Dr. Nagla Abdel Karim is a Professor of Hematology/Oncology and the Director of the Thoracic Oncology and Phase I Programs at the Medical College of Georgia-Augusta-Georgia. Her clinical and research interests are focused on the personalized approach of therapy for lung cancer. She is the study chair of S1929 clinical trial at SWOG that focuses on personalized therapy for SLFN11 small cell lung cancer.

Dr. Nagla Abdel Karim received her Medical degree from the University of Cairo- Faculty of Medicine. She subsequently received her training in Internal Medicine/Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute-The University of Cairo and she obtained her Masters of Science degree followed by PhD, where the latter was through a channel program with the University of Washington.

She did a year of Post-doctoral fellowship at MD Anderson in Cancer Prevention, followed by one-year Research fellowship at The University of Washington.

She did a residency in Internal Medicine at Fairview-Cleveland Clinic Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio followed by a 3-year clinical fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at The University of Cincinnati then became Assistant Professor of Medicine at Ohio State University then re-joined the University of Cincinnati again in September 2011 as an Assistant Professor then Associate Professor on 2014.

During all that time, she was an Investigator and Co- investigators of several Clinical Trials as well as a lead investigator on several translational research projects.

Dr. Borghaei earned his degree at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed a residency at Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia. Since completing his fellowship training at Fox Chase, he has been involved in a number of clinical trials aimed at developing new, antibody-based therapies and immunotherapies for patients with lung cancer.

In addition to his clinical practice and participation in immunotherapy-based clinical trials, Dr. Borghaei is the principal investigator (PI) of a laboratory that develops new monoclonal antibodies and novel immune-modulating drugs, with the aim of bringing these approaches to the clinic. He served as the PI of a phase III randomized study that proved the effectiveness of nivolumab in the treatment of patients with advanced non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer after progression on prior chemotherapy. This work led to the approval of nivolumab, one of the first immunotherapy-based drugs to be approved for lung cancer in this setting.

Dr. Borghaei is a member of the thoracic core committee at Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and, until recently, was a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer panel. He is the recipient of an American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Young Investigator Award and an ASCO Career Development Award. Dr. Borghaei is a long-standing member of ASCO, AACR, IASLC, SITC and ECOG thoracic committee.

Dr. Borghaei has been a recipient of the Robert Krigel Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence from Fox Chase Cancer Center, ASCO’s Young Investigator Award and the Career Development Award from ASCO. His work has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Clinical Oncology, The Lancet Oncology, Leukemia Research, Journal of Thoracic Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research, Clinical Lung Cancer, and Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

Associate Professor; Chief Integration Officer and Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Smilow Cancer Network

Dr. Chiang currently serves as an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Section of Medical Oncology, specializing in thoracic oncology, with a background in translational research in metastasis, as well as extensive experience in clinical practice in both academic and community settings. Her clinical focus has been to build a small cell lung cancer program at Yale with a comprehensive portfolio of clinical trials testing novel therapeutics for these patients. Her research interests focus on development of clinical trials and translational studies to test novel agents and combinations with immune checkpoint inhibitors for both small cell and non-small cell lung tumors.

In addition, Dr. Chiang is the Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Chief Integration Officer for Smilow Cancer Hospital (SCH). She has helped to build the SCH Network and oversee operations, quality efforts and clinical research in the Smilow Care Centers. Dr. Chiang has a particular focus in quality measurement and improvement and has worked to achieve ASCO QOPI Certification for the entire Smilow academic clinical practice. She has spearheaded quality initiatives locally and nationally for ASCO. She is dedicated to quality improvement for patient-centered cancer services, and champion the use of patient-reported outcomes.

Dr. Collins is a palliative care physician in the Supportive Oncology and Palliative Care Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center, where she has been since 2016. Her primary academic interest is teaching communication skills, specialty and primary palliative care. She works collaboratively with researchers investigating innovative interventions to improve palliative care education, supportive care, and quality of life in patients with cancer. She is the program director of the Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship at Temple/Fox Chase Cancer Center, the director of medical education for the Supportive Oncology and Palliative Care Program, and actively involved in the education of hematology-oncology fellows.

Patrick Forde is a medical oncologist and director of the thoracic oncology clinical research program at Johns Hopkins. He leads a research program focused on development of novel immunotherapies for non-small cell lung cancer and mesothelioma particularly in the perioperative setting.

Dr. Gentzler received his MD degree from Temple University School of Medicine and completed his internal medicine internship and residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. He also earned a master’s degree in pharmacology during his residency with a focus on clinical investigation supported by the NIH K30 Clinical Research Curriculum Award. He completed his hematology/oncology fellowship at Northwestern University.

Dr. Gentzler’s clinical focus is the treatment of patients with lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies. His research is centered around the development of novel therapies for lung cancer. His goal is to contribute meaningful research that leads to improvements in the curability, survival, and quality of life for patients with lung cancer.

He is an active investigator on many active clinical trials, serves as the director of the Thoracic Oncology Clinical Research Program at UVA and chairs the UVA Cancer Center’s Lung Cancer Translational Research Team. Dr. Gentzler is also director of the UVA Cancer Center Protocol Review Committee, which provides scientific review and oversight of cancer research conducted at UVA. On a national level, he has leadership roles in the NCI Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN) and Thoracic Clinical Trials Working Group for the Hoosier Cancer Research Network (HCRN). He is also an active member of the ECOG-ACRIN cooperative group.

Dr. Gerber is Professor of Internal Medicine and Population & Data Sciences at UT Southwestern Medical Center.  Within the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern, Dr. Gerber serves as Associate Director of Clinical Research. He is an active clinical investigator with more than 180 publications and continuous federal and foundation research funding for more than 10 years. In the area of cancer immunotherapy, Dr. Gerber has particular interest in the impact of autoimmune comorbidities, the recognition and characterization of immune-related adverse events, and biomarkers for the prediction and diagnosis of these autoimmune toxicities.

Dr. Sameera Kumar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Fox Chase Cancer Center. She serves as the primary thoracic radiation oncologist and cares for the majority of the lung cancer, mesothelioma, and thymoma patients that require radiotherapy.  She completed her MD from West Virginia University and her residency from the University of Kentucky. She has several publications, conference presentations, and awards to her credit.

Ticiana Leal, MD is associate professor and serves as director of the Thoracic Medical Oncology Program in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine. Board certified in medical oncology and palliative care, Dr. Leal specializes in caring for patients with lung cancer, mesothelioma and thymic malignancies at Winship Cancer Institute. Dr. Leal holds professional memberships with American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Association for Cancer Research, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, European Society of Medical Oncology, Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, and International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. She is the NCI LUNG-MAP Chair, ECOG-ACRIN representative.

Dr. Malhotra is a medical oncologist at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. As a medical oncologist, she cares for patients with lung, mesothelioma and other thoracic cancers, as well as those who participate in clinical trials. She joined Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey after completing a fellowship in Hematology and Oncology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. This was preceded by a residency in Internal Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital and Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC.
 
Dr. Malhotra’s research interest is in development of novel therapies for the treatment of lung cancer and advanced solid tumors. As a member and acting director of the Phase I/Investigational Therapeutics Program, she works closely with a dedicated research team to increase access to newer therapies to their patients. She is an author on more than 75 publications, book chapters and abstracts and the lead investigator on multiple national clinical trials.
 
As the co-leader of the Thoracic Disease Group at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Dr. Malhotra works collaboratively with members of their multidisciplinary team including thoracic surgeons, radiation oncologists, radiologists, pathologists and nurses to provide the most advanced treatment options and trial therapies to patients. As a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Association for Cancer Research, she keeps abreast of the latest cancer research trends.

Dr Christopher Manley is the Director of Interventional Pulmonology at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.  He graduated with honors in bioethics and research from Loyola Stritch School of Medicine then completed fellowships in pulmonary/critical care at Tufts Medical Center and interventional pulmonary at the Harvard Combined (MGH/BIDMC) Program.  Dr Manley is a leader in robotic navigational bronchoscopy.

Dr Manley’s research interests include robotic bronchoscopy, intra-tumoral confocal endomicroscopy, cost-value analysis, and improving yield of small biopsy specimens.  Dr Manley is one of Philadelphia Magazine’s Top Doctors in Philadelphia and his work with the Monarch robotic bronchoscope in improving early diagnosis of lung cancer was recognized by Life Sciences Pennsylvania with the Patient Impact Award 2020.

Dr. Shih is a board-certified, fellowship trained medical oncology specialist at Tennessee Oncology PLLC. He completed his fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University after receiving his medical degree from Vanderbilt University Medical School where he remained to complete his internship and residency in internal medicine. His received his undergraduate Bachelor of Science degree from Louisiana University (magna cum laude). Dr. Shih is also a graduate of the Reformed Theological Seminary

In addition to his work as Co-director of High-Risk Skin Service and a Physician Partner at Tennessee Oncology, Dr. Shih was a Senior Investigator of the Drug Development Unit, and Director of the Neuro-Oncology Program during his time at the Sarah Cannon Research Institute. He specializes in all adult malignancies, neuro-oncology and complex skin cancers. Dr. Shih believes that caring for cancer patients is a privilege and continues to win accolades and awards for his sensitive patient care approach. He is currently affiliated with Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown and Saint Thomas West Hospital.

Dr. Shih is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He has published over 70 (peer-reviewed ) papers and has participated as a sub-investigator in 260 Phase 1 trials and 350 Phase II-III trials since 2007.

Interim Chief, Division of Thoracic Surgery

Assistant Professor, Department of Surgical Oncology

Director, Thoracic Oncology Fellowship Training Program

Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Oncology

Specialty Areas
Thoracic Oncology, Head and Neck Oncology

Research and Clinical Interests

Clinically, Dr. Weiss is focused on treating patients with lung cancer and head and neck cancers. Dr. Weiss’ research is focused on clinical trials in lung cancer and head/neck cancer. Dr. Weiss serves as section chief of thoracic and head/neck oncology and research POD leader for thoracic oncology. Dr. Weiss serves as associate director for finance of the Clinical Protocol Office. He also serves as the vice president of cancergrace.org, a global resource with the goal of increasing patient education and family information on cancer and is an advocate and board member of the Lung Cancer Initiative of North Carolina.