HCC CONNECT Update from ASCO 2019

Dr James Harding is a board-certified medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, USA. He specializes in caring for people with liver cancer, gallbladder cancer, and bile duct cancer. His primary goal is to provide the best possible treatment and individualized care for people with these diseases.  In his research, he is trying to find new, effective therapies for gastrointestinal cancer, particularly primary liver and bile duct tumors. For example, he is working on ways to use a patient’s own immune system to fight cancer (immunotherapy). In addition, Dr Harding is investigating strategies to block specific cellular pathways that cancer uses to grow. He has helped develop and lead numerous national and international clinical trials of these new cancer therapies for patients with liver, bile duct cancers, and other solid tumors.  Dr Harding’s research and training has been supported by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, the National Institutes of Health, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  His work has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Nature Medicine, the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cancer Discovery, Clinical Cancer Research, and Cancer. Relevant publications Harding  JJ, Nandakumar S, Armenia J, Khalil DN, Albano M, Ly M, Shia J, Hechtman JF, Kundra R, El Dika I, Do RK, Sun Y, Kingham TP, D'Angelica MI, Berger MF, Hyman DM, Jarnagin WR, Klimstra DS, Janjigian YY, Solit DB, Schultz N, Abou-Alfa  GK.  Prospective Genotyping of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Clinical Implications of Next Generation Sequencing for Matching Patients to Targeted and Immune Therapies. Clinical Cancer Research 2018. OCT 29   Harding JJ, Lowery MA, Shih AH, Schvartzman JM, Hou S, Famulare C, Patel M, Roshal M, Do RK, Zehir A, You D, Selcuklu SD, Viale A, Tallman MS, Hyman DM, Reznik E, Finley LWS, Papaemmanuil E, Tosolini A, Frattini MG, MacBeth KJ, Liu G, Fan B, Choe S, Wu B, Janjigian YY, Mellinghoff IK, Diaz LA, Levine RL, Abou-Alfa GK, Stein E, Intlekofer AM.  Isoform switching as a mechanism of acquired resistance to mutant isocitrate dehydrogenase inhibition.  Cancer Discov 2018 Oct 24.   Harding JJ, Do RK, Dika IE, Hollywood E, Uhlitskykh K, Valentino E, Wan P, Hamilton C, Feng X, Johnston A, Bomalaski J, Li CF, O'Reilly EM, Abou-Alfa GK.  A phase 1 study of ADI-PEG 20 and modified FOLFOX6 in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma and other gastrointestinal malignancies.  Cancer Chemother Pharmacol 2018 Sep;82(3):429-440   Harding JJ, Abu-Zeinah G, Chou JF, Owen DH, Ly M, Lowery MA, Capanu M, Do R, Kemeny NE, O'Reilly EM, Saltz LB, Abou-Alfa GK.  Frequency, Morbidity, and Mortality of Bone Metastases in Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma.  J Natl Compr Canc Netw 2018 Jan;16(1):50-58.   Harding JJ, El Dika I, Abou-Alfa GK.  Immunotherapy in hepatocellular carcinoma: Primed to make a difference?  Cancer 2016 Feb 1;122(3):367-77.