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 Oncology and Experimental Research at European 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 Deputy chair of the Education Committee at the International Association for Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC). Dr. Rolfo served as a 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. Dr. Rolfo has contributed to the development of several compounds including Erlotinib, and the pharmacokinetics of Olaparib, Entrectinib, Selpercatinib, Trastuzumab, and Duocarmazine.

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.

David Gandara, Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of California, Davis. He is the co-director of the Center for Experimental Therapeutics in Cancer and Senior Advisor to the Director at UC Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center. He was recently appointed Adjunct Clinical Professor, Translational and Clinical Research Program at the University of Hawaii Cancer Center and Chief Medical Officer for International Society of Liquid Biopsy (ISLB) a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the science and clinical application of liquid biopsy in cancer diagnosis and therapy.

He is an internationally known clinician-scientist and lung cancer thought leader, and has published over 450 peer-reviewed papers. He has led many notable research projects in lung cancer including early therapeutics trials through an N01-sponsored award, cooperative group trials as past-chair of the SWOG Lung Committee, and multi-institutional translational science projects such as clinical director of the patient-deriv ed xenograft (PDX) lung program in collaboration with The Jackson Laboratory Cancer Center.

Dr. Gandara has been selected for many awards and honors including the lifetime Scientific Award from the International Association for Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), the Team Science Award from the Addario Lung Cancer Foundation, and the Trajectory Achievement Award from the ISLB. He is current principal investigator for a National Cancer Institute UG1 award to UCDCCC for cancer clinical trials, co-leader of Lung MAP, a unique NCI-sponsored public-private partnership for new drug development in lung cancer, and is founding co-chair and current member of the NCI-directed Investigational Drug Steering Committee (IDSC).

Dr. Gandara is past Editor-in-Chief of the journal Clinical Lung Cancer. He served as president of the IASLC from 2009-2011 and as treasurer from 2013-2017. He is a prior member of the board of directors and secretary-treasurer of ASCO. In 2017, Gandara received the Giants of Cancer Care Award in lung cancer.