Update from ASCO GI 2023

Prof. Efrat Dotan is the executive medical director for Penn Medicine Ann B. Barshinger Cancer Institute in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She graduated from the Technion Institute of Technology Medical School in Israel and moved to the US to pursue her specialized training. She completed her residency at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, and her hematology/oncology fellowship at Fox Chase Cancer Center. Prof. Dotan specializes in the management of patients with gastrointestinal malignancies, specifically pancreatic cancer. Her research interest is in development of new treatment options for patients with gastrointestinal cancers. She is the PI for multiple clinical trials in this arena. Prof. Dotan is a member of the Gastrointestinal Malignancies Committee of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), serves as the PI for multiple studies and is co-chair of the NCI pancreatic task force. Dr Dotan’s other interest is in the management of older patients with cancer, developing treatment strategies and tools to improve the care of this patient population. She has led multiple research projects evaluating the care of older patients with gastrointestinal malignancies. She is a senior member of the Cancer and Aging Research Group, the chair of the Older Adult Oncology Guidelines for NCCN and the chair of the geriatric oncology working group for ECOG.

Dr Nataliya Uboha is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology and a member of Carbone Cancer Center (UWCCC). Her clinical and research activities focus on upper GI cancers. She has extensive clinical trial experience, with a particular emphasis on phase 1 and biomarker based clinical studies. She is a Faculty Leader for the Cancer Therapy Discovery & Development (Phase I) Program at UWCCC. She is a co-leader and founder of the Basket Disease Oriented Team at UWCCC, which has a specific focus on biomarker based trials across disease types. Dr Uboha has a number of regional and national leadership roles. She serves on the board of Wisconsin Association of Hematology and Oncology. She is a co-chair for the GI Cancer Research Group in Big 10 Cancer Research Consortium. She chairs the Upper GI working group at ECOG-ACRIN and serves on the National Cancer Institute Upper GI Taskforce as an ECOG representative.

Dr. Shubham Pant is a Professor in the Department of Gastrointestinal (GI) Medical Oncology with a joint appointment in the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics (Phase I Center) at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Pant is recognised as an international expert in GI cancers with an emphasis on pancreatic and biliary cancers and Phase 1 trials.

Dr. Pant's research focuses on novel immunotherapeutic approaches and targeted therapies in GI cancers, including devising novel ways to target the KRAS mutation. He has been the lead/co-lead of several global practice-changing studies, including 'Zanidatamab for HER2-amplified, unresectable, locally advanced or metastatic biliary tract cancer (HERIZON-BTC-01): a multicenter, single-arm, phase 2b study'; 'Adagrasib in advanced solid tumors harboring a KRASG12C mutation' and 'Erdafitinib in patients with advanced solid tumors with FGFR alterations (RAGNAR): an international, single-arm, phase 2 study'; amongst others. He has over 100 peer-reviewed publications and has published in high-impact journals, including The Lancet, Lancet Oncology, and Journal of Clinical Oncology. He is frequently invited to present his research at national and international meetings. He collaborates on numerous grants, including R01 and SPORE grants funded by the National Institute of Health. Dr. Pant serves on the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Pancreas Task Force and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network's (PanCan) Scientific and Medical Advisory Board. He also helped draft the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer Guidelines, which provide evidence-based recommendations for physicians. He is also the editor of the book Pancreatic Cancer: Current Therapeutics and Future Directions (Publisher: Springer).

Andrea Sartore-Bianchi is the Director of the Division of Clinical Research and Innovation at Grande Ospedale Metropolitano Niguarda in Milano, Italy, and Associate Professor of Oncology at the University of Milano. He received his MD and postgraduate degree in Oncology at the University of Pavia, Italy, and subsequently conducted preclinical research at Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.

His main clinical and research interests include precision oncology and the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers, particularly colorectal carcinomas, focusing on biomarkers of sensitivity/resistance to targeted therapies. He is principal and co-investigator in Phase I-III clinical trials for solid tumours and carried out initial studies paving the way for the use of RAS and Her2 as tumor tissue/ctDNA biomarkers in colorectal cancer. He has published 200 peer-reviewed articles in various medical journals with a H-index of 62 (Scopus).