New York Nov 13, 2021 Myeloma Round Table

Myeloma survivor, patient advocate, wife, mom of 6. Believer that patients can help accelerate a cure by weighing in and participating in clinical research. Founder of the HealthTree Foundation.

Suzanne Lentzsch, MD, PhD, is Professor of Clinical Medicine and the Director of the Multiple Myeloma and Amyloidosis Service at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York. Her translational research focuses on identifying novel targets for the treatment of myeloma, myeloma bone disease, and AL amyloidosis. Dr. Lentzsch is a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Myeloma Steering Committee, the SWOG Myeloma Working Group, co-chairs the International Myeloma Society’s Career Development Committee, and serves as a grant reviewer for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and Stand Up 2 Cancer (SU2C) in collaboration with the American Association for Cancer Research. She will begin a four-year term in 2021 on the American Society of Hematology’s Scientific Committee on Plasma Cell Neoplasia and as Associate Editor for the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Prior to joining Columbia University, Dr. Lentzsch served as Clinical Director of the Multiple Myeloma Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI). She served a research fellowship to study the mechanism of action of thalidomide and its derivatives in multiple myeloma under the mentorship of Dr. Kenneth Anderson at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. She completed a fellowship and residency at the Humboldt University/Charité Berlin, Germany, where she earned her MD.

Greg Brozeit has been engaged in myeloma patient advocacy since 1998. He began working with the Myeloma Crowd in 2015. Prior to that, he consulted with Dr. Bart Barlogie at the University of Arkansas after working with the International Myeloma Foundation for 15 years, where he inaugurated the public policy advocacy program, patient support group outreach and IMF Europe, organizing more than 100 physician and patient education programs. He earned his BA in political science from Loyola University in New Orleans and lives in northeast Ohio.

Alexander Leshokin, MD, is a Hematologic Oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York, NY who specializes in myeloma and immunology. His research work involves developing innovative ways to use the immune system to treat cancer. He conducts clinical studies of medicines that enhance the immune response as well as laboratory studies aimed at understanding how cancers such as multiple myeloma are able to evade the immune response with a goal of developing new ways to treat myeloma patients. Dr. Leshokin completed his fellowship at MSKCC and his residency at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. He earned his medical degree at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

Faith Davies, MBBCh, MRCP, MD, FRCPath, is a member of the faculty of the Department of Medicine at New York University Langone Health and Director of the Clinical Myeloma Program at the Perlmutter Cancer Center. She is recognized internationally for her focus on innovative targeted molecular therapies and her expertise in the treatment of relapsed refractory disease. Her focus is on the biology and treatment of myeloma with an emphasis on potential new drugs and new genetic technologies and their applications to myeloma. Her laboratory work is aimed at identifying biologically based therapeutic targets in myeloma that are amenable to small molecule interventions and translating those laboratory findings into individualized treatment in the clinical setting. Prior to joining NYU Langone Health, Dr. Davies was Deputy Director of the Myeloma Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). She also served as Professor of Medicine and Director of the Phase I Clinical Trials Program for both the Myeloma Institute and the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute. Dr. Davies came to UAMS in 2014 from the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital, both in London. She earned her medical degree from the College of Medicine, University of Wales. She completed her general medical training in Cardiff and Birmingham and hematology specialty training in Leeds and London.

Ruben Niesvizky, MD is Director of the Multiple Myeloma Center and the Director of Oncology Operations at the New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medicine. He is also Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, in New York, and Attending Physician at the New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Niesvizky received his medical degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City and completed a residency in internal medicine and a research fellowship in cell biology/granulomonopoiesis at the National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition in Mexico City. Dr. Niesvizky was awarded a clinical hematology fellowship at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York, where he was named Chief Fellow. He was also awarded a hematology/oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where he was assistant attending physician for 6 years. Dr. Niesvizky is fluent in written and spoken Spanish, Hebrew and English. Dr. Niesvizky’s work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Blood, Cancer, Leukemia and Lymphoma, and Seminars in Oncology. He has been the director of the clinical core of the Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society granted in 2000 and is the recipient of various grants and awards from the National Cancer Institute, including a K23 award and 3 translational research grants for the development of new drugs. He is the recipient of the 2007 Investigator Award of the Michael Wolk Heart Foundation. A frequent lecturer, Dr Niesvizky regularly presents at annual meetings of the American Society of Hematology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology, of which he is also a member. He is an active participant in clinical trials of promising new drugs and medical procedures for the treatment of myeloma, lymphoma, and related hematologic disorders. He is a member of several professional associations, including the American Society of Hematology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Dr. Cesar Rodriguez is Associate Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, The Tisch Cancer Institute, and the Center of Excellence for Multiple Myeloma, and serves as Clinical Director of Multiple Myeloma at The Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Rodriguez has extensive experience treating patients with plasma cell disorders. He is a member of the International Myeloma Working Group which conducts collaborative research and produces consensus guidelines for the myeloma community. Dr. Rodriguez has more than 10 years of experience in clinical research and is the principal investigator of numerous clinical trials for multiple myeloma focused on early drug development and immunotherapies that include T cell and NK cell directed therapies. He is also working on a 3D organoid model to better understand the biology of the tumor niche.

David Vesole, MD, PhD, is director of the Myeloma Program at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and a professor of Medicine at Georgetown University. Concurrently, he is co-director of the Myeloma Division and director of Myeloma Research at the John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center. Previously, Dr. Vesole was director of the BMT Program at Loyola University in Maywood, IL, an attending physician at St. Vincent's Comprehensive Cancer Center in New York, and Professor of Medicine and Clinical Director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Dr. Vesole is board certified in medical oncology and hematology and is a member of the International Myeloma Foundation Scientific Advisory Board and the International Myeloma Working Group, a board member of the New York City chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and a reviewer, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Translational Grant Review Committee. He has authored more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed medical journals and book chapters. He also serves as a reviewer for several journals, including the American Journal of Hematology, Blood, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplant, Bone Marrow Transplant, Leukemia, Leukemia and Lymphoma and Clinical Lymphoma Myeloma & Leukemia. Dr. Vesole has presented his research at medical meetings and symposia nationally and internationally. Dr. Vesole earned a medical degree at Northwestern University and a doctorate in immunology and microbiology at the Medical University of South Carolina. His postdoctoral medical training included a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in Hematology and Oncology at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.