RTOG Foundation has created four new committees to streamline the group’s research efforts towards its goal of improving survival and quality of life outcomes for adults with cancer.
These committees include the Research Committee, Governance Committee, Membership Committee, and Communications Committee.
Stuart Wong was named chair of the RTOG Foundation Governance Committee. Wong is the director of the Center for Disease Prevention Research and professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology Oncology, Department of Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He is also a member of NCI’s Head and Neck Steering Committee. Wong is principal investigator for the NCTN Lead Academic Participating Site (LAPS) grant at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Wong is also vice chair of the Head and Neck Cancer Committee for NRG Oncology. In his role as chair of the Governance Committee, Wong will help with the oversight to the ongoing organizational activities within RTOG Foundation and ensure that all efforts are aligned with the organization’s research mission.
Mark Mishra was named co-chair of the RTOG Foundation Research Committee. Mishra is an associate professor of radiation oncology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and associate director of the Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Network Program.
He is also director of the Department of Radiation Oncology Clinical Research Program at the University of Maryland Medical System and is the vice chair of the Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Clinical Research Committee. His work focuses on tumors of the central nervous system and genitourinary tract, as well as breast cancer. Mishra received the American Society of Radiation Oncology Comparative Effectiveness Grant and is the Comparative Effectiveness co-chair for the recently activated NRG-BN009 and NRG-CC009 phase III clinical trials.
He is also a member of the NRG Oncology Brain Tumor Committee. Mishra’ also received the 2021 NCI Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award.
Edwin Posadas was named co-chair of the RTOG Foundation Research Committee. Posadas is the director of the Experimental Therapeutics Program and the medical director of the Urologic Oncology Program at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Posadas is working to define the function of the protein FYN, circulating tumor cells, and immune cells in prostate cancer, with the goal of applying his basic science findings to the development of new therapies and diagnostic tools that will directly benefit men with advanced prostate cancer.
Mishra and Posadas will provide supervision and guidance to RTOG Foundation’s research program as the leaders of the Research Committee. The Committee will be in control of driving the group’s protocol portfolio.
Seth A. Rosenthal was named chair of the RTOG Foundation Membership Committee. Rosenthal is a radiation oncologist at Sutter Health in Roseville, CA and has been a RTOG/NRG investigator for over 30 years. He is a member of the NRG Oncology Genitourinary Cancer Core Committee and the RTOG Foundation Board of Directors.
Additionally, he was the co-principal Investigator of phase III RTOG/NRG Oncology clinical trials 9902 and 0521, which examined novel treatment approaches for men with high-risk prostate cancer. As chair, Rosenthal will guide the Membership Committee in their efforts to establish processes around RTOG Foundation members to and expand the reach of the organization’s network.
Kristin Higgins was named chair of the RTOG Foundation Communications Committee. Higgins is an associate professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine and is medical director of radiation oncology of the Emory Clinic at Winship Cancer Institute’s Clifton campus location.
She is a member of the NRG Oncology Board of Directors and a member of the NRG Oncology’s Lung Cancer Core Committee, Communications Committee, Research Strategy Committee and Protocol Operations Management Committee.
Higgins is also principal investigator of the NRG Oncology/Alliance NRG-LU005 trial testing the addition of atezolizumab to chemoradiation in patients with limited-stage small cell lung cancer that recently reached its patient accrual goal. In her role as chair, Higgins intends to increase engagement within RTOG Foundation’s research community and develop communications channels to meet the needs of the group.
