CMHCC CHAIRS
Laura Dawson MD, FASTRO
Professor,
Department of Radiation Oncology,
University of Toronto,
Radiation Oncologist, PMH,
Toronto, ON
Laura Dawson is Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto, and a practicing radiation oncologist at the Radiation Medicine Program, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, in Toronto. She is an internationally recognized leader in hepatobiliary cancer and in oligo-metastases. Her research has primarily focused on implementation of advanced radiation technologies (e.g. stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and image guided radiation therapy (IGRT)) to improve outcomes and to reduce the risk of toxicity of cancer patients. She has led phase I, II and more recently, phase III clinical trials of radiation therapy to treat patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and liver metastases. Dr. Dawson has published over 200 scientific papers and has mentored over 50 students from around the world. She has received numerous awards for her teaching, research and impact in oncology. She was the 2018 Canadian Association of Radiation Oncology (CARO) Gordon Richards lecturer, and she is the past Chair and past President of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).
Rachel Goodwin, MSc, MD, FRCPC
Assistant Professor of Medicine,
Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa
Ottawa, ON
Dr. Rachel Goodwin graduated from Mount Saint Vincent University with a Bachelor of Science and from the University of Guelph with a Masters of Nutritional Science. She completed medical school and her internal medicine and medical oncology residency at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Goodwin went on to complete a two-year Investigational New Drug Development Fellowship at NCIC Clinical Trial Group at Queen’s University, with a focus on Phase I/Phase II cancer clinical trials.
She is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. Her clinical interests include gastrointestinal cancers, neuroendocrine cancers and new drug development. Dr. Goodwin is an active member of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group where she is New Drug Development Liaison and co-chair for the Colon Disease Site Group.
Brandon Meyers, MSc, MD, FRCPC
Associate Professor, Oncology
McMaster University
Hamilton, ON
Dr. Meyers completed medical school at the University of Ottawa. He then completed at McMaster University post-graduate training in Internal Medicine, and Medical Oncology followed by a fellowship in Gastrointestinal Malignancies. He is an Associate Professor and staff Medical Oncologist at the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton, Ontario. His gastrointestinal clinical practice primarily focuses on hepatocellular carcinoma. He recently helped develop the Cancer Care Ontario guidelines on the management of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma, and is involved in phase I-III trials examining novel agents for liver cancer. He also collaborates with basic scientists working with animal models of liver cancer. He is a member of the Planning Committee of the Canadian Multidisciplinary HCC Conference.
Vincent Tam, MD, FRCPC
Associate Clinical Professor,
University of Calgary
Calgary, AB
Dr. Vincent Tam is Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Calgary and a staff medical oncologist at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre. He specializes in the treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies and particularly hepatobiliary cancer. His research interests include trials in hepatobiliary cancer and real world outcomes of HCC patients treated with systemic therapies. Dr Tam is currently an active member of the Canadian Clinical Trials Group where he is the co-chair of the Hepatobiliary Disease Site Group.
CGCC CHAIRS
Elena Elimova, MD, MSc, FRCPC
Medical Oncologist, Princess Margaret
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto
Toronto, ON
Dr. Elena Elimova is the GI medical oncology site group lead at Princess Margaret and an associate professor within the Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology at the University of Toronto. The main focus of Dr. Elimova’s research is to improve outcomes of patients with gastroesophageal and pancreatic malignancies. She has concentrated on big data research, translational studies, and the development of clinical trials. Nationally, she is the co-chair of the esophagogastric disease group for the Canadian Cancer Trials Group and internationally, she is a member of the National Cancer Institute Esophagogastric steering task force
Sharlene Gill MD, MPH, MBA, FRCPC, FASCO
Professor of Medicine
Division of Medical Oncology
University of British Columbia/BC Cancer
Vancouver, BC
Dr. Sharlene Gill is a Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and a medical oncologist specializing in GI cancers at BC Cancer – Vancouver. She received a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and an MD from the University of British Columbia in 1996, followed by residencies in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology. Dr. Gill subsequently completed a fellowship in Gl Oncology at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN) and a Master’s of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. In 2017, she completed an MBA from the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at the University of North Carolina. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and is actively engaged in education and research, with over 200 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters to her credit. Dr. Gill serves as the Chair of the Canadian Clinical Trials Group (CCTG) GI Disease Site Committee, Chair of the UBC Department of Medicine Mentoring Committee and BC Cancer Provincial Director, Staff Wellbeing and Engagement. She is Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Colorectal Cancer and the Past-President of the Canadian Association of Medical Oncologists.
SPEAKERS
Anand Govindarajan MD MSc FRCSC
GI and Peritoneal Surgery, Sinai Health System
Program Co-Director, General Surgical Oncology Fellowship
Associate Professor of Surgery, University of Toronto
Toronto, ON
Dr. Anand Govindarajan is a surgical oncologist and palliative care physician at Mt. Sinai Hospital and an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. He completed medical school and residency in General Surgery at the University of Toronto and a fellowship in Surgical Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He holds a Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology and is the Clinical Lead for Survivorship at Ontario Health (Cancer Care Ontario). His clinical practice involves the care of patients with gastrointestinal and peritoneal-based malignancies, and he is part of the multidisciplinary peritoneal malignancy program at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Hatim Karachiwala, MD
Medical Oncologist & Clinical Assistant Professor
Department of Oncology, University of Calgary
Calgary, AB
Dr. Hatim Karachiwala is a Medical Oncologist and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Oncology at the University of Calgary. Dr. Karachiwala is an active participant in clinical research, specializing in the area of gastrointestinal oncology. He is currently the clinical trial research lead for the Gastrointestinal Oncology Group. He has been the primary investigator on many clinical trials and continues to work on more novel approaches to treating patients with incurable cancers.
Scott Kopetz, M.D., Ph.D
Professor, Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology
The University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
Scott Kopetz is a Professor in the Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and an internationally recognized leader in colorectal cancer research and translational oncology. Dr. Kopetz’s work has helped establish new treatment approaches for molecularly defined colorectal cancers, including therapies targeting BRAF-mutated metastatic disease. He serves in multiple national leadership roles supporting gastrointestinal cancer research and clinical trial development and has led numerous Phase I–III clinical studies focused on improving outcomes for patients with GI malignancies. His research integrates molecular profiling and translational science to advance precision medicine strategies and overcome treatment resistance in colorectal cancer.
Michael J. Raphael, MD, FRCPC
GI Medical Oncologist
Odette Cancer Center, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center
Toronto, ON
Dr. Raphael is a GI Medical Oncologist at the Odette Cancer Center at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center. His practice is dedicated to the care of patients with gastrointestinal cancers. He completed his medical degree at Queen’s University and his internal medicine and medical oncology training at the University of Toronto. He then completed an advanced cancer health services research fellowship and a Master’s of Science (Healthcare Quality, Risk and Safety) at Queen’s University. His research focus is on population-based cancer care. His research aims to identify ways to optimize the coordination and delivery of cancer care services, and to describe gaps in care, disparities in access to treatment, uptake of cancer therapies, and real-world toxicity and effectiveness. His research has already influenced practice guidelines globally, and led to a new quality metric that is routinely captured by Cancer Care Ontario (“time to initiating adjuvant chemotherapy”).
Daniel Renouf, MD, MPH, FRCPC
Medical Oncologist & Executive Medical Director
BC Cancer, Vancouver Centre.
Vancouver, BC
Daniel Renouf is a medical oncologist and the Executive Medical Director at BC Cancer, Vancouver Centre. He is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia, Department of Medicine. He received his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Alberta and completed his internal medicine and medical oncology training at the University of British Columbia and BC Cancer. He undertook further training in early drug development and gastrointestinal oncology at Princess Margaret Hospital and the University of Toronto, and obtained a Master’s of Public Health from Harvard University. Daniel’s research interests include developmental therapeutics, genomics, and biomarker development within gastrointestinal cancers, with a focus on pancreatic cancer. He is the leader of the BC Cancer Phase I program, the BC Cancer GI Tumour Group chair, the Co-Director of Pancreas Centre BC, and is the Co-chair of the Canadian Cancer Trials Group Pancreatic Cancer disease group.
Prof. Dr. med. Arndt Vogel
Clinician Scientist, Professor
Longo Family Chair in Liver Cancer Research,
Toronto General Hospital
Princess Margarete Cancer Center
Toronto, ON
Prof. Vogel is a clinician-scientist at the rank of a full professor at the University of Toronto, Canada. He is appointed as the Longo Family Chair in Liver Cancer Research and is leading a multi-pronged research program in basic and clinical science at the Toronto General Hospital and the Princess Margarete Cancer Center. Before joining UNH, he worked as a senior consultant at Hannover Medical School for more than 20 years and still holds a research position there.
Prof. Vogel’s scientific focus is on translational and clinical research in gastrointestinal cancer. Since 2004, he is leading a translational research group interested in the pathogenesis of hepatobiliary cancers and in precision medicine. Arndt Vogel is a clinical investigator in oncology since 2006 and has served as principal investigator on numerous clinical trials. He is the author or co-author of more than 400 articles published in peer-reviewed journals, including The Lancet, Lancet Oncology, Cancer Cell, and Gastroenterology, among others, with an H-index of 94.
Prof. Vogel is a member of societies including ESMO, ASCO, and EASL. He is a member and chairman of the Hepatobiliary Cancer Study Group of the AIO, a collaborative group in clinical oncology in Germany. Within ESMO, he is a member of the ESMO Guidelines Steering Committee. He has responsibilities in the establishment of the national guideline and is the coordinator of the ESMO clinical practice guideline on the management of hepatocellular carcinoma and biliary tract cancer.