Reflecting on Errors and Missed Opportunities in CLL

Ian W. Flinn, MD, PhD, is Director of the Blood Cancer Research Program at the Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr Flinn also serves as Director for the Sarah Cannon Center for Blood Cancer at Tennessee Oncology and TriStar Centennial Medical Center.

Dr Flinn received his bachelor's degree in economics from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and graduated from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. He then completed his internship and residency at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. He earned a fellowship in oncology and hematology, as well as a PhD in clinical investigations from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Before joining the Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Dr Flinn was an Associate Professor of Oncology at Johns Hopkins, where he also served as Director of the Lymphoma Program and Assistant Director for Clinical Research at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr Flinn's clinical practice is restricted to patients with hematologic malignancies, particularly those with lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. His research is focused on the development of new therapies for patients with these disorders. These studies range from first in human to phase III trials.

Richard R. Furman, MD, is the Morton Coleman, MD Distinguished Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, New York. He received his medical degree from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and completed a residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, as well as a fellowship in Hematology/ Oncology at Weill Cornell Medical College.

As a clinician-scientist, Dr Furman's research interest has been on developing non-chemotherapeutic treatments for patients with CLL and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He has played a key role in the development of ibrutinib, acalabrutinib, idelalisib, and venetoclax and continues his research on how to best utilize these agents.

 

 

William G. Wierda, MD, PhD, is Professor and Center Medical Director in the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He received his MD/PhD degree from the University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School, North Chicago, with an internship and residency at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC, and a Fellowship at University of California, San Diego, CA.

Dr Wierda's particular research interests in CLL are prognostic factors and developing prognostic models in CLL, immune and gene therapies for patients with CLL, developing chemoimmunotherapy regimens, and treatment strategies for relapsed and refractory patients with CLL. Dr Wierda is Head of the CLL Section in the Department of Leukemia where he is directing the clinical and translational efforts in CLL and low-grade lymphoproliferative diseases. In one of his many clinical trials, Dr Wierda was Principal Investigator on the pivotal trial of ofatumumab (Arzerra), a CD20 monoclonal antibody, for refractory patients with CLL. This trial led to FDA approval for ofatumumab. Dr Wierda is also the Director of the clinical core and clinical research of the CLL Research Consortium (CRC), a multicenter PO1 project headed by Dr Thomas Kipps at UCSD. In this role, Dr Wierda is directing and coordinating CLL-related clinical research activities at the participating sites, including Mayo Clinic, The Ohio State University, UCSD, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Long Island Jewish Hospital, and MD Anderson Cancer Center. For the past several years, Dr Wierda has served on the NCCN Lymphoma Panel providing leadership and recommendations for CLL treatment within the NCCN guidelines. He has published many peer-reviewed articles on various clinical and translational aspects of CLL, and drug development, as well as given numerous lectures nationally and internationally.