Speaker Bios
 Gerald L. Andriole, Jr., MD, is the Robert K. Royce Distinguished Professor and Chief of Urologic Surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, the Siteman Cancer Center and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Andriole received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania after completing its 5-year accelerated medical program in conjunction with Pennsylvania State University. He trained in surgery at Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester and completed urology residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Subsequently, he was a fellow in Urologic Oncology at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. At Washington University, Dr. Andriole has over 35 years of consistent contributions in the areas of BPH and prostate cancer screening, prevention, and imaging research. He has contributed well over 450 peer- reviewed publications and serves on the editorial boards of several prestigious journals. He is Chairman of the Prostate Committee of the National Cancer Institute’s Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial and has been a Principal Investigator (PI) of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Multidisciplinary Approach to Urologic Pelvic Pain (MAPP) and Symptoms of Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunction Research Network (LURN). He was Chairman of the Steering Committee of the international REDUCE Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial. He is a member of the American Urological Association, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Surgical Association, the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons Academy of Master Surgeon Educators, and the Clinical Society of Genitourinary Surgeons, among other societies. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Urologic Oncology Branch of NCI, Distinguished Alumni Award from Jefferson Medical College, the Distinguished Clinician Award from Washington University in St Louis and the Richard Williams, MD Prostate Cancer Research Excellence Award from the American Urological Association Urology Care Foundation. |
 Randall Brand, MD, is a gastroenterologist who is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and is the academic director for the GI Division at UPMC Shadyside Hospital. Dr. Brand also directs the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s GI Malignancy Early Detection, Diagnosis and Prevention Program and leads UPMC’s Hereditary GI Tumor Clinic. He received his medical degree and completed his residency at the University of Michigan Medical Center, followed by his fellowship at University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Brand’s clinical interests include the early detection of pancreatic cancer, evaluating and caring for family members from pancreatic cancer-prone families, hereditary GI cancers, and evaluation of pancreatic cystic lesions. He has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed medical journals and has been honored as a fellow of both the American Gastroenterological Association and American College of Gastroenterology. Dr. Brand is also a member of the American Pancreatic Association and serves as the current President of the Collaborative Groups of the Americas on Inherited Gastrointestinal Cancers. He is a principal investigator in the Early Detection Research Network and participates in multiple NCI-, NIH- and DoD-funded research projects focused on the early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Dr. Brand lives north of Pittsburgh and has a son, daughter, and three grandchildren. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, traveling, and spending time with his family. View the full list of Dr. Brand’s publications on PubMed. |
 Marcia (Mimi) Canto, M.D., M.H.S. is a Professor of Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is also the Director of Endoscopy at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Canto received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of the Philippines in Manila in 1981 (summa cum laude). She received her Doctor of Medicine degree in 1985 from the University of the Philippines and completed her training in Internal Medicine from State University of New York Sciences Center in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. Dr. Canto completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Gastroenterology-Hepatology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and received a Master of Health Science in Clinical Epidemiology from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1993. She directs clinical research in the GI division. She is an established leader in advanced therapeutic endoscopy and endoscopic ultrasonography. She leads the Johns Hopkins 25+ year clinical and research multidisciplinary program for screening and early detection of pancreatic cancer and its precursors in high-risk individuals. She also co-directs the International Cancer of the Pancreas Screening Consortium involving multiple early detection programs in 5 continents. She partners with Dr. Michael Goggins and other scientists in translational research studies. |
 Philip E. Castle, Ph.D., M.P.H., was appointed Director of the Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in July 2020. In this role, Dr. Castle oversees the conduct and support of research in cancer prevention, early detection, and screening, and prevention and management of symptoms and toxicities in cancer patients. DCP also is the home of the NCI Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program (CPFP), which trains future leaders in the field of cancer prevention and control, and from which Dr. Castle received his public health training from 1999 to 2002. Dr. Castle earned a Ph.D. in Biophysics in 1995 and, in conjunction with his training in the CPFP, a Master’s in Public Health in 2000, both at The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. Most recently, Dr. Castle was a tenured professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, and a visiting professor at institutions in Singapore, China and Australia. Dr. Castle was previously the Chief Scientific Officer of the American Society for Clinical Pathology. Dr. Castle has been a principal investigator for more than 15 years, initiating, conducting, and leading several large NCI molecular and clinical epidemiologic research studies in the U.S. and internationally, including the Mississippi Delta Project; the HPV (Human Papillomavirus) Persistence and Progression Cohort and the Guidelines Cohort at Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC); and the Anal Cancer Screening Study. Dr. Castle worked in the NCI Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG) as a fellow, investigator, and then senior investigator from 2002 through 2010. He has co-authored more than 400 published articles on HPV and cervical and anogenital cancers and other cancer-related research. Dr. Castle was named NCI Cancer Prevention Fellowship Distinguished Alumnus in 2017 and was honored with the Arthur S. Flemming Award for Government Service in Applied Science, Engineering, and Mathematics in 2010. Dr. Castle has received many professional honors and recognitions, which can be viewed in his full curriculum vitae (PDF, 819 KB), and his publications. Dr. Castle also rejoins the NCI as a senior investigator with DCEG, focused on discovery, development, and evaluation/validation of new technologies for the prevention of cancer. His professional interests include health disparities, science and translation of cancer prevention strategies, cancer screening, health services research and delivery, epidemiology of HPV and cervical/anogenital cancers, international health, and evidence-based medicine. Dr. Castle is conducting research studies on cancer screening and prevention in Mozambique, Rwanda, and India as well as continuing his work with KPNC. |
 Dr. Laura Esserman is Professor of Surgery and Radiology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and director of the UCSF Breast Care Clinic. Her work in breast cancer spans the spectrum from basic science to public policy issues, and the impact of both on the delivery of clinical care. Dr. Esserman is recognized as a thought leader in cancer screening and over-diagnosis, as well as innovative clinical trial design. She led the creation of the University of California-wide Athena Breast Health Network, a learning system designed to integrate clinical care and research as it follows 150,000 women from screening through treatment and outcomes. The Athena Network launched the PCORI-funded Wisdom Study, which tests a personalized approach to breast cancer screening in 100,000 women. She is also a leader of the innovative I-SPY TRIAL model, designed to accelerate the identification and approval of effective new agents for women with high-risk breast cancers. In 2020 she got FDA approval for an I- SPY Covid trial, designed to rapidly screen and confirm high impact treatments to reduce mortality and time on ventilators. |
 Dr. Leslie Ford built clinical cancer prevention research as a scientific field when few people were considering the possibility of prevention and is recognized as a national and international leader in cancer prevention research. She has a passion for prevention and strong belief that all clinical science must, to the fullest extent possible, derive as a translation of basic science. The European Institute of Oncology recognized her in 2007 for her "outstanding passion and pivotal role in creating, sustaining, and confirming the value of cancer prevention in modern oncology." The creation and success of the NCI’s Community Clinical Oncology Program is largely due to her efforts and guidance. In 2007, this network of community-based cancer clinics continued to enroll fully one-third of all participants on NCI-sponsored prevention, treatment, and cancer control studies. The CCOPs are a major phase III trials network that reaches across the United States. Their existence contributes to the diffusion and adoption of new therapies more quickly than any other mechanism. The CCOP system has served as a model for clinical research in AIDS and other diseases. The CCOPs are also the focal point for well-designed trials of symptom management in cancer care. It was Dr. Ford’s vision and leadership that led to NCI’s large phase III cancer prevention trials conducted through the CCOPs. These include the landmark Breast Cancer Prevention Trial, which was the first demonstration that breast cancer could be prevented. This and the subsequent STAR trial led to the only Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs to reduce breast cancer risk: tamoxifen and raloxifene. Success goes beyond the trials and drug approvals to the priceless biorepositories from these studies. These resources allow research into the molecular underpinnings of trial results, the molecular basis of carcinogenesis for breast and prostate cancer. Dr. Ford redesigned the drug development and early phase trials system for DCP as a translational research program, linking basic science to early phase trials of prevention agents. In 2007, the Early Phase Clinical Trials Consortia began 11 new trials and completed 2 others. |
 Dr. Michael Goggins is a professor of pathology, medicine, and oncology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He started the Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection Research Laboratory in 1999. He is an Attending Physician and Gastroenterologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Sol Goldman Professor of Pancreatic Cancer Research. He obtained his medical degree in 1988 from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in Gastroenterology at St. James' Hospital in Dublin and a gastroenterology and gastrointestinal pathology fellowship and Johns Hopkins University. He joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1999. He has been continuously funded by the NIH since 2000 and is the principal investigator of the NIH supported multicenter Cancer of the Pancreas Screening-5, or “CAPS5” study and an R01 funded study to evaluate markers of early pancreatic cancer. He is also an investigator for the Johns Hopkins SPORE in Gastrointestinal Cancer. |
 Michael K. Gould, MD, MS is a pulmonologist and health services researcher with a career-spanning interest in lung cancer screening and diagnosis. As a Professor in the Department of Health Systems Science in the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, his research is deeply embedded in the healthcare system at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, where he conducts both externally funded and operationally focused studies of cancer care delivery, including studies of lung cancer screening and pulmonary nodule evaluation. Now a full-time researcher, he was a practicing pulmonologist specializing in the evaluation of patients with suspected lung cancer and respiratory complications of cancer while on faculty at Stanford University and the VA Palo Alto Health Care System (1998-2009), and the Keck School of Medicine of USC (2009-2011). His recent work aims to ensure that lung cancer screening is implemented safely and effectively to maximize the benefits and minimize harms. He has published over 200 scholarly articles, book chapters and reports, including several high-profile studies and editorials about lung cancer screening. His research has been supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Gould currently serves as multiple PI for a multi-site study to examine the effect of comorbid conditions on lung cancer screening uptake and outcomes, and leads a large, multicenter, pragmatic, comparative effectiveness trial of strategies for pulmonary nodule evaluation. |
 Ernest Hawk, MD, MPH, is the Vice President and Head of the Division of Cancer Prevention and Population Sciences at The MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Prior to his employment at MD Anderson, Dr. Hawk worked at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for many years in chemopreventive drug identification, preclinical testing, and clinical development. In his last few years at NCI, he served as Director of the Office of Centers, Training and Resources, and was involved in the NCI-designated cancer center SPORE-, training-, and disparities programs. In his role at MD Anderson, he has gained experience in T1-T4 research through administrative oversight and academic collaborations with the division’s five academic departments. He also co-leads MD Anderson’s Community Outreach and Engagement activities including its Cancer Prevention and Control Platform. The platform plans, implements, and evaluates evidence-based actions involving public policy, public/professional education, and the delivery of population-level community-based clinical- or public- health services to promote health and affect a significant and lasting reduction in the burden of cancer and its antecedent risk factors. His personal research interests include preclinical and clinical drug development for cancer prevention, clinical prevention trials, and the inclusion of diverse and underserved populations in cancer research and control programs to improve outcomes and promote equity. |
 Dr. Brandy Heckman-Stoddard received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine focusing on the intersection of Rho and IGF signaling in mammary gland development and breast cancer before joining the National Cancer Institute as a Cancer Prevention Fellow. During the fellowship she completed a Master's in Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health working with the Institute for Global Tobacco Control and the Evidence-Based Practice Center. She joined the NCI as a Program Director in 2011 and has served as Chief of the Breast and Gynecologic Cancer Research Group since 2016. Dr. Heckman-Stoddard's portfolio focuses on drug development for breast cancer prevention and biomarker development. She is particularly interested in local delivery of agents, alternate dosing strategies, biomarkers of efficacy to reduce the number needed to treat and targeting of stem cells. She serves as program director for the Early Phase Breast Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials grants portfolio and scientific lead of early phase breast cancer clinical trials within the NCI Division of Cancer Prevention Early Phase Prevention Consortia. Dr. Heckman-Stoddard is also the NCI Project Scientist for an NCI- NIDDK collaboration examining cancer incidence within the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study a randomized study of metformin, lifestyle intervention, versus placebo. In addition, Dr. Heckman- Stoddard also serves as the Breast Cancer Project Scientist for the Cancer Intervention Surveillance Model Network (CISNET). |
 George N. Ioannou, BMBCh, MS Dr. Ioannou is undertaking a diverse portfolio of studies related to:
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 Mia Levy, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Mia A. Levy is the Chief Medical Officer of Foundation Medicine, Inc. She is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology and a practicing medical oncologist specializing in the treatment of breast cancer and precision oncology. Dr. Levy’s research mission is to develop and disseminate learning cancer systems that deliver data and knowledge driven clinical decision support across the continuum of cancer care and research. To accomplish this, she applies biomedical informatics and implementation science methods to real-world problems in healthcare delivery systems. Precision cancer medicine implementation continues to be a driving use case for the learning systems framework, combining integration of genomic data into clinical workflows within the electronic health record, knowledge driven clinical decision support systems, and infrastructures for secondary use of data for discovery. |
 Dr. Worta McCaskill-Stevens is a medical oncologist and Chief of the Community Oncology and Prevention Trials Research Group, which houses the NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP), a community-based clinical trials network launched in 2014. As NCORP Director, she oversees the program supporting community hospitals, physicians, and others to participate in NCI-approved cancer treatment, prevention, screening, and control clinical trials, as well as cancer care delivery studies. After arriving at the NCI in 1998, she became the program director for the Study of Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR) and assumed responsibilities for breast cancer prevention with the CCOP. She chaired the 2009 NIH State-of-the Science Conference on ductal carcinoma in situ; is a member of the Early Breast Cancer Clinical Trialist Group (Oxford, UK); and is a member of NCI’s Breast Cancer Steering Committee. After attending Washington University and the American College of Switzerland, she completed medical school and an internal medicine residency at Georgetown University followed by a medical oncology fellowship at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN). Prior to her current position, she was the Co-Director of the Breast Care and Research Center at the Indiana University Cancer Center. In 2016, she was the recipient of the American Association for Cancer Research Jane Cooke Wright Memorial Lectureship, which recognizes an outstanding scientist who has made meritorious contributions to the field of cancer research and who has, through leadership or by example, furthered the advancement of minority investigators in cancer research. Her other honors and awards include: the Kaiser Family Fund Award for Excellence in Academic Achievement and Leadership in Medicine; Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society; the NIH Director’s Award for Clinical Trials; the NCI Merit Award for breast cancer prevention; and listed on Ebony magazine’s 2013 Power 100 – Most Influential African Americans in Science and Health. Prior to medical school, Dr. McCaskill-Stevens was a medical editor for Marcel Dekker and the Alan Guttamcher Institute. Research Interests
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 Dr. Joshua J. Meeks is an Associate Professor of Urology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, as well as Section Chief of Robotic Surgery at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. He is a urologic surgeon with expertise in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of bladder cancer. He received his MD and PhD degrees from Northwestern University in 2005, completed urology residency at Northwestern University in 2011, and a urologic oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer in 2012. His research interests focus on both the epigenetics and genetic mutations associated with cancer biology. |
 Usha Menon, FRCOG, MD (Res) is Professor of Gynaecological Oncology at the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at University College London, UK. She is known worldwide for her research focus in the early detection of ovarian cancer. Her work spans the largest ovarian cancer screening trials to date, both in the general (UKCTOCS) and high-risk (UKFOCSS) populations, risk prediction, early detection biomarkers, earlier diagnosis in symptomatic women and management of women at increased risk of the disease. Her work has contributed to the evidence base of all current ovarian cancer screening guidelines. She oversees the trial biobanks with over half a million well-annotated samples and long-term follow-up through electronic health record linkage include 50,000 women with a unique set of longitudinal annual serum samples that precede cancer diagnosis. The latter has supported numerous research collaborations investigating early detection biomarkers in multiple cancers and a UCL spin-out company. CONTENTCONTENTCONTENT |
 Howard L. Parnes graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in Biology in 1977. He received his M.D. from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey followed by an internal medicine residency at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center (formerly Baltimore City Hospitals) and a medical oncology fellowship at the University of Maryland Cancer Center (UMCC). After serving on the UMCC faculty for 8 years he joined the NCI division of cancer prevention, where he has directed the genitourinary cancer prevention program since 2001. Dr. Parnes has co-authored over 150 peer- reviewed research articles and was a member of the Steering Committees for PCPT and SELECT, the two largest prostate cancer prevention trials conducted to date. In addition to his primary research interest in cancer prevention, Dr. Parnes is an attending physician and clinical investigator in the prostate cancer multi-disciplinary clinic and bladder cancer clinic at the NCI Center for Cancer Research. CONTENTCONTENTCONTENT |
 Dr. Paul Pinsky is the chief of the Early Detection Research Branch. He has a background in statistics, epidemiology, and mathematical modeling. He has worked extensively with data from the Branch's two large screening trials, the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial and the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST). His research pertaining to the trials has dealt with evaluating the direct and indirect effects of screening, examining factors that affect screening efficacy, and evaluating the burdens of screening. Dr. Pinsky has also worked in the fields of mathematical modeling, especially of the natural history of cancer, epidemiology, and statistical methods. He has a Ph.D. in applied mathematics and an M.P.H. in epidemiology. |
 Eva Szabo, MD is the Chief of the Lung and Upper Aerodigestive Cancer Research Group in the Division of the Cancer Prevention at the US National Cancer Institute. She is the Director of the Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Network (CP-CTNet), through which she designs and oversees early phase cancer prevention clinical trials funded by the NCI. Dr. Szabo also participates in clinical trials and standard-of care treatment of patients with lung cancer and thymic malignancies in the NCI Intramural Thoracic Malignancies Clinic. Her research centers on identifying effective agents for lung and head and neck cancer prevention, identifying intermediate endpoints for assessing efficacy in early phase cancer prevention clinical trials, and developing new clinical trial models for assessing efficacy of preventive interventions. She is a Senior Deputy Editor for Cancer Prevention Research, has participated in multiple committees and working groups for ASCO and AACR, and is currently serving as the Chairperson of the US Department of Defense Lung Cancer Research Program Integration Panel. Dr. Szabo received her B.S. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University and M.D. at Duke University. She completed her Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine at NYU-Bellevue and her Fellowship in Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute. She is ABIM board-certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology. |
 Dr. Asad Umar received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, in 1993. He conducted his postdoctoral training in the laboratories of Patricia Gearhart in Baltimore, MD and Thomas Kunkel at the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, NC. Dr. Umar's main scientific interest is to understand the molecular pathways during gastrointestinal carcinogenesis and applying molecularly targeted and immunologic interventions to prevent cancer. His research contributions are in deciphering the biochemical defects in Lynch syndrome (Hereditary Non-Polyposis Colorectal Cancer or HNPCC) and later published testing guidelines for HNPCC. As a Program Director, he oversees a wide variety of grants and contracts focusing on cancer prevention translational research, cancer screening, and clinical trials. Some of the major research areas and grants funded under his leadership include: Novel Mechanisms of NSAIDS/anti-inflammatory Agents in Cancer Prevention; Cancer Stem Cells' Role in Cancer Prevention; Green Tea Polyphenon E for HCC Prevention; Role of DFMO in Cancer Prevention; National Polyp Screening Trial; Vitamin E and Selenium Skin Cancer Prevention Trial; the Calcium and Vitamin D Trial; and ACF as Surrogate Markers for Cancer Prevention. Recently, Dr. Umar represented the Division of Cancer Prevention in NCI's Provocative Questions initiative in which many unanswered (but important) questions in oncology are being focused for research prioritization. Among the major emphases are the mechanisms of cancer prevention for several successful interventions and understanding the link between obesity and ageing on cancer risk |