BCMA and Other Targets April 10, 2021 Myeloma Round Table
B-cell maturation agent (BCMA), which is expressed on the surface of virtually all myeloma cells, has been called “the perfect target” for novel therapies including antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), CAR T, bispecific T-cell engagers (BiTEs or bispecifics), and new immunotherapies like trispecifics. This program will be a deep dive into why these targets are important, how their mechanisms function, and how they are being integrated into myeloma therapy.
Jennifer Ahlstrom
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.
Greg Brozeit
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 Lesokhin, MD
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.
Krina Patel, MD, MSc
Krina Patel, MD, MSc, is Associate Professor and Center Medical Director in the Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma of the Division of Cancer Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) in Houston, TX. She treats only patients with plasma cell dyscrasias and is Principal Investigator for multiple ongoing phase I/II and III immune-oncology and maintenance clinical trials for myeloma patients. Her research interests include myeloma, developing cellular therapies like CAR T, and combining immunotherapy and chemotherapy in the induction, transplant, maintenance and salvage settings and she has completed significant clinical research in hematopoeitic stem cell transplantation. Dr. Patel completed her Hematology Oncology fellowship at MDACC and served as Chief Fellow. She received her MSc for a translational project she completed in the laboratory of Dr. Laurence Cooper, evaluating the combination of CAR T cells and TCR engineered cells with vaccine in in vitro and in vivo myeloma models. She served her clinical residency in internal medicine at the University of Texas UT Health in Houston, TX and earned her medical degree at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, TX.