I-SCORE: Investigators' and Site Coordinators' Opportunity for Research Excellence Meeting (Speaker Bios)

Philip E. Castle, PhD, MPH is the Director of the Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP) and a Senior, Tenured Investigator in the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG) at the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) (Rockville, MD, USA). Previously, he was a Tenured Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Bronx, NY, USA) (2014-20), Chief Scientific Officer of the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) (2011-2), and Senior, Tenured Investigator (2010) and Tenure-Track Investigator (2003-10) in DCEG/NCI. Dr. Castle was a Cancer Prevention Fellow in DCP/NCI (1999-2002). Dr. Castle received a Ph.D. in Biophysics (1995) and MPH in Epidemiology (2000) from the Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD, USA) and his BS in Biological Sciences from Carnegie-Mellon University (1986).

Juan Chipollini, MD, FACS is an urologic oncologist and associate professor in the Department of Urology at the University of Arizona. He completed residency at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and attended H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center for a Society of Urologic Oncology fellowship where he specialized in the management of urologic malignancies using both complex open and minimally invasive surgery. Dr. Chipollini is board-certified by the American Board of Urology and has served as section editor on the oncology core curriculum for the American Urological Association. He has research interests on heath disparities and treatment outcomes for urologic cancer patients and has published over 100 peer reviewed manuscripts and book chapters. He is principal investigator in several clinical trials at the University of Arizona and was recognized as Castle Connelly’s America’s Top Doctors in 2024.

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.

I am a Research Assistant Professor in the Gynecologic Oncology Department at MD Anderson Cancer Center. I completed my medical degree (M.D.) and Ph.D. at the Miguel Hernandez University, Alicante, Spain, and my residency in Obstetrics & Gynecology at La Paz University Hospital in Madrid, Spain. I am board-certified in Obstetrics & Gynecology in Spain. Following my clinical training, I joined the faculty at La Paz University Hospital as Attending Physician for a brief period of time. After obtaining a prestigious fellowship grant to extend my studies in US, I moved to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, as a postdoctoral fellow under the mentorship of Drs. Sophia Merajver and Stephen Gruber. My studies focused in the discovery of low-penetrance genes for hereditary predisposition to breast and ovarian cancers. I devoted my time as post-doc with Dr. Merajver to assess the frequency of CHEK2 and PALB2 mutations in different populations. Then, I completed a second post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Gruber, which focused on different aspects of molecular biology of colorectal cancer, such as global methylation changes, and then re-focused my work around mucinous neoplasms. In 2012, I relocated with my family to Houston, TX, and started to work with Drs. Meyer and Ramirez’s group in different clinical research projects including to assist in the implementation of the Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) program in GYN Oncology, to establish surgical trials, to implement patient reported outcomes (PROs), and to contribute to Health Services Research (HSR) and Quality Improvement (QI) projects.

Dr. Seema Ahsan Khan is Professor of Surgery at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and is trained in Surgical Oncology. Her clinical practice at the Lynn Sage Comprehensive Breast Center includes the surgical therapy of women with breast cancer, and the evaluation and management of women at high risk for breast cancer. She has had an interest in the surgical management of women with stage IV breast cancer, and chaired the ECOG2108 randomized trial addressing this question. She also has an active research program in breast cancer risk biomarkers and prevention, and is PI of the Northwestern Cancer Prevention Consortium. This is funded by the Division of Cancer Prevention of the NCI, and conducts early-phase trials in cancer prevention at all organ sites.

Dr. Khan’s current research is focused on the development of novel agents for breast cancer prevention, and on transdermal drug delivery to the breast through the breast skin so as to avoid or reduce the systemic effects associated with oral drug administration. She has also conducted studies on breast cancer risk biomarkers in breast tissue, and on minimally invasive techniques of obtaining breast samples for biomarker research.

Eva Szabo, MD is the Chief of the Lung and Upper Aerodigestive Cancer Research Group in the Division of the Cancer Prevention at the 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 (including as a member of 2022 Annual Meeting Program Committee), has participated in FDA Oncologic Drug Review Committees, recently served as the Chairperson of the US Department of Defense Lung Cancer Research Program Integration Panel, and is a member of the Cancer Research UK Prevention and Population Research Committee and co-chair of its grant review committee (the Expert Review Panel).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/eva.szabo.1/bibliography/public/