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The Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation (Meso Foundation) announced this week that Marjorie Zauderer, MD, a medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, has been voted chair of the board of directors, which governs the organization. She first joined the board in 2017. Dr. Zauderer succeeded the previous chair Dr. Richard Alexander, a surgeon at Rutgers University, whose term had expired. During his tenure Dr. Alexander was instrumental in the establishment of several new initiatives, including the creation of the first ever Peritoneal Mesothelioma Working Group. Dr. Marjorie G. Zauderer, MD, MS, FACP is co-director of the MSK Mesothelioma Program and Assistant Attending on the Thoracic Oncology Service in the Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She received her medical degree from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia University Medical Center, and completed fellowship and chief fellowship in medical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. As a faculty member at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Zauderer cares for patients with mesothelioma and other thoracic malignancies. Her practice aims to provide personalized care to patients throughout the course of their treatment based not only on the type of cancer and its genetics but the individual priorities of each and every patient and family. She is also an active translational and clinical researcher and focuses on the development of new therapies for the treatment of mesothelioma and lung cancers. She has received several awards for her research including a Department of Defense Career Development Award. She is the principal investigator for numerous mesothelioma clinical trials and spearheads the MSK BAP1 program to investigate inherited mutations in the BAP1 gene (BRCA associated protein-1) that predispose patients to malignant pleural mesothelioma and uveal melanoma, as well as renal cell carcinoma, lung cancers, and meningiomas. She also works on developing therapeutics for somatic BAP1 loss and other common molecular alterations as well as novel immunotherapies and biomarkers that may predict response to these new treatments. She has previously served on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation and is a member of the NCI-CTEP Thoracic Malignancy Steering Committee Mesothelioma Working Group. She has been an active peer reviewer for the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs sponsored by the Department of Defense and is active within the American Society of Clinical Oncology. At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, she is the Thoracic Disease Management Team Lead for the MSK Alliance and is a Core Physician for the MSK-IBM Watson decision support tool for oncology. Dr. Zauderer has lectured and presented her work throughout the United States and international mesothelioma community and has authored/co-authored more than 30 peer-reviewed oncology manuscripts.

Mesothelioma scientists and medical professionals convene at several conferences every year (one of which is our Symposium, the scientific portion of which will take place next year at the NIH) to update one another and present their most recent findings. These conferences are a crucial aspect of their work, as they provide an opportunity for further validation beyond their publishing journal’s peer-review to ensure that their methods are sound, and that their work is moving in the right direction. This week, we are reporting from the International Mesothelioma Interest Group’s conference in Ottawa, Canada, where researchers have one thing, and one thing only, on their minds: mesothelioma research. Global Perspective on Trends in Mesothelioma This first day of the conference began with a broad overview of mesothelioma trends across the world. Speakers discussed specific numbers of mesothelioma cases and incidence trends in a number of countries. Although such numbers varied greatly, the most surprising find across the board was that in no location are mesothelioma cases declining as many researchers from decades ago hypothesized would happen. Patterns of Practice, a Global Perspective In this session, nurses from across the world explained, and then compared, their functions and practices. Nursing roles vary from country to country, but as most of our patients already know, mesothelioma nurses tend to be the “thread” that keeps it all together. Some familiar names and faces seen at our own conferences included Liz Darlison of Mesothelioma UK, Buerkley Rose of the University of Chicago, and Melissa Culligan of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The session ended with two case study discussions that further emphasized some similarities, but also big differences in mesothelioma care around the world. Towards Personalized Systemic Therapy As part of the medical oncology track, this session focused on relatively early research into discovering and understanding new ways of targeting mesothelioma tumors, new drugs, and new ways to predict when old drugs can and will work. The idea behind this research is to (eventually) provide clinicians with the ability to treat each person’s cancer based on that cancer’s molecular characteristics, knowing before treatment ever starts whether that treatment will work. Immunotherapy of Mesothelioma Immunotherapy in mesothelioma remains a topic of much study and debate. For every one mesothelioma patient who responds to this type of therapy three others don’t. Such limited, albeit promising, efficacy, continues to push researchers into seeking new ways of improving response. They are doing so by testing certain immunotherapy drugs in combination with other immunotherapy drugs or even combining them with chemotherapy. Results from several studies are expected to be released in the next year.

Lately we have had lots of questions regarding the use of chemoembolization in mesothelioma based on a case that has been making the rounds on the various websites. In Germany a Dr Vogl is currently studying the application of this technique in mesothelioma and other cancers. It is not a standard treatment in Germany and the number of mesothelioma patients are small. I contacted Dr Vogl and he told me that he has observed some interesting results in mesothelioma. What does that mean exactly? It is the correct answer one would expect from a researcher, he is studying this method he is compiling data and will continue to publish the results in peer reviewed journals. I contacted members of our scientific advisory board as well as other prominent researcher in mesothelioma as well as the International Interventional Radiologist Association who also responded to my request for more information. So far what I have found out was that in peritoneal mesothelioma it most likely will not be applicable as very rarely do you have a single focus of mesothelioma within the liver itself, it is usually found on the outer portion which would not have an arterial blood supply. No one had any experience in using this technique with pleural mesothelioma nor was it under investigation at any of our centers. The papers are published in peer reviewed journals and your oncologist can certainly view them and discuss with you whether he thinks this could be of potential benefit to you. At this point we will have to wait for further publications that will define the size, location and amount of disease in patients with mesothelioma who have been treated in this manner. There are reports of one patients having a 50% decrease in the size of her tumor but we do not have further information as to whether this is the sole focus of disease, nor do we know whether this will translate into increased survival. I have posted 2 abstracts for those of you who wish to read more about this technique. Dr Vogyl was kind enough to respond to my email and I hope that this will prove to be an effective new treatment to add to our current therapies in mesothelioma. ~Mary Hesdorffer, NP