Expert Guidance on Novel Approaches in the Management of Myelofibrosis

Dr. Mesa was the inaugural panel chair of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s (NCCN) guideline panel for the first USA guidelines for MPNS (myelofibrosis, polycythemia vera and essential thrombocythemia). He has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator of more than 100 cancer clinical trials, including numerous global phase III trials. He has over 800 lifetime medical publications, with more than 400 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 15 book chapters, and two edited books. He is a frequently invited speaker on MPNs with over 600 such lectures and visiting professorships, nationally and internationally.

Dr. Mesa is a funded investigator of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) on several projects in myeloproliferative neoplasms and has been appointed to the NCI Clinical Trial Advisory Committee. He plays a range of leadership roles with the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), and is currently elected to the Board of the American Association of Cancer Institutes (AACI), and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

In addition to Dr. Mesa’s extensive MPN research and clinical practice, he is passionate about advancing cancer health equity and increasing minority patients’ participation in cancer clinical trials. He helped implement a mandate that each new trial at the Mays Cancer Center has a Minority Accrual Plan that includes enrollment projections and a demographic-specific toolbox with strategies for clinical investigators to promote enrollment. Before its implementation, the enrollment of Hispanics into the cancer center’s interventional studies was 46 percent; now, it is 56 percent. He is involved in numerous national initiatives to increase clinical trial diversity, including being a member of the Genentech Health Disparities Task Force, Bristol Myers Squibb Health Disparities Task Force and the Janssen Health Disparities Task Force. In March 2022, he testified on the importance of clinical trial diversity before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Dr. Mesa also co-led the Mays Cancer Center’s biennial Advancing the Science of Cancer in Latinos Conference held in San Antonio.

Dr. Angela Fleischman is a physician-scientist investigating hematologic malignancies. She integrates her research with the clinical care of patients with these diseases.

Her laboratory focuses on the role of inflammation in MPN. Her overarching research goal is to identify what drives disease initiation in MPN and to ultimately translate her scientific discoveries into therapeutic benefit for MPN patients.

Her research program spans the entire translational research spectrum. In the lab, she studies the fundamental pathobiology of MPN through mouse modeling and in vitro experimentation with primary patient samples. Her clinical work informs her research, and accordingly Dr. Fleischman’s research methods primarily involve patient samples for in vitro assays of stem and progenitor function.

Aaron Gerds, MD, MS, completed his undergraduate degree, a BA in biology and chemistry, with honors at Hope College in Holland, Michigan and obtained his MD from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. He continued his Internal Medicine residency at Loyola University Hospital where he served as chief resident. In Chicago, he became interested in hematology clinical trials which led him to pursue a master’s degree in clinical research methods and epidemiology. Dr. Gerds completed his hematology and oncology fellowship at the University of Washington, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, in Seattle and pursued a subspecialty in treating patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) such as polycythemia vera (PV), essential thrombocythemia (ET), myelofibrosis (MF), as well as other myeloid disorders. During his fellowship, he was awarded the ASBMT’s New Investigator Award.

Dr. Gerds is an Associate Professor of Medicine and the Deputy Director for Clinical Research at the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute where he serves as the principal investigator for several clinical trials for the treatment of MPNs and myeloid neoplasia with a focus on developing new treatments for these patients. He is also an active member of the American Society of Hematology, participating in both the Advocacy Leadership Institute and Clinical Research Training Institute, as well as serving as Chair of the Committee on Communications, as a member of the Test Materials Development Committee, former Editor of the ASH News Daily, and current Editor-in-Chief of ASH Clinical News. Dr. Gerds serves as the Medical Director for the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Clinical Research Office and is co-PI for the Center’s LAPS grant. He is also the institutional PI for the SWOG Cancer Research Network and is part of the leadership on several national clinical trials and is the chair of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Myeloproliferative Neoplasms and Systemic Mastocytosis Guidelines.