Ovarian Cancer Treatment Landscape & Beyond

Dr. Bernardini is the Division Head of Gynecologic Oncology at the University Health Network and Mount Sinai Hospital, an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Toronto, and an Associate Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital. A graduate of the University of Western Ontario, Dr. Bernardini completed his residency at the University of Toronto and obtained a Master’s degree in Laboratory and Pathobiology, which was followed by a combined fellowship in Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Toronto and Duke University Medical Centre. Dr. Bernardini is an associate professor at the University of Toronto and has received Research and Teaching awards such as the 2018 ‘Senior Merit Award’ (research) and the 2014 ‘Award for Teaching Excellence.’ He leads the UHN robotic surgery program and is the co-director of the Women’s College Prevent Ovarian Cancer Program. His research interests include: understanding the role of precursor lesions in high grade serous ovarian cancer, as well as cytoreductive surgery for later stage disease. He co-leads the ovarian cytoreductive program as well as CANSTIC, a pan-Canadian study looking at treatment and outcomes of ovarian pre-cursor lesions and is Lead Investigator of the Early Stage Cohort for the CANSTAMP trial investigating new approaches to front-line therapy in serous and/or p53 abnormal/mutant endometrial cancer.

Dr. Robert Coleman is Chief Scientific Officer for US Oncology Research, McKesson Corporation. Dr. Coleman received his doctor of medicine degree from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska and completed his Obstetrics & Gynecology residency at Northwestern University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. He then completed his fellowship at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in 1993. Prior to joining the M.D. Anderson faculty, he served as Vice Chairman, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Dr. Coleman’s research interests include drug discovery and novel therapeutics for ovarian, uterine, and cervical cancer, clinical trial development and statistical design. He serves as the institution’s Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG) principal investigator (PI), serves on the NRG’s (formerly the Gynecologic Oncology Group) Ovarian and Developmental Therapeutics Committees, and is PI or co-PI for several GOG prospective clinical trials. He currently is a co-project leader for the MDACC Ovarian SPORE, the MDACC Uterine SPORE, the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, and the Marcus Foundation, each of which is sponsoring novel therapeutics trials in gynecologic cancers. He also serves as Physician Champion and PI for a new human therapeutic leveraging nanoparticle delivery of gene silencing non-coding RNA (siRNA). He has developed a mentoring program for junior investigator clinical trialists.

Dr. Coleman has authored or coauthored over 400 scientific publications, including over 250 peer-reviewed articles, numerous book chapters, monographs, invited articles and textbooks including, The Handbook of Gynecologic Oncology, Clinical Lymphatic Mapping in Gynecologic Cancers, Prognostic and Predictive Factors in Gynecological Cancers, and Atlas of Gynecologic Oncology. In 2012, Dr Coleman was elected to the position of Secretary Treasurer for the International Gynecologic Cancer Society, and was Program Chair for their 2012 biannual meeting. In 2015, he was elected President for the Society of Gynecologic Oncology. He currently serves on the Gynecologic Oncology Group’s Board of Directors.

Jacob McGee is a gynecologic oncologist and an associate professor in the Schulich School of Medicine at Western University. He is the regional gynecologic oncology champion for southwestern Ontario, a Director for the Gynecologic Oncology Group of Ontario (GOGO), and the incoming Secretary-Treasurer for The Society of Gynecologic Oncology of Canada. His research interests include optimizing testing for hereditary cancer syndromes and outcomes research using ICES (institute for clinical evaluative sciences) datasets.