San Diego Myeloma Roundtable

Caitlin Costello, MD

Caitlin Costello, MD, is a board-certified hematologist and medical oncologist who specializes in treating a variety of blood cancers, including multiple myeloma, lymphoma, and leukemia. She is part of the joint UC San Diego Health / Sharp HealthCare Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BMT) Program, which provides patients with the unique opportunity to receive care from the same physician throughout all phases of blood cancer treatment. This includes initial consultation and diagnosis, treatment to help achieve remission, care throughout stem cell transplants, and follow-up survivorship care. Dr. Costello offers chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy to adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. CAR T-cell therapy harnesses the patient's own immune cells to recognize and kill cancer cells. It is just one of many types of personalized cancer therapies offered at UC San Diego Health. She also participates in a number of clinical trials that offer cutting-edge treatment strategies and therapies for a variety of blood cancers. Her primary clinical interests include treating plasma cell disorders such as multiple myeloma, Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia and systemic amyloidosis. Her research focuses on refining the management and treatment of these diseases. She is committed to conducting clinical trials for multiple myeloma with novel agents and regimens, with a goal to broaden therapeutic options and knowledge of this disease. She also has a special interest in precision medicine and developing treatment strategies that are most specific to the genetic and molecular details of an individual's disease. Dr. Costello completed a fellowship in hematology-oncology with a focus in bone marrow transplantation at UC San Diego School of Medicine. She completed a residency in internal medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Costello earned her medical degree at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. She is board certified in internal medicine, hematology and medical oncology.

Ajai Chari, MD

Ajai Chari, M.D. is the Director of the Multiple Myeloma Program and a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Chari’s research interests include the development of novel chemotherapy regimens, including Phase 1 and 2 studies. He has served as the principal investigator (PI) of several investigator-initiated trials as well as the national and international PI of several industry-sponsored studies. With a long standing dedication to research, Dr Chari has been involved in each of the therapies approved in multiple myeloma over the last two decades. He has published numerous articles in the field and is a frequently invited speaker at national and international meetings. Dr. Chari received undergraduate degree from Stanford University and his medical degree from the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California – Los Angeles. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and a fellowship in hematology and oncology at the University of California – San Francisco.

Mary Kwok, MD

Dr. Kwok completed her Hematology-Oncology Fellowship Training at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and was a clinical fellow with Myeloma Service at the National Cancer Institute. After graduating from fellowship, she served as a staff hematologist-oncologist at Walter Reed and continued as a clinical collaborator with the NCI. While at Walter Reed, she served as the Hematology-Oncology fellowship training program director at the National Capital Consortium. She served as the institutional Principal Investigator on multiple clinical trials for patients with multiple myeloma and served as the director for the FACT-accredited autologous stem cell transplant program. Her interests include global hematology and she has worked with medical students from Albania for the past several years. She is board certified in Hematology and Medical Oncology and is a clinician on the Myeloma Service at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

Scott Goldsmith, MD

Scott R. Goldsmith MD specializes in the treatment of multiple myeloma, which is also the focus of his prolific research. “I am passionate about bringing new and innovative treatments to patients with multiple myeloma and other hematologic malignancies through translational research and clinical trials,” he said.

Jenny 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.