Excited to share that I will be spending 5 months at the B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences in Dharan, Nepal, helping colleagues there develop a fellowship raining program in medical oncology. Currently there are only 5 fellowship-trained medical oncologists to care for the cancer patients in this country of nearly 30 million people. This project will help BPKIHS train more oncologists to bolster the oncology workforce in Nepal.

Medical Oncologist with the Duke Cancer Network, Duke Health, bringing Duke cancer care and clinical trials to underserved sites in NC.

CanLiv is a not for profit medical education foundation that is committed to advancing knowledge, education, research and treatment of cancers of the bile ducts, gallbladder and liver.

Gibbs Cancer Center & Research Institute is a nationally recognized cancer treatment program that provides patient-centric multidisciplinary, comprehensive cancer care to the region. Gibbs CC has been a leader in the NCI Community Cancer Centers Program for 3 decades, and is a part of the Southeast Cancer Consortium-Upstate NCORP. Gibbs is a longstanding member of the MD Anderson Network, and is a Division of Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, which was voted the #1 regional hospital in SC by U.S. News & World Report, 2014-2015.The Atlanta-Greenville-Spartanburg-Charlotte corridor is one of the fastest growing regions of the country, and Gibbs CC & Research Institute is expanding its clinical research program to bring high-quality, genomics-driven industry trials to our patients.

Liver cancer is a very challenging tumor in which to develop new, novel therapeutic agents that are both effective and safe for patients. As the third most common cancer worldwide, hepatocellular carcinoma remains a significant unmet medical need. The early safety and efficacy data for GenSpera's novel drug mipsagargin are impressive, and I am excited to be part of the team that is developing this new agent for liver cancer patients.About GenSpera GenSpera’s technology platform combines a powerful, plant-derived cytotoxin (thapsigargin) with a prodrug delivery system that provides for the targeted release of drug candidates within a tumor. Unlike typical chemotherapeutic agents, thapsigargin results in cell death irrespective of the rate of cell division, which may provide an effective approach to kill both fast- and slow-growing cancers. GenSpera’s lead drug candidate, mipsagargin, is activated by the enzyme PSMA, which is found at high levels in the vasculature of liver and glioblastoma cancers and in the vasculature of almost all other solid tumors. Mipsagargin is expected to have potential efficacy in a wide variety of tumor types.The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Orphan Drug designation in 2013 for the evaluation of mipsagargin in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Mipsagargin Phase II clinical trials are underway in both hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer) and glioblastoma patients (brain cancer)

I have served as a volunteer with Health Volunteers Overseas (HVO,www.hvousa.org) oncology program in Tegucigalpa, Honduras since 2010. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) International Cancer Corp (ICC) has partnered with HVO since 2009 to build oncology capacity in medically underserved regions of the world. (http://www.asco.org/international-programs/international-cancer-corps)-Health Volunteers Overseas (www.hvousa.org).As volunteer Program Director, I assess potential volunteers to serve in Honduras, and regularly review the program goals and accomplishments.

I served as a volunteer medical oncologist in Thimphu, Bhutan in July-August 2014, helping to build the skills, knowledge and oncology care capacity of the medical and nursing staff at the Jigme Dorji Wangchuk National Referral Hospital, in Thimphu, Bhutan. See my blog http://drmelaniesc.blogspot.com/2014/07/a-day-at-bhutan-national-referral.html

As the Associate Director of Clinical Investigations, I had primary responsibility for revamping the entire clinical research enterprise Hollings Cancer Center, including the Protocol Review Committee (PRC), the Data Safety & Monitoring Committee (DSMC), the Clinical Research Resources Committee, and the Clinical Trials Office (CTO, 45 FTE), which includes a Phase I Clinical Trials unit. I guide the effective functioning of HCC’s Disease Programs and set the direction of clinical research efforts across disciplines. Through engaging my colleagues and HCC leadership, my specific accomplishments at MUSC-HCC from 2008-2014 include:• Reorganized the HCC Protocol Review and Monitoring System (PRMS), enabling it to receive full NCI approval in 2010 (provisionally approved at the time of NCI Designation in March 2009). • Achieved a 146% growth in accrual to pilot, Phase I and Phase II trials.• Achieved an increase in total clinical trial enrollment from 8% in 2008 to 14% 2012, and minority subjects from 18% in 2008 to 26% in 2012. (National metric is 3-4% of adults enroll in cancer trials, 10% of these are minorities)• Attained a 23% increase in the total number of therapeutic clinical trials during 2008-2012 (91 to 112) and doubled the number of Phase I trials (12 to 26).• Created a Phase I Trials Working Group in 2011, which activated 3 investigator-initiated Pilot/Phase I immunotherapy trials utilizing the MUSC clean cell facility. • I developed the clinical trial for and was the Principal Investigator of a first-in-class (sphingosine kinase-2 inhibitor), first-in-man clinical trial of an oral agent ABC294640, developed by an MUSC colleague.

My clinical practice and research interests focus on GI malignancies, principally cancers of the pancreas, stomach, liver, biliary tree and colon. I have presented and published extensively on GI cancers, and served on NCI, SWOG and ASCO GI cancer committees. One publication (Melanie B. Thomas, Jeffrey S. Morris, Romil Chadha, Michiko Iwasaki, Harmeet Kaur, Elinor Lin, Ahmed Kaseb, Katrina Glover, Marta Davila, and James Abbruzzese. A Phase II Trial of the Combination Bevacizumab and Erlotinib in Patients with Advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 27(6): 843-850, 2009) was one of the 50-most cited articles published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in 2009. (Impact Factor 18.97)

Practicing medical oncologist providing oncology care and clinical trials for patients with GI malignancies.

Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology Department

Oncology

Internal medicine