Leadership

Amanda Pullinger is the CEO of Debbie’s Dream Foundation: Curing Stomach Cancer, a US-based non profit dedicated to raising awareness about stomach cancer, advancing funding for research and providing education and support internationally to patients, families and caregivers.

Until late 2023, Amanda was the Chief Executive Officer of 100 Women ​in Finance. Over twenty years, she was responsible for taking the ​organization from one hundred women in the hedge fund industry to a ​globally respected professional association of over 35,000 registered ​members, operating in over 30 locations, in 19 countries across five continents.

Amanda is also the Co-Founder of Global Female Investors Network, which serves over 2,500 female risk takers and investors across asset ​classes, enabling global connectivity to peers, and access to career and ​business opportunities. She also serves on a number of Boards and Advisory Boards.

Amanda Pullinger graduated from Brasenose College, Oxford University in 1987 with an Honours Degree in Modern History. She earned an MBA from La Salle University, Philadelphia, in 1998, and received the Academic Award for MBA student of the year as well as the Beta Gamma Sigma designation.

Michael L. Ehren is a Partner at Lash & Goldberg LLP in Fort Lauderdale, a boutique commercial litigation law firm listed in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Law Firms and Martindale-Hubbell’s Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers and one of five firms recognized nationally as Law360’s 2018 Health Care Practice Group of the Year. Michael is an experienced litigator who represents national and regional business clients, including Fortune 500 companies, hospitals and health care providers, telecommunications providers and professionals, in state and federal courts and arbitration proceedings throughout Florida. His diverse litigation experience includes a wide range of complex commercial disputes involving health care, telecommunications, consumer protection, class action, real estate/construction and employment issues.

Michael has served as DDF’s President and Legal and Governance Committee Chair since 2018 and has been a member of DDF’s Board of Directors since 2015. He has also been actively participating in various cancer research fundraising and other charitable activities in the South Florida community and nationally for numerous years. Michael is a member of the Florida Bar, Broward County Bar Association, American Health Lawyers Association and American Bar Association, and serves on the Board of Directors and as Professional Development Committee Chair for the Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law Alumni Association. He has also authored articles for national and state publications and mentored students and young attorneys through several professional organizations.

Michael is a Broward County native and grew up in Davie. He received his undergraduate degree in Finance from the University of Florida, and his law degree from the Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law. He can be reached at mehren@lashgoldberg.com.

Bob Mandel is a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley and serves as its Head of Client Fiduciary Services for its Graystone Consulting business. Bob also held various positions in the Firm’s legal department, including Deputy General Counsel of Citi Smith Barney. From 1991-2000, Bob was a partner of the Neal Gerber & Eisenberg law firm in Chicago. Bob earned a B.B.A from Hofstra University and is a graduate of Hofstra University School of Law.

Bob’s association with Debbies’ Dream Foundation began in 2014, shortly after his late wife Sally was diagnosed with stage 4 hereditary diffuse gastric cancer resulting from an inherited CDH1 gene mutation. Bob has been actively involved in organizing numerous stomach cancer research fundraising and charitable activities in the NYC area for many years and an enthusiastic participant of DDF’s annual Capital Hill Stomach Cancer Advocacy Day.

Melani Vincelli is a strong advocate and voice of the stomach cancer community. Following her stomach cancer diagnosis in 2009, she met Debbie’s Dream Foundation Founder Debbie Zelman on the set of the Dr. Oz Show as they both participated in a 2012 segment titled, “What’s Your Risk for Stomach Cancer?” Shortly after, Melani joined forces with DDF as a mentor in the Patient Resource Education Program (PREP) where she provides a point of contact for patients seeking care and comfort for their cancer experience. As a PREP mentor, she helps patients understand their diagnosis, staging, treatment options, clinical trials, side effect management, research, management of the disease, and more. She helps to guide the patient through their cancer journey by relying on her own experiences as a stage IV stomach cancer survivor and BRCA2 positive woman. For the past six years, Melani has traveled to Capitol Hill to ask Congress to invest more federal resources in gastric cancer research and to again include stomach cancer as one of the eligible cancer types under the PRCRP during DDF’s Annual Capitol Hill Advocacy Day. She also serves as a mentor and advocate for several initiatives including the 4th Angel Mentoring Network sponsored by Scott Hamilton and Cleveland Clinic, Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered, the GEC Esophageal and Stomach Cancer Project, and Imerman Angels Cancer Support Community.

Read more about Melani’s Survivor Story here.
Watch the full Dr. Oz “What’s Your Risk for Stomach Cancer?” episode here.

Steve Melen grew up in Saratoga, California and attended the University of San Diego, receiving a Bachelor of Business Administration degree. Following college, he worked at Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley for a combined 26 years as a financial advisor and Senior Bond Specialist working on the bond trading floor.

In January 2008, during his first year of working at Morgan Stanley, he was diagnosed with stage III B stomach cancer. He began the treatment process in February 2008, having his stomach and other organs removed at Stanford Hospital. Complications, along with chemo and radiation, challenged Steve for the next few years, taking away much of his energy needed to work and raise his daughter. Fortunately, he survived well past the significant five-year mark that most stomach patients diagnosed at late stages are often told is unlikely. This milestone gave him a new sense of hope and inspiration to push forward and help to support his family, clients, and others struggling with cancer.

Today, Steve serves as a DDF Board of Director and is a PREP mentor, helping newly diagnosed patients navigate the early stages of stomach cancer. He takes great pride in being able to provide hope to other patients and caregivers throughout their journey.
He is currently married to his high school sweetheart, Tanya, and has a daughter and stepson, both the same age.
Read more about Steve’s survivor story here.

Andrew Guttman, MD, MBA is a practicing anesthesiologist in South Florida. Andrew has always had a close connection to DDF because he was married to DDF’s founder, Debbie Zelman, for 25 years until she passed away in December 2017. After providing support behind the scenes for years, Andrew decided to join the DDF Board to help continue his late wife’s legacy.

While practicing as an anesthesiologist for over 25 years, including 14 years serving as Department Chief at Westside Regional Medical Center in Plantation, Florida, Dr. Guttman transitioned into leadership roles within Sheridan Healthcorp, which eventually merged with Envision Physician Services. While serving in various clinical and executive leadership positions during his 25+ years with Sheridan/Envision, Dr. Guttman had responsibility for clinical quality and operational, administrative, and financial oversight of anesthesia programs throughout the nation. He then served as Chief Medical Officer for Sound Anesthesia, a national provider of anesthesia services, until December 2022.

Andrew attended the 6-year Honors Program in Medical Education at the University of Miami and graduated from the University of Miami School of Medicine in 1990. He earned his MBA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2019.

Rebecca is a civil litigation attorney at Rosing Davidson in Park City, Utah, a law firm founded in 2021 by herself, her husband, and a few of their colleagues. She became involved in DDF in 2013 when her father was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Rebecca has advocated with DDF on Capitol Hill and serves as a PREP Mentor for caregivers. She founded the Naples, Florida Chapter of DDF in honor of her father in 2014. Rebecca is a native of Northeast, Ohio, and graduated with her BA in political science from Youngstown State University and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Akron School of Law. She enjoys running, going on beach vacations, and cheering on the Ohio State Buckeyes.

In April of 2019, Colt Blunt arrived to a routine physical prepared with notes describing some gastrointestinal symptoms he had been experiencing, including heartburn, bloating, abdominal pain and general discomfort.

“My symptoms weren’t that bad, but they were new,” says Blunt, a forensic psychologist in Minnesota. “Luckily, I have a fantastic primary care doctor, so he took me seriously. He said it was probably just acid reflux, put me on some proton pump inhibitors and said if I wasn’t perfectly back to normal after 10 days, he would send me for an endoscopy.”

Although the medication helped, it didn’t eradicate Blunt’s symptoms, so the following week, he went in for an endoscopy. At 37 years old, Blunt was young and otherwise healthy. However, because his family has a history of cancer, when the endoscopy visualized an ulcerated area of his cardia, he was concerned about the risk.

“I asked my (gastrointestinal) doctor ‘What are the chances that this is cancer?’ and he said, ‘One in a million,’ “ Blunt says. “When I asked him why, he said that he had just diagnosed a 37-year-old with stomach cancer the week before, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to diagnose another one a week later.”

However, on June 20, 2019, that’s exactly what happened. After his endoscopy, Blunt received a diagnosis of stage 3 gastric adenocarcinoma of the upper cardia (just below the esophagus). Although gastric cancer at Blunt’s age is rare, his experience is representative of a growing trend — an increasing number of patients under the age of 50 are receiving a diagnosis of gastrointestinal cancer.

Excerpt from CURE Magazine – Gastrointestinal Cancers – Special Issue – March 2021 – READ MORE

Aisha T. McDonald is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Trauma Expert who has worked with marginalized populations within South Florida specifically those with severe and persistent mental illness, forensic population, individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, youth in the welfare system, and individuals who are involuntarily hospitalized. She is currently the Director of Training Initiatives and primary facilitator for the Mental Health First Aid program in her community, where she facilitates an 8-hour course on mental illness and crisis de-escalation and intervention and has trained over 3000 individuals since January 2019 to present. Additionally, she oversees the Crisis Intervention Team training program for the local sheriff’s department and municipal police agencies as well as community wide behavioral health education trainings for service providers. Aisha is also a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging consultant and does DEI work that is focused on eliminating systemic barriers to equity in our society. She provides professional development training to community organizations and universities and has presented workshops and sat as an expert on panel discussions nationwide. In addition, she also serves on her agency’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Anti- Racism Committee as well as the council’s Creative Content Committee that aims at developing DEI materials and social media content to promote cultural awareness, education, and equity. Aisha was also selected as an expert to serve on a multi-agency cadre of race experts and organizational development consultants. Most importantly, the intersectionality of her identity as a Black Immigrant Caribbean woman who has lived with mental health concerns has been important for her to promote awareness of the reality of mental illness and how it is impacted by generational trauma, personal experiences, and societal factors. She has worked in promoting awareness of Black mental health through a documentary created by her agency called “Faded Conversations: Bringing Black Mental Health to the Forefront.” The documentary served as a great tool to guide honest conversations about the role of masculinity, culture, and race in mental health, and specifically how members of the Black community access treatment. The documentary afforded her the opportunity to organize and facilitate screenings and host discussions with Black barbershops in the community as well as at community agencies that serve the Black and Brown communities in order to reduce cultural stigma and spread awareness and education. She has organized and performed in Slam Poetry events throughout the community addressing issues of violence, trauma, and self-awareness within the Black and Caribbean community. In addition, she also served on the Broward County’s 2020 Census Committee where she served as the Chair for the Caribbean subcommittee and assisted in developing and dispersing Census materials focused on garnering participation from the Caribbean diaspora within the county.

DDF Mentor & Survivor

In late 2019, I began noticing extreme fatigue with even minimal exertion. At 60 years old and severely overweight, I initially thought I just needed to change my diet, exercise more, and get healthier. However, in 2020, things worsened. My husband and I love to dance, but I couldn’t even finish one dance without feeling exhausted. My fatigue became so severe that I struggled to catch my breath simply by bending down.

After several tests for heart problems came back negative, my doctor ordered lab work, which revealed my red blood cell count was dangerously low. I needed a blood transfusion, and after a four-day hospital stay and numerous tests, doctors still couldn’t identify the source of the low red blood count. A hematologist/oncologist then suspected a stomach-related issue and recommended I see a gastroenterologist.

Thankfully, the gastroenterologist was able to see me within a week, despite the challenges posed by the COVID pandemic. I shared that I had undergone extensive dental work in 2019 and had been taking over-the-counter aspirin and Tylenol, so the doctor suspected a bleeding ulcer and recommended an endoscopy. To my surprise, the endoscopy revealed not an ulcer, but a bleeding tumor in my stomach—a malignant stage 2 stomach cancer.

This diagnosis was a shock, as there was no cancer history in our immediate family, aside from my weight and high blood pressure. It was an unsettling new chapter, but I am incredibly grateful for the support I received from my family and friends. My husband, daughter, son, and sister stood by me every step of the way, attending every doctor’s visit with me.

I underwent chemotherapy and radiation in mid-2021 and had my stomach removed in December 2021. By the grace of a successful treatment plan, my scans show no evidence of disease to this day.

This version refines the flow and clarifies some of the details, making it more suitable for the website. Let me know if you’d like any further adjustments!

Bio to be posted soon

Dr. Yelena Y. Janjigian is a medical oncologist who specializes in the treatment of malignancies of the gastrointestinal tract, including esophagus and stomach cancers. Her research focuses in the development of new treatments for patients with esophagus and stomach cancers, and she is particularly interested in finding ways to select the best treatments for persons with cancer based on the molecular characteristics of their tumor specimens. Dr. Janjigian runs clinical and translational studies designed to develop a better prevention, early diagnosis, staging, and treatment strategies. She is the Principal Investigator on a number of clinical trials at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Her research has been supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and The Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Samuel J. Klempner, MD is a gastrointestinal medical oncologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. Dr. Klempner completed his internal medicine training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School followed by a combined hematology-oncology fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School. His clinical and research focus is gastroesophageal cancers and novel therapies. He works in a multidisciplinary team to optimize and individualize treatment using molecular characterization across all stages of stomach and esophageal cancers. Dr. Klempner conducts clinical trials and translational research with new targeted agents and immune therapies. He is active in the stomach cancer community including local outreach, education, and advocacy.

Dr. Ajani is a Professor of Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. He received his doctor of medicine from Government Medical College, Nagpur, India. He is interested in upper gastrointestinal cancer research and focuses on combined modality trials for gastric and esophageal cancers. Dr. Ajani has led numerous phase II and III randomized trials and has participated in Cooperative Groups. He currently chairs the NCCN committee for gastroesophageal cancers and has participated actively in the International Society of Gastrointestinal Oncology (ISGIO; www.isgio.org). Dr. Ajani is currently the editor of ISGIO’s journal Gastrointestinal Oncology Research.

Al B. Benson III, M.Dis a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois. He is also the Associate Director for Clinical Investigations at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, at Northwestern University. In addition, he is an Attending Physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, a Staff Physician at Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, and a Consultant to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

Dr. Benson earned his medical degree at the State University of New York at Buffalo following which he completed an Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals in Madison, Wisconsin. He was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Illinois and Co-Medical Director for the National Public Health Service in Champaign, Illinois. He then served as a Clinical Oncology and Research Fellow at the University of Wisconsin Clinical Cancer Center, where he received an American Cancer Society Fellowship Award.

Dr. Benson is active on numerous professional committees, often serving as an officer. He is a recipient of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Statesman Award (Fellow of ASCO) and has served on a number of committees. He has been a member of the Task Force on Quality of Cancer Care, the Co-Chair of ASCO’s Colorectal Cancer Guidelines Subcommittee, the Stage II Colon Cancer Guidelines Panel and the Guidelines Panel for use of Radiofrequency Ablation for Colorectal Cancer Hepatic Metastases. He also is the immediate past Chair of the ECOG-ACRIN Gastrointestinal Committee and the current chair of the Data Monitoring Committee and a member of the NCI GI Steering Committee. In addition, he is a Past President of the Illinois Medical Oncology Society, Past President of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC), an executive committee member and past-chair of the Board of Directors of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) and a member of the Board of Directors of the NCCN Foundation. He is the chair of both the NCCN Hepatobiliary Guidelines Panel and of the Colon, Rectal and Anal Panel, and a member of the Pancreatic Cancer and Neuroendocrine Panels. He is a past President of the International Society of GI Oncology (ISGIO). Dr. Benson is a member of the Executive Committee of the Patient Advocate Foundation, the National Patient Advocate Foundation, and Scientific Advisory Committee of Friends of Cancer Research.

Dr. Benson is on the editorial board of the ASCO Connection, Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, American Health and Drug Benefits, Personalized Medicine in Oncology, Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research, and Gastrointestinal Cancer research among others.

His most recent national awards include the NCCN Rodger J. Winn award and the ACCC Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Research Award.

Dr. Benson’s research is primarily in the areas of gastrointestinal cancer clinical trials, cancer clinical trials, biologic therapies, phase I cancer clinical trials and cancer guideline development. He has authored or coauthored numerous reports, reviews and book chapters focusing on these topics. His research in biologics, cancer therapy, and cancer prevention has been awarded funding from a variety of sources including the NIH.

Dr. Berlin is a medical oncologist who specializes in gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies and new drug development. As Clinical Director of the GI Oncology program at VICC, he directs the development and conduct of clinical trials for GI cancers at Vanderbilt. In this role as well as his role as co-Principal Investigator of the VICC GI SPORE (Specialized Project of Research Excellence) Grant, he helps to translate laboratory findings into clinical trials that hold promise for improving the outcomes of patients with GI cancers.

Dr. Berlin has been an active clinical researcher with over 100 papers, book chapters and editorials. He is a member of ASCO, ESMO, ECOG and ACP. He has served on program committees for ASCO, the ASCO/SSO/AGA/ASTRO sponsored Gastrointestinal Cancer Symposium and the World Congress on GI Cancers sponsored by ESMO. In 2008, he served as the overall Program Chair, for the ASCO/SSO/AGA/ASTRO sponsored Gastrointestinal Cancer Symposium in Orlando, Florida. In 2012, he served as the Education Committee Track Leader for GI non-colorectal cancers which includes the gastric cancer educational programs.

Dr. Cleary is a medical oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute who specializes in treating gastrointestinal cancers. He graduated from Rutgers College and Albert Einstein Medical School. Following that, he completed an internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and a medical oncology fellowship at Dana-Farber. During his fellowship, he became interested in research that focuses on identifying and developing new therapeutic treatments for gastrointestinal malignancies. Today, he works on translational research projects with basic science laboratories and is the principal investigator on clinical trials evaluating target and immune-direct therapies. He also serves as the Director of Clinical Trials in the Center for Gastrointestinal Oncology at Dana-Farber. Stand Up To Cancer and the National Cancer Institute provide grants to fund his research. In addition, he has won awards for patient care at Dana-Farber and teaching at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Mike Cusnir earned his medical degree from Pontifica Universidad Javeriana in Colombia and completed his internal medicine residency at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. He went on to complete a fellowship in hematology and oncology at the University of Maryland Medical System, where he served as chief fellow during the last year of his training. Dr. Cusnir holds board certifications in internal medicine, hematology, and oncology.

Since joining Mount Sinai Medical Center in 2003, Dr. Cusnir has been active in clinical trials and has published numerous articles. He is co-director of Gastrointestinal Malignancies.

Dr. Cusnir also is passionate about educating future medical generations. He holds academic titles from the University of Miami and Nova Southeastern University and has been named “Attending of the Year” by residents and interns for multiple years.

Most recently, Dr. Cusnir completed a two-year fellowship in integrative medicine at the University of Arizona. He has been incorporating the techniques he learned there into his general clinical practice and is developing novel clinical trials of integrative medicine for oncology patients.

Peter C. Enzinger, MD, is an oncologist in the Department of Medical Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Esophageal and Gastric Cancer at the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center.

Dr. Enzinger’s major research interest centers on the treatment of esophageal and gastric cancers, particularly the development of novel therapies for metastatic disease and the improvement of therapeutic strategies for localized disease. He is leading the effort to create clinical and correlative science collaborations for these diseases and is establishing standard pathways to be used by clinicians for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of these malignancies. In addition, he lectures regionally and nationally on topics related to esophageal cancer, gastric cancer and other GI malignancies.

Dr. Enzinger is a graduate of Brown University College and Brown University Medical School. He served his residency in Internal Medicine at University of Rochester Medical Center, and completed fellowships in Medical Oncology and Hematology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He joined the Dana-Farber Cancer Center in 1999.

David H. Ilson, MD, PhD is an attending physician and member at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York and a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. He is a nationally recognized authority in the treatment of gastrointestinal cancer whose primary area of research interest involves upper gastrointestinal cancer, with a special focus on esophageal cancer. Much of his research has focused on the study of new agents in advanced esophageal cancer and the evaluation of novel agents in combined-modality therapy programs in locally advanced disease. Dr. Ilson’s other areas of clinical expertise include gastric, colorectal, esophageal, pancreatic, and other gastrointestinal cancers.

Dr. Ilson sits on the gastrointestinal committees of Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB), the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG), and the Upper GI Cancer Guidelines Committee of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). He is chairman of the Intergroup Esophageal and Gastric Cancer Task Force Committee. Currently, Dr. Ilson also chairs or cochairs several national clinical trials in esophageal cancer, including RTOG 0436, which is evaluating in a phase III trial of the addition of cetuximab to definitive chemoradiotherapy in locally advanced esophageal cancer.

Dr. Ilson completed undergraduate training at the University of Connecticut. He entered an MD/PhD combined degree program at New York University where he received a Masters and PhD degree in Basic Science and his MD Degree. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Bellevue Hospital at NYU in New York. He then moved to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and completed a fellowship in medical oncology and hematology, including a third year fellowship as the Brian Piccolo research fellow. He joined the staff at MSKCC in 1992, becoming a member of the GI Oncology Service in the Department of Medicine, under the direction of Dr. David Kelsen. Dr. Ilson has been honored as a recipient of the American Cancer Society Career Development Award.

Craig Lockhart, M.D., was recruited as the Chief of the Division of Hematology & Oncology in the Department of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina in April 2021 and serves as associate director for clinical science at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center.

Dr. Lockhart was a Professor of Medicine and the Division Chief for the Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Miami – Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. His primary academic mission centers on early clinical drug development in oncology with a focus on upper GI cancers.

Dr. Lockhart earned his medical degree at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and did his residency in Internal Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. He completed fellowship training in Hematology and Oncology as well as a master’s degree in clinical research at Duke University. After completing his training at Duke, Dr. Lockhart was an assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Vanderbilt University. He also served as the director of the Developmental Therapeutics program for the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University from 2008-17.

Dr. Emil Lou is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation at University of Minnesota Medical School and a medical oncologist at M Health Fairview Masonic Cancer Clinic. Dr. Lou specializes in gastrointestinal oncology, neuro-oncology, and solid tumor malignancies, including gastric and other GI cancers. As a physician-scientist, he leads a translational research program investigating tumor cell biology, mechanisms of chemotherapy resistance, and tumor‑stromal interactions, with a goal of improving outcomes for patients with aggressive and metastatic cancers. Dr. Lou also serves as a leader in clinical trials and molecular tumor‑board efforts at the Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center.

Paul F. Mansfield, MD, currently holds the Robert F. Fly Professorship of Surgical Oncology, in honor of R. Lee Clark, MD, and is a professor of surgery in the Surgical Oncology Department at the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Dr. Mansfield earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Drexel University in 1979. In 1983, he received his Doctorate of Medicine at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, followed by surgical residency at Pennsylvania Hospital. After completing a Fellowship in Surgical Oncology at MD Anderson, he became assistant professor with the Department of Surgical Oncology in 1991 and was promoted to associate professor in 1997. Dr. Mansfield went on to become professor of Surgical Oncology in 2003 and deputy chairman of this department in 2007. In 2009 he was appointed head of Emergency Services at MD Anderson. Dr. Mansfield served as Vice President for Acute Care Services from 2011 to 2018. He is certified with the American Board of Surgery and has special interests in appendiceal cancer and gastric cancer. Dr. Mansfield has authored or co-authored over 160 articles in peer-reviewed publications, and numerous book chapters, and has given countless presentations at national and international conferences.

Dr. Rutika Mehta is a medical oncologist at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa, Florida. She received her MD degree from Topiwala National Medical College, Mumbai, India. She received a Master of Science in Public Health in Epidemiology at St. Louis University School of Public Health at Indiana University, followed by a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology at Purdue University, Indianapolis Indiana. Dr Mehta also completed a one-year Research Fellowship in Pathology at Indiana University School of Medicine, Translational Genomics Core. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency at Johns Hopkins University/Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, Maryland. Dr Mehta recently completed a Hematology/Oncology Fellowship at the University of Buffalo, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, New York. Dr Mehta’s clinical interests are a spectrum of gastrointestinal cancers including esophageal, gastric, hepato-biliary, pancreatic and colorectal cancers, both early stages and advanced stages. Dr Mehta’s research interests are primarily esophageal/gastric cancers and colon cancer.

Ryan H. Moy, MD, PhD, is a distinguished assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and an assistant attending physician at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. He holds an MD and PhD in Immunology from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry from Yale University.
Dr. Moy has completed extensive training, including a postdoctoral fellowship at the Tavazoie Laboratory, Rockefeller University and a medical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. His research is heavily focused on gastrointestinal cancers, with numerous contributions to understanding metastatic liver colonization in colorectal cancer and developing innovative cancer therapies.

Dr. Moy has received several prestigious awards, including the Louis V. Gerstner Scholar Award and the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Robert Black Fellow Award. He actively participates in academic service and leadership, including roles on the HICCC Data Safety and Monitoring Committee and co-chair of the HICCC CGE Clinical Research Taskforce. In 2023 he was also announced as a recipient of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)-Debbie’s Dream Foundation Innovation and Discovery Grant.

An active member of several professional organizations, including the AACR and the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Dr. Moy also contributes to peer-reviewed journals and reviews Discover Oncology, Cancers, and The Oncologist. His work has led to significant funding from institutions like the NIH, the Gastric Cancer Foundation, and the Department of Defense.

Dr. Moy’s dedication to cancer research and education is evident in his prolific publication record, mentorship of future medical professionals, and involvement in numerous clinical trials aimed at improving outcomes for patients with gastrointestinal cancers.

Dr. Rosenthal completed his medical school and surgical residency in Rosario, Argentina. In 1982 he emigrated to Frankfurt, Germany, where he repeated his general surgery residency and became an attending surgeon at the Northwest Hospital. In 1993 Dr. Rosenthal emigrated to the USA. Three years of minimally invasive surgery fellowship at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in LA were followed by a third general surgery residency at Mount Sinai Medical Center in NY. Since 1999 he is Chief of MIS and Bariatric Surgery and director of Fellowship in Minimally Invasive and Bariatric Surgery at Cleveland Clinic Florida. In 2019 Dr. R was appointed Regional Director of the Digestive Disease Institute of Cleveland Clinic Florida. Since 2012 he is the Chairman of the Department of General Surgery and, since 2011, the director of the General Surgery Residency Program. Dr. Rosenthal served between 2014 and 2016 as Chief of Staff and Chairman of the Medical Executive Committee at Cleveland Clinic Florida. Dr. Rosenthal was appointed for 6 years in the Board of Governors of SAGES and served for an equal amount of time in the SAGES Foundation. Dr. Rosenthal is a Founding member and immediate past president of the Fellowship Council. He also served on multiple committees and is President of the American Chapter of the International Federation of Societies of Obesity Surgery, Past president of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgeons ( ASMBS), and past president of the ASMBS Foundation, South Florida Chapter of ACS and the Fellowship Council. He is a founding member and secretary-treasurer of the International Society of Fluorescent Image Guided Surgery. He is Editor in Chief of SOARD, Editor of SURGERY, and founding Clinical Editor of Bariatric Times. He also serves as associate editor of Obesity Surgery. Additionally, he is an Editorial Board member of Annals of Surgery, Selected Readings in General Surgery, and Surgical Endoscopy. He is the immediate past president and governor of the South Florida Chapter of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. R is an honorary member of several surgical societies, including the Federation of Latin-American Surgeons, Argentinian, Indian, Peruvian, Bolivian, German, and Israeli Societies of Surgery. Dr. R. conducted well over 10,000 general surgery and bariatric procedures and trained over 60 fellows in advanced gastrointestinal, minimally invasive, and bariatric surgery. He is the author or co-author of over 500 abstracts and peer-reviewed publications, more than 60 book chapters, and over 200 educational videos. He has contributed over 90 book chapters and is the Co-Editor of several books, including the ASMBS Bariatric Surgery Book, Globesity, Netter’s Gastroenterology, The Pathophysiology of Pneumoperitoneum, Fluorescent Imaging for Surgeons, Operative Strategies in Laparoscopic Surgery, Weight Loss Surgery and Mental Conditioning for Common Operations in Surgical Training.

Anil K. Rustgi is the Herbert and Florence Irving Director of the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Dr. Rustgi is a world-renowned leader in the field of gastrointestinal oncology. His interdisciplinary research focuses on tumor initiation, the tumor microenvironment and tumor metastasis in the context of gastrointestinal cancers, including cancer of the esophagus, pancreas, and colon.

Dr. Rustgi’s lab works to translate their discoveries into improving molecular diagnostics and finding new experimental therapeutics for patients, and is funded through several grants including an NCI P01 (program project on esophageal cancer), three NIH R01 grants (for gastric cancer pancreatic cancer and colon cancer), SU2C and an American Cancer Society Research Professorship. He has more than 400 publications and his work has appeared in high-impact journals such as Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature Medicine, Cancer Cell, Genes and Development, Gastroenterology, Journal of Clinical Investigation, PNAS, JAMA and New England Journal of Medicine.

He has been elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation, Association of American Physicians and National Academy of Medicine and as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Previously, he was president of the American Gastroenterological Association (16,000 members), editor-in-chief of Gastroenterology, president of the International Society of Gastroenterological Carcinogenesis and president of the American Pancreas Association.

He has been recognized for his contributions with numerous awards, including the AACR Daniel Von Hoff award for outstanding contributions to education and training and cancer research (2024), American Association of Indian Scientists in Cancer Research (AAISCR) Lifetime Achievement Award (2024), AGA Beaumont Prize for distinction in basic/translational research (2023), AGA Julius Friedenwald Lifetime Achievement in Gastroenterology Medal (2017), AGA Distinguished Mentor Award (2016), the Ruth C. Brufsky Award for Excellence in Research in Pancreatic Cancer (2013). In addition, he received the top mentorship and teaching awards (Arthur Asbury for faculty; and one from the postdoctoral fellow program; one from the MD-PHD program; and, one from the Department of Cancer Biology) from his tenure at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Rustgi graduated Summa Cum Laude from Yale College with a bachelor’s degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry (departmental honors) and earned his medical degree at Duke University School of Medicine, where he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha, the national medical honorary society. He completed an internal medicine residency at Beth Israel Hospital and a GI fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), both of which are affiliates of Harvard Medical School. He rose to associate professor of medicine at MGH/Harvard before joining the University of Pennsylvania in 1998, where he served as Chief of Gastroenterology, T. Grier Miller Professor of Medicine and directed two Centers and NIH T32 training grants until 2018.

Nilay S. Sethi, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Sethi was born and raised in New Jersey and received his BS from The College of New Jersey, his MD from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and his PhD in molecular biology from Princeton University, where his graduate training was in the lab of Yibin Kang. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco followed by a Hematology/Medical Oncology fellowship in the Dana-Farber/Mass General Brigham program. His postdoctoral research was at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute in the lab of Dr. Adam Bass. Dr. Sethi started his laboratory at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2021 where he remains as a medical oncologist and lab-based investigator. He splits his time between taking care of patients with gastrointestinal cancers and investigating a subset of these cancers in the laboratory. His group focuses on gene-environment interactions, aberrant plasticity, and epigenetic regulation of GI premalignancies. In particular, his team is uncovering the molecular regulation of differentiation blocks in colorectal cancer, which contributes to aberrant plasticity in cancer initiation and therapy resistance. By leveraging data from patients, mouse models, and cell culture studies, he is motivated to provide an integrated understanding of early events in gastrointestinal cancers with the ultimate hope that the knowledge gained will inspire new avenues for cancer prevention and treatment.

Dr. Zev Wainberg is the Professor of Medicine at UCLA and co-director of the UCLA GI Oncology Program. He was trained in medical oncology and hematology at UCLA. He completed his residency training at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and received his MD from the Sackler School of Medicine, New York Program at Tel Aviv University. His research involves a variety of clinical trials in multiple gastrointestinal cancers including pancreas, colon, gastric and esophageal.

Dr. Wainberg’s laboratory based research efforts involve the testing of novel therapeutics against all gastrointestinal cancers. Currently, he is the recipient of several grants focused on the targeting of cancer stem cells and in molecular classification of GI cancers.

Zachary J. Brown, DO, is an Assistant Professor of Surgery within the Division of Surgical Oncology at NYU Langone Health and the Perlmutter Cancer Center. Dr. Brown is interested in
treating patients with advanced or metastatic cancers originating from the appendix, colon, rectum, small intestine, stomach, and peritoneal surface. As a board-certified surgical oncologist, he is an expert in treating patients with a method known as cytoreductive surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC).

CRS is a method of eliminating all visible tumors from the abdomen, often requiring removal of the lining of the abdomen (peritoneum) and any involved organs. CRS is usually followed by HIPEC, which delivers heated chemotherapy into the stomach, which aids in treating the cancer cells we cannot see or remove by CRS. With this treatment, we hope to offer patients improved survival that might not be possible with standard chemotherapy. Dr. Brown takes a personalized approach to treating patients, keeping their individual goals in mind and educating patients about their disease process so they may make informed decisions. He wants to give patients a sense of hope and emphasize to them that their disease does not define them.

In addition to treating patients, Dr. Brown believes in the importance of cancer research to improve outcomes for both current and future patients. Dr. Brown has authored over sixty peer-reviewed articles and six book chapters in authoritative journals such as JAMA Surgery, Journal of the American College of Surgeons, British Journal of Surgery, Annals of Surgical Oncology, Journal of Surgical Oncology, Gastroenterology, Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, and Cancer Cell. He continues to publish and present nationally and is an active Society of Surgical Oncology committee member. Dr. Brown’s research is centered on using regional therapies, such as HIPEC, to treat patients with advanced cancers to understand better peritoneal disease, which may lead to innovative therapies. He is focused on bringing new therapies and clinical trials to patients with peritoneal metastases to offer hope to patients who may be out of standard treatment options.

Before joining NYU, Dr. Brown completed his general surgery residency at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School as well as fellowships in Tumor Immunology and Surgical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health (NIH/NCI) and a fellowship in Complex General Surgical Oncology at The Ohio State University and The James Cancer Hospital where he received specialized training in treating patients with advanced and metastatic cancers. Dr. Brown enjoys working within a multidisciplinary team at NYU and the Perlmutter Cancer Center to provide his patients with the best comprehensive cancer care.

Dr. Miguel A. Burch is a board-certified general surgeon specializing in minimally invasive gastrointestinal and bariatric surgery. He earned his medical degree from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine in 1999, completed his residency at Boston Medical Center, and pursued a fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Burch serves as the Associate Director of Minimally Invasive Surgery and Fellowship Director for the MIS/Bariatric Fellowship at Cedars-Sinai. He is also the Director of the Bariatric Surgery Program at Torrance Memorial Medical Center. With over two decades of experience, Dr. Burch has contributed extensively to the field through research and live surgical demonstrations worldwide. He is fluent in Spanish and is dedicated to advancing surgical techniques and patient care in gastrointestinal health.

Michael A. Choti, MD, MBA, FACS is the Chief of Surgery at Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center in Phoenix, Arizona.  He is internationally recognized for his work as a surgical oncologist and pancreatic-hepatobiliary surgeon. He specializes in the care of liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, neuroendocrine tumors, stomach cancer, and colorectal cancer.

Dr. Choti earned his medical degree at Yale University and completed his general surgery training at the University of Pennsylvania and a Surgical Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He earned an MBA at Johns Hopkins in 2004.

At the Johns Hopkins Hospital he was Vice Chair of the Department of Surgery and Professor of Surgery, Oncology and Radiology.  In 2013 he joined the faculty of UT Southwestern Medical Center as chair of the Department of Surgery.

Dr. Choti is nationally known for his extensive expertise in medical education, clinical research, and surgical leadership. During his career Dr. Choti has been actively involved in cancer research including surgical innovation, robotics and image-guided surgical cancer therapy. He has received numerous grants to support research aimed at improving care for gastrointestinal cancers and holds three patents for robotic surgical devices. He has trained and mentored many physicians in the field of cancer surgery.

Dr. Choti has served on the boards of many national organizations. He has been a reviewer, contributor and editor for numerous medical journals including Annals of Surgical Oncology, Journal of Gastrointestinal Cancer and Gastrointestinal Cancer Research.

Universities and medical organizations have honored Dr. Choti for his dedication to medicine and research including the Society of Surgical Oncology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the American Cancer Society. In addition, Dr. Choti has been named one of America’s Top Doctors for Cancer many years in a row.

As a highly regarded cancer doctor, Dr. Choti has written two medical textbooks and authored over 50 chapters on gastrointestinal cancers.  He has published over 400 peer-reviewed articles in medical journals about his research in cancer treatment and has an h-index of 90. Sought after for his knowledge and expertise, he has spoken at more than 150 conferences and universities around the world.

In addition to his academic accomplishments, Dr. Choti considers himself first and foremost a clinical surgeon and oncologist. He continues to maintain a busy clinical practice in complex pancreatic, hepatobiliary and gastrointestinal cancer surgery. He strives to deliver the best care possible in a multidisciplinary approach that promotes shared decision-making, empowerment and compassion for the patient, family and members of the cancer team. He enjoys living in Arizona and readily takes advantage of opportunities to hike, swim and bike in our beautiful state.

Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center delivers cancer care to patients in Arizona and Northern Colorado through the collaboration of Banner Health and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Banner MD Anderson offers focused disease-specific expertise in the medical, radiation and surgical management of the cancer patient; an evidence-based, multidisciplinary approach to patient care; access to clinical trials and new investigative therapies; state-of-the-art technology for the diagnosis, staging and treatment of all types of cancer; oncology expertise in supportive care services.

Dr. Travis Grotz, an esteemed surgical oncologist and Associate Professor of Surgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, brings a wealth of expertise to the Scientific Medical Advisory Board (SMAB) of Debbie’s Dream Foundation: Curing Stomach Cancer. Currently serving as a Consultant in the Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreas Surgery, Department of Surgery at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Grotz has held this position since July 22, 2020. Additionally, he holds the academic rank of Associate Professor of Surgery at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, a position he has held since February 1, 2023.

Dr. Grotz is licensed to practice medicine in both Minnesota (since 2009) and Texas (since 2015), reflecting his commitment to providing medical care across different regions. Educationally, Dr. Grotz earned his BA from Saint John’s University in 2004 and subsequently received his MD from Creighton University School of Medicine in 2008. He completed his General Surgery Residency Program at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine from 2008 to 2015 and engaged in a Clinician Investigator role during 2011 and 2012, contributing to the advancement of medical knowledge. Dr. Grotz pursued further specialization with a fellowship in Complex General Surgical Oncology at MD Anderson in Houston, Texas, from 2015 to 2017.

In addition to his extensive education and clinical experience, Dr. Grotz is certified by the American Board of Surgery in both Surgery (since 2016) and Complex General Surgical Oncology (since 2018). He has demonstrated his commitment to quality healthcare through his certification as a Mayo Clinic Quality Fellow at the Bronze Level in 2011. Furthermore, he is engaged in ongoing education, pursuing a Masters in Clinical and Translational Science from the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, with anticipated completion in 2023.

As a dedicated member of the Society of Surgical Oncology and other professional committees, Dr. Grotz actively contributes to clinical and translational trials, focusing on the early identification and treatment of peritoneal metastasis. His expertise extends to serving on the NCCN committee for peritoneal mesothelioma and as a member of the editorial board of the World Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology. Dr. Travis Grotz’s commitment to advancing medical knowledge and providing compassionate care aligns seamlessly with the mission of Debbie’s Dream Foundation.

Dr. Omar H. Llaguna is a surgical oncologist at Memorial Healthcare System in Broward County, Florida, where he serves as Chief of the Peritoneal Surface Malignancy Program. He treats patients with a variety of gastrointestinal and peritoneal malignancies. Dr. Llaguna is also an assistant professor of surgery at Florida International University Wertheim College of Medicine. At Memorial, he serves as faculty for the general surgery residency training program. He spearheads clinical research efforts for the division of surgical oncology with a special interest in health outcomes research, a methodology used to identify and measure the link between treatments or interventions delivered and the actual outcomes achieved.

Matthew R. Porembka, MD joined the University of Texas Southwestern Department of Surgery in 2012 in the Division of Surgical Oncology. He is the Chief of Surgical Oncology and Medical Director of the Surgical Oncology Clinics at Parkland Hospital.

Dr. Porembka received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the Johns Hopkins University and his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh Medical School. He completed his General Surgery Residency at Washington University in St. Louis where he was chosen to serve as the Administrative Chief Resident. He completed a tumor immunology fellowship under the direction of David Linehan where he studied the role of tumor induced immunosuppression related to pancreas adenocarcinoma. Following completion of his surgical training in St. Louis, he completed a Complex Surgical Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital before joining the faculty of the University of Texas Southwestern in 2012.

The central goals of Dr. Porembka’s research are to better understand the biologic basis of ethnic disparity in GI cancers to facilitate better diagnosis, risk stratification, and novel treatments. His specific focus is gastric cancer is Hispanic patients. His research group levered large national databases to better understand epidemiological and treatment trends in gastric cancers, as well as others. In addition, he is a member of several collaborations, both local and international, that focus on translational team science. The main objectives of these collaborations are to 1) better understand the genomic basis of ethnic disparity in gastric cancer, 2) improve current risk stratification models to better inform delivery of multidisciplinary care, and 3) develop animal models to facilitating novel treatment modalities in gastric cancer.

Dr. Yang is a Professor of the Department of Surgery. He is involved in several large-scale RCTs for gastric cancer treatment. He was a Korean PI of the REGATTA study (Phase III study for the role of gastrectomy in stage IV gastric cancer with a single incurable factor; a collaborative study between JCOG and KGCA). He is an investigator of the CLASSIC trial, KLASS (Korean Laparoscopic Gastrointestinal Surgery Study Group) trial, as well as the Korean PI of a phase II study for the role of neoadjuvant imatinib treatment in large gastric GIST (a collaborator study between Japan and Korea). He is the founding chairman of KLASS. His translational research interests are gastric carcinogenesis, DDS, familial gastric cancer, biomarkers, and developing a PDX model for gastric cancer. He is Chairman of Board of Directors, Korean Cancer Association, executive council member of IGCA, Honorary fellow of American Surgical Association, Honorary Member of European Surgical Association, Honorary International Fellow of Japanese Society of Endoscopic Surgery, and a member of Korea Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST). He is an editorial member of ‘Gastric Cancer’ (official journal of International Gastric Cancer Association), Asian Journal of Endoscopic Surgery, Annals of Surgery, etc. Dr. Yang gave about 300 invited lectures at international meetings and overseas institutes with occasional live demonstrations of gastrectomy (open, laparoscopic, or robotic).

Dr. Takeshi Sano is the Hospital Director at the Cancer Institute Hospital of the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Tokyo in 1980 and earned his PhD in 1993. Dr. Sano has held prominent positions, including Staff Surgeon and Chief at the National Cancer Center Hospital (1993–2008) and Director of the Gastric Surgery Division at the Cancer Institute Hospital (from August 2008). Since July 2018, he has served as the Hospital Director.​

His academic contributions include serving on the council of the Japanese Gastric Cancer Association and as Secretary General of the International Gastric Cancer Association. Dr. Sano is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and Edinburgh and an honorary member of several surgical associations worldwide. As an editor of the journal Gastric Cancer, he has authored over 170 English-language papers in peer-reviewed journals. Internationally, Dr. Sano has performed live gastrectomy demonstrations and participated in advanced surgical courses across multiple continents.

Mitsuru Sasako, MD, PhD, brings a wealth of expertise and experience to his role as a distinguished member of Debbie’s Dream Foundation: Curing Stomach Cancer’s Scientific Medical Advisory Board. With an illustrious career spanning over four decades, Dr. Sasako has been at the forefront of upper gastrointestinal surgery and surgical oncology. His tireless dedication to advancing the field is evident through his extensive list of accomplishments, including his pioneering work on surgical clinical trials and the establishment of standard treatments for gastric cancer patients both in Japan and internationally.

Dr. Sasako’s commitment to transparency and patient advocacy stems from a deeply personal experience, having lost his father to cancer in 1984. This event spurred him to champion truthfulness in medical practice and to advocate for genuine informed consent procedures in Japan. Alongside his professional achievements, Dr. Sasako’s faith journey has also played a pivotal role in shaping his outlook and motivations. Following his baptism in 2015, he has found fulfillment in supporting and advising those in vulnerable positions, particularly within the healthcare sector. Dr. Sasako’s multifaceted contributions to the medical community underscore his unwavering dedication to improving patient outcomes and advancing the field of surgical oncology.

Dr. Shitara is Director of the Department of Gastrointestinal Oncology at National Cancer Center Hospital East in Kashiwa, Japan. He earned his medical degree from Tohoku University School of Medicine in 2002. His clinical and research work focuses on developing novel anticancer agents, optimizing chemotherapy regimens, and advancing translational research for gastric and gastrointestinal cancers. Dr. Shitara serves as principal investigator or study chair on multiple landmark international trials in gastric cancer, contributing to the approval of new therapies and immunotherapies.

Dr. Barzi is an Associate Professor of Medical Oncology at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, where she specializes in gastrointestinal cancers. She earned her medical degree from Tehran University of Medical Sciences and holds a PhD in Public Health; she completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch and her Hematology/Oncology fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center.

Her work encompasses both clinical care and research—Dr. Barzi participates in therapeutic trials and leads efforts to develop novel treatment approaches for gastrointestinal malignancies.

Dr. Camargo is a Senior Investigator in the Metabolic Epidemiology Branch of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). She holds an M.S. in Epidemiology, an M.H.A, and a Ph.D. in Public Health (Epidemiology). Her research focuses on infectious and molecular epidemiology of gastric cancer, including studies of Helicobacter pylori and other risk factors, and she leads international collaborations such as the H. pylori Genome Project, building a global biobank to study bacterial diversity’s role in gastric carcinogenesis.

Dr. Chan is a gastroenterologist and physician-scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where he serves as Chief of the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit and Director of Epidemiology at the MGH Cancer Center. He is also the Daniel K. Podolsky Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Dr. Chan’s work spans from population-based research to clinical trials, focusing on prevention, early detection, and treatment of gastrointestinal cancers. He leads efforts exploring the roles of diet, inflammation, gut microbiome, and chemoprevention (e.g., aspirin) in digestive disorders and cancer, making him a leading expert in GI‑cancer epidemiology and prevention.

Eric Van Cutsem obtained his MD and PhD degree and trained in internal medicine and gastroenterology/GI oncology at the University of Leuven, Belgium. He is currently Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) and is head of Digestive Oncology at the University Hospital Gasthuisberg in Leuven, is a board member of Leuven Cancer Institute and of the Department of Oncology at the University of Leuven. He has published more than 400 peer-reviewed articles (H-factor: 83; >29000 citations) in prestigious journals including New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lancet, Lancet Oncology, JAMA, Annals of Oncology and European Journal of Cancer.

Eric Van Cutsem is a member of several scientific organizations. He is/was a member of the Scientific Program Committee and/or educational committee of ASCO, ASCO-GI cancers symposium, ESMO, UEG, and ECCO. He served for ESMO as executive board member 2011-2013 and since 2014 has been ESMO spokesperson coordinator. He was secretary from 2000 to 2003 and chair of the EORTC-GI group from 2003 to 2007 and is chairman of PETACC (Pan-European Trials on Adjuvant Colon Cancer) since 2008; he is board member of the EORTC since 2009 and president of European Society of Digestive Oncology (ESDO) and is co-chairman of the European Neuroendocrine Tumour Society (ENETS) registry. He was chairman of the governmental colon cancer prevention task force in Flanders, Belgium and is president of BGDO (Belgian Group Digestive Oncology), FAPA (Familial Adenomatous Polyposis Association) and is a Board member of the Belgian Foundation Against Cancer. He was the founder and is currently chair of the Scientific Committee of the World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer in Barcelona (in partnership with ESMO since 2005).

Bruce D. Minsky, MD is Professor and Director of Clinical Research of the Division of Radiation Oncology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is an active clinician and clinical research investigator on the Gastrointestinal Cancer multi-disciplinary team. He holds the Frank T. McGraw Memorial Chair for the Study of Cancer.

Dr. Minsky received his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1982. He was a Medical Intern at New England Deaconess Hospital and completed his residency in radiation therapy at the Harvard Joint Center for Radiation Therapy.

Following completion of his residency in 1986, Dr. Minsky spent the first 20 years of his career at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as a clinician and clinical research investigator in Gastrointestinal Cancer. While at MSKCC, he was also the Vice Chair of Radiation Oncology from 2000-2007 and achieved the rank of Professor of Radiation Oncology at Cornell University in 1999. In 2004 he received a medical degree honoris causa from Friedrich Alexander University, Erlangen, Germany in recognition of his work in gastrointestinal cancers. He received the MSKCC Distinguished Alumni Award in 2008.

From 2007 to 2012 Dr. Minsky served as a Professor of Radiation and Cellular Oncology and Associate Dean in the Biological Sciences Division at the University of Chicago. During that time he was also the Chief Quality Officer at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Dr. Minsky is an editorial board member of several journals and has lectured and published widely. He is the co-chair of the NCI Gastrointestinal Steering Committee and has served on the Board of Directors for both the ASTRO and ASCO. He is the 2014-2015 president of ASTRO and in 2014 was elected an honorary member of ESTRO.