Dr. Binay Shah – Medical Oncologist – Binaytara Foundation Moderator
Dr. Binay Shah is a board certified oncologist and hematologist, and is a co-founder of the Binaytara Foundation. Dr. Shah’s area of interest is in health outcomes and health disparities among cancer patients, and he has published and presented over 125 papers in various journals and meetings.
He is invited nationally and internationally to speak on various cancers and global health. He has the distinction of developing the nation’s first statewide personalized cancer care tumor board as president of the Idaho Society of Clinical Oncology. Dr. Shah is a patient advocate, and humanitarian. He founded the Binaytara Foundation to promote health and education in underprivileged communities.
Dr. David Aboulafia – Medical Oncologist – Virginia Mason Medical Center
Dr. David Aboulafia is the Section Head in the department of Hematology/Oncology at Virginia Mason Clinic and an Investigator in the Virginia Mason Community Clinical Oncology Program/SWOG. He is an active member of the AIDS Malignancy Consortium and chair of the AMC outreach, education, recruitment and retention committee. He is also a Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology at the University of Washington.
Since 1992, Dr. Aboulafia has been the Medical Director of Bailey-Boushay House in Seattle. Bailey-Bousahy provides care to people with HIV disease, promoting their health, well-being and functional independence. Its goal is to ensure that every person with HIV/AIDS in our community has equal access to positive outcomes. Bailey-Boushay emphasizes acceptance of all people, compassion, safety, and the dignity and autonomy of individuals. Dr. Aboulafia also serves on the University of Washington Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) Committee, and is member of the HIV Medical Association and the International Association of Physicians for AIDS Care.
Dr. Axel Grothey – Medical Oncologist – West Cancer Center
Dr Grothey received his medical degree at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany, and completed residencies at West German Tumor Center and the Institute of Pathology at the University of Essen and a residency and fellowship at the University of Bochum. He also completed a research fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas. He joined Mayo Clinic as a consultant in 2005 and was appointed as Professor of Oncology in 2007. He left Mayo Clinic in summer of 2018 to join West Cancer Center.
Dr Grothey’s clinical interests focus on gastrointestinal cancers, in particular colorectal cancer, antiangiogenesis, signal transduction inhibitors, and clinical trial design and statistics. As a consultant and investigator, his research has been funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institutes of Health, among other organizations. He currently co-chairs the NCI Gastrointestinal Cancer Steering Committee after having served as chair of the Colon Cancer Task Force for 6 years. Until June, 2018 he was vice chair of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Committee of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, an NCI-funded cooperative group. He is also chaired the Academic and Community Cancer Research United (ACCRU) international research network based at Mayo Clinic until he joined West Cancer Center.
Dr. Siddhartha Yadav – Medical Oncologist – Mayo Clinic
Dr. Yadav is a Chief Fellow in Hematology/Oncology and an Assistant Professor of Oncology at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. He earned his medical degree from the Institute of Medicine, Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu and completed his Internal Medicine residency training at William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan. He then became a Chief Resident there and eventually moved to Minnesota for his oncology training at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Yadav has received Young Investigator Award from American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), Outstanding Fellow Award from Minnesota Society of Clinical Oncology, ASCO Merit Award and Clegg Scholarship from the British Medical Journal. His research and clinical interests lie in inherited cancers due to germline mutations in DNA-repair genes, especially among patients with gastrointestinal and breast cancers. Dr. Yadav has also received a research grant from the Conquer Cancer Foundation of ASCO to study pancreatic tumors in germline mutation carriers. He has presented his research at several international forums and has published over forty peer-reviewed articles.
Dr. Yusuf Qamruzzaman – Medical Oncologist -Beaumont Hospital
Dr. Yusuf Qamruzzaman currently works as an attending physician in Oakwood Hospital and Medical Center in Dearborn, Michigan. Dr. Qamruzzaman attended college at the University of Michigan and obtained a bachelor of arts in Middle Eastern studies. He then attended medical school at Wayne State University followed by residency in internal medicine and fellowship in hematology and oncology at University of Illinois at Chicago. His parents emigrated from India and he was born and raised in Detroit, Mich. His family has been extensively involved in social and humanitarian work in India. He currently resides in the Detroit metro area with his wife and three children.
Dr. Joseph Rosales – Medical Oncologist – Virginia Mason Medical Center
Dr. Rosales has been a Hematologist & Medical Oncologist since 2003, and have been in both single specialty private practice and multi-specialty hospital based practice settings. His clinical activities center on thoracic oncology, including lung cancer and esophageal cancer, as well as improving the patient clinical experience.
Dr. Brahma Konda – Medical Oncologist – Bellingham, WA
Dr. Konda is an oncologist/hematologist with special interests in lung cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, melanoma, hematological malignancies and benign hematology.
Dr. Konda previously served as attending hematology physician and co-director of the lung cancer program at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, California. In addition, he served as attending physician at John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio, California.
Dr. Amit Thakur – Pathologist
Dr. Onish Shrestha – Binaytara Foundation Cancer Center
Dr. Amarendra Jha – Medical Oncologist – India
Dr. Richa Mishra – Anesthesiology and Critical Care/Palliative Care – Binaytara Foundation Cancer Center
Dr. Richa Mishra is an anesthesiologist who brings her experience of working in anesthesia, ICU, and surgery departments to the BTFCC. Dr. Mishra is a grduate of Kathmandu Medical College and she completed residency in anesthesia from Kathmandu University. Dr. Mishra is interested in patient care, teaching, and research.
Sarah Ecoro, Oncology Nurse Practitioner
Dr. Pamesh Jha – Surgical Oncologist -Binaytara Foundation Cancer Center
An alumnus of Janaki Secondary Boarding School, Janakpur, Dr. Jha graduated with a medical degree from the Chongqing Medical University, China. He completed his residency in general surgery from Kathmandu University. Prior to joinig BTFCC, he was a lecturer in General Surgery Department at Nobel Medical College, Biratnagar. Dr. Pamesh says, “Janakpur is the capital of province no 2 and is the most undeveloped state in Nepal. I am thankful for the opportunity to serve patients in my hometown.” He wants to establish himself as one of the most dedicated surgeon in the field on oncology. He says “I feel satisfied after seeing patients improve.” Dr. Jha is fluent in Nepali, English, Maithili, Hindi and Chinese.
Dr. YP Singh – Surgical Oncologist – Binaytara Foundation Cancer Center/Institute of Medicine
Dr. Yogendra P Singh is professor of surgical oncology at Trubhuvan University teaching hospital Institute of Medicine, Maharajgunj, Kathmandu. He completed MBBS from Tribhuvan University and MD from Kansai Medical University, Osaka, Japan. Dr. Singh has published more than 50 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals. A nationally renowned physician, Dr. Singh is a sought after speaker for his expertise in breast cancer.
Dr. Saurav Karn – Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeon – Binaytara Foundation Cancer Center
Dr. Sabbu Shah – Radiologist – Binaytara Foundation Cancer Center
Dr. Shah believes in quality medical care. BTFCC shares her ideology in providing and upgrading the best possible treatment and care to the patient. Also, the location being her hometown has lured her to live a long held dream. Working with an excellent team of BTFCC, she believes and wishes to succeed in establishing the centre and in turn herself as the best in the field. She chose to join this centre also as per her interest in pursuing radio oncology, especially breast imaging.
Dr. Bhawna Sirohi – Max Hospital – Delhi, India
Dr Bhawna Sirohi started her oncology career at Tata Memorial centre (TMC), Mumbai in 1994 and completed training at Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, UK. She is currently an honorary consultant with QMUL, London. She has published more than 100 papers in national and international journals. At TMC in 2012-2014, she set up GI medical oncology &medical oncology information system (MOIS) for e-prescribing chemotherapy. She has been involved in initial setting up of cancer centres in Sangrur and Mohali, Punjab for TMC. She has piloted use of virtual consults using PROM & PREM in London.
Dr. Kevin Knopf, MD, MPH – Binaytara Foundation Cancer Center
Kevin Knopf MD, MPH is Division Chief of Hematology/Oncology at Highland Hospital, Oakland, California. He is also a health economist and health services researcher whose research focuses on cost-effectiveness, patterns and quality of care in oncology, and health disparities in cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment. He trained at the National Cancer Institute Medicine Branch and the Health Services and Economics Research Branch after receiving an undergraduate degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his medical degree at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. He completed his clinical training at Northwestern Medical School, Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and received an MPH in Epidemiology and Statistics at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He is currently Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California, San Francisco and and a member of the Institute for Health Policy as well as an Associate Professor of Pharmaco-economics at the University of South Carolina School of Pharmacy. Twitter: @drkevinknopf
Dr. Srinivas Tantravahi – Medical Oncologist and Hematologist – University of Utah
Dr. Tantravahi has received his medical degree from Guntur medical college, India. He then completed Internal Medicine residency and Hematology and Oncology fellowship training at University of Utah Hospital. His clinical interests include multiple myeloma, stem cell transplantation, and myeloproliferative neoplasm. Research interests are targeted therapy in CML and myeloproliferative neoplasms.
Dr. Brian Samuel – Beacon Cancer Care – Coeur d’Alene
Dr Bhawna Sirohi started her oncology career at Tata Memorial centre (TMC), Mumbai in 1994 and completed training at Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, UK. She is currently an honorary consultant with QMUL, London. She has published more than 100 papers in national and international journals. At TMC in 2012-2014, she set up GI medical oncology &medical oncology information system (MOIS) for e-prescribing chemotherapy. She has been involved in initial setting up of cancer centres in Sangrur and Mohali, Punjab for TMC. She has piloted use of virtual consults using PROM & PREM in London.
Dr. Brian Samuels is a medical oncologist and sarcoma specialist at Beacon Cancer Care. The uniquely patient-centered philosophy of Beacon completely resonates with how Dr. Samuels has taken care of and related to his patients throughout his career.
Dr. Shailender Bhatia – Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
Dr. Bhatia is a medical oncologist at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance who cares for patients with skin cancers and kidney cancer. Dr. Bhatia’s research efforts are mostly focused on clinical trials that aim at improving outcomes in skin cancers (especially Melanoma and Merkel cell carcinoma) and Kidney cancers. He is especially interested in those novel therapeutic approaches that stimulate the immune system against cancer and those that target therapy to the tumors in order to spare unnecessary toxicity.
Dr. Rakesh Mandal, MD, MPH – Hematopathology and Surgical Pathology – PACI
Dr. Mandal was born and raised in Kathmandu, Nepal. He received his M.D. at College of Medical Sciences, Bharatpur, Nepal. He then practiced as a medical officer in intensive care and Emergency room for a few years. After coming to the United States he completed Masters in Public health at Idaho State University and was extensively involved in teaching and research. He then completed residency in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at University of Wisconsin in Madison. He also completed hematopathology fellowship at University of Kansas in Kansas City. He then went back to University of Wisconsin in Madison and completed fellowship training in surgical pathology. Dr. Mandal joined PACI in July 2018 and has been practicing surgical pathology and hematopathology since then.
Dr. Ghassan Abou-Alfa – Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Dr. Abou-Alfa is a board-certified medical oncologist who treats patients with gastrointestinal cancers. His specialization is in primary liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma), pancreas, gallbladder, and bile duct tumors. As part of a multidisciplinary group, he and his colleagues offer patients a team approach to treating these cancers.
His research focuses on improving the effectiveness of cancer therapy by incorporating small novel biological molecules that target cancer into the treatment of chemotherapy-resistant gastrointestinal malignancies, particularly hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancers.