10 Million Reasons to Defeat Cancer - 2020 Abbott World Summit

Dr. Tala Al-Rousan is an internal medicine physician and epidemiologist who designs and develops large scale population studies to understand and evaluate public health interventions. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human longevity at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Al-Rousan holds an MD degree from Cairo University, an MPH from the University of Iowa and a Global health fellowship from the Harvard T. H. Chan school of Public Health. Her research interest in cancer prevention began during medical school where she was part of the presidential campaign for breast cancer early detection and treatment. Prior to joining the UC San Diego faculty, she was a visiting faculty at the Rhodes House at Oxford University and an Atlantic Fellow for Health equity at UC San Francisco. She has a very active research portfolio at both UC San Diego and the Harvard T. H. Chan school of Public Health funded by the National institute of Health Funding as well as foundations including the Atlantic Philanthropies, the Dubai Harvard foundation for Medical research and Gates foundation. She has published extensively in areas of disease prevention, behavioral interventions, aging and health disparities in marginalized populations including prisoners, the homeless and refugees. Her research currently focuses on the COVID-19 impact on essential workers and special populations including refugees and the role of timeliness and availability of viral testing. She also explores the role of the shift to telehealth due to the current pandemic on patients’ engagement in healthcare. Dr. Al-Rousan is also the principal investigator of several international studies including grants assessing epidemiologic and epigenetic features of Alzheimer’s disease in the Middle East and interventions to control Blood Pressure in Cameroon, Malawi and Peru. She has served as an advisor to the Jordanian Minister of Health on COVID-19 mitigation and containment strategies which informed Jordan’s excellent response to the 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic. Her work has previously informed the Commission on Cancer at the American College of Surgeons for improving survival and quality of life for cancer patients with low education level and socioeconomic status, and has been cited by the Vice President Joe Biden’s National Moonshot Inititaive.

After earning his Medical degree from Damascus University in Damascus Syria, Dr. Almhanna received his Master in Public Health (MPH) Degree at the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland Ohio. After completing his internal Medicine Residency in Michigan, he underwent fellowship training in Hematology and Medical Oncology from Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2008, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine at Wayne States University, then he was recruited to Moffitt Cancer Center in 2010 where he took the helped building and developing esophageal and gastric cancer working team. He served on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, esophageal and gastric cancer panel between 2014-2017. His research has involved clinical and translational investigations in gastrointestinal tumors. Currently he is an associate professor at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and working at the lifespan Cancer institute with several talented oncologists to help strengthen the gastrointestinal research portfolio in the GI oncology department. He has been the lead investigator on several multicentral trials and developed his own investigator initiated treatment.

Prof. Azab earned a Pharmacy degree (2000), MSc in Medicinal Chemistry (2003) and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences (2007) from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and completed post-doctoral training focusing on biology of hematologic malignancies at Harvard Medical School/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2012. Prof. Azab has co-authored over 80 peer-reviewed papers and 10 patents, and mentored over 40 Post-doctoral, PhD, MSc and Undergraduate Students.

The research in Prof. Azab’s Lab has a multidisciplinary translational approach involving cancer biology, immunotherapy, tissue engineering, and drug delivery. He has special interest in tumor biomarkers, tumor microenvironment, drug resistance, and metastasis in hematologic malignancies, particularly in Multiple Myeloma. He also focuses on development of ex vivo 3D tissue engineered cancer models for drug development and personalized medicine. Moreover, he specializes in development of drug delivery systems to improve the specificity and efficacy of cancer treatment: from nanoscale (targeted polymeric nanoparticles and liposomes) up to biodegradable-biocompatible natural and synthetic implant devices for controlled release of chemo and radiotherapy.

Prof Pierce Chow is Senior Consultant and Co-Director (Surgical) of the Comprehensive Liver Cancer Clinic at the National Cancer Centre Singapore, Senior Consultant Surgeon in HPB and Transplant Surgery at the Singapore General Hospital and Professor and Course Director at Duke-NUS Medical School Singapore.

Prof Chow was the Chapter of Surgeon’s Gold Medallist at the conjoint Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh/M.Med (Surgery) examination in 1994 and subsequently completed a clinical fellowship in Liver Transplantation in Australia in 2000. In 2002 he was awarded his PhD.

In addition to managing a busy HPB surgical oncology service, Prof Chow has researched extensively on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). He leads collaborative research on the genomic heterogeneity of HCC and applications in precision medicine. He co-founded the Asia-Pacific Hepatocellular Carcinoma Trials Group in 1997 and has been the protocol chair of 5 multi-national trials. In 2012 the National Medical Research Council Singapore conferred him the National Outstanding Clinician-Scientist Award for improving clinical outcomes of patients with his research on Liver Cancer.

Prof Chow was awarded the NMRC Translational-Clinical Research Grant for the Flagship Program in Liver Cancer in 2016 and has commenced the multi-national PLANET study (Precision Medicine in Liver Cancer Asia-Pacific Network).

As a 12 year breast cancer survivor, I am passionate about offering hope and support to breast cancer patients and their families. I have volunteered as a Pink Ribbon Mentor for 11 years mentoring newly diagnosed breast cancer patients. I also served on the Join the Journey Board of Directors for 5 years and as President for 3 years. Join the Journey is a local non-profit organization based in Rochester, Minnesota whose mission is to promote breast cancer awareness in the community and support individuals on their breast cancer journey.

I have been an active breast cancer research advocate since 2014. Most of this work has been as a member of the Mayo Clinic Breast SPORE. During this time I have worked with multiple research teams on multiple research studies which has provided me the opportunity to learn about the science of breast cancer. This knowledge coupled with my personal breast cancer experience has enabled me to bring a patient perspective to the table and contribute to the advancement of breast cancer research to end this devastating disease.

Dr. Brian Haab is a Professor in the Center for Cancer and Cell Biology at the Van Andel Institute (VAI) in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His research is on the identification and detection of subtypes of pancreatic cancer using glycan biomarkers. The laboratory studies blood plasma, tumor tissue, and cyst fluid using novel glycan analysis technologies to deliver biomarkers for 1) earlier and more accurate diagnoses and 2) improved prediction of tumor behavior and drug responses. Dr. Haab received his PhD in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley and completed postdoctoral training in the Department of Biochemistry at Stanford University before accepting a faculty position at the VARI in 2000.

Dr Hanash was recruited to MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2011 to lead the Red and Charline McCombs Institute for Cancer Early Detection and Treatment. He was previously program head for Molecular Diagnosis at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Dr. Hanash’s interest and expertise are in the field of cancer diagnostics and the development of blood based cancer biomarkers for risk assessment and cancer early detection. He is the inaugural president of the International Human Proteome Organization dedicated to the study of the human proteome, and a founder of the US Human Proteome Organization. Dr Hanash’s approaches to meet the challenge of developing markers that signal the presence of cancer at an early stage to allow detection and effective treatment have included a rigorous painstaking in-depth quantitative profiling of the various types of molecules in the blood to find those that are released early either from the cancer cells or from the host response to the developing cancer. The work emphasizes the need for rigor in experimental design, in data collection and statistical analysis and in developing a mechanistic understanding of the relationship between the identified cancer markers and the developing cancer. This work has sparked innovation in experimental design and statistical analysis of biomarker data aimed at minimizing biases in discovery studies through prospective sample collections that relate most directly to the intended clinical application(s) and at reducing the false discovery rate through integration of data from multiple sources to increase confidence in the significance of the markers.

Dr. Holcomb is an Associate Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Weill-Cornell Medical College where he also serves as the Vice-Chairman of Gynecology, Director of Gynecologic Oncology, and the Associate Dean of Admissions. He attended medical school at New York Medical College and completed a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. He then completed a fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at SUNY-Downstate/Kings County Hospital. Dr. Holcomb’s research interests include tissue-based biomarkers for distinct endometrial cancer subtypes, population-based outcomes analysis in various gynecologic malignancies, and the role of biomarkers in the treatment of women with adnexal mass and ovarian cancer. He is the principal investigator on two multi-institutional prospective trials evaluating the role of HE4 for monitoring the response of ovarian cancer to primary therapy and the detection of recurrence, respectively. He has been named a Top Doctor in the New York Metropolitan Area by Castle-Connolly, Ltd. since 2010.

Dr. Arjun Khanna is a Pulmonologist and intensivist based at Delhi NCR. He is amongst the few DM Pulmonary and Critical care medicine in the country. He is a fellow of the American college of Chest Physicians and a Diplomate of the European board, in adult respiratory diseases. He has been awarded as the Global rising star in Pulmonary Medicine by the Lung health council in 2019.

His areas of interest include, Difficult to control airways diseases, Interstitial lung diseases, Sleep medicine, Community health and Infections of the respiratory system. I have more than 50 peer reviewed publications, book chapters and abstracts in national and international journals.

Dr.Labio is a Gastroenterologist and has more than experience of 24 years in this field. She currently heads the liver unit at MMC. The Liver Unit is a venue for expert multi-disciplinary consultation—through its pool of specialists from the fields of Hepatology, Gastroenterology and Endoscopy, Medical and Surgical Oncology, Interventional Radiology and Hepatobiliary Surgery—for the treatment of complex liver conditions.

She completed DNB - General Medicine from University of the Philippines (UP) in 1990 and she is a fellow of Hepatology and Liver Transplantation, AW Morrow Gastro and Liver Centre, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia.

She was the former president of Hepatology Society of the Philippines (HSP).

MBBS (HK), BSc(BiomedSc) (HK), MD (HK), PhD (HK), MRCP (UK), FHKCP, FHKAM (Medicine), FRCP (Edin, Glasg & Lond) 

Dr David CL Lam is a respiratory physician with interest in translational research and clinical trials in respiratory diseases including lung cancer, smoking and airway physiology, COPD and interventional pulmonology. His research focuses on translational research with biomarkers in lung cancer and airway.

In his research laboratory, new lung cancer and immortalized normal bronchial epithelial cell lines representing local Chinese population are established and characterized, and they are being used as cellular models for translational research on lung cancer, smoking and airway physiology research. Plasma EGFR mutations and circulating tumor markers are studied.

He also performs bronchoscopy including endobronchial ultrasonography and autofluorescence imaging. He acts as Co-convenor in the Special Interest Group in Interventional Pulmonology and the Hong Kong Pleural Disease Network under the Hong Kong Thoracic Society. He is currently in the International Lung Screening Trial (ILST) Consortium, steering lung screening and relevant biomaker research.

Sheng-Nan Lu, MD, MPH, PhD, is the vice-superintendent and clinical professor in the Division of Hepatogastroenterology, the Department of Internal Medicine at the Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (KCGMH). He is also adjunct professor at the Chang Gung University College of Medicine in Taoyuan, Taiwan.

He graduated from Kaohsiung Medical University (KMU) in 1984, and then he completed a two-year Master’s course of Public Health (MPH) at National Taiwan University in 1986. Following this, He received complete training of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology in KMU Hospital and became an attending physician in 1990, and was awarded a PhD degree from KMU in 1992.

Prof. Lu has published more than 300 international papers with most of them being clinical and epidemiological studies of hepatitis and hepatocellular carcinoma. He is an Academic Editor of PLOS One and a member of editorial board of Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He is also serving as a journal referee of about 50 peer-review journals.

Professor Lu is the current President of the Taiwan Academy of Tumor Ablation (TATA), and a member of council in the Gastroenterology Society of Taiwan (GEST), Taiwan Association for the Study of Liver (TASL) and the Taiwan Liver Cancer Association (TLCA). He is the convenor of the Clinical Counseling Group for HCC of National Health Research Institutes, the director of epidemiology group in National Hepatitis C Program Office and a member of Committee for Liver Cancer and Hepatitis Prevention and Control, Minister of Health and Welfare, Taiwan.

Research Interesting: Hepatology, Intervention ultrasonography, Epidemiology, Preventive Medicine.

Assoc Prof Darren Lim is a Senior Consultant, Division of Medical Oncology, National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) and the Assoc Prof, Duke-NUS Medical School. In 2012, A/Prof Lim was awarded the Clinician Scientists Award (CSA). His research interests in oncology are in early phase clinical trials with biological correlates head, neck and lung cancer. He is also actively involved in the development of biomarker correlative clinical trials.

Research Interest:

Development of preclinical/clinical studies of novel drug combinations in endemic cancers, Provision of pharmaco-kinetic and -genomic support to early phase clinical studies.

Dr. Massion received his undergraduate and MD degrees from the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium. He trained in Internal Medicine at the University of California San Francisco, where he also completed a Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship. He attends a pulmonary and critical care inpatient service and the pulmonary outpatient clinic at the Nashville VA Medical Center. His research interests include genetic and proteomic strategies for the early detection of lung cancer, chemopreventive strategies for the primary and recurrence of lung cancer, and investigation of the role of genomic abnormalities in lung cancer.

Doctor Deliu Victor Matei, MD, PhD, is a member of the HIFU CLINIC Medical Team, with unparalleled experience in uro oncological procedures he has personally performed over 4000 procedures including: over 2000 endoscopic procedures and over 1000 robotic procedures utilizing the groundbreaking da Vinci robotic system. Currently he works at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, Italy (www.ieo.it) as the Head of Urology Training Activity and as the institutes premiere Robotic Surgeon He has been an Adjunct Professor at the Urological Residency School at the University of Milan’s Faculty of Medicine for over 11 years and an Adjunct Professor at the Nurse University School of the Catholic University of Sacred Health. He is also a Visiting Professor at 3 major Romanian teaching facilities: the Faculty of Medicine of the Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Cluj Napoca, the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Timisoara and the “ Vasile Golds” West University in Arad.

Shirley Mertz is a retired high school principal and educator who was treated for early stage breast cancer in 1991. Twelve years later, she received a metastatic breast cancer diagnosis. Since 2004 she has used her voice, passion and skills as a patient advocate to share with patients the importance of finding the right health care team and getting the right tests to achieve the best outcomes. To enhance her scientific knowledge of the disease, she graduated from NBBC’s Project LEAD and Clinical Trials LEAD. To foster more awareness about metastatic breast cancer in October, Shirley led a group of patients to Washington D.C. in 2009 and successfully lobbied leaders of Congress to pass a resolution designating October 13th as National MBC Awareness Day. 

Currently, Shirley works to empower patients and change outcomes for the disease as the Chair of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance; President of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Network; a consumer reviewer for the DOD Breast Cancer Research Program and Komen Scientific Grants; a patient advocate within the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium; and co-chair of the Scientific Committee for the Fifth International ABC5 Global Conference. Shirley often is invited to speak about the challenges and needs of metastatic patients. In 2011 the White House honored Shirley as a Champion of Change in Breast Cancer. In 2017, during Susan G. Komen’s 35th anniversary, she was named one of 35 global individuals who have made a significant impact in the fight to end breast cancer.

Dr. Jeffrey Peppercorn is a medical oncologist specializing in breast cancer who conducts research related to health policy, bioethics, and cancer survivorship. He serves at the Director of the MGH Cancer Center Supportive Care and Survivorship Program and is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He also serves on the American Society of Clinical Oncology Research Committee and Chairs the Ethics Committee for the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology. He has published over 150 papers and chapters on issues related to breast cancer care, research, and policy.

Dr. P Nagaraja Rao joined as Chief of Hepatology and Nutrition at Asian Institute of Gastroenterology in 2006.

He has been involved in teaching and training residents preparing for DNB in Gastroenterology. He is the nodal coordinator for DNB courses at AIG for National Board of Examinations (NBE), New Delhi. He is a recognized teaching faculty for MSc in clinical nutrition and examiner at National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad.

He acquired vast experience in various liver diseases like an alcoholic liver disease, Fatty liver disease, liver cancer etc amounting more than 50,000 patients.

He has been involved along with basic research scientists at Asian Institute of basic sciences and affiliate of AIG in the fields of the genetics of non-alcoholic liver disease, regenerative medicine dealing with stem cell research for advanced liver diseases, basic research in the pathogenesis of hepatitis B and hepatitis C liver disease. He has been a member of the AIG institutional ethics committee, member secretary for AIG research board and institutional ethics committee for stem cell research.

A graduate from Damascus University School of Medicine, Dr. Hadi Yaziji is an American Board-certified pathologist who did his pathology training at the University of Louisville Hospitals, then went on to do two sub-speciality fellowships in Surgical Pathology and Breast Pathology and Immunohistochemistry at the University of Washington, followed by a third fellowship in Cytopathology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. For over 20 years of his medical career, Dr. Yaziji has given numerous talks at local, national and international pathology conventions, presented his research that focuses on targeted therapy biomarker testing at international pathology meetings, and published his work at many peer-reviewed indexed medical journals. Dr. Yaziji’s area of expertise is breast pathology and breast cancer biomarkers, especially HER2 protein and gene testing. Dr. Yaziji is the founder of Vitro Molecular Laboratories, an international specialty anatomic pathology laboratory, and is also the founder of Pathology Learning Centers, a medical education organization that offers the most comprehensive course on specialized testing in anatomic pathology. Board certified in Anatomic Pathology, Clinical Pathology and Cytopathology, Dr. Yaziji also received several prestigious achievement awards, including Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and the Southern Medical Association (Pathology Section) achievement award. He also co-authored over 55 publications in peer-reviewed journals.