Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center Innovations in Oncology Symposium

Kelly Rodriguez is the Program Director in Cancer Network Research for MD Anderson Cancer Center. Kelly received her bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science from Schreiner University in Kerrville, TX. She went on to receive a master’s degree in Kinesiology and Health Promotion with an emphasis in Biomechanics from the University of Kentucky and a Master of Business Administration degree in Healthcare Management from Western Governors University. She is a Certified Clinical Research Professional with fifteen years of clinical research experience in the fields of biomechanics and oncology. Kelly joined MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2014 where she spent 5 years managing device and cooperative group trials for the department of Breast Surgical Oncology. In her current role, Kelly is responsible for the organization and implementation of strategic plans for the Cancer Network Research program. She also maintains the research education platform for Cancer Network Research.

Rana R. McKay, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Urology at the University of California San Diego, Associate Director of Translational Sciences, and Co-Leader of the Genitourinary Oncology Program at the Moores Cancer Center. She is a medical oncologist who specializes in treating people with urogenital cancers. Her research interests include advanced therapeutics, precision medicine, and biomarker development. Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed publications such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Lancet, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Clinical Cancer Research, Cancer, among others. She is a member of the NCI Renal Task Force, NRG RCC Cadre Leader, and Alliance Advanced Prostate Cancer, Cadre Leader, and member of the NCCN Prostate Cancer Guidelines panel. Dr. McKay earned her medical degree at the University of Florida College of Medicine before completing her residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She completed a fellowship in Oncology/Hematology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Aditya Bagrodia is an Associate Professor and Genitourinary oncology disease team leader in the Department of Urology at UC San Diego Health. Dr. Bagrodia holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Rhodes College. While earning a medical degree with highest honors at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, he was awarded a Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship in clinical research at UT Southwestern Medical Center. After graduating from residency in urology at UT Southwestern, he completed a fellowship in urologic oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he received an American Urological Association Urology Care Foundation Research Scholars Grant. Dr. Bagrodia’s clinical practice is comprised all urologic malignancies including adrenal, upper tract, renal, bladder, prostate, penile, and testicular cancers. He has expertise in complex multidisciplinary management and minimally invasive approaches to urologic surgery. Dr. Bagrodia’s clinical and research focus centers on patients with germ cell tumors. His laboratory focuses on sequencing efforts to understand tumor evolution and heterogeneity in germ cell tumors as well as to identify novel biomarkers to recognize occult metastatic disease. On the clinical side, Dr Bagrodia is actively involved with understanding and overcoming unique socioepidemiologic considerations that adversely impact oncologic outcomes in patients with germ cell tumors. He is also the principal investigator for several germ cell tumor-directed clinical trials. Dr. Bagrodia has conducted extensive research in urologic oncology, primarily in biomarker profiles and molecular signatures of urologic tumors as predictors of clinical outcomes. He is funded through competitive grants from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), intramural grants, and NIH-funding. He is the principal author or co-author of more than 190 articles, including more than 50 articles devoted to germ cell tumors, in peer-reviewed publications such as Journal of Clinical Oncology, Nature Genetics, European Urology, and the journal of Urology. He is also the co-host of Backtable Urology, a podcast devoted to practical education of urology providers.

Dr. Dragovich is Division Chief of Clinical Research at Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center. Prior to this he served as a Chief of Hematology and Oncology (Cancer Medicine) at Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center (2011-2021). Dr. Dragovich holds a doctorate degree in molecular pharmacology from the University of Illinois College of Medicine. He completed residency and fellowship in hematology and oncology at the University of Chicago. Prior to joining Banner MD Anderson Dr. Dragovich was on faculty at the University of Arizona Cancer Center and served as a leader of Gastrointestinal Cancer Program. Dr. Dragovich is the President of The Arizona Clinical Oncology Society (TACOS). His clinical and academic expertise includes management of gastrointestinal malignancies and cancer therapeutics development.

Katt Mackin serves as the Director of Cancer Research Network Operations for Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center. Katt is responsible for integrating and leading administrative and clinical research operations for Banner MD Anderson’s main site and four affiliate sites in Arizona and Colorado. She has over 10 years of clinical research experience working in community-based and academic research organizations. Her highlights include, clinical trial management, workflow optimization, and process improvement. Katt received her Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences and is certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and a Certified Clinical Research Professional (CCRP).

Michael Samuels, MD, FACR is an academic radiation oncologist with almost 30 years’ experience as a clinical trialist. he joined Banner MDACC in September 2021, after most recently spending 11 years at the University of Miami Sylvester Cancer Center. There, he served as Professor of Clinical Radiation Oncology, Director of Head-Neck Radiation Oncology, and Co-Leader of the Head-Neck Cancer Multidisciplinary Program. From 2011-2020, Dr. Samuels served as Medical Director of the Sylvester Clinical Trials Office. The size of the staff and the interventional enrollment both increased about 8-fold during his tenure as CTO. The success of the CTO was played an important role in Sylvester achieving NCI Cancer Center designation in 2019. Dr. Samuels has experience conducting trials with novel agents in combination with radiation or with standard chemotherapy agents and radiotherapy. He currently serves as the International Coordinating Investigator of an industry-sponsored phase I trial of a DNA protein kinase inhibitor in combination with radiation therapy to the head and neck area, a second-in-man trial with this category of agent. He also serves as Co-PI on an NCI national trial (NRG HN008) using this drug with radiation therapy for head-neck cancer patients who are not eligible for cisplatin chemotherapy.

Dr Dumbrava is a Medical Oncologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr Dumbrava completed her medical oncology training at Gustave Roussy Cancer Center in Villejuif, France, followed by a Master of Science Degree from Paris-South University and a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Translational Molecular Pathology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She completed two years of Clinical Fellowship in the Investigational Cancer Therapeutics Department, where she was elected Chief Fellow and during which she did a clinical research rotation at NCI/CTEP. She joined the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics since August 2018 as an Assistant Professor. She is also member of the Brain Metastasis Clinic. Dr Dumbrava was the FY19 K12 Paul Calabresi Scholar Award and FY21 Gateway Foundation for Cancer Research Award recipient. Dr Dumbrava is leading the HER2 Working Group in the Investigational Cancer Therapeutics Department at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and she also an active member in the Immunotherapy and Cellular Therapies Working Group. Her main area of research lies in targeting p53 and HER2 and developing cellular therapies for solid tumors and genomically matched combination therapies and personalized immunotherapy clinical trials.

I. Alex Bowman, M.D., is the Co-Director of the Genitourinary Oncology Program at Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center. He specializes in the medical treatment of genitourinary cancers (prostate, bladder, kidney, and testis). Originally from Houston, he earned his medical degree at UT Southwestern in Dallas before completing a residency in Internal Medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He then worked as an Internist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center before returning to UTSW to pursue a fellowship in Hematology and Oncology, where he was chief fellow in his final year. He joined the faculty at UTSW from 2017 – 2021 as assistant professor where, in addition to caring for GU cancer patients and teaching in the fellows clinic, he focused on clinical and translational research, particularly in the field of molecular imaging for kidney cancer. He joined Banner MD Anderson in 2021. He also serves as chair of the clinical research committee at Banner MD Anderson.

Urological Surgical Oncology Co-Director of Genitourinary Multidisciplinary Program Medical School: Loma Linda University School of Medicine Internship & Residency: William Beaumont Hospital (General Surgery & Urology) Fellowship: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (Urologic Oncology) Practice Location: Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center at Banner Gateway Medical Center Robotic, laparoscopic, and open/conventional surgery for: Prostate Cancer, Bladder Cancer, Kidney Cancer, Testicular Cancer, and other rare cancers of the genitourinary tract.

Dr. Raquibul Hannan is a Professor of Radiation Oncology, Urology and Immunology at UT Southwestern medical center and Simmons comprehensive cancer center. As the chief of Genitourinary Radiation Oncology, he specializes in the treatment of kidney cancer with stereotactic radiation. The focus of his research is to find new applications of stereotactic radiation and to develop strategies to harness the immunogenic effects of stereotactic radiation to enhance its in-situ cancer vaccination effects that can improve cancer immunotherapy. He has completed multiple early phase clinical trials on the application of stereotactic radiation therapy for all stages of kidney cancer.

Kim Brussow is a certified genetic counselor with over 10 years of clinical oncology genetics experience. She graduated from the University of California, Irvine genetic counseling program in 2011. In addition to her clinical work, she is an Associate Director of the Arizona State University Genetic Counseling training program.