Forde, Patrick

Biography

Dr. Forde is co-director of the division of upper aerodigestive malignancies and director of the thoracic oncology research program at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. He has led the development of immune checkpoint blockade for resectable cancers culminating in the recent FDA approval of neoadjuvant immuno-chemotherapy for stage 1-3 lung cancer, this approval was based on his 2018 and 2022 publications in the New England Journal of Medicine. He leads several international phase 1-3 clinical trials including the phase 3 DREAM3R trial of immuno-chemotherapy for mesothelioma - this study builds on his 2021 publication in Nature Medicine reporting the longest survival to date for patients with unresectable mesothelioma. Dr. Forde is principal investigator for the Johns Hopkins Immunobiology Biorepository and has published widely on molecular and immunologic correlates of response and resistance to immunotherapy for cancer including key co-authored publications in Nature, Nature Cancer and Cancer Discovery among >100 peer-reviewed manuscripts

Letai, Anthony

Biography

Dr Anthony Letai graduated from Princeton University with and A.B. in Physics, then received his MD and PhD at the University of Chicago, completing clinical training in Hematology and Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. After a post-doctoral fellowship with Stanley Korsmeyer, since 2004 Dr. Letai has run a laboratory at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to study how apoptosis can be evaded by cancer cells. Key to these studies is a novel assay - BH3 profiling. He has led efforts to translate BCL-2, BCL-XL, and MCL-1 antagonists into the clinic. These include venetoclax, a BCL-2 antagonist approved by the FDA for CLL and AML and now being tested across nearly all blood cancers, in combination with other drugs and with immune-oncology agents. The laboratory is also testing whether BH3 profiling can be used as a broad predictive biomarker to assign clinical cancer therapy. In an attempt to unite others across the world who also pursue ex-vivo functional testing, in 2018, he founded the Society of Functional Precision Medicine, and serves as its President. He is a recipient of the European Cell Death Organization Career Award, the Smith Family Prize for Outstanding Scientific Contributions and the National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator Award.

Meattini, Icro

Biography

Associate Professor at the Department of Clinical and Experimental Biomedical Sciences “M. Serio” of the University of Florence (Florence, Italy), Icro Meattini works as Clinical Oncologist since 2011 at the Radiation Oncology Unit of the Oncology Department at the Florence University Hospital, where is responsible for the Outpatient Clinics Unit, Clinical Trials Unit, and leader of the Clinical Oncology Group of the Breast Cancer Multidisciplinary Team. Active member of the European Society for Radiation Oncology (ESTRO), the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), and the Italian Association of Radiotherapy and Clinical Oncology (AIRO). He is actively involved in ESTRO and EORTC network, currently he is member of the Steering Committee of the EORTC Breast Cancer Group (BCG) and of the Radiation Oncology Scientific Council (ROSC), Chair of the Breast Cancer Group of AIRO and Chair of the Clinical Oncology Breast Cancer Group (COBCG) cooperative network. Authors of over 185 peer-reviewed international papers and PI/co-PI of several phase 2-3 trials, his main fields of interest are breast cancer, multimodal treatments, oligometastatic disease, health-related quality of life, cardiac prevention toxicity, hypofractionation, partial breast irradiation, clinical trials research.

Piaggio, Elaine

Biography

Dr. E. Piaggio obtained the diploma of clinical biologist and the PhD in Immunology at the National University of Rosario, Argentine. She did her post-doctoral studies in France and actually is research director of INSERM. She directs the "Translational Immunotherapy team” at Institut Curie, in Paris. Her team is part of the first French Center for Cancer Immunotherapy. Her main contributions have been in the field of regulatory T-cell based immunotherapy of infectious diseases (Chagas' disease), autoimmunity (type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis/EAE), alloreactivity (GVHD and transplantation) and more recently, cancer. Her team is interested in the development of novel immunotherapies, translatable to patients. She is co-founder of Egle-Therapeutics, a biotech developing Treg-based immunotherapies.

Oberst, Simon

Bibliography

Simon Oberst is Director of Quality and Accreditation, Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (OECI). He was until recently Director of Clinical Development, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre; and concurrently Chair of the Accreditation and Designation Board of the OECI.

Simon is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, and a specialist in quality systems and organisational development in cancer. After graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge, he worked in the London and Newcastle with KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers. After spells in industry and charities, he moved to being Director of Improving Cancer Services with the UK’s leading cancer patient charity, Macmillan Cancer Support.

As Director of Clinical Development for the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre for 10 years, Simon Oberst was working with University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospital leaders on plans to deliver a state of the art 25,000 M2 Cancer Research Hospital on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. The vision is to integrate teams of clinicians, biologists, mathematicians, physicists, chemists and engineers to develop innovative care pathways that diagnose cancer early and treat patients personally and precisely.

As chair of the Accreditation Board of OECI since 2015 he has overseen the accreditation of 50 of the leading Cancer Centres in Europe, as well as establishing consensus quality standards for cancer centres, and networks. He has been a key author on subjects such as: bridging research and clinical care – the comprehensive cancer centre. As Director of Quality and Accreditation for OECI, Simon will direct the quality and accreditation programmes as these grow within and outside Europe, and enable OECI’s involvement with some of the EU Actions in cancer arising from Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan and Horizon Europe.

OBrien, Catherine

Biography

Catherine has been working in Cancer Care since qualifying in Cork University Hospital in 1993. She spent some time in University Hospital London and St Vincent’s Hospital Dublin before coming to St James’s Hospital in 2001. In 2002 she completed a 3 month clinical trials module in the National Cancer Institute in Washington DC. Following completion of her Masters in Clinical Practice (UCD) in 2010, Catherine had a secondment to Memorial Sloane Kettering in New York which evoked her keen interest in cancer survivorship. She completed her Advanced Practice Certificate (UCD) in 2017 and took up position as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner(ANP) in Cancer Survivorship in St James’s Hospital in the same year. The role involves providing a nurse-led service to patients with Lymphoma, Breast and Testicular cancers following the completion of their treatment in dedicated cancer survivorship clinics. Catherine has a keen interest in nursing research and has led on a number of local and International studies.

OReilly, Seamus

Biography

Prof O’Reilly graduated from the National University of Ireland (Galway) (BSc 1985, MB BCh BAO 1988, MD 1997) and completed basic specialist training in Trinity College Dublin (MRCPI 1991) and higher specialist training in Medical Oncology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and completed a PhD in Clinical Investigation at Johns Hopkins University where he was Assistant Professor of Medicine focusing on Phase I Drug Development. He was a Principal Investigator in the Gynecologic Oncology Group and on return to Ireland established Cancer Clinical Trials units in Waterford and Cork allowing patient participation in pivotal breast cancer trials such as RespondX, PALLAS, SOLE, and HERA. He is currently Consultant Medical Oncologist at Cork University Hospital and Associate Professor of Medicine at University College Cork. In 2020 was appointed Vice Clinical Lead of Cancer Trials Ireland and elected to the Executive Board of the Breast International Group in 2021. He is a member of the National Research Ethics Committee, the Advisory Council of the National Cancer Registry and the Early Drugs Taskforce of the Breast International Group.

From 2013-2021 he was National Specialty Director in Medical Oncology at the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland and has co-developed an online multidisciplinary course in Cancer Medicine for General Practice with University College Cork. In 2021 he organised the first National Cancer Retreat and has instigated a National Green Cancer Clinical Trials Initiative with Cancer Trials Ireland. He is founding editor of the journal Cancer Professional. In the community, he is a founding trustee of Cork ARC Cancer Support House, a cofounder of the South Eastern Cancer Foundation, and has led and developed nurse education and financial hardship patient funds at CUH Charity, and the CUH-India appeal for Unicef in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In society, he has spoken at the European Parliament about the impact of the pandemic on patients and healthcare workers.

He has over 100 peer reviewed publications related to cancer therapeutics. Ongoing research projects at the present time include secondary prevention assessment in breast cancer survivors, the impact of expanded access programs in Oncology, cybersecurity and cancer care and the impact of litigation on breast cancer care in Ireland.

OReilly, Eileen M., MD

Bibliography

Dr. Eileen M. O’Reilly holds the Winthrop Rockefeller Endowed Chair in Medical Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK). She serves as the Section Head for Hepatopancreaticobiliary/ Neuroendocrine Cancers, Gastrointestinal Oncology Service, Co-Director for Medical Initiatives at the David M. Rubenstein Center for Pancreatic Cancer and is an Attending Physician and Member at MSK and Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Dr. O’Reilly received her medical degree at Trinity College (Dublin University) in Ireland. She completed her residency training in Ireland and Fellowship training at MSK. Dr. O’Reilly has pancreatic and hepatobiliary malignancies as the major focus of her research and clinical activities. She is a clinical scientist whose research focus involves integration of molecular and genetic-based therapies for pancreas cancer along with development of adjuvant and neoadjuvant therapies and identification of biomarkers for therapy selection. Dr. O’Reilly teaches and mentors junior faculty, oncology fellows, residents and medical/other students and has numerous teaching and other awards. Dr. O’Reilly is the Principal Investigator of multiple phase I, II, III trials in pancreas cancer and has authored/co-authored > 330 articles, editorials, and book chapters. She serves as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Clinical Oncology and Senior Editor for several other journals and has served on multiple grant review panels including, for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), NIH and various international entities.

Dr. O’Reilly’s other responsibilities include: Chair of the Institutional Review & Privacy Board (IRB) and Chair of the Continuing Medical Education (CME) committee at MSK. Nationally Dr. O’Reilly is Co-Chair of the NCI Alliance Co-Operative Group Gastrointestinal Cancers Committee and serves on the NCI Gastrointestinal Cancers Steering Committee (GISC), Medical and Scientific Advisory Board of Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, ASCO Guidelines Committee and the Board of the National Pancreas Foundation.