Why did you decide to work in oncology?
Oncology is a uniquely meaningful field offering the tremendous privilege of caring for patients and their families as they navigate an often extremely challenging and frightening diagnosis. For me, it is incredibly meaningful and rewarding to come alongside them and have the opportunity to provide guidance and hope throughout their oncologic journey.
Tell us about the condition(s) you specialize in. Why is this an area of interest to you? What led you to focus here?
I specialize in treating patients with lymphoma. I was drawn to lymphoma in part because my initial interest in the field of medicine was fostered through shadowing a physician in bone marrow transplantation, and since then, I have always been interested in hematologic malignancies. Lymphoma is particularly fascinating to me due to the range of biology it encompasses from indolent to aggressive, and also the opportunity it brings to treat patients across all spectrums, from young adolescents with Hodgkin lymphoma to octogenarians with CLL. We are fortunate to have many effective therapies for lymphoma, and it is extremely rewarding to work in a field where many of our patients can have excellent outcomes.
What are the main challenges in this area? How do you address these challenges with patients and families?
Despite many patients who do have durable disease remissions, there are unfortunately many patients who develop relapsed or refractory disease and are faced with limited treatment options. Our challenge is to advance novel therapeutics to continue improving outcomes for patients with lymphoma. In addition, as our therapies advance and our treatment armamentarium expands, our challenge is to select the optimal and least-toxic treatment for each individual patient. We are in a period where many questions arise across the various lymphoma histologies about efficacious sequencing approaches and how to achieve disease control while minimizing treatment side effects for patients.
Describe your research work in lymphoma.
I lead Dana-Farber's clinical research efforts in mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) and am the clinical director of our Mantle Cell Lymphoma Center. We have a growing portfolio of clinical trials for this disease, which is a rare subtype of lymphoma and can be very challenging to treat. I am currently leading an investigator-initiated clinical trial, called the BRAZAN study, of combined chemo-immunotherapy and targeted BTK-inhibitor for the frontline treatment of patients with MCL. I am also the site PI for a study investigating glofitamab combined with lenalidomide for patients with relapsed or refractory disease, and a registrational study of sonrotoclax, a novel BCL-2 inhibitor. I also work closely with our laboratory science investigators, particularly Mark Murakami, MD, the scientific director for Dana-Farber's Mantle Cell Lymphoma Center, to design and conduct high-impact correlative studies. My aim is to help advance novel therapeutic strategies in MCL and improve outcomes for patients with this disease.
What are you most excited about in your work in the area of lymphoma? What holds promise for patients?
We are seeing the development of several novel therapeutics for MCL, including bispecific antibodies and novel small-molecule inhibitors, that we hope will lead to more effective treatment options for this disease. MCL is a very heterogeneous disease and in the future, we aim to tailor treatment regimens for an individual patient and their disease biology, with the goal of more precise and less toxic therapies that will still achieve highly durable remissions. We are already seeing encouraging advancements in this vein with studies investigating treatment regimens specifically for high-risk MCL and incorporating strategies such as MRD-guided treatment duration. I am also excited about advancements in MCL translational science, which can yield insights into understanding the mechanisms of therapeutic resistance and how to overcome them.
What do you like to do when you're not doing research/caring for patients? What do you do for fun?
I love to spend time with family and friends. Outside of work, you'll usually find me planning my next hike, checking out Boston's restaurant scene, or unwinding at the piano. I am also always on the lookout for a great boba spot!