ISSUE NO. 29 | SEPTEMBER 2023 THE DIVISION OF MEDICAL ONCOLOGY & HEMATOLOGY
NEWSLETTER
MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF
Greetings members of the Welcome to Our New Staff
Division of Medical Oncology and
Hematology.
I would like to welcome you to Dr. Ramachandiran (Varun) Sethuraman joined
our September 2023 issue! I am DMOH as a Hospitalist. Prior to this he completed a
pleased to highlight our many Hospital Medicine Enhanced Skills program at McGill
milestones and achievements in University, his Family Medicine Residency at University
the past month. In the next few of Calgary and his Medical School at McMaster Univer-
pages, you will read about: sity. Spending time in Calgary he enjoys outdoor activi-
ties such as skiing and hiking. He also enjoys playing
• New Staff tennis, following basketball, reading (fiction and fantasy),
watching movies, and is looking forward to traveling
• Health & Wellness since completing residency.
• Outstanding Awards &
Accomplishments Happy Retirement
• Research Achievements
• Staff Spotlights Dr. Amr Rostom is retiring at the end of this month. Dr.
Rostom's retirement marks a well-deserved milestone
• Upcoming Events after more than 12 years of exceptional service in caring
Please feel free to share this for leukemia inpatients’ care at Princess Margaret. Since
newsletter with colleagues. We May 2011 he has been a significant pillar of in-patient
also welcome your feedback, leukemia service, an exceptional member of a team
content, and suggestions for comprising of leukemia physicians, nurses, clinical asso-
future issues. ciates, hospitalists, social workers and administrative
staff through his dedication to his role as Clinical Asso-
Happy reading, ciate. His caring attitude in providing treatment and
support to very sick leukemia patients during the tough
Amit Oza time of their treatments will leave a lasting legacy on their lives and their families.
Amr, as many of us affectionately call him, retired from practice in September and
will be relaxing in a quiet town in Nova Scotia. Amr, may your retirement be as
enriching as the lives you've touched. Best wishes for a fulfilling retirement!
DMOH Newsletter PAGE 1
HEALTH & WELLNESS
Health & Wellness Resources
About UHN Wellness
UHN Wellness guiding principles, vision, mission and goals can be found here. Workplace wellness is a comprehensive
approach to improving the health and well-being of both employees and the organization.
Benefits for UHN employees
For information on discounts for auto services, attractions/entertainment, care services, fitness, spas & wellbeing, hotels
& results, technology, home/auto insurance, office supplies, restaurants, shopping, financial and travel services, please
click here.
Wellness Resources Around UHN
• Employee & Family Help line: EFAP 1-844-880-9137 (24 hours, 7 days a week)
• Employee Helpline: 416-340-4800 ext. 5995
• OMA Physician Health Program
• CMA Resources (including crisis support lines)
UHN Wellness Apps
UHN patient and family learning centres library have health & wellness apps related to caregivers, healthy living, mental
health, sleep & relaxation, and tracking your health at this link here.
Health Benefits of Vitamin D
Vitamin D is a nutrient your body needs for building and maintaining healthy bones. That's because your body can only
absorb calcium, the primary component of bone, when vitamin D is present. Vitamin D also regulates many other cellular
functions in your body. Its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and neuroprotective properties support immune health, muscle
function and brain cell activity.
Vitamin D isn't naturally found in many foods, but you can get it from fortified milk, fortified cereal, and fatty fish such as
salmon, mackerel and sardines. Your body also makes vitamin D when direct sunlight converts a chemical in your skin
into an active form of the vitamin (calciferol).
The amount of vitamin D your skin makes depends on many factors, including the time of day, season, latitude and your
skin pigmentation. Depending on where you live and your lifestyle, vitamin D production might decrease or be completely
absent during the winter months. Sunscreen, while important to prevent skin cancer, also can decrease vitamin D produc-
tion.
Many older adults don't get regular exposure to sunlight and have trouble absorbing vitamin D. If your doctor suspects
you're not getting enough vitamin D, a simple blood test can check the levels of this vitamin in your blood.
For further information on dosing, evidence, safety and interactions,
please speak with your doctor.
Articles: Mayo Clinic and Harvard Health here.
Free Access to Registered Dieticians at Health 811
Food and healthy eating are key to good health. Residents of Ontario
can connect with a Registered Dietitian for free to access free nutri-
tion information and advice by calling 811 or starting a chat. For
details on this program please visit the Health 811 website.
DMOH Newsletter | September 2023 PAGE 2
STAFF ACHIEVEMENTS
New Appointments & Roles
The Department of Supportive Care is thrilled to announce the creation of a new full-time social work role who will be
supporting 17 A/B. Robin Forbes has stepped into this role effective September 5, 2023.The current rotation model on the inpa-
tient unit will continue with two additional solid tumor social workers rotating on the units every two weeks, to account for high
patient volumes on the units.
Multiple Myeloma Research Chair & Professorship
We are delighted to announce the appointments of Dr. Christine Chen as the
Molly and David Bloom Chair in Multiple Myeloma Research and Dr. Suzanne
Trudel to the Bloom-Reece Professorship in Multiple Myeloma Research. This
chair and professorship are based at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre at
University Health Network, University of Toronto. Both positions were made
possible by the generosity of Molly and the late David Bloom as well as by the
many MM5K participants who have raised funds through The Princess Margaret
Cancer Foundation’s Journey to Conquer Cancer. The professorship also pays
tribute to Dr. Donna Reece who was the inaugural Bloom Chair and who has
contributed so significantly to the field of multiple myeloma.
Dr. Christine Chen obtained her MD from the University of Saskatchewan, followed by her residency in hematology at McMaster.
She subsequently joined the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (PM), where she has continued to work for over 20 years. Dr.
Chen holds a Masters in Education from the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto and has
published over 100 papers related to the care and treatment of Multiple Myeloma. She has fostered the introduction of many
new therapeutics for this blood cancer into clinical practice.
Leadership and education have been paramount to Dr. Chen’s career. An integral member of the Multiple Myeloma Group
at PM, she has held several key leadership roles including Medical Director of the Autologous Transplant and Clinical Immune
Effector Cell Therapy Programs, BMT Quality Director, Hematology Training Program Director and Myeloma Fellowship Director.
Dr. Chen is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and has received numerous awards for
her teaching and work in cancer and education, including the 2022 Innovation in Cancer Education Award.
The Bloom Chair will help advance Dr. Chen’s important work in enriching multiple myeloma research and clinical trials, including
infrastructure at PM, with an emphasis on further advancing and implementing the availability and variety of immunotherapy
and cell therapies for our patients.
Dr. Suzanne Trudel obtained her MSc and MD from the University of Toronto, followed by her residency in Hematology and
General Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto. She was a Research Fellow in the Division of Medical Oncology & Hema-
tology at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (PM) and at Weill Medical College of Cornell in New York City. As a clinician scientist, Dr.
Trudel has successfully bridged and translated both molecular discovery and clinical trials of new therapies for multiple myeloma
(MM), She has over 115 publications in the biology and treatment of this blood cancer and is frequently invited to speak on her
work internationally.
Dr. Trudel has been an integral member of the Multiple Myeloma Group at Princess Margaret (PM) for twenty years, providing
strong clinical and research expertise and leadership. She is a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Trudel serves as an Expert Member of the Myeloma Steering committee for the National Cancer Institute (USA) and is an
invited member of global steering committees for multiple pharmaceutical companies. In addition, Dr. Trudel is an active CIHR
funded researcher and a principal clinical investigator on several industry sponsored and investigator initiated trials. She has
conducted pioneering work on circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) sequencing as a non-invasive platform for molecular profiling of
multiple myeloma.The Bloom-Reece Professorship will enable Dr. Trudel to continue conducting high impact research, particu-
larly in the area of drug development and precision medicine for multiple myeloma.
A very special thanks to Molly and the late David Bloom, and to the many Journey to Conquer Cancer MM5K Team participants
and supporters of The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation (PMCF), for making this Chair and Professorship possible and for
continuing to fuel this important work. Please join us in congratulating Drs. Chen and Trudel on these prestigious appointments
and wishing them continued success.
DMOH Newsletter | September 2023 PAGE 3
STAFF ACHIEVEMENTS
New Appointments & Roles
Head of DMOH
Malignant Hematology Program
We are pleased to announce that
Dr. Dennis Kim has accepted
the role of Head of the Malignant
Hematology Program for the Divi-
sion of Medical Oncology and
Hematology, Princess Margaret Congratulations to Drs. Aaron Schimmer and Amit
Cancer Centre effective September Oza for being elected Fellows of the Royal Society of
01, 2023. Canada. Learn more from UHN Research and check out
the RSC’s profiles of newly elected Fellows.
Dr. Dennis Kim is a Malignant
Hematologist at Princess Margaret
Cancer Centre and a Professor in the Department of Medi- Dr. Aaron Schimmer is
cine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Kim obtained his PhD an international authority
in Hematology in 2004 from the Kyungpook National Univer- in cancer research focused
sity School of Medicine in Daegu, South Korea. Dr. Kim has on blood cancers known as
held various leadership roles throughout his career to-date, leukemia. Through multiple
including serving as the Medical Director for the Orsino Cell pioneering discoveries, he has
Processing Laboratory from 2018-2020 and as the Head of demonstrated how mitochon-
the Department of Internal Medicine at the Korean-Kazakh- drial and metabolic pathways
stan Friendship Hospital in Almaty, Kazakhstan from 2000- influence the development
2003. and progression of acute
myeloid leukemia. As a clini-
Dr. Kim has three major current subjects of research focus; cian-scientist, he has translated these breakthroughs
1) genomic-based biomarker development in post-trans- into the clinic by launching early phase clinical trials to
plant relapse and leukemia for measurable residual disease evaluate new treatments for the disease.
(MRD) monitoring, 2) genomics in leukemias including
chronic myeloid leukemia, and 3) clinical development of
graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prevention/treatment. Dr. Amit Oza has dedi-
Dr. Kim has over 280 publications as well as numerous
published abstracts and book chapters. Please join us in cated his career to women
diagnosed with gynecologic
congratulating Dr. Kim in his new role.
cancers that affect the female
We would like to thank Dr. Rajat Kumar for his instrumental reproductive tract and has led
leadership of the DMOH Malignant Hematology portfolio at or participated in more than
the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre since 2018. In his lead- 100 trials. This work resulted
ership role, Dr. Kumar has supported and led many impor- in the clinical approval and use
tant DMOH initiatives and committees including DMOH of precision medicine drugs
strategy, Medical Model of Care, ambulatory practice strat- (antiangiogenics and PARP
egies, site-group leadership, staff recruitment, mentorship, inhibitors) in ovarian cancer in
retention and transition planning Canada and internationally. His research has uncovered
and, being a key member of the biology driving treatment resistance and continues to
DMOH Executive Committee since shape drug development efforts.
inception. Dr. Kumar will continue
to maintain both his clinical prac-
tice and research portfolios and
will continue to be very actively
engaged in various DMOH proj-
ects, initiatives and hematology/
oncology portfolios.
DMOH Newsletter | September 2023 PAGE 4
STAFF ACHIEVEMENTS
New Appointments & Roles
Appointment of New Leukemia Chairs
It is with great pleasure that we announce the appointments of Dr. Vikas Gupta
as the Barbara Baker Chair in Leukemia and Related Diseases, as well as Dr.
Brian Raught as the Philip S. Orsino Chair in Leukemia Research, both joint UHN-
University of Toronto chairs. Both appointments are effective as of October 1,
2023.
Dr. Vikas Gupta obtained his medical degree from Medical College, Amritsar,
India followed by his residency in internal medicine at the Postgraduate Institute
of Medical Education & Research in Chandigarh, India. He was a Clinical Research
Fellow in Leukemia and Stem Cell Transplantation at Princess Margaret Hospital.
He has authored more than 300 peer reviewed publications in the field of myeloid
malignancies and has an h-index of 88.
Dr. Gupta has been an integral member of Princess Margaret (PM) for over twenty years as a clinician investigator and educator.
Currently, he serves as the site group lead for the leukemia program. He is one of the founding members of the Canadian myelo-
proliferative neoplasms (MPN) Group for which he served as president from 2012-2021. His efforts to develop infrastructure
for a programmatic approach to MPN at Princess Margaret led to establishing the Elizabeth and Tony Comper MPN program in
2014. At the University of Toronto, he is a professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine, and has a cross appointment
with the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME). He was instrumental in expanding the leukemia fellow-
ship program, and in April 2019 was the recipient of the Dr. Michael A. Baker Mentorship Award.
The Barbara Baker Chair in Leukemia and Related Diseases at UHN was established in 2005 through the generous support
received by the UHN Foundation in recognition of Dr. Michael Baker. Dr. Baker is a world-renowned expert in leukemia, blood
disorders and related diseases, who previously served as UHN’s Physician-in-Chief. The chair will foster and further Dr. Gupta’s
important work in novel therapeutic strategies in myeloid malignancies, and integration of developmental biomarkers for
response/resistance and progression in clinical care.
Dr. Brian Raught obtained his Ph.D. in Cell Biology from Baylor College of Medicine and was a Post-doctoral Fellow at McGill
University in the Department of Biochemistry. He is a Professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of
Toronto and a key member of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (PM) for more than fifteen years, as a senior scientist and leader
in our institution. He was the inaugural Director of the PM Protein Structure & Function Division. Dr. Raught was an early adopter
of the proximity-dependent biotinylation technique (BioID), and has used this approach to generate protein-protein interaction
maps for hundreds of different human (as well as multiple virus and other pathogen) proteins, linked to a variety of different
human diseases, most particularly leukemias. Dr. Raught has received numerous awards for his work including the 2023 Tony
Pawson Excellence in Proteomics Award by the Canadian National Proteomics Network (CNPN), which recognized Dr. Raught
as a "World renowned expert in developing and applying mass spectrometry-based approaches across multiple disciplines".
The Philip S. Orsino Chair in Leukemia was established in 2002 through generous donor support received by both The Princess
Margaret Cancer and UHN Foundations. The Chair was named in honor of Philip Orsino who served as Chair of the UHN Board
of Trustees and who continues on the UHN Foundation Board. Mr. Orsino was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada in
2004, was the recipient of the 2003 Canada’s Outstanding CEO of the Year award and received the University of Toronto’s Distin-
guished Business Alumni award for 2002.
The UHN Philip S. Orsino Chair in Leukemia Research will foster and further Dr. Raught’s important work in leukemia research,
focusing on the characterization of leukemia fusion proteins, and proteins linked to familial leukemias.
DMOH Newsletter | September 2023 PAGE 5
STAFF ACHIEVEMENTS
Words of Wisdom
from the Weekly DMOH
Admin Huddle
Thank you walkers! In September, the 21 annual "Be who you are
st
Walk to Conquer Cancer raised over 3.4M to
support cancer research at the Princess Margaret.
The amount raised is higher than the Walk in 2019 and say what you
before the COVID-19 pandemic! Thank you to the
many faculty, staff and trainees who walked 25km
or cheered on the participants. Thank you to our feel, because those
incredible Foundation leadership and staff who work
tireless to raise funds for research at the Princess who mind don’t matter
Margaret.
and those who matter
Additions to the DMOH Family don’t mind."
∼ Bernard M. Baruch
Improving Lymphoma Treatment
with Precision Medicine
September is World Leukemia
and Lymphoma Awareness
Congratulations to Dr. Ana Veneziani for her new Month. Dr. Robert Kridel, a
baby girl Marina. staff physician and clinician
scientist at Princess Margaret
Cancer Centre, sat down
to talk about blood cancer
lymphoma and his research,
which focuses on improving
lymphoma diagnosis and
treatment to be better
tailored to individual patients.
For details, please click here.
DMOH Newsletter | September 2023 PAGE 6
STAFF ACHIEVEMENTS
Notable Research Achievements
Congratulations to Dr. Amit Oza for receiving the 2022
O. Harold Warwick Prize. This is a major award from the
Canadian Cancer Society that recognizes an individual
who has made remarkable contributions to cancer
control research. You can read about the award here
and here.
Congratulations to Dr. Lillian
Congratulations to Dr. Frances Shepherd for receiving Siu for being named a Fellow
the 2022 Lifetime Contribution Prize. This is a major of the Canadian Academy of
award from the Canadian Cancer Society that recognizes Heath Sciences. The Canadian
an acclaimed researcher who has made a significant Academy of Health Sciences
impact on cancer research beyond traditional achieve- brings together Canada’s top-
ments. You can read about the award here and here. ranked health and biomedical
scientists and scholars to make
a positive impact on the urgent
health concerns of Canadians.
Fellows are drawn from all
disciplines across our nation’s universities, healthcare
and research institutes, evaluate Canada’s most complex
health challenges and recommend strategic, actionable
solutions. To read more about the award and Dr. Siu’s
citation please click here.
Congratulations to Drs. Geoffrey Liu and Frances Shep-
herd for their paper “Using Recurrent Neural Networks
to Extract High-Quality Information From Lung Cancer
CAMH provides supports to help health care workers Screening Computerized Tomography Reports for Inter-
maintain their mental health and wellness. These Radiologist Audit and Feedback Quality Improvement”
services include access to resources, Cognitive published in JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics.
Behavioural Therapies (CBT/Psychotherapy) as well
as Psychiatric Services.
To self-refer to this service, please click the link here.
DMOH Newsletter | September 2023 PAGE 7
STAFF ACHIEVEMENTS
Notable Research Achievements
Congratulations to Drs. Erica
Koch and Maysa Vilbert for their
paper “Efficacy and Safety of
Rechallenge with BRAF/MEK
Inhibitors in Advanced Melanoma
Patients: A Systematic Review
and Meta-Analysis” published in
Cancers.
A Gut Reaction to Antibiotics
Study links exposure to antibiotics before cancer
Congratulations to Drs. Swe Mar Linn, Igor Novitzky- immunotherapy with worse overall survival. Read
Basso, Omar Abduljalil, Ivan Pasic, Wilson Lam, Arjun more here.
Law, Fotios Michelis, Armin Gerbitz, Auro Viswa-
bandya, Jeffrey Lipton, Rajat Kumar, Jonas Mattsson,
and Dennis Kim for their paper "A single centre, real-world
experience of chronic GVHD treatment using ibrutinib, Congratulations to Dr. Adrian
Imatinib and ruxolitinib and its treatment outcomes" Sacher for his paper “Single-Agent
published in Hematology/Oncology and Stem Cell Therapy. Divarasib (GDC-6036) in Solid
Tumors with a KRAS G12C Muta-
tion” published in the New England
Journal of Medicine. Dr. Sacher is
the lead author on this interna-
tional phase I study demonstrating
clinical efficacy of the KRAS G12C
inhibitor, Divarasib, in patients
with KRAS-C12C mutated cancers.
For further details, please click here.
Congratulations to Drs. Geoffrey Liu, Natasha Leighl,
Frances Shepherd, Wei Xu and Ming Tsao for their paper
“Association between duration of smoking abstinence
before non-small-cell lung cancer diagnosis and survival:
a retrospective, pooled analysis of cohort studies”
published in Lancet Public Health. The journal has an impact
factor of 72.2. This paper shows the importance of smoking
cessation in the outcome of patients with lung cancer and
how it is never too late to quit smoking.
DMOH Newsletter | September 2023 PAGE 8
STAFF ACHIEVEMENTS
Notable Research Achievements
Kudos to Dr. Frances Shepherd
for having the following articles
Congratulations to the Lung Team, Dr. Natasha Leighl, republished in the Journal of Clin-
Dr. Miguel García-Pardo, Jennifer Law, Dr. Alexandra ical Oncology as their top 40 most
Salvarrey, Roxanne Fernandes, Dr. Zhen Fan, Dr. cited articles to celebrate their 40
th
Thomas Waddell, Dr. Kazuhiro Yasufuku, Dr. Geoffrey anniversary.
Liu, Dr. Laura Donahoe, Dr. Andrew Pierre, Dr. Tharsiga
Gunasegaran, Dr. Noor Ghumman, Dr. Frances Shep-
herd, Dr. Penelope Bradbury, Dr. Adrian Sacher, Dr.
Sabine Schmid, Dr. Lucy Corke, Dr. Jamie Feng, Dr. Tracy
Stockley, Dr. Prodipto Pal and Dr. Ming Tsao for their paper
“Association of Circulating Tumor DNA Testing Before
Tissue Diagnosis With Time to Treatment Among Patients • Prospective Randomized Trial of Docetaxel Versus
With Suspected Advanced Lung Cancer: The ACCELERATE Best Supportive Care in Patients With Non-Small-Cell
Nonrandomized Clinical Trial” published in JAMA Network Lung Cancer Previously Treated With Platinum-Based
Open. To view the media and news coverage, please click Chemotherapy
this link here. • Randomized Phase III Trial of Pemetrexed Versus
Docetaxel in Patients With Non-Small-Cell Lung
Cancer Previously Treated With Chemotherapy
Kudos to Dr. Frances Shepherd and the entire Thoracic
Team for the following publications:
• Association of Molecular Profiles and Mutational
Status With Distinct Histological Lung Adenocarci-
noma Subtypes. An Analysis of the LACE-Bio Data
published in Cancer.
• Early Clearance of Plasma Epidermal Growth Factor
Receptor Mutations as a Predictor of Outcome on
Osimertinib in Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer;
Exploratory Analysis from AURA3 and FLAURA
published in Cancer Research.
• Overall Survival with Osimertinib in Resected EGFR-
Mutated NSCLC published in New England Journal of
Medicine.
• Three-Year Safety, Tolerability, and Health-Related
Quality of Life Outcomes of Adjuvant Osimertinib in
Patients With Resected Stage IB to IIIA EGFR-Mutated
NSCLC: Updated Analysis From the Phase 3 ADAURA
Trial published in Journal of Thoracic Oncology.
• Analysis of acquired resistance mechanisms to
osimertinib in patients with EGFR-mutated advanced
non-small cell lung cancer from the AURA3 trial
Congratulations to Drs. Erica Koch, Maysa Vilbert, Ian published in Nature Communications.
Hirsch, Mauricio Fernando Ribeiro, Thiago Muniz, • Evaluation of Cost-Effectiveness of Adjuvant Osimer-
Cynthia Fournier, Khaled Abdulalem, Erick Saldanha, tinib in Patients with Resected EGFR Mutation-Positive
Erika Martinez, Anna Spreafico, David Hogg, Marcus Non-small Cell Lung Cancer published in Pharmaco-
Butler, and Samuel Saibil for their paper "Immune Economics Open.
Checkpoint Inhibitors in Advanced Cutaneous Squamous • Adjuvant Osimertinib for Resected EGFR-Mutated
Cell Carcinoma: Real-World Experience from a Canadian Stage IB-IIIA Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer: Updated
Comprehensive Cancer Centre" published in Cancers. Results from the Phase III Randomized ADAURA Trial
published in Journal of Clinical Oncology.
DMOH Newsletter | September 2023 PAGE 9
STAFF SPOTLIGHTS
Get to Know
Lianne Mulveney
Lianne Mulveney grew up in a small town in Ontario called
Porcupine outside of Timmins. She loves SNOW! She gradu-
ated from the University of Western Ontario, or Western
University as it is now called with a Bachelor of Arts, Double
Major in Criminology and Sociology. She is married to a crazy
triathlete, is addicted to spin class and has two wonderful
chocolate labs named McLaren & Zoey. She has two amazingly
awesome parents that she talks to at least once a day (usually
more) everyday and one older sister who is her best friend in
the world and lives down the street from her.
What do you like most about your job?
Meeting new people from all over the world and helping them
make the transition to Toronto.
What’s a fun fact about you that others may not know?
I used to be afraid of dogs; I would have a panic attack when one came near. Needless to say, I have jumped to
the opposite side of that developing an extreme love for them. In addition to my 2 fur babies, I watch and walk
their dog friends in the neighbourhood. My condo has now become nicknamed “Camp Mulveney” for dogs.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?
You can find me either at Spinco Downtown at least once a day, catch me walking my chocolate labs and usually
one of their furry friends around King West or binge watching Law and Order, a Formula one race or Ironman.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
It’s not the years in your life its life in your years.
STAFF SPOTLIGHTS
Get to Know
Anne-Marie Williamson
Anne-Marie Williamson started working at UHN almost 5 years ago. She has
been working as a Medical administrator for almost 20 years, starting off at a
private OBGYN practice. She was born in North York, and has lived in Scarbor-
ough her whole life. She is not well travelled, as she has a fear of flying, that
she hopes to overcome so she takes her children on some trips. She is happily
married to her husband Josh and they have 3 lovely children, Taylor 19, Charlie
10 and Brodie 3. Their family loves all animals and throughout their lives and
have had 2 hamsters, 2 rats, 2 guinea pigs, fish, frogs, 2 dogs and 4 cats (not
all at the same time). They currently only have a black lab Oliver and a cat
Lily. They are very fortunate to live a few blocks from parents, and have had
them take care of their children and dog while they work. Grandparents are
the best!
What do you like most about your job?
I really enjoy speaking with and helping our patients at PMH, in any capacity that I can. Having had multiple family
members pass away from cancer, I feel a special type of empathy for each and every patient that is battling this
horrible disease. Being able to be a part of their journey and their families journey, is very humbling.
What’s a fun fact about you that others may not know?
I played hockey for a large part of my life. I was on my first hockey team when I was 3.5 years old. I played on
multiple extremely competitive rep teams, and also played house league hockey in my spare time, up until I
was 17 years old. Due to multiple injuries, I had to stop playing. I have played on some fun adult house league
teams, since I stopped playing competitive hockey. I still enjoy skating regularly on the skating path by my home,
during the winter months. My dad who was my coach, for a lot of my hockey “career” is still very much involved
with the Ontario Woman’s Hockey Association. None of my children currently play hockey, but I am still hopeful
that my youngest may take a liking to it.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?
When I am not working, I enjoy spending every second I have with my kids. My Daughter is in University taking
Forensic Pathology, so when she is home, being with her is our priority. My sons are both very outgoing, so my
husband and I really have a lot of fun taking them skating, and to different parks or for nature walks. During the
spring, summer and fall months, we spend most of our off time at our family cottage on Georgian Bay. We feel
extremely fortunate to have our little cottage to escape too, so we try to go up each weekend that we can. I also
enjoy reading, and I love to crochet.
What is the best advice you
have ever received?
The best advice that I have
received, came from my Mom,
“Treat others, the way you want
to be treated” and “don’t let nega-
tivity, rent space in your head”.
Both very good pieces of advice,
that have been helpful in carrying
me through life thus far.
EVENTS & DEADLINES
EVENTS
Each year, practice-changing updates and discoveries are presented in Chicago - how will findings apply to your
practice? OncologyEducation was on-site in Chicago hosting roundtable discussions to analyze key abstracts and
ensure the implications of this data are available to healthcare communities in Canada and internationally in a
timely, unbiased manner. These roundtable discussions are now available in five major areas of interest: Breast
Cancer, GI Cancer, GU Cancer, Lung Cancer, and Melanoma. Watch or listen now to discover how findings could
impact cancer care.
BREAST CANCER GI CANCER
Chair: Christine Simmons MD, MSc, FRCPC Chair: Scott Berry, BSc, MD, MHSc, FRCPC
Panelists: Christine Brezden-Masley, MD, Panelists: Sharlene Gill MD, MPH, MBA,
PhD, FRCPC & Heather McArthur MD, MPH FACP, FRCP(C) & Marc Peeters MD, PhD
Watch Here Watch Here
GU CANCER LUNG CANCER
Chair: Christian Kollmannsberger MD, FR- Chair: Barb Melosky, MD, FRCP(C)
CPC Panelists: Parneet Cheema MD, MBiotech,
Panelists: Lucia Nappi MD, PhD & Vishal FRCPC & Peter Ellis MBBS, MMed, PhD,
Navani MA (Oxon), MBBS, MRCP, FRACP FRACP, FRCPC
Watch Here Watch Here
MELANOMA CANCER
Chair: Vanessa Bernstein MSc, MD, FRCP(C)
Panelists: Wilson Miller PhD, MD &
Marcus Butler MD
Watch Here
DMOH Newsletter | September 2023 PAGE 12
EVENTS & DEADLINES
EVENTS
OncologyEducation 2023 Fall Conferences
Interested in attending additional OncologyEducation conferences? Click below for more information and register.
THE BEST OF PRECISION ONCOLOGY CANADIAN IMMUNO-ONCOLOGY
CONFERENCE 2022 CONFERENCE 2023
September 29, 2023 November 10, 2023
BMO IFL, Toronto, ON Toronto, ON (Venue TBA)
Registration Link Registration Link
BEST OF LUNG CANCER THE BEST OF ONCOLOGY EAST
CONFERENCE 2023 CONFERENCE 2023
November 17, 2023 December 1, 2023
Toronto, ON (Venue TBA) The Westin Harbour Castle, Toronto, ON
Registration Link Registration Link
DMOH Newsletter DMOH Communications Contributors
ISSUE NO. 29 | SEPTEMBER 2023 Team & Content Advisors Geoffrey Liu
James Austin Ivo Grace
produced by the Division of Medical Christina Gulesserian Jaime Claudio
Oncology and Hematology at the Michelle Williams Jenny Catton
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre Judy Zhu
Contributors Keith Stewart
Please forward submissions and comments to Lianne Mulveney
[email protected] Aaron Schimmer Lydia Beck
Amit Oza Mandy McDonald
Ana Veneziani Natasha Leighl
Anne-Marie Williamson Oncology Education
DMOH Admin Huddle Ramachandiran (Varun)
Erica Koch Sethuraman
EVPSR Office Swe Mar Linn
Frances Shepherd UHN Research
DMOH Newsletter | September 2023 PAGE 13
EVENTS & DEADLINES
Stay at the forefront of this ever-expanding field by
examining the most important science and topics in
quality of care today.
Date: October 27-28, 2023
Location: Boston MA & Online
Registration Link
High Definition Therapeutics
Symposiums Series
Date: October 4, 2023
Seminar Link
Dr. Thomas Hope from the University of California San
Francisco. He is the Vice Chair of Clinical Operations
and Strategy in the Department of Radiology. He also
serves as the Director of Molecular Therapy. Dr. Hope’s
main research focuses on novel imaging agents and
therapies, particularly in prostate cancer and neuro-
endocrine tumours. He led the development of Ga-68
PSMA-11, which subsequently led to the approval of
this drug by the FDA. Here are two links about him:
UCSF Health and UCSF Profiles.
DMOH Newsletter | September 2023 PAGE 14