April 14 2021
Congratulations to the NRG Oncology Members Assigned to NCI Gastrointestinal Task Forces
The following NRG Oncology Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancer Committee members have recently been appointed or had their appointments renewed to serve on the National Cancer Institute (NCI) GI Task Force for esophagogastric cancers. Members involved in this task force will meet to discuss concepts and make recommendations for clinical trial planning within their disease subtype.
David Ilson, MD, PhD
ilsond@mskcc.org
Dr. Ilson is a Medical Oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and is a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. He specializes in colorectal, esophageal, pancreatic, gastric, and other GI cancers and his research is primarily focused on studying new agents to treat advanced disease and evaluating novel agents in combined-modality therapy to treat locally advanced disease.
At NRG Oncology, Dr. Ilson currently serves as Vice Chair of the Non-Colorectal Cancer group in the GI Cancer Committee. In addition to his work with NRG Oncology, he is a member of GI Cancer Committees within Alliance and a member of the Upper GI Cancer Guidelines Committee within the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Dr. Ilson has also been awarded in New York Magazine’s Top Doctors listings for 2007-2009, and 2016.
“NRG Oncology has been a leader in developing combined modality therapy and studying novel agents in esophageal cancer, including the recent RTOG 1010 trial which studied trastuzumab added to preoperative chemoradiotherapy in HER2 positive esophageal cancer.We look forward to evaluating novel agents in this space and continuing to move the field forward,” stated Dr. Ilson.
Geoffrey Ku, MD
kug@mskcc.org
Dr. Ku is a Medical Oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who specializes in gastrointestinal malignancies, new chemotherapies, and esophageal and gastric cancers. He is the Section Head for the Esophagogastric Section on the GI Oncology Service. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, completed his internal medicine residency at New York-Presbyterian Hospital at Weill Cornell Medical School and a medical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (where he was mentored by Dr. Davd Ilson). He also spent an additional year at the Ludwig Center for Cancer Immunotherapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering.
At NRG Oncology, Dr. Ku is the Principal Investigator for the NRG-GI007 study that is currently active and accruing patients. The Phase I NRG-GI007 trial is testing telomelysin and definitive chemoradiotherapy for patients with locally advanced esophageal and gastroesophageal cancer who are not able to receive surgery. More information on this trial can be found on ClinicalTrials.gov.
In addition to his work with NRG Oncology, Dr. Ku is a member of National Cancer Institute Esophagogastric Task Force. He is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and previously served on the GI Non-Colorectal Cancer Track for the Scientific Program Committee).
Steven H. Lin, MD, PhD
shlin@mdanderson.org
Dr. Lin is a Radiation Oncologist in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center who specializes in thoracic malignancies. His research focuses on improving clinical outcomes for esophageal and lung cancer patients who are received radiotherapy and he has a special interest in the application of advanced radiation technologies, such as intensity modulated radiotherapy and proton beam radiotherapy, and utilizing imaging and blood-based biomarkers to predict response to treatment.
At NRG Oncology, Dr. Lin is the Principal Investigator for the NRG-GI006 and NRG-LU004 trials that are both currently active and accruing patients. NRG-GI006 is a Phase III randomized trial that will be comparing proton beam therapy to intensity modulated photon radiotherapy for patients with esophageal cancer. More information on this trial can be found on ClinicalTrials.gov. NRG-LU004 is a Phase I clinical trial studying accelerated or conventionally fractionated radiotherapy combined with MEDI4736 (durvalumab) for patients with PD-L1 high locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer. More information on this trial can be found on ClinicalTrials.gov.
In addition to his work with NRG Oncology, Dr. Lin is a member of the European Society for Radiation Oncology, the American Radium Society, the American Association for Cancer Research, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, the American Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Samuel Klempner, MD
sklempner@partners.org
Dr. Klempner is a Medical Oncologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center who specializes in gastric, esophageal, and gastrointestinal cancers. In his role Dr. Klempner conducts trials and translational research that seeks to define new targeted agents and immune therapies as well as treatment biomarkers. He is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
At NRG Oncology, Dr. Klempner is a member of the NRG Oncology GI Colorectal and Non-Colorectal Cancer Core Committees. In addition to his work with NRG Oncology, he also belongs to the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the European Society of Medical Oncology, the American Gastroenterological Associations and the American Association for Cancer Research.His research is currently supported by the National Cancer Institute, the American Gastroenterological Associations, Stand-Up-2-Cancer, and the American Association for Cancer Research. He is active in patient advocacy and outreach and, “is eager to work with NRG Oncology and the NCI to bring forward novel gastroesophageal concepts to improve outcomes in this difficult disease”.