SPEAKER PROFILES:

Dr Gladwell Kiarie

Gladwell Kiarie graduated with MBChB (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) degrees from The University of Nairobi and went head to receive her post-graduate degree in Internal Medicine from the same institution. After receiving her undergraduate degrees, she did her internship at the Kenyatta National Hospital before proceeding to pursue her fellowship in Medical Oncology in London, England.

After sub-specialization in Medical Oncology, she returned to Kenya where she was one of the founding members of the Oncology Unit at the Aga Khan University Hospital and was also part of the team that set up the first Kenyatta National Hospital Tumor Board in 2007 that involved multiple personnel from surgical and medical departments.

She then joined the University of Nairobi in the Clinical Medicine Department as a Senior Lecturer. Soon afterwards, she enrolled in a PhD program with the Bart’s Cancer Institute under the supervision of Professor John Gribben. She recently received Fellowship to the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (FRCPE).

Dr Kiarie currently runs a private practice at The Nairobi Hospital and also reviews patients at other leading hospitals in Nairobi and Nakuru including The Aga Khan University Hospital, MP Shah Hospital, and Avenue Hospital. She also serves in the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board since her appointment in 2015 to the Regulatory Department of the Board.

She is a member of the Kenya Society of Haematology and Oncology (KESHO) where she also served as the treasurer in 2004 and is also a full member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) as well as European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO).

She continues to be an advocate for early diagnosis of cancer and is greatly involved in programs that focus on providing easy access to basic screening services to the under privileged including setting up oncology services at the county level. In recognition of this, she won the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) in 2014 for screening in poor settings.

Dr Catherine Nyongesa Watta

Catherine Nyongesa is a Clinical and Radiation Oncologist at Texas Cancer Centre Nairobi and Kenyatta National Hospital, with over 20 years of experience in Oncology conducting inpatient and outpatient management of cancer patients. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery (University of Nairobi), Master of Medicine in Radiation Oncology (University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa), and a Fellowship (FC Rad Onc) in Radiation Oncology from the College of Radiation Oncologists of South Africa.

Among the key organizations, she has been a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Health Professions Council of South Africa, International Gynecologic Cancer Society, and is former Chair of the Kenya Society of Haematology and Oncology (KESHO).

She has received a number of awards in recognition of her work nationally and globally. These include:

1. Conquer Cancer Foundation (2011, ASCO Annual Meeting),
2. IDEA (International Development Education Award- ASCO, 2009)
3. IGCS (International Gynecologic Cancer Society) Travelling Scholarship Award 2008
4. Employee excellence award KNH 2007,
5. MMED dissertation paper passed with distinction 2005 at University of the Witwatersrand, SA.
6. Best O level and A level student Misikhu Girls High school (St Cecilia)

Dr Catherine Nyongesa is the first female radiation oncologist in Kenya.

She is one of the founders of the Texas Cancer Center Nairobi, and currently holds the position of Head of Department of the Cancer Treatment Centre at Kenyatta National Hospital. She is an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Nairobi and the Project/Program Leader of the American Cancer Society (ACS) Patient Navigation Program at Kenyatta National Hospital. She is also the Regional Project Coordinator for the following International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)Project: AFRA- RAF/6/055 on Improving the Quality of Radiotherapy in the Treatment of Frequently Occurring Cancers.

Prof Mohsen Mokhtar

Mohsen Mokhtar is a Professor of Clinical Oncology in Al-Kasr Al-Aini Medical School and Cairo University, Cairo Egypt. Prof Mokhtar assisted in developing the syllabus and course structure at Al-Kasr Al-Aini, as well as, supervised several research programs and theses.

Prof Mokhtar is the managing Director of Cairo University Center of Oncology and Nuclear Medicine NEMROCK and the President of CANSURVIVE.

Prof Mokhtar has published more than 50 articles in several regional magazines in topics including: breast, lung, pediatric, colorectal, ovarian malignancies NHL and hematologic malignancies. Professionally, he has more than 20 years of experience in hospital management. He is currently the chief medical director in Elaj group covering the clinical and medical audit of group facilities.

Dr Loay Kassem

Loay Kassem is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Oncology at Cairo University in Egypt.

He had earned his medical degree from Kasr El Eini Medical School – Cairo University in 2005 and MD in Clinical Oncology from Cairo University in 2016.

Dr Kassem is a Research Fellow in Center Léon Bérard, Lyon, France. He participated as a Co-investigator in several international clinical trials and has authored several scientific papers in international journals.

Moderator: Dr Thomas Odeny

Thomas Odeny is a Senior Principal Clinical Research Scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute and also holds a joint appointment as Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Oncology at the Washington University in St. Louis, USA. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine and completed his Medical Oncology Fellowship at the US National Cancer Institute/National Institutes of Health.

He holds an MPH and PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Washington in Seattle, USA. He is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), American Society of Hematology (ASH), American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), and the International AIDS Society.

He has authored more than 30 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts. His research has been published in scientific journals such as ‘Journal of ImmunoTherapy of Cancer’, ‘Lancet HIV’, ‘PLOS Medicine’, ‘BMC Medicine’, ‘Implementation Science’, ‘Clinical Infectious Diseases’, ‘Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes’, and ‘Journal of the International AIDS Society’ among others. In recognition of his contribution to research and clinical care, he has received multiple awards including ‘Conquer Cancer Global Oncology Young Investigator Award’, ‘American Society of Clinical Oncology Merit Award’, ‘Sirridge Award for Outstanding Humanistic Qualities – University of Missouri’, ‘Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections Young Investigator Award’, and was the first recipient of the ‘Kenya National AIDS Control Council Young Investigator Award’, Kenya’s highest award for young scientists in HIV.

His career vision in Global Oncology is to address gaps in cancer care by translating research advances to practical and scalable cancer programs in low-resource settings in the U.S. and in Africa through high-quality direct patient care and clinical/translational and implementation research.

His clinical research interest is broadly focused on reducing disparities in eligibility for immunotherapy clinical trials and expanding treatment options for cancer in people living with HIV. He is studying the effect of CD4+ T cell count on treatment-emergent adverse events and survival among patients with and without HIV receiving immunotherapy for advanced cancer. This work led to an ASCO Merit Award (2021).

As an ASCO Global Oncology Young Investigator Awardee, Dr. Odeny is also studying the association between Kaposi sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) subtypes and clinical severity of disease in patients with KSHV-associated diseases (KAD) in North America and Africa. This will be among the first studies to evaluate KSHV subtype and cytokine profiles as predictors of survival in patients with KAD such as Kaposi sarcoma, primary effusion lymphoma, and KSHV-associated multicentric Castleman disease. By integrating patient clinical characteristics with KSHV genomic analyses, this study will provide a platform for understanding diseases that disproportionately affect low-income, stigmatized, and marginalized communities globally, and are therefore understudied to date.

He is also interested in leading patient and clinician education initiatives in global oncology with plans to establish a formal program in Global Oncology between KEMRI and Washington University in St. Louis. This will be a platform for training of a new generation of globally-oriented physicians who will advance scientific discovery for underserved populations with cancer globally. This will be an important step toward sustaining the potential spread of emerging cancer prevention and therapeutic strategies globally and make a lasting impact.

Prior to pivoting to a career in Global Oncology, Dr. Odeny was in-country PI or co- investigator for multiple NIH-funded trials, including 3 NIH R01s. These trials studied the application of implementation science to promote engagement in the HIV care cascade, and the use of technological innovations to support HIV prevention and treatment efforts. There is a growing recognition that urgent research is needed to find optimal approaches for the translation of efficacious clinical interventions into effective and appropriately scaled programs in the global response to cancer and HIV. As such, Dr. Odeny is interested in leveraging his expertise in implementation science to the growing academic field of global oncology.