Selecting the appropriate treatment for indolent NHL: the now and the next

Stefan K. Barta, MD, MRCP(UK) underwent medical training at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfort, Germany. He completed his internal medicine training at the St. Bartholomew’s and The Royal London Hospital, UK and his hematology-oncology fellowship at the Montefiore Medical Center/Albert-Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York. Previously, Dr Barta led the T-cell lymphoma program at the Fox Chase Cancer Center. He is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and is in charge of the T Cell Lymphoma Program. His research interests are focused on novel therapies in T-cell and other aggressive lymphomas. He was awarded with an American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Young Investigator Award in 2010. Since then, he has led and/or developed multiple investigational clinical trials for lymphoma either as study chair, principal investigator or site principal investigator. He serves on the lymphoma committees for the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG-ACRIN) and AIDS Malignancy Consortium (AMC) and is a member of the AMC steering committee. He is reviewer for several oncological journals and is on the editorial board for “Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma & Leukemia”.

Dr Jessica Okosun is a Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist at the Barts Cancer Institute and an Honorary Consultant Haematologist at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London UK, specialising in lymphomas. She received her BA in Natural Sciences (Pathology) and qualified in medicine from the University of Cambridge in 2004. She was a recipient of the Kay Kendall Leukaemia Fund’s Junior Research Fellowship, completing her PhD in 2015 from Queen Mary, University of London. Her research interests are focussed on understanding the origin, heterogeneity and evolution of lymphomas, particularly follicular lymphomas, in a bid to define novel biomarkers and therapeutic strategies. Her research has led to several awards including the EHA/ASH Translational Research Training in Haematology award and the UK’s Royal College of Pathologist Specialty Research Medal in Haematology. She is an active member of the UK’s National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) High Grade Lymphoma Subgroup, Hodgkin lymphoma subgroup and the Primary CNS Lymphoma (PCNSL) Working Party. She chairs the Barts Cancer Centre’s Patient and Public Research Advisory Group.

Alexey V. Danilov, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Medicine at the City of Hope National Medical Center, in Los Angeles, CA. He earned his medical degree and PhD at Yaroslavl State Medical Academy in Russia and completed a fellowship in hematology/oncology at Tufts Medical Center, in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr Danilov runs an independently funded clinical/translational program in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) that bridges the understanding of B-cell biology with early clinical evaluation of novel therapeutics. He spearheads a translational and early-phase therapeutics effort in B-cell malignancies at the Knight Cancer Institute. In the laboratory, he focuses on targeting stromal-mediated pro-survival signaling in lymphoid malignancies. He has characterized promising therapeutic agents with regard to their mechanism of action and resistance, ushering them into early-phase clinical trials in CLL and NHL. He seeks to translate his findings to clinical care by developing protocols that advance current treatment paradigms. His work has received support from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Lymphoma Research Foundation, the National Cancer Institute, and the Southwest Oncology Group, among other funding organizations. He has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals including Clinical Cancer Research, Cancer Research, Haematologica, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, Journal of Immunology and others. Among numerous speaking engagements, Dr Danilov has chaired sessions at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meetings, and has given visiting professor lectures in London and New York. He is a member of the American Society of Hematology and the European Hematology Association. Dr Danilov is a Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Scholar in Clinical Research and a Lymphoma Research Foundation Clinical Investigator.