Oncology Innovations: Liquid Biopsy in Lung Cancer Management

Umberto Malapelle, Ph.D., is Associate Professor at the Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, University of Naples Federico II. Currently is the Chair of Predictive Molecular Pathology Laboratory, Department of Public Health of University Federico II of Naples and the Scientific Secretary of the International Society of Liquid Biopsy.

His main research interest is in the field of genomic biomarkers validation and testing for predictive information in the field of lung cancer, metastatic colorectal cancer, melanoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumor. Moreover, he has developed skills in tailoring Next Generation Assays for a number of different applications with a special focus on the simultaneously detection of clinical relevant alterations (i.e., EGFR mutations, ALK translocation, PD–L1 expression) in the routine setting including handling of different sample types, such as tissues and/or liquid biopsy specimens.
 

Christian Rolfo, MD, PhD, MBA, Dr.hc. is Professor of Medicine (Hematology and Medical Oncology) and Associate Director for Clinical Research in the Center for Thoracic Oncology at The Tisch Cancer Institute. Dr. Rolfo’s clinical and research focus is on drug development, lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies, biomarkers, resistant mechanisms discovery, and liquid biopsies. Dr. Rolfo has held academic appointments at numerous institutions, including the University of Cordoba, Argentina; University of Antwerp, Belgium; University of Palermo, Italy, and the University of Maryland and Greenbaum Comprehensive Cancer Center where he was Director of Thoracic Medical Oncology and Director of Early Clinical Trials. Dr. Rolfo earned his MD at the University of Cordoba School of Medicine, his PhD and Doctor Europaeus in Clinical and Experimental Oncology Research at University of Palermo, Italy, and an MBA in Hospital and Health Services Management and Organization at Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. He completed residency training in Medical Oncology at the National Cancer Institute in Milan (University of Milan, Italy).

Dr. Rolfo is President of the International Society of Liquid Biopsy (ISLB) and Chair of the Education Committee at the International Association for Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). Dr. Rolfo served as member of the Drug Approval & First in Human Commission at the Ministry of Health in Belgium during his time as Phase I Director at Antwerp University.

Dr. Rolfo is actively working on drug development and lung cancer and mesothelioma treatment. His research is focused in molecular oncology, targeted therapies and Immunotherapy in thoracic oncology using new techniques in liquid biopsies, specifically in extracellular vesicles and circulating free tumor DNA. His research group identified ALK translocation in exosomes in NSCLC patients, and showed, for the first time, the videos of labeled EVs uptake by living lung cancer cells. He is currently working on the identification of new biomarkers involved in immunotherapy and TKI drug-resistance and early detection of lung cancer with liquid biopsy. Dr. Rolfo has contributed to the development of several compounds including erlotinib, and the pharmacokinetics of olaparib, entrectinib, selpercatinib, trastuzumab duocarmazine, among others.

Dr. Rolfo has authored more than 250 scientific articles, has made several contributions to book chapters, and has served as a book editor. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals including New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet Oncology, Cancer Discovery, Nature Clinical Reviews in Oncology, Journal of Thoracic Oncology, Nature Nanotechnology, Clinical Cancer Research, Annals of Oncology, and Lung Cancer among others. Dr. Rolfo is Editor in Chief of Critical Review in Oncology Hematology and Associate Editor at ESMO Open.

Dr. Russo is a board-certified medical oncologist with interest in thoracic malignancies, immunotherapy and liquid biopsies. Dr. Russo degreed as M.D. at the University of Messina (Italy) and there he completed his residency in Medical Oncology. He had his PhD in 2019 in Medical and Surgical Biotechnologies at the University of Messina, with a research project on the role of liquid biopsies as predictive biomarkers to immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). During his PhD, Dr. Russo joined as Visiting Researcher the Division of Thoracic Medical Oncology and Early Clinical Trials at the University of Maryland Medical Center, Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (Baltimore, USA). From February 2020 he joined the Medical Oncology Unit of the A.O. Papardo (Messina, Italy) as medical oncologist, with focus on thoracic malignancies.

He is member of several national and international scientific societies, including the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), the Italian Association of Thoracic Oncology (AIOT), the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM) and the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). Dr. Russo took part to the Executive Board of the Sicilian Section of the Italian Association of Medical Oncology (AIOM) for the years 2015-2019 and the Membership Committee of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) as Academy Member for the years 2020-2021. Dr. Russo is co-author of several publications in peer-reviewed international journals, a book chapter and he is actively involved in clinical research in advanced NSCLC.