Session 9 - Developing Careers in Cardio-Oncology

Dr. Alexander Lyon is a Senior Lecturer in Cardiology at Imperial College London and a Consultant Cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital. His clinical interests are in the field of heart failure, cardio-oncology including chemotherapy cardiomyopathy and the cardiovascular complications of modern cancer therapies, Takotsubo syndrome and the effects of major stresses of the heart, and the development of novel therapeutics including gene therapy for chronic heart failure. Alex has published over 180 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, several book chapters in cardiology textbooks including the chapter on cardiotoxicity of tyrosine kinase inhibitors in the latest edition of the ESC Textbook of Cardiology. He is a deputy editor of the European Heart Journal, an associate editor of the European Journal of Heart Failure, international advisor to the journal JACC Cardio-Oncology and his H-index is 44. Alex is the clinical lead for the Cardio-Oncology service at the Royal Brompton Hospital since 2011, specialising in surveillance and cardioprotection from modern cancer drugs, risk stratification and treatment of all cardiac complications of cancer treatment. Alex is the current president of the British Cardio-Oncology Society, recently appointed a board member of International Cardio-Oncology Society (ICOS - 2021), chair-elect European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Council of Cardio-Oncology (2020-2022) and he is the cardiology advisor to the charity Macmillan Cancer. Alex is a co-investigator of the first Leducq Cardio-Oncology Transatlantic Research Network funded from 2020-2025 ($6M). Alex is a co-chair of the first ESC Cardio-Oncology Guideline which will be published in 2022. Alex completed a full 4 year term on the board of the Heart Failure Association of the ESC (2016-2020), and he initiated and was the chair of the Heart Failure Association Cardio-Oncology Study Group. He is a co-author of the ESC Position Statement on Cardio-Oncology, the ESC Cardio-Oncology Council article on the setting up and delivery of Cardio-Oncology services and the 2020 ESMO guidelines on the management of cardiac diseases in cancer patients. He is a member of the International Cardio-Oncology Society and Alex was co-chair of the 2017 Global Cardio-Oncology Summit which hosted 325 specialists from 33 countries at the Royal College of Physicians in London in September 2017.

Dr. Anne Blaes is an Associate Professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Minnesota. She is the section head of Medical Oncology within this division and is Director of Cancer Survivorship Services and Translational Research within the Masonic Cancer Center. She is an active medical oncologist with a special interest in the late effects of cancer therapy, particularly in the area of cardio-oncology. Her research focuses on designing and implementing strategies to help prevent the long term complications of treatments in our cancer survivors, particularly in the areas of cardiovascular health. She is the Chair for the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Cancer Survivorship Committee, a member of the Executive Board for the Global Cardiooncology Society, associate editor for JACC Cardio-oncology, section editor for Hem/Onc Today on Survivorship and an active member of the ALLIANCE for Cancer Clinical Trials.

Dra. Macedo is an assistant physician and coordinator of the cardio-oncology clinic at Santa Casa de São Paulo School of Medicine, São Paulo, Brazil. She is also chair of the cardio-oncology department of Rede D’Or São Luiz health network and researcher/faculty at BCRI (Brazilian Clinical Research Institute). Her clinical background includes MD and Master in Health Sciences at the University of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Currently, she is finishing the Ph.D. program at the Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil. She is an active member of scientific organizations serving now as Vice President of the cardio-oncology chapter of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology, Director of the Brazilian Society of Thrombosis and Hemostasis, and Member of the Council of Cardio-Oncology of the Interamerican Society of Cardiology. In 2019 she was certified to be a fellow of the European Society of Cardiology. She is currently developing consensus documents in cardio-oncology and the definition of core educational topics to provide structured training in cardio-oncology.

Dr. Bénédicte Lefebvre is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Lefebvre earned her medical degree from McGill University, Montreal, Canada where she also completed her training in internal medicine and general adult cardiology. She then completed a two-year fellowship in advanced cardiac imaging at the University of Pennsylvania specializing in echocardiography, structural echocardiography and cardiac magnetic resonance. Afterwards, she underwent a cardio-oncology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Lefebvre’s research focuses on the cardiovascular effects of CAR T cells and the use of cardiac imaging and biomarkers to detect cardiotoxicity.

Charles Porter MD established the Cardio-oncology program for the University of Kansas Cancer at the University of Kansas Medical Center in 2007. He was designated as the inaugural American Vice-President of IC-OS in 2009. He has overseen the growth of the KUMC cardio-oncology program and continues to expand its collaboration with a broad array of oncologists in patient care and research. Research includes studies in BMT outcomes, 5FU cardiotoxicity and breast cancer treatment cardiotoxicity. He is associate editor for Cardiooncology, an editorial consultant for JACC Cardiooncology, and is a member of the IC-OS Science and Research Committee. He has multiple publications and presentations in the field.

Charlotte Manisty is Associate Professor of at University College London and set up and leads the largest cardio-oncology service in the UK at Barts Hospital, London. She and also has expertise in heart failure and cardiac imaging, and leads a research group whose current research interests include optimising imaging using computational techniques for identifying patients at risk of developing cardiotoxicity, and understanding the vascular toxicity of chemotherapeutic agents. She chairs the SCMR Cardio-oncology group, and is Research Lead for British Cardio-oncology Society. She is regularly invited to speak both Nationally and at International conferences on Cardio-oncology and Imaging, and chairs the UK Multi-Societal Working Group on MRI in patients with cardiac devices. She receives funding for her work from BHF and NHLI, and has published over 100 papers and book chapters, alongside supervising PhD students and teaching.

Dr Addison is a clincal inviestigator and practicing cardiologist with unique expertise in cardiovascular imaging and cardio-oncology. He completed his Medicine and General Cardiology training at Baylor College of Medicine in 2015. He joined The Ohio State University following the completion of a NIH T-32 advanced cardiovascular imaging fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA, where he focused in cardio-oncology. He currently serves as co-director of the Cardio-Oncology Program at the Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center, where he employs advanced imaging techniques to understand the pathophysiologic mechanisms and potential targets of interventions for cardiovascular disease(s) among cancer survivors at risk for cardiovascular events. To date, his efforts focus on the interplay of cancer-treating radiotherapy and cardiovascular events, the early detection of anthracycline-associated cardiotoxicity, and the early detection and mechanisms of cancer targeted and immunotherapy-associated cardiovascular diseases, for which I am supported by the NCI, AHA, and RWJ.”

Dr. Daniela Cardinale is specialized in Cardiology. She holds a PhD in Cardiovascular Physiopathology in 2009. She is currently Director of the Cardioncology Unit of the European Institute of Oncology in Milan. Her professional experience and investigational interests focus on prevention, early detection, monitoring and treatment of cardiotoxicity; screening of cardiotoxicity in patients with cardiac disease; malignant pericardial effusion evaluation and intrapericardial treatment.

Husam Abdel-Qadir is a cardiologist at Women’s College Hospital and the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, and a scientist at Women’s College Research Institute, the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research, and ICES. He graduated from the University of Toronto’s medical school with the Silver Medal and completed residencies in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at the University of Toronto. During his training, Dr. Abdel-Qadir became interested in optimizing the cardiovascular health of people who are less likely to be represented in clinical trials. This motivated him to pursue a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research at the Institute for Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation. His PhD thesis focused on the cardiovascular health of women with breast cancer, and this continues to be a focus of his research program. His clinical and research expertise also extends to the cardiovascular health of people with other cancers. He is also developing a research program on the management and outcomes of people with atrial fibrillation. His research is supported by an early career Chair in Heart and Brain Health and the 2020 National New Investigator Award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. He has also received the Canadian cardiovascular Society Atrial Fibrillation Research Award, European Society of Cardiology Young Investigator Award, the inaugural Young Investigator Competition at the 2017 Global Cardio-Oncology Summit, and the 2018 Polanyi prize in Medicine/ Physiology. Dr. Abdel-Qadir also sits on the board of the Black Physicians’ Association of Ontario and serves as its Director of Continuing Professional Development.

He is a cardiologist and myocyte biologist. his clinical focus is cardio-oncology (the cardiovascular care of cancer patients and cancer survivors). His basic and translational NIH-funded laboratory addresses myocardial responses to various stresses including hypoxia, aging and toxins. Over the last several years, given his clinical interest in cardio-oncology, his laboratory focus has been in delineating the mechanistic underpinnings of cardiovascular toxicities from novel targeted cancer therapies. He believes because of the targeted nature of the toxicities, cardio-oncology can provide insights into novel signalling pathways that are relevant in human cardiovascular biology and pathology. At Vanderbilt, He is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Director of Cardio-Oncology and Co-director of Vanderbilt Program for Optimizing Immuno-oNcology Therapy (V-POINT). He works closely with cardiologists and oncologists, basic, translational researchers and clinicians locally, nationally and internationally. He has also started several collaborations with industry and regulatory bodies (including the US FDA). He was recently named the first chair of the American Heart Association (AHA) cardio-oncology subcommittee. At Vanderbilt, he has established a Graduate Medical Education (GME) approved fellowship training the next generation of physician-scientists in the field of cardio-oncology. He is an elected member of American Society of Clinical Investigation (ASCI).

Joseph R. Carver, MD, FACC is a Board Certified cardiologist. He is the Founding Editor of the American Journal of Managed Care and was a Senior Corporate Medical Director at Aetna U.S. Healthcare from 1992-2001 where he was responsible for new program development and directed the National Medical Excellence Program. From 1999-2001, he was Co-chairperson of the New Jersey and Michigan Working Groups that established voluntary agreements among the insurers in those states to cover the routine costs of clinical trial participation for cancer patients. He is one of the Founding Editors of Cardio-oncology Journal. He currently is the Bernard Fishman Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, the Chief Operating Officer of the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania and the Chief of Staff of the Abramson Cancer Center. He is the Director of the Thalheimer Cardio-oncology Center at the Abramson Cancer Center and his clinical practice is in the subspecialty of Cardio-oncology. He was the recipient of the IS Ravdin Master Clinician Award at Penn in 2012 and is one of the founding members of Penn Medicine’s Academy of Master Clinicians. He received the Thomas Force Award in 2020.

Joshua Mitchell, MD, MSCI is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Director of the Cardio-Oncology Fellowship at the Cardio-Oncology Center of Excellence, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Prior to coming to Washington University in 2015, he served 11 years in the US Army, deploying with the 82nd Airborne Division and the 75th Ranger Regiment, earning two Bronze Start Medals, and reaching the rank of Major. He is currently a member of the ICOS Scientific Committee and recently helped lead the 2021 ICOS expert consensus statement for cardiovascular disease screening in radiation survivors. He also serves on the JACC:Cardio-Oncology editorial board and is the Co-Chair for the ACC Cardio-Oncology working group. His clinical and research interests include better characterizing and understanding cardiovascular disease associated with cancer treatment, and the diagnosis of management of cardiac amyloidosis. His research has also focused on the use of coronary artery calcium to improve risk prediction and help target preventive therapy. As the Cardio-Oncology fellowship director at Washington University in St. Louis, he has directed the training and development for full year fellows, rotations for internal cardiology fellows, and rotations for both external cardiology fellows and for board certified cardiologists looking for additional training in Cardio-Oncology to improve their practice.

Dr. Lova Sun is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the University of Pennsylvania. Her clinical focus is head/neck and lung cancers, and her research interests include improving survivorship and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with cancer.

Mary Branch is an administrator at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Winston Salem, USA.

Dr Raul Cordoba is Head of the Lymphoma Unit at the Fundacion Jimenez Diaz University Hospital, Madrid, Spain. He obtained his Bachelor of Medicine degree from the Autonomous University of Madrid and went on to specialise in haematology at the University Hospital La Princesa, Madrid. He first started his research in the field of lymphoid neoplasms, achieving his Master’s degree in Molecular Oncology from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre, Madrid, and his PhD from the Department of Medicine at the Autonomous University of Madrid. He is also the Principal Investigator for the Haematology Programme of START Madrid-FJD, a unit dedicated exclusively to Phase I trials in oncology. He serves as the vice-president of the Spanish Group of Geriatric Hematology of the Spanish Society of Hematology and Hemotherapy (SEHH) since 2012. He is the chair of the EHA-Scientific Working Group "Aging and Hematology"" of the European Hematology Association (EHA) since 2019. Since 2014, Dr Cordoba is the National Representative of the International Society of Geriatric Oncology (SIOG) in Spain and member of the Board of Directors since 2020. He is member of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) and American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) where he has given lectures in scientific symposia and educational programs with the topic of geriatric hematology.

Dr Ganatra serves as a Director of the Cardio-Oncology Program and Co-Director of the Cardiac MRI Program for Lahey Hospital and Medical Center, Beth Israel Lahey Health in Boston. His primary research interest is outcomes research in cardio-oncology. He serves on the Research and Scientific Committee of the International Cardio-Oncology Society (ICOS), the American College of Cardiology Cardio-Oncology leadership council, and on the editorial board of JACC Cardio-Oncology.

I am a third-year internal medicine resident at Mayo Clinic, Rochester and a rising Oncology fellow at Stanford University. I graduated with degrees in Molecular Biology and Human Development with a minor in Humanities from University of California, San Diego and completed medical school at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Cardio-oncology is one of my primary research interests as preserving cardiac health is a critical component of comprehensive oncologic care. More specifically, I am interested in understanding specific patient factors that put certain patients at higher risk for cardiotoxicity and the utilization of biomarkers for the early detection of impaired cardiac health.

Dr. Dent attended McMaster University Medical School in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and completed her residency training in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology at the Ottawa Hospital, University of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She subsequently completed a post graduate research fellowship in clinical trials at the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG) in Kingston, Ontario, and was appointed as a staff medical oncologist at the Northwestern Ontario Cancer Center in Thunder Bay, Ontario. In 2001, Dr. Dent returned to Ottawa, where she specialized in the treatment of breast cancer. In 2008, Dr. Dent, working with her cardiology colleagues, established a multidisciplinary cardio-oncology clinic in Ottawa; the first of its kind in Canada. In 2011, she founded the Canadian Cardiac Oncology Network (CONN), a not-for-profit organization devoted to optimization of cancer care for patients without compromising cardiovascular health. In 2015, Dr. Dent launched the Global Cardio-Oncology Summit (GCOS), an annual meeting which now attracts oncologists, cardiologists, and allied health care providers from more than 23 countries. Dr. Dent is recognized as a global leader in cardio-oncology. She has travelled extensively around the world sharing her knowledge and expertise on the potential impact of cancer treatment on cardiovascular health. She has published extensively in the area and has co-authored a number of position statements and clinical practice guidelines. Dr. Dent currently serves as an Executive Officer of the International Cardio-Oncology society (ICOS), an organization dedicated to bringing cardiologists, oncologists, and allied health care providers together, to improve the clinical care of patients and save lives. In September 2018, Dr. Dent accepted a staff position in medical oncology at Duke University, where she will continue her efforts in promoting clinical care, education and research in cardio-oncology.