MesoTV Podcast: Conversations Impacting the Mesothelioma Community

Melina Marmarelis, MD, Thoracic Medical Oncologist, UPenn joins us for an interview about precision medicine. She discusses biomarker information, such as histology (currently most valuable), but also molecular testing such as NF2, MTAP, CDKN2A mutations that can be used when determining precision medicine treatments. Other topics discussed are BAP1 mutations, PDL1 expression, mutational burden, and oncolytic viruses. The interview is moderated by Julie White, BSN, OCN, RN who is the patient services director at the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation. More information is available at curemeso.org.

Michael Offin, MD, MSKCC, joins us for an informative session about chemotherapy drugs, their uses, side effects, and supportive medications.

Andreas Rimner, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, joins us for a conversation about radiation oncology and currently available clinical trials. He discussed various ways patients can benefit from radiation therapy, including an overview of different types of radiation and different modes of treatment. Radiation therapy can be applied alone, or in combination with other treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy, or immunotherapy. Dr. Rimner is a radiation oncologist who specializes in caring for people with cancers of the chest, known as thoracic cancers. These include non-small cell and small cell lung cancers, pleural mesotheliomas, thymomas, lung metastases, sarcomas, and other rare tumors of the chest. He works closely with a highly skilled team of experts from many areas — including surgeons, medical oncologists, radiologists, medical physicists, and radiation therapists — to determine the best treatment options for his patients. HIs team uses the most advanced radiation techniques, including stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) or stereotactic ablative body radiation (SABR), stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), intensity-modulated pleural radiation therapy (IMPRINT), MR-guided radiation therapy, and proton radiation to precisely target cancers while limiting damage to normal tissues.

MesoTV is a program by the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation. This program is made possible by our generous sponsors: Maune Raichle Hartley French & Mudd, LLC (MRHFM); Bristol Myers Squibb; Novocure, Merck, The Gori Law Firm, TCR2, AstraZeneca, Early Lucarelli Sweeney & Meisenkothen.

Search our previous episodes for topics/speakers of interest to you at www.curemeso.org/mesotv.

In this episode of MesoTV, we are joined by Dr. Ibiayi Dagogo-Jack a thoracic oncologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School. She helps us understand the types of immunotherapy treatments currently available to mesothelioma patients, and treatments undergoing clinical trials that might be available in the future. We discuss the ipilimumab/nivolumab (Yervoy/Opdivo) combination, Keytruda (pembrolizumab), and the combination of durvalumab (Imfinzi) with standard chemotherapy that is currently being studied. We also discuss targeted therapies. Dr. Dagogo-Jack explains in a very approachable way the theory behind immunotherapy in general, as well as why certain immunotherapies might be better choices for certain patients.

Dr. Ibiayi Dagogo-Jack received her bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and her medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. She trained in internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Following residency, she completed hematology/oncology fellowship in the combined Massachusetts General Hospital/Dana Farber Cancer Institute program. She is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a medical oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital where she specializes in thoracic cancers. She conducts clinical/translational research focused on understanding mechanisms underlying resistance to cancer therapeutics and clinical trials designed to evaluate novel combinations in lung cancer and mesothelioma.

Dr. Andrea Wolf is Director of the New York Mesothelioma Program at the Mount Sinai Health System, which provides comprehensive, multidisciplinary clinical care for patients with suspected or diagnosed malignant pleural mesothelioma. She has expertise in surgery for pleural mesothelioma and VATS lobectomy, and research interests in mesothelioma, health care disparities, and lung cancer. Dr. Wolf graduated Cum Laude from Princeton University and earned highest honors and her medical degree at Harvard Medical School. She trained in General Surgery and served as Chief Resident at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Dr. Wolf earned a Master in Public Health with a focus on Clinical Effectiveness at Harvard University School of Public Health while researching malignant pleural mesothelioma and early stage lung cancer as a Thoracic Oncology Research Fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, also in Boston. She completed her training in Cardiothoracic Surgery after serving as Chief Resident in Thoracic Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Wolf is interviewed by Shannon Sinclair, RN, BSN, OCN, who serves as the patient services director at the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation. www.curemeso.org.

Conversation with Travis Grotz, MD, surgical oncologist at Mayo Clinic who specializes in the treatment of peritoneal malignancies. Dr. Grotz serves on the Science Advisory Board of the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation. He is interviewed by Shannon Sinclair, RN, BSN, OCN, who serves as the patient services director at the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation. www.curemeso.org.

We meet with Dr. Joseph Friedberg, a thoracic surgeon at Temple University Hospital-Main Campus and Fox Chase Cancer Center. Joseph Friedberg, MD, FACS, is Thoracic Surgeon-in-Chief of Temple University Health System, Vice Chair of Surgical Services for the Department of Thoracic Medicine and Surgery, Professor of Thoracic Medicine and Surgery at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, and Co-Director of the Temple Health Mesothelioma and Pleural Disease Program. He is interviewed by Shannon Sinclair, RN, BSN, OCN, who serves as the patient services director at the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation. www.curemeso.org.

MesoTV is a program by the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation. This program is made possible by our generous sponsors: Maune Raichle Hartley French & Mudd, LLC (MRHFM); Bristol Myers Squibb; Novocure, Merck, The Gori Law Firm, TCR2, AstraZeneca, Early Lucarelli Sweeney & Meisenkothen.

Search our previous episodes for topics/speakers of interest to you at www.curemeso.org/mesotv.

Separately, chemotherapy and immunotherapy are both approved to treat mesothelioma, and individually they work equally well for those patients with the epithelioid type of disease. Currently, the question in front of scientists is what happens when those two treatments are combined? DREAMER, a new clinical trial enrolling right now in the United States and Australia, is looking to find those answers. In this episode of MesoTV we talk with one of the principal investigators of this study, Dr. Patrick Forde of Johns Hopkins, to ask him about what this trial means to patients. If a patients is considering enrolling in this trial, they should watch this episode. The interview is moderated by Shannon Sinclair, RN, BSN, OCN, the oncology nurse at the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation. www.curemeso.org.

MesoTV is a program by the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation. This program is made possible by our generous sponsors: Maune Raichle Hartley French & Mudd, LLC (MRHFM); Bristol Myers Squibb; Novocure, Merck, The Gori Law Firm, TCR2, AstraZeneca, Early Lucarelli Sweeney & Meisenkothen.

Search our previous episodes for topics/speakers of interest to you at www.curemeso.org/mesotv.

The Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation can help guide you through the selection of medical specialists and treatments including clinical trials. Our on-staff mesothelioma expert, Shannon Sinclair, RN, BSN, OCN, is available to speak with patients and their families to help guide them through their diagnosis and treatment options. She can be reached at [email protected] or by phone at (703) 879-3821. Shannon is an oncology nurse with 14 years of experience working at a large cancer center in Ohio where she worked with a multidisciplinary team comprised of medical and radiation oncologists, surgeons, and other specialties involved in cancer care. Shannon also spent time working as an oncology clinical nurse educator for a large pharmaceutical company, where she educated providers at cancer centers and hospitals about clinical trial data, upcoming indications, immunotherapy, PARP inhibitors (a special type of a targeted cancer drug), mechanisms of action of various agents, potential adverse events, and side-effect management. Earlier in her career she was an oncology specialty pharmacy nurse educating patients, caregivers, nurses, and clinicians on oral oncolytics. She holds the Oncology Certified Nurse (OCN) certification and certification through the Oncology Nursing Society for chemotherapy, biotherapy, and immunotherapy.

We are joined by Dr. Marjorie Zauderer, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Zauderer talks to us about the thought process she and other medical oncologists employ when determining whether a patient should enroll in a clinical trial and which trial that should be.