Speaker bios Chordoma Community Conference at MD Anderson Cancer Center Fredrick Castellano, MBA Fred Castellano is the Director of Managed Care Contracting for The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. In his current role, he oversees the contracting efforts for the hospital and physicians with local and national health plans. Prior to joining The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Fred held leadership roles in managed care, healthcare operations, and consulting. His prior experience includes managed care contracting, value based reimbursement, population health models, revenue cycle operational redesign, and strategic planning. Anthony Conley, MD Dr. Conley is a clinical investigator in the Department of Sarcoma Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. His interest is in providing the best possible care for sarcoma patients. His clinical research interests involve chondrosarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, malignant granular cell tumors, and gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Franco DeMonte, MD Dr. DeMonte is the Vice-Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and has been a member of the department since 1992. He also serves as the Medical Director of the Brain and Spine Center at MD Anderson. Dr. DeMonte is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Mary Beth Pawelek Chair in Neurosurgery and the University Cancer Foundation Faculty Achievement Award in Patient Care. He is the past President of the North American Skull Base Society and the past President of the Houston Neurological Society. Dr. DeMonte is a member of the editorial board of several medical journals. He is frequently requested as a national and international lecturer and instructor. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, written over 30 book chapters and edited 4 books. Dr. DeMonte is a noted leader in the field of neurosurgery and head and neck surgery with particular expertise in the management of tumors of the skull base. Jack Fu, MD Dr. Fu is a physiatrist and Associate Professor in the Department of Palliative, Rehabilitation & Integrative Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is a graduate of University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and trained at the Baylor/University of Texas-Houston PM&R program and TIRR for residency and brain injury fellowship. Dr. Fu is board certified in Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and Brain Injury Medicine. As an academically active physiatrist, Dr. Fu has written numerous book chapters and given lectures at national and international conferences. He has also published peer-reviewed original research articles on cancer rehabilitation and, in particular, inpatient cancer rehabilitation.
Gregory N. Fuller, MD, PhD Dr. Fuller was born in Houston, Texas. He received his MD degree from Baylor College of Medicine and his PhD degree in Neuroscience from The University of Texas MD Anderson UT Health Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences under the supervision of Dr. Richard C. Wiggins. He completed an Anatomic Pathology Residency and a Neuropathology Fellowship under the mentorship of Drs. Peter C. Burger and F. Stephen Vogel at Duke University, and worked in the Brain Tumor Research Laboratory of Dr. Darrell Bigner. He joined the faculty of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in 1992 and rose through the ranks to become Chief Neuropathologist in 1998 and Professor of Pathology (Tenured) in 2003. He is the Clinical and Research Director of the Automated Image Analysis Laboratory, and has an active research program centered on mechanisms of glioma progression and the molecular classification of brain tumors. Amol Ghia, MD Dr. Ghia is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology. He serves as the Director of Spine Stereotactic Radiosurgery. His clinical interests include the management of patients with primary as well as metastatic disease to the brain and spine. He is the Principal Investigator of several funded clinical trials evaluating the optimal role of spine stereotactic radiosurgery in patients with metastatic disease and has published extensively on the subject. David Grosshans, MD, PhD Dr. Grosshans is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Radiation and Experimental Radiation Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Grosshans trained in radiation oncology at MD Anderson prior to joining the faculty. Clinically, he specializes in proton therapy with an emphasis on treating brain, spine and skull base tumors. He has extensive clinical and research experience with all proton therapy modalities, including intensity modulated proton therapy. He maintains an active laboratory which includes research regarding the unique biologic effects of proton therapy. With NCI support, he also has numerous ongoing clinical trials and through close collaborations with members of the Department of Radiation Physics, continues to advance the state of the art in proton therapy. Charles Y. Lin, PhD Dr. Lin is a Pew Stewart Scholar for Cancer research, the Co-director of the Baylor Emerging Therapeutic Innovations Center (BETI), and an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Molecular and Human Genetics at the Baylor College of Medicine and the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center. His research seeks to unravel how genes are improperly turned on and off in cancer. This science of gene control focuses on a subset of genes whose specialized functions are to control the activity of other genes. Many of these genes are mutated or altered in cancer and Dr. Lin s laboratory applies integrated computational, molecular, and chemical biology approaches to better understand how these genes function and how to target them. He is a leader in the study of the MYC oncogene, the most commonly amplified human oncogene, and helped uncover its role as a global regulator of gene expression. Through his work he has also helped describe super-enhancers, regions of the genome that drive altered expression of oncogenes. Mapping
of super-enhancers has been used to find new oncogenes and dependencies in cancers, and the presence of super-enhancers at oncogenes has been proposed to explain the gene selectivity behind new classes of drugs targeting gene control including BET inhibitors, now in clinical trials. Prior to joining the Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Lin trained at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and earned his Ph.D. in Computational and Systems Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Nelson Moussazadeh, MD Dr. Moussazadeh is a Fellow in Neurosurgical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He obtained his BA at Yale College and his MD at Harvard Medical School, and completed his residency in Neurological Surgery at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Focusing in Spinal Oncology, he has a research interest in chordoma, and has been studying the interplay of genetic and epigenetic features in this disease with support from the Chordoma Foundation since 2014. His ongoing efforts focus on a high-throughput, shrna-based approach to identify targetable vulnerabilities. Alan Nguyen, LMSW Alan Nguyen is a licensed social worker at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He works primarily in the Melanoma and Skin Center. Alan received his Master of Social Work degree from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He has been a social worker for over seven years and has experience in brief counseling related to crisis intervention, caregiver support, family conflict, depression, grief, anxiety, and adjustment and coping. Since becoming a member of the Social Work Department at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Alan now provides support to patients and their families. This includes helping patients and families cope with the impact of a cancer diagnosis, having discussions regarding advance care planning, and connecting patients to community and institutional resources to aide in their cancer journey. Shreyaskumar Patel, MD Dr. Patel is a Tenured Professor of Medicine and holds the Robert R. Herring Distinguished Professorship in Cancer Research. He is also the Medical Director of the Sarcoma Center, and Deputy Chairman of the Dept. of Sarcoma Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He graduated from Baroda Medical College in Baroda, India and did his Medical Oncology training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Dr. Patel has authored or co-authored more than 200 articles in various journals and has been section editor for the Sarcoma Section of Current Oncology Reports since 2000. He has also authored or coauthored 30 book chapters. His clinical research interests include systemic therapy for sarcomas, GISTs and other tumors originating in bone and soft tissues. He is a past President of CTOS, a member the Executive Committee and Chair of the Clinical Research Committee of SARC, Chair of the Medical Advisory Board of the Chordoma Foundation, and has served as the past Program Chair for CTOS and the Sarcoma Track for ASCO.
Shaan M. Raza, MD Dr. Raza is a faculty member in the Department of Neurosurgery with a joint appointment in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. His clinical interests include the surgical management of soft tissue and bony malignancies of the skull base using open, endoscopic and minimally-invasive techniques. Dr. Raza received his medical degree from The Johns Hopkins University. He subsequently completed his residency in neurosurgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital during which he also completed a two year NIH-funded clinical and research fellowship in neurosurgical oncology. In addition to his neurosurgical training at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Raza has completed fellowships in skull base surgery at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and endoscopic endonasal skull base surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Raza is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2014 Resident Clinical Research Award from the North American Skull Base Society. He is an active clinician-researcher with his academic efforts focused on multimodality treatment paradigms and surgical management of skull base malignancies. He has published over fifty peer-reviewed publications, written twenty book chapters, and edited one neurosurgical textbook. Dr. Raza also currently serves as Co- Chair of the Research Committee for the North American Skull Base Society. Laurence D. Rhines, MD Dr. Rhines is a professor and director of the Spine Tumor Program in the Department of Neurosurgery at MD Anderson. He is also adjunct professor of neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Dr. Rhines received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He completed a residency in neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and a fellowship in neurosurgical oncology at MD Anderson. Dr. Rhines is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including Best Doctors in America, Texas Super Doctors, Regional Castle Connolly Top Doctor, Charles Kuntz Scholar Award and The Alumni Achievement Award at Johns Hopkins. As director of the Spine Tumor Program, Dr. Rhines runs a multidisciplinary center, including colleagues in radiation oncology, medical oncology, radiology, pain management and rehab medicine, dedicated to advancing the care of patients with spinal tumors. He has served on the Executive Committee of the AANS/CNS Section on Tumors. He is a member of the Executive Committee of AOSpine North American Spine Education Commission and is a past chairman. He is board certified in neurosurgery and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. He is frequently requested as a national and international lecturer. He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and books chapters. Dr. Rhines is a leader in his field of neurosurgery with particular focus on spinal tumors. Carlos Roldan, MD Dr. Roldan earned his Medical degree from the University of Antioquia Medical School in his native country, Colombia. Then, he immigrated to the United States where he started his post graduate training in Internal Medicine at New York Medical College, New York, NY. After his second year of training in Internal Medicine, he elected to become an Emergency Medicine Resident at the same institution where he also served as a Chief Resident in 2000. After five
years of training in New York City, he moved to Houston, Texas to practice academic Emergency Medicine at The University of Texas, Houston Health Sciences Center. Dr. Roldan s career aspirations finally led him to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center where he completed two years of Fellowship training in Pain Medicine in 2016, and was appointed Assistant Professor in Pain Medicine later that year. Dr. Roldan s contributions to MDACC have been significant, in that he has increased research activity in the Department of Pain Medicine and is consistently seeking out innovative approaches to pain management. Dr. Roldan is passionate and has a true love to teach and help the medically underserved. His personal mission has been to help make quality healthcare accessible to all demographics. He is proud to serve at MD Anderson Cancer Center and is committed to improving pain care in all his patients. Josh Sommer, Chordoma Foundation Josh Sommer was diagnosed with a skull base chordoma in 2006. Unwilling to accept the limited treatment options available to chordoma patients, he joined the lab of Dr. Michael Kelley and experienced the very practical challenges faced by virtually all would-be chordoma researchers: insufficient funding; scarcity of tissue, cell lines and animal models needed for experiments; and isolation from others studying the disease. To solve these problems and proactively advance the search for a cure, Josh co-founded the Chordoma Foundation in 2007. Under his leadership, the Foundation has united and expanded the chordoma research community, and has vastly accelerated the pace of chordoma research. As Executive Director, Josh works with the Foundation s research partners, advisors, and supporters to design, execute, and fund research initiatives focused on developing new treatments for chordoma. Amy Sheehy, MSW, LCSW Amy Sheehy is a licensed clinical social worker in the Brain and Spine Center at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She earned her Master s degree in Social Work from Tulane University School of Social Work. Amy has experience in short-term counseling related to adjustment and coping, depression, anxiety, grief, and family dynamics. As part of the Social Work Department at MD Anderson, Amy provides counseling, support, resource linkage, and assistance with advance care planning to patients and their families. She is a member of the leadership committee for MD Anderson BEST: Brain tumor Education and Support Together and is currently a facilitator of the MD Anderson BEST support group for patients and caregivers. Claudio Tatsui, MD Dr. Tatsui is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Tatsui, originally from Brazil, came to MD Anderson from the Department of Neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine and the Michael E. Debakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston. His areas of expertise include surgery of spine tumors and primary and metastatic brain tumors and technologies to treat brain and spine tumors. Dr. Tatsui is working on ground-breaking research at MD Anderson, such as
creating an animal model that can reproduce the symptoms of spine tumors in humans, so he can test treatment interventions. The goal is to help individualize a patient's treatment plan. His research interest will also help advance the understanding of how tumors invade the spine and what mechanisms of spread might provide novel therapeutic targets. Wei-Lien Wang, MD Dr. Wang is an associate professor in the Departments of Pathology and Translational Molecular Pathology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX). Dr. Wang earned his BA and MPH from University of California at Berkeley (Berkeley, CA) and his MD from Tufts University School of Medicine (Boston, MA). He did his Pathology residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, MA) where he also served as chief resident and completed fellowships in general surgical pathology (Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA), sarcoma and dermatopathology (both at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston TX). He is a member of sarcoma pathology group and has over a hundred peer-reviewed publications primarily focusing on the diagnostic utility of molecular testing in bone and soft tissue tumors and identifying genomic and protein biomarkers in sarcomas. He is also the co-director of the Clinical Immunohistochemistry Laboratory and associate director of the sarcoma pathology fellowship. He has a laboratory at the Department of Translational Pathology which he shares with Dr. Alexander Lazar. Together they work on translational research in sarcoma pathology. Michelle Will, LCSW Michelle Will is a Social Work Counselor in the outpatient Brain and Spine Clinic at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and has obtained her Bachelor s degree in Social Work from Stephen F. Austin State University and her Master of Science in Social Work from The University of Texas at Arlington. She has been a social worker for 25 years working in many areas of social work with all ages and in many different settings including patient homes, hospitals, schools, nursing homes and assisted living facilities. She is happy to be a part of a wonderful team at MD Anderson to help make cancer history!