Chicago Blood Cancer Medical Advisory Board (MAC) is a volunteer group of leading hematologists, oncologists, and researchers. Members of MAC advise the Chicago Blood Cancer Foundation regarding research funding and grants. MAC makes their submissions and recommendations to the Chicago Blood Cancer Foundation Board of Directors for final approval. MAC members evaluate and provide recommendations on scientific and medical matters impacting people battling blood cancer. Each of the members of MAC has been selected based upon their impressive credentials and experience as clinicians and researchers. Equally important, these professionals consistently demonstrate a commitment to curing blood cancer and are genuinely concerned about the well-being of their patients and people impacted by cancer.
Seth J. Corey, MD, MPH is Director of Oncology Research; Co-director of the Hematology and Oncology Fellowship Program at Children’s Memorial Hospital. He is an attending physician and Board certified in Hematology/Oncology and Pediatrics. He is the Sharon B. Murphy, MD, and Steven T. Rosen, MD, Professor of Cancer Biology and Chemotherapy; Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Corey’s special interests include Neutropenia, inherited bone marrow failure syndromes, acute myeloid leukemia, juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, chronic myeloid leukemia, ataxia telangiectasia and related DNA breakage syndromes. He earned his MD and MPH from Tulane University, was a resident at Saint Louis Children Hospital and fellow at Children’s Hospital in Boston. Dr. Corey has been a principle investigator in numerous research projects.
Dr. Andrew Evens is associate professor at Northwestern University and member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Evens completed his Internal Medicine residency at Lutheran General Hospital in 1999 and he served an additional year as Chief Medical Resident. Dr. Evens subsequently completed his Hematology/Oncology fellowship at Northwestern University and is board certified in Hematology and Medical Oncology. He also completed a Masters in Science in Clinical Investigation at Northwestern University during fellowship. Dr. Evens' clinical and research interests are devoted to completely to lymphoma: non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and Hodgkin disease/lymphoma, including hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). He is actively involved in clinical and translational research examining mechanisms of resistance of lymphoma cells and studying new, targeted treatments for patients with lymphoma. Dr. Evens serves as the Director of Translational Therapeutics in the Division of Hematology/Oncology. Dr. Evens is Principal Investigator for multiple investigator-initiated trials at Northwestern University as well as collaborating and helping lead clinical trials in the Chicagoland area and throughout the country to find improved treatment options for lymphoma patients. Dr. Evens is a member of the Core lymphoma committee of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and he is the Principal Investigator for several National ECOG clinical trials. He is a core member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) for Hodgkin lymphoma/disease and he co-chairs the annual International Chicago Lymphoma Symposium together with the University of Chicago. Dr. Evens is also involved in collaborations with investigators at Northwestern and throughout the world regarding post-transplant related lymphoma, drug safety, and epidemiologic lymphoma research. Dr. Evens recently received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Department of at Northwestern University and the Teaching Attending of the Year from the Division of Hematology/Oncology
Henry C. Fung MD, FRCPE is the Coleman Foundation Professor of Blood and Bone Marrow Tansplantation Professor of Medicine and Director of the Section of Stem Cell Transplantation at Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Fung has extensive experience in the treatment of lymphoma, leukemia, and myeloma, and the use of stem cell transplantation for these hematologic disorders. He received his medical degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and furthered his specialty training in hematologic malignancies and stem cell transplantation at the University of British Columbia in Canada in 1996. Dr. Fung joined the faculty of the Division of Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, California, which has one of the world?s largest stem cell transplantation programs. Dr. Fung joined the Rush University Medical Center staff from the University of California Irvine Medical Center, where he was director of the Hematologic Malignancies, Blood and Marrow Transplantation Program. Doctor Fung has been awarded a number of grants including Lymphoma Society and NIH. He has and does serve as the Principal Investigator on several clinical trials, and has authored and co-authored over 100 articles. His research interests include: Treatment of Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma; Stem Cell Transplantation for B-cell Malignancies: Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and Multiple Myeloma; Treatment of Myelodysplasia; Acute or Chronic Complication After Stem Cell Transplantation; and Pathogenesis of Therapy-related Leukemia.
Janine E. Gauthier, Ph.D is the director, Psychosocial Oncology and director, Clinical Services for the Cancer Integrative Medicine Program at Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Gauthier is an assistant professor in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Rush University. Dr. Gauthier is a licensed clinical health psychologist specializing in psychosocial oncology. She has unique training and expertise in psychosocial issues specifically in oncology settings. Dr. Gauthier completed a National Cancer Institute Cancer Prevention and Control post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, Texas, working in collaboration with M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Her research interests include integrative medicine, emotional distress, mind body medicine, health-related quality of life, spirituality and spiritual issues in cancer and coping in cancer patients.
Dr. Leo I. Gordon is the Abby and John Friend Professor of Cancer Research,Professor of Medicine, and Medical Director of the John and Lillian MatthewsCell Therapy and Processing Facility in the Division of Hematology/Oncology within the Department of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Gordon also is Director of the Lymphoma Research Programat the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. For more than 10 years, he served with distinction as Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Northwestern and Associate Director for Clinical Research at the Lurie Cancer Center. Dr. Gordon earned his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati and served as an intern and resident in Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics. Dr. Gordon completed his fellowship training in Hematology at the University of Minnesota with an additional year of Hematology/Oncology training at the University of Chicago. Dr. Gordon’s clinical research interests focus on hematologic malignancies, especially Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (NHL), and bonemarrow transplantation. He is Co-chair of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) Lymphoma Committee, and has conducted clinical trials in NHL. In the laboratory, Dr. Gordon is studying redox-regulated signaling events related to cell death pathways in lymphoma. Dr. Gordon has been Chair of the Oncological Sciences Study Section at the National Cancer Institute. He also belongs to numerous societies, such as the American Federation of Clinical Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Society of Hematology, and the American Association of Cancer Research. He has authoredmore than 100 manuscripts for numerous peer-reviewed professional publications such as Blood, the New England Journal of Medicine, Cancer Research, Clinical Cancer Research, the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Stephanie A. Gregory, MDis the Elodia Kehm Professor of Medicine and Director – Section of Hematology at Rush.Dr. Gregory received her medical degree with honors from the Medical College of Pennsylvania-Hahnemann Medical School, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her postgraduate training included an internship, residency and chief residency in internal medicine at Rush University Medical Center. Also at Rush, she underwent three years of subspecialty training in hematology with a research grant from the Schweppe Foundation. Other accomplishments include: the “Mark H. Lepper, MD Society of Teachers,” the first woman to be appointed to the endowed chair as Director of Hematology at Rush, the first woman president of the Chicago Society of Internal Medicine, member of the “United Nations Security Council Commission of Experts Investigating War Crimes and Sexual Assaults against Women in the Former Yugoslavia.” Dr. Gregory is an active member of the American Society of Hematology, American Society of Clinical Oncology and numerous other medical professional associations. Her research interests include non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas, leukemias and myelomas, especially using novel approaches of immunotherapy. Dr. Gregory has been involved in several radioimmunotherapy trials in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She has chaired national programs concerning supportive care for cancer patients and is principal investigator for many clinical research trials. She has authored or coauthored 340 manuscripts, book chapters and abstracts.
Michelle M. LeBeau, PhD
is Director of the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center and Professor of Medicine, Section of Hematology/Oncology.Dr. Le Beau has been a leader in working with therapy-related cancers. Among her extraordinary accomplishments are the identification of recurring genetic abnormalities in blood cancers and groundbreaking research that led to the discovery that there are several distinct genetic subtypes of therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome, a precursor to leukemia, and acute myeloid leukemia.She has published more than 410 papers on genetic abnormalities in human leukemia and she is board-certified in clinical cytogenetics by the American Board of Medical Genetics.She is the principal investigator of a Program Project Grant sponsored by the National Cancer Institute examining the causes of acute myeloid leukemia that resulted from prior cancer treatments.Dr. Le Beau has extensive experience building interdisciplinary research programs, and has fostered the careers and training of young scientists.As a long-time faculty member at the University of Chicago, she has administered large peer-reviewed grants, and successfully overseen large academic research programs aimed at discovering mechanisms that trigger cancer, as well as prevention and treatment strategies.She completed fellowship training at the University of Chicago. She holds a PhD and master's degree, both in pathology, from the University of Illinois, and a bachelor's degree in genetics from Purdue University.She has served on numerous editorial boards, including Blood, British Journal of Haematology, Leukemia, Leukemia Research, and Genes, Chromosomes and Cancer.
Steven Rosen, MD, FACP is Genevieve Teuton Professor of Medicine, at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University and Director of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University and Director of Cancer Programs at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Following his graduation with distinction from Northwestern University Medical School s Six-Year Honors Program in 1976, Dr. Rosen completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Northwestern and a fellowship in Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Rosen’s laboratory research focuses on experimental therapeutics and hematologic malignancies. Dr. Rosen has received numerous grants awards and contracts and has published more than 200 scientific papers. As Director of the Cancer Center, Dr. Rosen has successfully competed for an NCI Cancer Center Support Grant, NCI grants for his laboratory research, an NCI RAID Contract grant for the development of a novel purine analog, and grants from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America and the American Cancer Society. Dr. Rosen serves on several editorial boards and is editor of Cancer Treatment & Research. He is a member of all major national associations that focus on oncology and has held leadership positions in the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, the American Association of Cancer Institutes and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. He serves on the advisory boards of several NCI-designated Cancer Centers. Dr. Rosen was the recipient of Northwestern University Medical School’s Alumni Achievement Award (1994), the Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award from Northwestern Memorial Hospital (1995), the Marv Samuel Award from the Chicago Baseball Cancer Charities (1996) and recognition from the Women’s Board of Northwestern Memorial Hospital for Compassionate Care (1996). He is acknowledged in Best Doctors in America and Best Doctors in Chicago.
Koen van Besien, MD is Professor of Medicine, Section of Hematology/Oncology and the Director, Stem Cell Transplant and Lymphoma Member, University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is an expert in the care and treatment of adults with leukemia, lymphoma, and blood diseases. These diseases are commonly treated and often cured with intensive chemotherapy. Other patients benefit from autologous or allogeneic (donor) stem cell transplantation or from novel targeted therapies. An established clinical researcher, Dr. van Besien has made major contributions in the fields of allogeneic stem cell transplant and lymphoma. His stem cell research includes the study of novel conditioning regimens with improved efficacy against hematologic malignancies, as well as innovative immunotherapy approaches in allogeneic transplant. This research is conducted in the setting of matched sibling, unrelated donor, and cord blood transplantation.
Parameswaran Venugopal, MD is Co-Director of the Lymphoma Program and Associate Director, Section of Hematology & Stem Cell Transplantation at Rush University Medical Center. Dr. Venugopal is actively involved in clinical and laboratory research in leukemia and lymphoma. He has designed and conducted studies involving translational research combining monoclonal antibodies with cytotoxic and biologic agents in lymphoma, leukemia, and other hematological malignancies. The major focus of his research involves the development of novel methods of enhancing tumor response to biologic agents. In the laboratory, he has identified several cytokines that enhance the expression of tumor cell antigens, increasing their sensitivity to monoclonal antibodies. He has been an invited speaker at many medical institutions, both in the United States and abroad. He has authored or co-authored 91 full-length manuscripts, 7 book chapters, and over 240 abstracts. Dr. Venugopal is an active member of the American Society of Hematology, American Society of Clinical Oncology and American Association for Cancer Research. He has received awards from the American Society of Clinical Oncology/American Association for Cancer Research, the Cure For Lymphoma Foundation and the Berlex Oncology Foundation. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Leukemia Society of America.
Jane Winter, MD, is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Full Member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. She is board-certified in internal medicine, hematology, and medical oncology. Dr. Winter earned her medical degree in 1977 from the University of Pennsylvania and completed residency training in internal medicine at the University of Chicago Hospitals in 1980. She served fellowships in hematology/oncology at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center (1981) and Northwestern University/McGaw Medical Center (1982). Dr. Winter’s clinical interests include hematologic malignancies, such as Hodgkin lymphomas and non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation to include both autologous and allogeneic transplantation. At Northwestern, she has worked to develop a novel purine analogue, 8-amino adenosine (in collaboration with Drs. Steven Rosen and Nancy Krett) and targeted therapies, such as the Bcl-6 peptide inhibitor (in collaboration with Dr. Ari Melnick, Weill Medical College, Cornell). In addition, Dr. Winter has collaborated to develop novel therapies based on nanotechnology—specifically, the development of arsenic laden nanobins for treatment of lymphoma (in collaboration with Dr. Thomas O’Halloran, Department of Chemistry). She also has developed radioimmunotherapy for the treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the context of high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell rescue and in combination with proteosome inhibition for the treatment of follicular lymphoma. Dr.Winter’s research interests include biologic correlates of prognosis in the non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas and anti-idiotypic vaccines for the treatment of follicular lymphoma. She has done a significant amount of her prognostic indicator work with ECOG, investigating biologic correlates of clinical outcomes in the large, phase III, US Intergroup trials. She has authored 56 peer-reviewed journal articles, including articles appearing in the Journal of the American College of Radiology, Bone Marrow Transplantation, Journal of Clinical Oncology, American Journal of Clinical Pathology, and Blood. She also has written or co-written several books and book chapters.
Todd M. Zimmerman, MD is Associate Professor of Medicine, Section of Hematology/Oncology atthe University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Zimmerman's primary interest is the treatment of multiple myeloma. He has developed expertise in stem cell transplantation, drug development, and the treatmentof cancer in elderly patients. Dr. Zimmerman and his colleagues have developed a comprehensive program for multiple myeloma in which manyt reatment options are made available to each patient on an individual basis.
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