MIB Agents OsteoBites

Joshua Nash is a PhD candidate under Dr. Adam Shlien at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. Joshua's research focuses on leveraging transcriptomics and machine learning to understand the overarching biology of sarcomas and mesenchymal tumours and to develop more molecularly informed and prognosticating diagnostic subtypes.

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Ming Li, PhD, is Member of the Immunology Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Professor at Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences. His laboratory studies immune regulation and its relevance to diseases including cancer. Recent work has focused on the signaling, metabolic, and transcriptional mechanisms of T cell regulation as well as tumor-elicited innate and adaptive immune responses, and how this knowledge can be translated for novel cancer immunotherapy. Dr. Li received his PhD in Biological Sciences from Columbia University, and postdoctoral training at Yale University. Dr. Li is an American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) Fellow and has received a number of honors including a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Faculty Scholar Award, a Rita Allen Foundation Scholar Award, an American Cancer Society Scholar award, and the 2016 American Association of Immunologists (AAI)-BD Bioscience Investigator Award for outstanding contributions to the field of immunology.

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In this episode, OsteoWarriors Camille and Mia interview three long term osteosarcoma survivors.  Hear from Maeve, Sloane, and Eva about their osteosarcoma stories, what the most difficult hurdles have been for them, and what advice they would give themselves if they could go back in time.  While osteosarcoma is a tough journey for most patients, this episode will fill you with hope.

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Nilay Shah, MD is a clinician-scientist and Associate Professor in the Division of Hematology/Oncology/BMT at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. His primary clinical focus is on pediatric solid tumors, including neuroblastomas, tumors of the kidneys, and rare solid tumors of childhood. His research focuses on the molecular drivers of pediatric cancers and how new treatment approaches can be taken to better target those drivers. In this role, he works to identify new uses of currently available anticancer treatments, including drugs originally developed for use against cancers in adults. He serves as Associate Director for Liver Tumor, Kidney Tumor, Germ Cell, and Neuroblastoma Targeted Therapies, and is currently the Sponsor and Study Principal Investigator the CaboMain trial, a Phase 2 study evaluating the efficacy of the oral anticancer agent cabozantinib as a maintenance therapy for ultra-high-risk solid tumors.

He also serves as co-director of the Cancer Genetics Program. This program serves to advance the use of genetic and genomic evaluations for the benefits of patients. In this role, he sees patients in the Cancer Predisposition Clinic for evaluation, surveillance, and management of patients with genetic alterations that predispose to cancer development. He also consults on patients for precision oncology, partnering with the Institute for Genomic Medicine to identify therapeutic approaches based on patient tumor and germline genomics.

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In this episode, OsteoWarriors Camille and Mia share songs that have resonated with them during their life with cancer. Find out why Fight Song is not their preferred anthem for AYA cancer patients and why hope can feel like a four letter word. Listen in as they break down lyrics, discuss why osteosarcoma is like a masochistic toxic ex, and examine how music can heal and help validate the feelings and emotions that AYA cancer patients deal with. You can also listen to these meaningful musical selections on a special Spotify playlist by copying and pasting the link here into your web browser, or scanning the QR code :

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6ARr8egX2vQ23Aql1ypSb5?si=0d1d2abf6da44cb5

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OsteoBites Preguntas & Respuestas con Nino Rainusso, MD: Únase a nosotros para un episodio especial de OsteoBites en español. Nino Rainusso, MD del Texas Children's Hospital con preguntas de respuesta sobre el osteosarcoma de pacientes y cuidadores.

El Dr. Nino Rainusso es miembro del equipo de tumores sólidos pediátricos y codirector del programa de cardiooncología del Texas Children's Hospital - Baylor College of Medicine. Su laboratorio se centra en comprender el papel de las células madre cancerosas (CSC) tanto en el desarrollo de tumores como en la resistencia a la quimioterapia en sarcomas pediátricos. Ha realizado varios estudios destinados a caracterizar las CSC en tumores óseos pediátricos. Han desarrollado varios modelos de xenoinjerto derivado de paciente (PDX) de osteosarcoma, sarcoma de Ewing, rabdomiosarcoma y sarcomas de tejidos blandos. Su laboratorio participa actualmente en un proyecto PDX multiinstitucional destinado a caracterizar y evaluar el impacto de nuevos enfoques terapéuticos en cánceres pediátricos que utilizan PDX.

Dr. Nino Rainusso is a member of the Pediatric Solid Tumor Team and Co-Director of the Cardio-Oncology Program at Texas Children’s Hospital - Baylor College of Medicine. Their laboratory focuses on understanding the role of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in both tumor development and chemotherapy resistance in pediatric sarcomas. He has conducted several studies aimed to characterize CSCs in pediatric bone tumors. They have developed several patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models of osteosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, and soft-tissue sarcomas. Their laboratory currently participates in a multi-institutional PDX project aimed to characterize and to evaluate the impact of novel therapeutic approaches in pediatric cancers using PDXs.

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TCF-001 TRACK is a patient advocacy initiated, decentralized clinical trial enrolling patients with rare cancers and cancer of unknown primary. Patients can enroll remotely without a requirement to travel, and enrolled patients receive biomarker testing of tissue and blood at no cost, as well as treatment recommendations from a virtual molecular tumor board. This presentation will provide details on how TRACK works, and how it seeks to achieve its goals of providing patients with personalized, potentially actionable information while simultaneously generating critical research data.

Jim Palma is the Executive Director of TargetCancer Foundation. Since joining TargetCancer Foundation in 2010, Jim has overseen its growth from a small start-up to a nationally recognized foundation supporting comprehensive rare cancer research programs and patient support services. Prior to joining TargetCancer Foundation, he spent eleven years at Fidelity Investments in Boston, MA. Jim is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), and is a founding Co-Chair of the NORD Rare Cancers Coalition. In addition, Jim is a Steering Committee member at the GI Cancers Alliance and the Global Cholangiocarcinoma Alliance. Jim completed studies at the Institute for Nonprofit Management and Leadership at the Questrom School of Business at Boston University, and received his B.A. from Loyola University Maryland.

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Matteo Trucco, MD and Kurt Weiss, MD joins us on OsteoBites to describe the collaboration that led to the current Phase 1 clinical trial repurposing the alcoholism drug disulfiram to see if it can overcome the chemotherapy resistance seen in relapsed sarcomas, including osteosarcoma.

Matteo Trucco is a Pediatric Oncologist and the Clinical Director of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Cleveland Clinic Children’s, specializing in the care of children, teenagers and young adults battling bone and soft tissue cancers. He also directs the Children’s Cancer Innovative Therapy Program where he and colleagues design, develop and conduct clinical trials seeking more effective and less toxic treatments for childhood cancers. Dr. Trucco earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and Medical Degree from Temple University School of Medicine. He completed his Pediatrics Residency at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital and his Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Fellowship from Johns Hopkins and the National Cancer Institute. In addition to his roles at the Cleveland Clinic, he is a Co-chair of the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation’s Sunshine Project consortium, partnering with other top pediatric cancer centers to develop clinical trials. He is honored to be on the Board of MIB Agents, chairs its Scientific Advisory Board and co-chairs the organizing committee for the FACTOR Conference. He also has the privilege of moderating the MIB Agents TURBO Tumor Review Board for Osteosarcoma.

Dr. Weiss directs the Department’s Musculoskeletal Oncology Laboratory, a basic science laboratory dedicated to the study of sarcomas. His mission is to help develop a world-class translational sarcoma research program at the University of Pittsburgh. As a bone cancer survivor himself, Dr. Weiss brings passion and enthusiasm to the laboratory, clinic, and operating room. Through the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, he is also a proud collaborator with scientists who are trying to understand how other forms of cancer spread to and destroy the bone. Dr. Weiss is a Founding Member of the Musculoskeletal Oncology Research Initiative (MORI), Pittsburgh Cure Sarcoma (PCS), the Pittsburgh Sarcoma Research Collaborative (PSaRC), and the Pittsburgh Center for Bone and Mineral Research (PCBMR). He is a peer reviewer for multiple journals including the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, BioMed Central Cancer, Sarcoma, Cancer Research, International Journal of Cancer, and others. He is a former member of the NIH’s Center for Scientific Review Early Career Reviewer program. He has served on multiple National Cancer Institute Study Sections. He is a member of the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society (MSTS) for which he serves as Chair of the Research Committee and the Connective Tissue Oncology Society (CTOS), for which he has served on the Board of Directors.

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Listen in this month as Mia and Sloane have a gab sesh about the daily interactions and challenges as an AYA living with cancer that get under their skin. Hear their thoughts on why there is a lot of room for improvement on Hollywood's representation of pediatric cancer patients, how cancer limits participation in a society that doesn't address the needs of people with disabilities, the difficulties around sharing their cancer story, the cliche of being brave, and why they wish there was an off button for snapchat memories.

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Dr. Fiona Freeman is an Assistant Professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at University College Dublin (UCD). She graduated in Biomedical Engineering in 2011 and earned her PhD from the University of Galway in 2016, focusing on developing new strategies for bone tissue regeneration. Afterward, Dr. Freeman was awarded two prestigious postdoctoral fellowships: the Government of Ireland IRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship. These fellowships provided her with opportunities to work as a postdoctoral researcher in renowned labs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Brigham and Women's Hospital, Johns Hopkins University, and Trinity College Dublin.

In September 2022, Dr. Freeman was appointed as the first Ad Astra fellow in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. Her current research focuses on using innovative engineering techniques to gain a better understanding of and develop novel therapeutics for treating osteosarcoma, a paediatric bone cancer. As part of her research, Dr. Freeman identified a novel microRNA, miR-29b, as a potential therapeutic target for osteosarcoma. She formulated miR-29b nanoparticles and delivered the miRNA to the tumour site using a hyaluronic-based hydrogel delivery system. The results showed a significant decrease in tumour burden, increased survival rates, and enhanced regeneration of the damaged bone surrounding the tumour.

These findings have the potential to revolutionize osteosarcoma treatment and improve patient outcomes by significantly reducing the primary tumour mass and providing crucial data that will inform the design of future therapies for young patients. Dr. Freeman conducted this work in collaboration with researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women's Hospital. In the coming years, Dr. Freeman is dedicated to building upon this research and advancing this technology toward clinical application.

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This episode is sponsored is by BTG Pharmaceuticals

Dr. Michael Bishop is an Assistant Member in the Solid Tumor Division of the Department of Oncology at St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, TN. His clinical practice focuses primarily on the management of children and young adults with bone and soft tissue sarcomas, and his research interests are dedicated to the development of prospective clinical trials for the treatment of osteosarcoma. Dr. Bishop graduated from the University of Arkansas College of Medicine and completed his pediatric residency at Children’s Mercy Kansas City, and fellowship in pediatric hematology and oncology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Dr. Bishop is a member of the Children’s Oncology Group Bone Tumor Committee and is the Study Chair for AOST2032, a prospective trial assessing the feasibility and efficacy of combining a multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor with chemotherapy for newly diagnosed osteosarcoma.

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This presentation discusses key findings in immunotherapies from the investigator's laboratory as well as those that have shaped the landscape of both human and canine cancers. The information focuses on EGFR and HER2 based immunotherapies, including osteosarcoma, hemangiosarcoma and other cancer types in canine patients. Mechanisms of tumor growth and therapy will also be topics of discussions.

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UCLA (B.A.), Univ Notre Dame (M.S.), University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center (Ph.D.), Yale University School of Medicine (Professor of Medicine). Dr. Mamula’s interests are in investigating the early events of inflammatory mediated changes in the proteome that intersect with cellular metabolism and with breaking immune tolerance to self proteins. These studies have been applied to the development of novel immune-therapeutic approaches in for antitumor vaccines in EGFR/HER2 expressing cancers, including breast cancer and colon cancer. In particular, the work has evolved to clinical trials in companion canine populations. Overall, it is the goal of Dr. Mamula’s laboratory to understand the mechanisms that may shift the balance of the cellular proteome toward the initiation of anti-self immune responses. In addition, seminal work from the Mamula lab elucidated the proteomics and biochemical forms of autoantigens capable of breaking immunologic tolerance to intracellular autoantigens in type I diabetes (T1D) and in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Simply put, Dr. Mamula examines post translational protein modifications that alter cellular biology and immunity. Recent studies have identified early protein modifications of pancreatic beta cells that are sentinels of early disease and dysfunction of glucose metabolism and insulin release (Nature Comm. 2022). Finally, studies from the Mamula laboratory first demonstrated the ability of B lymphocytes to present autoantigens in the triggering of T cell autoimmunity and in the phenomenon of epitope spreading in lupus autoimmunity, work that contributed to the rationale of B cell mediated therapeutics (Rituximab and Belumimab) in SLE. Dr. Mamula has 113 publications and has mentored over 30 pre-and postdoctoral students and investigators, many of whom have acquired faculty positions as independent investigators at major medical schools, universities, and pharmaceutical industries.

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OsteoWarriors Camille and Mia are joined by members of the MIB Agents Junior Advisory Board to discuss questions submitted by patients, caregivers, clinicians, and researchers. This episode was inspired by the tremendous interest and engagement in the patient panel at the MIB Agents FACTOR 2023 osteosarcoma conference.

Camille, Mia, and our Junior Advisory Board discuss many topics including cancer misconceptions, the cringiest things you can say to someone with cancer, what makes them feel supported and seen in their journey by friends and loved ones, making decisions about surgical options, how they cope with scanxiety and preparing for a procedure, and what gets them through their hardest times.

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Osteosarcoma Webinar Series: Scott Okuno, MD - SARC Medical Officer and Ann Graham, Executive Director of MIB Agents join us on OsteoBites to discuss how SARC (Sarcoma Alliance for Research through Collaboration) work together to drive collaboration in the sarcoma community and support sarcoma research.

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Dr. Scott Okuno is Professor of Oncology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He is a recognized expert in sarcoma and clinical research. Dr. Okuno has been the SARC Medical Officer since 2012. In this role, he provides medical oversight to the day-to-day activities of the SARC clinical trials. Dr. Okuno regularly interacts with the SARC Research Project Management team and the study Principal Investigators to ensure proper study conduct, quality data and overall safety for all SARC clinical trials.  Dr. Okuno was appointed SARC Chief Medical Officer in September 2022, and joined SARC Board of Directors October 2022.

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The Osteosarcoma Institute (OSI) is currently supporting two clinical trials and seven laboratory research projects for osteosarcoma. In this OsteoBites episode, you will meet Lee J. Helman, MD, Director of the OSI and Chand Khanna, DVM, PhD, Chair of the OSI’s Strategic Advisory Board. Dr. Helman and Dr. Khanna will provide an overview of the OSI’s osteosarcoma research portfolio and explain how the OSI identifies promising osteosarcoma research projects.

Lee J. Helman, MD has been studying the biology and caring for pediatric patients with sarcomas for over thirty years. Dr. Helman completed his post-doctoral training at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). He then became Head of the Molecular Oncology Section, Pediatric Oncology Branch, NCI, in 1993. He served as Chief of the Pediatric Oncology Branch from 1997-2007 and served as Scientific Director for Clinical Research in the Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute from 2007 to 2016. He joined Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and the University of Southern California (USC) in 2017 as the Section Head of Basic and Translational Research within the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute (CBDI) and the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation. He remains an adjunct professor at CHLA. He has also trained many investigators in the field of pediatric sarcomas over the course of his career. He is currently focusing on improving outcomes in osteosarcoma as the Director of the Osteosarcoma Institute.

Chand Khanna, DVM, PhD is Chief Science Officer with Ethos Veterinary Health, and President of Ethos Discovery(501c3), its incubator of scientific innovation. His responsibility at Ethos Discovery is to develop innovations in the form of novel diagnostics and therapeutics for both human and animal patients afflicted with similar complex disease conditions (i.e., osteosarcoma; so called Comparative Oncology). Dr. Khanna is a veterinary oncologist and both osteosarcoma and metastasis biologist, who has worked in this scientific field for over 20 years, most notably as a senior investigator of the Tumor and Metastasis Biology section of the Pediatric Oncology Branch at the National Cancer Institute and founding Director of its Comparative Oncology Program. Dr. Khanna’s research career has focused on improving the understanding of the biology of metastasis in osteosarcoma and the use of a cross species (mouse, dog, human), Comparative and translational approach to develop novel therapeutics for osteosarcoma metastasis. He serves as the Chair of the Osteosarcoma Institute’s Strategic Advisory Board.

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OsteoWarriors Camille and Gillian are joined by grief coach Lori Krause to discuss what survivor's grief and guilt look like and how to cope and learn to live with these feelings.

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Dr. Jeffrey Bryan earned his D.V.M. from the University of California - Davis in 1993. He worked as an Associate Veterinarian from 1993-1995 and served as Medical Director from 1995-2002 of the Irving Street Veterinary Hospital in San Francisco, CA. Bryan then completed a medical oncology residency, a Masters of Biomedical Sciences, and a PhD in Pathobiology at the University of Missouri. He received certification by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine in Oncology 2005. He is the Director of the Tom and Betty Scott Endowed Program in Veterinary Oncology, the Director of PET Imaging Center of the University of Missouri, Associate Department Chair for Research, and the Associate Director of Comparative Oncology for Ellis Fischel Cancer Center. Dr. Bryan’s research focuses on comparative examination of cancers in companion animals to better understand cancers in all species. His particular areas of interest are targeted imaging and therapy, epigenetics, and immunotherapy of cancers. He directs the PET Imaging Center, which seeks to develop novel PET imaging agents for cancer diagnosis, localization, and prognostication. He studies DNA methylation of canine non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He studies immunotherapy in companion dogs including investigating fetal microchimerism.

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Mia and her special guest Jessie review and discuss cancer memes. Mia shares how these memes resonate with her real-life experiences, and Jessie offers perspective as a friend and partner to a cancer patient. If you are a cancer patient, you will likely laugh along and completely relate to these memes. For clinicians, friends, and family of a cancer patient, you will hear a frank (and funny!) discussion that will provide you insight into the cancer patient experience.

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Dr. Katie Janeway, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist of Dana Farber/Boston's Children Hospital, and Benjamin Zola, a Project Manager at Count Me In (CMI), will be joining to share more insight into Count Me In's patient- powered Osteosarcoma research project, and the potential outcomes for discoveries that can have a direct impact on the future osteosarcoma. 

Count Me In (CMI) is a nonprofit research initiative on a mission to make every patient's experience count in the effort to understand and overcome cancer. Founded in 2018 by Emerson Collective,  Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Count Me In engages patients and enables them to accelerate cancer research by sharing their samples, clinical information, and voices. From their contributions, Count Me In analyzes and shares de-identified data freely to catalyze discoveries across cancer. Data generated by Count Me In is shared regularly via scientific platforms so that it can be harnessed by researchers everywhere to make impactful discoveries. All individuals living with cancer, including those from marginalized communities who have historically been excluded from research, no matter where they live, can contribute to breakthroughs and increase the pace of biomedical research.

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Dr. Katie Janeway received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 2000. She subsequently completed her residency in Pediatrics at Children's Hospital, Boston. She was a Chief Resident at Children's Hospital, Boston, and then completed her fellowship in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute / Children's Hospital, Boston. In 2007, Dr. Janeway joined the staff of Dana-Farber and Children's Hospital, Boston, where she is a pediatric hematologist-oncologist and investigator with a research focus of pediatric sarcomas.

Ben Zola (he/him) is a Project Manager with Count Me In, a nonprofit research initiative that enables patients to accelerate cancer research by sharing their samples, their clinical information, and their voices. Ben has been with the team for over 2 years, and specifically manages Count Me In's projects in Osteosarcoma (osproject.org) and Leiomyosarcoma (lmsproject.org).

Ben has a Bachelors Degree from Rutgers University in Biomedical Engineering, with a minor in Psychology. In his free time, Ben is a fitness instructor and also enjoys being outside and taking pictures of nature.

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Dr. Alice Soragni, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and of the UCLA Molecular Biology Institute. She has a Master of Science cum Laude from the University of Bologna, Italy and a PhD from the ETH of Zuerich, Switzerland. Her laboratory in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at UCLA couples basic research into mechanisms of disease to the development of novel therapeutic strategies. The lab focuses on developing tumor organoid models to investigate the biology of rare tumors and to perform screenings for precision medicine applications.

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Dr. Christian Capitini is an associate professor and the Jean R. Finley Professor of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology. He serves as co-leader of the Developmental Therapeutics Program at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center and director of clinical innovation at the Forward BIO Institute. He has received many awards for his clinical and research contributions, including the Department of Pediatrics Gerard B. Odell Research Award, the Outstanding New Member Science Award from the Society for Pediatric Research (SPR), and the Janet Rowley Award from the Jonas Center Cellular Therapy Symposium at the University of Chicago. Nationally, Dr. Capitini is an active member of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) and serves as at-large director. Additionally, he serves on the executive board for the Pediatric Real World chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T Consortium.

Dr. Capitini leads an NIH-supported laboratory focusing on development of cell-based immunotherapies, including natural killer (NK) cells and CAR T cells, for the treatment of pediatric solid tumors. The Capitini Lab also develops alternatively activated macrophages for complications of bone marrow transplant, including graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) and acute radiation syndrome. Dr. Capitini was one of the site principal investigators (PI) for the first multicenter CD19 CAR T cell trial, which led to the FDA approval of tisagenlecleucel-T (Kymriah) for relapsed/refractory B cell leukemia. Currently, he is site PI for a Kymriah trial related to the upfront treatment of high-risk B cell leukemia and for a multicenter GD2 CAR T cell trial for neuroblastoma and osteosarcoma through the Pediatric NCI-Cancer Immunotherapy Trials Network (CITN). He is also a sponsor and PI for a University of Wisconsin clinical trial expanding gamma delta T cells in vivo using zoledronate after alpha beta T cell depleted stem cell transplant.

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A cancer diagnosis can affect your ability to do the things you love, like sports, dance, and school, stripping your identity of your hobbies and passions. OsteoWarriors Camille and Mia chat about this loss of identity and how they cope.Listen in as they discuss what it's like dealing with a sense of loss of self and how they manage to form an identity outside of cancer.

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OSI Connect is the Osteosarcoma Institute’s free, easy-to-use resource for patients who have been diagnosed with osteosarcoma or suffered a relapse after initial treatment. In this OsteoBites episode, you will meet Lee J. Helman, MD, Director of the OSI and Chelsey Blanks, OSI Connect Administrator. You will learn how OSI Connect works and examples of how the program has helped more than 70 patients since its launch in 2019.

Lee J. Helman, MD has been studying the biology and caring for pediatric patients with sarcomas for over thirty years. Dr. Helman completed his post-doctoral training at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). He then became Head of the Molecular Oncology Section, Pediatric Oncology Branch, NCI, in 1993. He served as Chief of the Pediatric Oncology Branch from 1997-2007 and served as Scientific Director for Clinical Research in the Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute from 2007 to 2016. He joined Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) and the University of Southern California (USC) in 2017 as the Section Head of Basic and Translational Research within the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute (CBDI) and the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation. He remains an adjunct professor at CHLA. He has also trained many investigators in the field of pediatric sarcomas over the course of his career. He is currently focusing on improving outcomes in osteosarcoma as the Director of the Osteosarcoma Institute.

As the Osteosarcoma Institute Operations Manager, Chelsey Blanks schedules meetings for the board, oversees various operational aspects of the organization (including HR, IT, and office management), facilitates the grant cycle, and manages OSI Connect (formerly OSI Hotline) that offers free expert advice for osteosarcoma patients and families no matter where they are in their journey. Although Chelsey is Texan through and through, she spent six years living in Southern California and was thrilled to return to the homeland with her husband, Jordan, at the end of 2019. Chelsey obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of North Texas, where she studied Sociology, Philosophy, and Dance. Previously, she had an insurance and financial services career and was an Executive Assistant for her church in Orange County, California.

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*Please note : The safety and efficacy of GD2-SADA:177Lu-DOTA Drug Complex have not been established and have not been approved by health authorities in the US or globally.

Janet Yoon, M.D., specializes in pediatric hematology/oncology because it allows her to build long-term relationships with her young patients and their caregivers. Inspired by their resilience and strength, she stays at the leading edge of her field so that she can introduce families to the latest therapies, specifically those that minimize harmful and long-lasting side effects.

Dr. Yoon received her medical degree from the Medical College of Ohio and then served as a pediatric resident at the Medical University of South Carolina. She moved to California to pursue a pediatric hematology/oncology fellowship at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Prior to City of Hope, Dr. Yoon was at University of California Davis Medical Center then spent over a decade at University of California San Diego/Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego where she was a clinical professor and director of the pediatric solid tumor program. At Rady, she was honored twice with the Dr. William D. Roberts Pediatric Hematology Oncology Faculty Teaching Award.

Dr. Yoon’s research is dedicated to understanding and treating sarcomas, particularly in the adolescent and young adult population. She is actively involved in clinical trials.

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Bang H. Hoang, MD, is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon specializing in musculoskeletal tumor surgery. Dr. Hoang is an expert in benign and malignant tumors, metastatic bone disease, pathologic fractures, complex bone and joint reconstruction with large-segment prosthesis and allograft, tumors of the pelvis and sacrum, and investigational therapy for bone and soft tissue sarcoma. He is the Co-Director of the Orthopaedic Oncology Division at Montefiore and Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

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You are not alone - scanxiety is real! OsteoWarriors Camille and Mia chat about scans and share their experiences with the different types of scans, from x-rays to CT scans, to MRIs and PET scans.   Listen in as they discuss what it's like adapting to life that is regularly punctuated with scans and share how they cope with scanxiety.

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Dr. Claudia Benavente studied Molecular Biotechnology Engineering at Universidad de Chile where her interest in pursuing cancer research first started. To further her studies, she came to the US to pursue a doctoral degree in Cancer Biology at The University of Arizona as a Fulbright scholar. She then moved on as a postdoctoral fellow to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN where she became familiar with childhood solid tumors. Professor Benavente is currently an Associate Professor at the Departments of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Developmental and Cell Biology and a member of the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Benavente’s research focuses on understanding how pediatric tumors form to design new ways to treat them. Her research aims to understand how genes are normally controlled in developing tissues and how epigenetic processes are perturbed to facilitate cancers to arise. This information guides her in the development of new therapies.

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Erin S. Murphy MD is an Associate Professor in the department of radiation oncology at the Cleveland Clinic. She completed residency at the Cleveland Clinic and a fellowship in pediatric radiation oncology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She specializes in radiotherapy and radiosurgery for brain tumors and pediatric tumors and is passionate about using aggressive local tools while maintaining quality of life for her patients.

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OsteoWarriors Camille and Mia are joined by OsteoWarriors Daniel and Kara in this episode on navigating life and campus with limb salvage surgery and amputation, which are the primary treatment options to remove an osteosarcoma tumor. Listen in as they discuss why they chose limb salvage surgery or amputation and how they manage getting around school, and share challenges and horror stories they've experienced which are sure to make you both grimace and laugh.

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Save the Date and mark your calendars for FACTOR 2023 - June 22-24 in Atlanta GA. Registration is now live! Go to MIBAgents.org to register.

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Dr. Kelly M. Bailey MD, PhD, is a pediatric oncologist certified by the American Board of Pediatrics. She is assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Bailey received her medical degree and PhD from West Virginia University, Morgantown, W.Va., and completed her residency in pediatrics and fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology at the University of Michigan School of Medicine, Ann Arbor, Mich. Dr. Bailey’s clinical and research interests focus on pediatric sarcomas, specifically Ewing sarcoma. Nationally, Dr. Bailey is active in the Children’s Oncology Group Bone Tumor Committee and the New Agents for Ewing Sarcoma Task Force.

Dr. Bailey’s studies the rare primary pediatric bone tumor Ewing sarcoma. Her research focuses on understanding the intersection of DNA damage and immunoregulation of this tumor.

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Surgery along with chemotherapy is the mainstay of treatment for patients with osteosarcoma. In order to achieve a cure, during surgery healthy tissue surrounding the tumour is also removed. Whilst this reduces the chances of the cancer returning, it can also result in added pain and disability for patients, impacting their quality of life in the longer-term. Advancements in surgical technology and technique offer the hope of improved outcomes for patients.

Recent developments have led to the introduction of fluorescence guided surgery (FGS), a technique which harnesses the emission of light to identify a tumour’s precise location and boundaries during surgical removal. This improves a surgeon’s ability to successfully remove the entire tumour, which can be identified as a ‘glowing’ area of tissue, decreasing the likelihood of any cancer cells remaining, while limiting the removal of too much healthy tissue.

This upcoming clinical trial, led by Kenneth Rankin, a leading Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon and bone sarcoma researcher, is looking to assess the effectiveness of a particular fluorescent dye, indocyanine green or ‘ICG’, which can be given to patients safely before surgery and leads to the sarcoma tumour fluorescing green. The SarcoSIGHT trial will recruit 500 patients undergoing surgery for bone and soft tissue sarcoma, aiming to test whether the use of ICG in FGS can help to accurately identify the tumour, aid in complete removal and reduce the amount of healthy tissue removed.

This presentation will include the findings to date from fluorescence guided surgery in osteosarcoma patients with some initial results indicating that the amount of fluorescence may predict response to chemotherapy and that the osteosarcoma tissue can be studied in detail post-operatively with the latest fluorescence microscopy techniques.

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Mr Kenneth Rankin is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital where his specialist interests are in orthopaedic oncology including fluorescence guided surgery for sarcoma resection, and hip and knee replacement for arthritis.

Mr Rankin graduated in 1999 from the University of Dundee. His basic surgical training was in Newcastle followed by an MD investigating the cellular biology of bone metastases. Mr Rankin completed his higher specialist training in Perth and Dundee followed by a return to the North East as NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer.

Jayanthi Parthasarathy BDS, MS, PhD, manages the 3D Printing Lab at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, which provides comprehensive patient-specific treatment planning and device development services from a pediatric perspective. She will discuss virtual surgical planning and 3D printing in pediatric musculoskeletal oncological resections.

A trained dental surgeon with more than 3 decades of practice, Dr. Parthasarathy is a pioneer in additive manufacturing for clinical needs, specializing in the development of patient-specific medical devices using advanced design and manufacturing technologies,  having used the technology for more than 2 decades. With a masters in manufacturing and a doctorate in industrial engineering has researched on design and manufacturing of patient-specific devices using 3D printing and material composition for medical 3D printing. Dr. Parthsarathy worked in the medical device industry specializing in bringing to market patient-specific implantable and non-implantable adult and pediatric devices from ideation to production. She is currently managing the point of care 3D printing program in the department of radiology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A - one of the largest pediatric referral hospitals in the country. She works with all specialties across the board, cardio-thoracic, plastic and reconstructive, orthopedic, neuro, oncologic and pediatric surgeons for virtual surgical planning, design, and manufacturing of patient-specific devices for surgical guidance and simulation.

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Eunice Lopez Fuentes is in her postdoc studies at UCSF in Sweet-Cordero Lab. She is interested in defining the mechanisms of epigenetic gene regulation in osteosarcoma. Fuentes has uncovered two epigenetic different cell states with differential drug responses. Her main goal is to gain insight into the biology of these subclasses and define how their distinct master regulators may determine new clinically relevant vulnerabilities.

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Marie Nelson, M.D., is originally from Michigan, attended college at the University of Notre Dame and earned her medical degree from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. She finished her residency in Pediatrics at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago prior to completing a fellowship in Pediatric Hematology, Oncology, and Bone Marrow Transplantation at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. Dr. Nelson is a member of the solid tumor faculty and Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Children’s National Hospital where she also leads the Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Program. Her research focuses on combining local therapies and immunotherapy in order to improve the outcomes and reduce the side effects of treatment for pediatric patients with solid tumors.

She is the principal investigator of a phase II trial combining cryoablation and immune checkpoint inhibitors in pediatric solid tumors.

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Michael Leibowitz is an Assistant Professor in Hematology/Oncology/BMT and Cellular Therapeutics at Children's Hospital of Colorado. He is a physician-scientist whose research focuses on developing novel and effective cellular therapies for solid tumors including osteosarcoma.

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OsteoWarrior Mia and her mom Serena have a frank conversation with orthopedic oncologist and OsteoWarrior Dr. Kurt Weiss from the University of PIttsburgh.  They discuss questions patients and caregivers often have about Ostesosarcoma but are afraid to ask.

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Karun V. Sharma, M.D., Ph.D., is the Director of Interventional Radiology at Children's National Hospital, and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Radiology at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. His clinical practice and translational research focuses on minimally invasive  image-guided therapies for musculoskeletal and oncology conditions. Dr. Sharma leads the Image-Guided Non-Invasive Therapeutic Energy (IGNITE) program, a collaboration of the Sheikh Zayed Institute and the departments of Radiology, Oncology, Surgery, and Anesthesiology at Children’s National Hospital. The IGNITE program aims to improve the quality of life and outcomes for pediatric patients through the development and clinical translation of novel minimally invasive and noninvasive surgery technologies and combination therapy approaches, with the ultimate goal of making pediatric surgery more precise, less invasive and pain-free. In the recent years, Dr. Sharma and the IGNITE team have developed Magnetic Resonance Imaging –guided High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (MR-HIFU) applications for pediatric patients and lead clinical trials for osteoid osteoma and other tumors.

AeRang Kim, M.D., Ph.D., is a member of the solid tumor faculty at Children’s National Hospital and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics. Dr. Kim's specializes in sarcomas and developmental therapeutics. Her research focuses on development of novel therapeutics for pediatric cancer including pre-clinical testing of novel agents, pharmacokinetic analysis, developing innovative methods for toxicity monitoring and clinical trial design. She serves as the principal investigator of multiple early phase trials in pediatric oncology, sarcomas and NF1 associated tumors.

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Dr. Dan Regan discusses his OutSmarting Osteosarcoma funded work on Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) inhibition to improve losartan-sunitinib immunotherapy in metastatic osteosarcoma. 

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Dr. Dan Regan is an Assistant Professor at the  Flint Animal Cancer Center at Colorado State University and he is one of our OutSmarting Osteosarcoma 2022 grant recipients.  Dr. Regan received his DVM degree from the University of Georgia and subsequently completed his residency training in veterinary anatomic pathology and PhD in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology (MIP) at Colorado State University. In 2018 he joined the Flint Animal Cancer Center and MIP in the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University. The focus of Dr. Regan’s laboratory is to increase our understanding of the interplay between the immune system and (non-immune) tumor stroma, and how these compartments of the tumor microenvironment promote metastasis as well as respond to and mediate extrinsic mechanisms of resistance to anti-cancer therapy. To investigate this area of cancer biology, his laboratory utilizes a combination of in vitro 3-dimensional tumor co-culture models and animal models, focusing on breast and bone cancer (osteosarcoma). Dr. Regan also has a strong interest in comparative oncology and leveraging naturally occurring cancers in dogs as both a surrogate and intermediary model to evaluate and validate his laboratory’s investigations into the tumor microenvironment. In collaboration with the laboratory of Dr. Steve Dow, his lab conducted immunotherapy clinical studies in dogs with spontaneous osteosarcoma and these study results have led to a phase I clinical trial in children with osteosarcoma. His lab’s continued long-term research goal is to fully elucidate the mechanisms by which tumors prime non-malignant host stromal cells of distant organs to promote their metastasis and chemo-resistance, in order to identify novel targets for host-directed stromal therapies which “poison the soil” for effective combination with conventional tumor cell targeted drugs.

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Mia and Vicky talk about unexpected complications during their cancer journey and how they were able to cope, and what could’ve done to ease it beforehand in this raw, real conversation spilling the tea on osteosarcoma, and AYA cancer.

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