OncLive Honors 15 Cancer Care Pioneers

For the 12th consecutive year, OncLive is honored to recognize oncology leaders whose innovations have contributed to immeasurable improvements in outcomes for countless patients with cancer. The 15 winners of the 2024 Giants of Cancer Care awards have made their mark with novel therapies and protocols across the spectrum of care.

BREAST CANCER

Joseph A. Sparano, MD

Mount Sinai

• Sparano is chief of the Division of Hematology Oncology, deputy director of the Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine, and the Ezra M. Greenspan MD Professor in Clinical Cancer Therapeutics at Mount Sinai.
• He was the principal investigator for the TAILORx trial (NCT00310180), which demonstrated that most women with early breast cancer and a midrange 21-gene recurrence score do not require chemotherapy.
• Sparano also led the phase 3 E1199 trial (NCT00004125), which found that adjuvant weekly paclitaxel improves overall survival in stage II to stage
  III breast cancer.
• He developed the rituximab (Rituxan) plus etoposide phosphate, prednisone, vincristine sulfate, cyclophosphamide, and doxorubicin hydrochloride (EPOCH) regimen for the management of HIV-associated lymphoma; and cetuximab plus cisplatin/5-fluorouracil/radiation for anal cancer.
• Sparano organized an international team to perform a meta-analysis of HIV-lymphoma trials and develop a new prognostic score for HIV-associated lymphoma.
• He played a key role in validating and/or refining prognostic gene expression signatures, including the Oncotype DX Recurrence Score and DCIS Score, in early-stage breast cancer.
• He is the chair and principal investigator of the AIDS Malignancy Consortium, a network of clinical trial sites in the United States, Africa, and Latin America. He also serves as deputy chair of the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group and is a member of the board of managers of PrECOG and the Early Breast Cancer Trialists’ Collaborative Group Steering Committee.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH/EDUCATION

Edward S. Kim, MD, MBA

City of Hope

• Kim serves as physician in chief at City of Hope Orange County, vice physician in chief at City of Hope National Medical Center, and professor in the Department of Medical Oncology & Therapeutics Research at City of Hope. He is also the Construction Industries Alliance City of Hope Orange County physician in chief chair.
• He is a leading national expert in molecular prognostication, as demonstrated by the BATTLE study (NCT00409968), of which he is the lead author; it is the first completed prospective, biopsy-mandated, biomarker-based, adaptively randomized trial in patients with pretreated lung cancer.
• Kim led ASCO’s collaboration with Friends of Cancer Research to develop new clinical trial eligibility requirements to increase trial population diversity, homing in on 10 areas in which eligibility criteria could be expanded.
• He established a first-of-its-kind integrative oncology program combining Eastern and Western medicine approaches at City of Hope.
• Kim was also named a Modern Healthcare top diversity leader in 2023, the second time he received this honor, and named a U.S. News & World Report Top Doctor.

GASTROINTESTINAL CANCER

John L. Marshall, MD

Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University

• Marshall is chief of hematology and oncology; professor of medicine and oncology; and director of the Otto J Ruesch Center for the Cure of Gastrointestinal Cancers at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.
• Marshall established the Otto J Ruesch Center for the Cure of Gastrointestinal Cancers in 2009. The organization is focused on improving the lives of patients with GI cancer through research, advocacy, and personalized medicine. He is also the director of the GI Cancer Alliance Network within the Ruesch Center.
• He established the Precision Oncology Alliance in 2015 and served as its founding director. The nationwide coalition studies the effect of molecular profiling on cancer research and patient outcomes.
• Marshall has served as principal investigator for more than 100 clinical trials and is an internationally recognized expert in new drug development for gastrointestinal cancers.

GENITOURINARY CANCERS

Christopher J. Logothetis, MD

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

• Logothetis serves as the director of the David H. Koch Center for Applied Research of Genitourinary Cancers and is the Roy M. and Phyllis Gough Huffington Clinical Research in Urologic Oncology Distinguished Chair at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MD Anderson).
• He was among the first investigators to explore chemotherapy for patients with advanced prostate cancer and has also been part of the development of bone- and molecular-targeted treatments for various prostate cancer subsets.
• In collaboration with colleagues at MD Anderson, he developed a mobile app allowing patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors to report adverse events and alert their care teams.
• He is co-leader of the Prostate Cancer Moon Shot program, which is a collaboration between basic scientists and clinicians to identify and execute advances for patients with this malignancy.
• Logothetis is the recipient of the 2021 Tex US TOO Prostate Cancer Medical Professional of the Year Award.

GYNECOLOGIC CANCER

Carol Aghajanian, MD

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

• Aghajanian serves as chief, gynecologic medical oncology service and is a gynecologic oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK).
• She directs MSK’s research program in chemotherapy for patients with newly diagnosed ovarian cancer.
• Aghajanian is heavily involved in research as the coprincipal investigator responsible for MSK’s participation in the Gynecologic Oncology Group(GOG) and member of the phase I and medical oncology committees of the GOG.
• She is the coauthor of several studies that led to immunotherapy becoming a standard therapy in endometrial cancer and PARP inhibition becoming a staple therapy in the maintenance and recurrent ovarian cancer settings.
• She is a recipient of the Boyer Award for outstanding young investigators at MSK.

LEUKEMIA

Guillermo Garcia-Manero, MD

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

• Garcia-Manero serves as chief of the section of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS); deputy chair of translational research; professor; and director of the Fellowship Program, all within the Department of Leukemia, at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MD Anderson). He also is chair of the Faculty Senate for MD Anderson.
• He leads the largest MDS program in the world and directs the MDS/AML Moon Shot program at MD Anderson, which includes the priority projects of developing therapies, overcoming drug resistance, and preventing relapse.
• He is the Dr Kenneth B. McCredie Chair in Clinical Leukemia Research in the Department of Leukemia at MD Anderson.
• He is the 2023-2024 President of the Society of Hematologic Oncology (SOHO) and chair of the 2024 SOHO Annual Meeting.
• Garcia-Manero has had over 500 publications on biology, therapy, and prognostication of these disorders, and the development of multiple therapeutic clinical trials.

LUNG CANCER

Solange Peters, MD, PhD

University Hospital of Lausanne

• Peters is a full professor, chair of medical oncology, and chair of the thoracic malignancies program in the Department of Oncology at Lausanne University Hospital in Switzerland.
• She is an active investigator in the realm of immunotherapeutics and its associated mechanisms of resistance in patients with cancer.
• She is a former president of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), becoming the youngest president ever during her leadership from 2020-2022, and is the founder of ESMO’s Women for Oncology Committee.
• Peters spent 5 years as an editor for the ESMO guidelines, which are designed to inform clinical decision-making with consensus recommendations from renowned experts.
• She is the coauthor of several papers centered around the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on patients with thoracic malignancies.
• Peters is dedicated to the creation of a translational program at Lausanne University alongside the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the Ludwig Institute.
• Peters is also the scientific committee chair and Foundation Council member for the European Thoracic Oncology Platform.