuss the intersection of lung cancer and COVID-19. Since early March, she has participated in over half a dozen panel discussions, webinars, and interviews with leading groups such as IASLC, CURE, US News & World Report to discuss the threat COVID-19 presents to patients with lung cancer and how we can mobilize research to understand this risk. 

Chief Patient Officer at GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer and has been working in lung cancer non-profit for the past 11 years. She is responsible for all aspects of patient programming, services, engagement, and empowerment along with strategic insight and planning around lung cancer awareness and education.  Through personal history with lung cancer, Bonnie Addario is her mother, she has had hands-on experience as a caregiver as it relates to lung cancer the disease, treatments, the emotional and physical experience along with experience through survivorship. 

She has developed multiple patient education programs and educational publications that have reach in 143 countries around the world. In her role, she directly touches patients, caregivers, physicians, nurses, and industry professionals. She attends scientific meetings specific to lung cancer, has sat on multiple advisory boards and has experience with speaking engagements across the lung cancer community. 

Benjamin J. Seides, MD, MPH, director of interventional pulmonology at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital.
Dr. Seides is a board-certified interventional pulmonologist with training and additional American Board of Internal Medicine certification in internal medicine, pulmonary and critical care medicine. His clinical interests include minimally invasive advanced diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to benign and malignant diseases of the lung, pleura and thorax; complex airway disease; thoracic oncology; and endobronchial treatments for asthma and COPD. Dr. Seides earned his medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine, where he was elected to AOA, and he earned a Master of Public Health in health systems management from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans. He completed his residency in internal medicine, as well as his fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine, at New York University/Bellevue Hospital Centers. He went on to complete an advanced fellowship year in interventional pulmonology with the Chicago Chest Center.

Education and Training
Medical School
1992-1996 Dartmouth Medical School

Internship/Residency Combined Program
1996-1999 Stanford University, CA

Fellowship
2000-2003 Harvard Medical School's Combined Program in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, MA

Academic Appointments
Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School
Board Certification
Critical Care Medicine
Pulmonary Medicine

Dr. Herbst’s primary mission is the enhanced integration of clinical, laboratory, and research programs to bring new treatments to cancer patients. He has led the Phase I development of several of the new generation of targeted agents for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), including gefitinib, erlotinib, cetuximab, and bevacizumab. More recently, he participated in the successful registration of pembrolizumab for the treatment of advanced non-small cell lung cancer, following the successful Yale-led KEYNOTE 10 study of the immune therapy drug commonly used to treat other cancers. He was co-leader for the BATTLE-1 clinical trial program, co-leads the subsequent BATTLE-2 clinical trial program, and served as a Co-program Leader of the Developmental Therapeutics Program for the YCC Support Grant. Dr. Herbst’s laboratory work is focused on immunotherapy angiogenesis; dual epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)/vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) inhibition in NSCLC, and targeting KRAS-activated pathways. More recently, he has explored predictive biomarkers for the use of immunotherapy agents. This work has been translated from the preclinical to clinical setting in multiple Phase II and III studies which he has led. After earning a B.S. and M.S. degree from Yale University, Dr. Herbst earned his M.D. at Cornell University Medical College and his Ph.D. in molecular cell biology at The Rockefeller University in New York City, New York. His postgraduate training included an internship and residency in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. His clinical fellowships in medicine and hematology were completed at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, respectively. Subsequently, Dr. Herbst completed a M.S. degree in clinical translational research at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Herbst is an author or co-author of more than 275 publications, including peer-reviewed journal articles, abstracts, and book chapters. His work has been published in many prominent journals, such as the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research, Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine, and Nature. His abstracts have been presented at the annual meetings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the World Conference on Lung Cancer, the Society of Nuclear Medicine Conference, and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer. Dr. Herbst was a member of the National Cancer Policy Forum (1998-2014) for which he organized an Institute of Medicine meeting focused on policy issues in personalized medicine. He is a member of ASCO and, as a member of AACR, he chairs the Tobacco Task Force. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and an elected member of the Association of American Physicians. Dr. Herbst is also a member of the medical advisory committee for the Lung Cancer Research Foundation and chair of the communications committee for ASCO and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. He is currently the Vice Chair for Developmental Therapeutics for the Southwestern Oncology Group (SWOG) Lung Committee, Principal Investigator of the SWOG 0819 trial, and steering committee chair for the Lung Master Protocol (Lung MAP). Dr. Herbst was awarded the 2010 Waun Ki Hong Award for Excellence in Team Science by the Division of Cancer Medicine, UT-MDACC. The Alvin S. Slotnick Lecture Award for notable contributions to lung cancer research was bestowed upon him by Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center in 2014. That same year, the Bonnie Addario Foundation honored him with the Annual Addario Lectureship Award and the Bonnie J. Addario Excellence in Collaboration and Innovation Award. In 2015, the Clinical Research Forum presented his project “Predictive Correlates of Response to the Anti-PD-L1 Antibody MPDL3280A in Cancer Patients” its top Clinical Research Achievement Award in the United States for 2015. For his lifetime achievement in scientific contributions to thoracic cancer research, Herbst was awarded the 2016 Paul A. Bunn, Jr. Scientific Award by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer at IASLC 17th World Conference on Lung Cancer in Vienna, Austria. His work has been funded by ASCO, AACR, the United States Department of Defense, and the National Cancer Institute. In 2015, his team at Yale was awarded a lung cancer SPORE by the NCI, and he serves as a principal investigator for the AACR/ Stand Up to Cancer Dream Team grant. EDUCATION & TRAININGMMS Harvard University, Clinical Translational Research (1997)MD Cornell University Medical College (1991)PhD Rockefeller University (1990)BS Yale University, Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry (1984)MS Yale University, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry (1984)Fellowship Brigham and Women`s HospitalFellowship Dana Farber Cancer InstituteResidency Brigham and Women`s HospitalHONORS & RECOGNITIONElected to the Association of American PhysiciansAAP (2015) Addario Foundation Lectureship AwardBonnie Addario Foundation (2014) Alvin S. Slotnick Lecture Award for notable contributions to lung cancer researchDana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (2014) Best Doctors, New York Magazine(2014) Honorary Professor, University College London Cancer CenterUniversity College London (2012) Sikand OratorYale University (2011) PROFESSIONAL SERVICENational Cancer Institute (2012 - Present)Thoracic Malignancy Steering Committee - National Cancer Institute

Dr. Sarah Goldberg is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the section of Medical Oncology at the Yale School of Medicine. As a thoracic oncologist she cares for patients with cancers of the chest including lung cancer, mesothelioma and thymoma. She is the Division Chief of Thoracic Oncology, the Research Director for the Center for Thoracic Cancers, and the Associate Program Director for the Medical Oncology-Hematology Fellowship Program at Yale.  She received her medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and completed a Masters in Public Health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health. She conducts clinical and translational research on lung cancer with a focus on investigating biomarkers and novel treatment strategies in non-small cell lung cancer. Her specific research interests include EGFR mutation positive lung cancer, immunotherapeutics for lung cancer, and brain metastases. 

Education & Training:
Fellow-Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital (2012)
Resident-Massachusetts General Hospital (2009)
MD-Mount Sinai School of Medicine (2006)
MPH-Harvard School of Public Health

Daniel J. Boffa, MD, is a Professor of Thoracic Surgery at Yale School of Medicine. He earned his medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine with honors and his MBA from the Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis and is a Board Certified Thoracic Surgeon.  He has received numerous awards and recognitions for clinical skills, research and education,  including the Dr. Charles H. Bryan Clinical Excellence Award from the Cleveland Clinic, the Thoracic and Cardiovascular Research Award and the CALGB young investigator award, and the Edward H. Storer education award from Yale and the Hassan A. Naama Award education award from Cornell.  His work has been published in top Journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, the JAMA Network and Journal of Clinical Oncology, as well as mainstream media including the New York Times.
Learn more about Dr. Boffa>>
Dr. Boffa specializes in esophageal and lung cancer, achalasia, gastroesophageal reflux disease, hiatal hernia, esophageal diverticulum, and hyperhidrosis. As a highly skilled surgeon, Dr. Boffa performs the majority of his surgeries with minimally invasive procedures. Committed to increasing the survival rate of cancer patients.  Dr. Boffa has focused his clinical research on identifying the most effective way of treating cancer patients, particularly those with stage IV cancer, as well as quality of care across different hospital networks.  He is the chair of the Quality Assurance and Data committee for the Commission on Cancer, which is one of the largest cancer organizations in the world.  

Education & Training:
MBA- Heller School of Social Policy and Management at Brandeis (2021)
Fellow- Cleveland Clinic (2007)
Administrative Chief Resident- Cleveland Clinic (2007)
Resident- New York Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical Center (2004)
MD- University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine (1997)

Honors & Recognition:
Connecticut Magazine Top Docs 2016
2007 Cleveland Clinic Dr. Charles H. Bryan Clinical Excellence Award	
2007 Cleveland Clinic Thoracic and Cardiovascular Research Award 
2006 American Association of Thoracic Surgery Resident Traveling Fellowship

Katerina Politi studied Biology at the University of Pavia in Italy. She then moved to New York, where she obtained her PhD in Genetics and Development working with Argiris Efstratiadis at Columbia University. Following graduate school, she joined Harold Varmus's lab at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and began her work on the molecular basis of lung cancer. She continues this work at Yale as an Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and the Yale Cancer Center.

Dr. Narjust Florez is the Associate Director of the Cancer Care Equity Program and a thoracic medical oncologist at the Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center. She completed her internal medicine residency in Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota where she was the chief fellow from 2018-2019.
Dr. Florez's clinical interests include targeted therapy for lung cancer and the care of women with lung cancer, including their unique aspects of cancer survivorship. She is the principal investigator of the Sexual Health Assessment in Women with Lung Cancer (SHAWL) Study, the largest study to date evaluating sexual dysfunction in women with lung cancer.
Apart from her clinical interests in lung cancer, she is also a leading and productive researcher in cancer health disparities, gender and racial discrimination in medical education and medicine. She received many awards including the 2018 Resident of the Year Award by the National Hispanic Medical Association, the Mayo Brothers Distinguished Fellowship award and the 2020 Rising Star award by the LEAD national conference for women in hematology and oncology.
In addition, Dr. Florez founded the Florez Lab in 2019. The laboratory focuses on lung cancer, social justice issues in medicine and medical education. The laboratory long-term goals are to create a welcoming environment for medical trainees from historically underrepresented groups in medicine while improving the care of vulnerable populations. Members of the Florez Lab are agents of change.

Dr. Jorge Nieva graduated from the University of California, Irvine College of Medicine in 1997, trained in internal medicine at University of California, San Diego and in oncology and hematology at the Scripps Clinic. In 2003 he joined the faculty of the Scripps Research Institute and the medical staff of the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, CA. While at Scripps, Dr. Nieva pioneered new technology for the detection of cancer cells in the peripheral blood and discoveries related to the fundamental mechanisms of the immune system.
Dr. Nieva was recruited to the Billings Clinic in Montana in 2007 where he served as department chair and was a program leader who established the multidisciplinary lung cancer and head/neck cancer clinics at the cancer center. While in Billings, Dr. Nieva led efforts to establish a research program in virus-delivered cancer gene therapy and immunotherapy. His teams were awarded certificates for excellence in the conduct of cancer clinical trials from the National Cancer Institute and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Dr. Nieva returned to California, joining the faculty of the Keck School of Medicine in 2014.

Dr. Kehl received his MD from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in 2008. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He received his fellowship training in hematology and medical oncology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center and joined the faculty in the Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology and the Division of Population Sciences at Dana-Farber in 2017. His research focuses on the impact of healthcare delivery strategies on access to care and outcomes for patients with lung cancer, with a particular focus on analysis of population-level data.




 

Dr. Jänne received his MD and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1996. He completed postgraduate training in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and in medical oncology at DFCI in 2001. He is the Senior Vice President for Translational Medicine and the Scientific Director of the Belfer Center for Applied Cancer Science. His main research interests include studying the therapeutic relevance of oncogenic alterations in lung cancer. He was one of the co-discoverers of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations and has led the development of therapeutic strategies for patients with EGFR mutant lung cancer.




 

Coral Olazagasti, MD is an assistant professor at the Sylvester Cancer Center, University of Miami at Miami, Florida. Dr. Olazagasti developed an interest in lung cancer screening while witnessing that the majority of new referrals during an outpatient oncology elective presented with advanced stages of lung cancer. Being a Latina physician, she is personally invested in ethnic and racial disparities in the medical field and has drawn on her own experiences to highlight the inequities and barriers that minority patients face in healthcare. She hopes to continue to expand her research passions and help close the gap for minorities and vulnerable populations.

Dr. Panayotis Ledakis is an oncologist in Baltimore, Maryland and is affiliated with multiple hospitals in the area, including  and . He received his medical degree from University of Athens and has been in practice for more than 20 years. Dr. Panayotis Ledakis has expertise in treating lymphoma, small intestine/colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, among other conditions - see all areas of . Dr. Panayotis Ledakis accepts Medicare, Aetna, Cigna, United Healthcare - see other . Dr. Panayotis Ledakis is highly recommended by patients.

Sawsan Rashdan, M.D., is an Assistant Professor in the  at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She specializes in treating thoracic malignancies. She is the Director of Thoracic Medical Oncology Clinical Operations.
Dr. Rashdan earned her medical degree at the Faculty of Medicine of Damascus University in Syria. She performed her residency in internal medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine, where she also completed advanced fellowship training in hematology and oncology.
Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in hematology and medical oncology, she joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2016.
Dr. Rashdan’s research focuses on lung cancer, and she has published a number of academic articles on the subject. She has received funding to pilot a clinical trial to investigate the role of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) plus osimertinib as first-line treatment in epidermal growth factor receptor-mutated non-small cell lung cancer. Additionally, she is the Division Quality Officer as well as the Director of Health Equity in the division of hematology and oncology, leading the effort to reduce inequities of health care and increase access of cancer prevention education in minority groups.
Dr. Rashdan also spends time teaching the trainees at UTSW, she leads the lung cancer curriculum for the hematology and oncology fellows at Parkland. In addition to mentoring many fellows, residents, and medical students.
She is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, and the Dallas County Medical Society as well as American Muslim Women Physicians Association. She is also a member of several committees including: Supporting Women in Achieving Greatness, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee in the Department of Internal Medicine at UTSW.

Briefly, Puneeth Iyengar joined the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX USA in the summer of 2010 and is currently an Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology, with a professional emphasis on treating lung cancer patients. He is co-leader of the Thoracic Oncology Program in the Harold Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, leader of the Lung Radiation Oncology Team, Director of Clinical Research for the Department of Radiation Oncology, and institutional representative to NRG from UT Southwestern. His clinical focus is on studying local therapy for oligometastatic NSCLC. He has published significantly in this area, in top tier journals including JCO, JAMA Oncology, Lancet Oncology, among others. He is overall PI of the international trial NRG LU 002, a randomized phase III study assessing local therapy in the setting of immunotherapy and oligometastatic NSCLC. As a physician scientist, Dr. Iyengar runs an independent laboratory with a focus on studying the complex crosstalk between inflammatory states, cachexia, and lung cancer progression and therapeutic resistance. His research program has been funded by organizations including the National Lung Cancer Partnership, Lung Cancer Research Foundation, and Radiological Society of North America. He has also received a President’s Council Distinguished Researcher Award from UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas as well as a Sidney Kimmel Research Foundation Award over the last few years. Finally, he received an American Cancer Society Independent Investigator Research Scholar Award. He received his undergraduate degree from MIT, MD and PhD degrees from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, and radiation oncology residency training from MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. In addition, he is Board Certified in Radiation Oncology and have been granted medical licensure to practice in Texas.

Yuanyuan Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology at UT Southwestern Medical Center specializing in treating lung cancer patients with radiotherapy.
Dr. Zhang earned her medical and doctorate degrees from UT Southwestern. Following graduation, she completed an internship with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and, subsequently, completed her residency at UT Southwestern.
“I like to care for patients and their families in ways that are meaningful and valuable to them by understanding their unique circumstance and challenges, involving them in the decision-making process, and providing the emotional support and care coordination every step along the way – just as I would do for my family members.”
When Dr. Zhang is not in the clinic, she researches ways to improve the effectiveness of radiotherapy in lung cancer in the lab. “We still need better treatments, both increasing the survival rate and quality of life for our patients. To me, staying at the forefront of research presents an element of hope and commitment to our patients.”
Dr. Zhang is a member of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), the Association of Residents in Radiation Oncology, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), and the Society of Women in Radiation Oncology (SWRO).

Ken Westover, M.D., Ph.D., started his research career as a summer undergraduate research fellow in the labs of Nobel Prize laureates Michael Brown, M.D., and Joseph Goldstein, M.D., at UT Southwestern. It was there that he learned the basics of biochemistry and became convinced that he wanted to become a physician-scientist. 
After graduating with honors from Brigham Young University, with a B.S. in biochemistry, Dr. Westover entered the Stanford University Medical Scientist Training Program where he worked in the lab of Roger Kornberg, Ph.D., on the structural biology and biochemistry of gene transcription. Dr. Westover’s work was subsequently cited in the 2006 Nobel Prize for Chemistry awarded to Dr. Kornberg.
Radiation oncology was a natural fit for Dr. Westover given his laboratory experience, which had natural connections to cancer biology and included elements of imaging research, radiation science, and computer science. Most importantly, Dr. Westover found he was passionate about the practice of oncology. 
Dr. Westover completed his residency in radiation oncology at the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program, where he simultaneously worked in the lab of Nathanael Gray, Ph.D., in the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, learning principles of structure-based drug design and chemical biology. He also completed Harvard’s Intensive Translational Research Program.
Now at UT Southwestern, Dr. Westover focuses his clinical efforts on lung cancer and his research efforts on improving cancer therapies. In addition to targeted drug design, Dr. Westover hopes to find new ways to combine radiation therapy and targeted drugs.