Huntsman Cancer Institute's 2022 Patient Symposium

Sheri Holmen, PhD, is a Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) investigator and Co-Director of the Melanoma Disease Oriented Research Team (MDOT). She is a Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Utah School of Medicine, as well as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Oncological Sciences.

Dr. Holmen’s Lab aims to define critical targets in cancer cells that can become the focus for therapeutic intervention. Current efforts utilize a genetic approach to address this question in tumors that are generally refractory to conventional therapies, including metastatic melanoma and glioblastoma. Identified targets are being further validated using pharmacological inhibitors of clinical importance such that laboratory findings can be quickly translated to the clinic.

Dr. Holmen earned her bachelor's and master’s degrees from Western Michigan University followed by a PhD degree from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine. Her postdoctoral research was performed in the Laboratory of Cell Signaling and Carcinogenesis at the Van Andel Research Institute.

Dr. Judson-Torres’ research program seeks to understand the dynamic transcriptional programs regulating human melanocytes and how disruptions to these programs permit or drive the early stages of melanoma development. Melanoma is a skin cancer that is curable if detected early, but frequently fatal if left unchecked. Melanomas are derived from melanocytes that have acquired specific genetic mutations. However, the majority of melanocytes that acquire these exact mutations do not progress to melanoma. Both the intrinsic transcriptional and epigenetic programs as well as the external environmental and chemical factors that govern the probability of transformation are poorly understood. His laboratory studies diverse populations of primary human melanocytes and melanoma cell lines using single cell sequencing, live quantitative phase imaging, and CRISPR/Cas9-based precision engineering. Translational aspects of his work include the identification of transcriptional programs as potential biomarkers for early melanoma diagnosis and the discovery of administered compounds that alter the probability of transformation.

Douglas Grossman, MD, PhD, is an investigator in Huntsman Cancer Institute's (HCI) Melanoma Program and a Professor in the Department of Dermatology at the University of Utah School of Medicine. He is Co-Leader of the Melanoma center at HCI. He sees patients at risk for melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer, with a special interest in patients who have a personal or family history of melanoma; numerous and/or atypical moles (nevi); a personal history of basal or squamous cell carcinoma; or a history of excessive sun exposure. Grossman had directed the Mole Mapping Program at HCI since 2004.

Grossman's lab studies mechanisms of tumor development and metastasis in melanoma. In addition, they study the role of UV-induced oxidative stress and DNA damage using human nevi (moles) as a model system. They are using this knowledge to develop novel chemopreventive agents for patients at increased risk for melanoma.

Grossman received his MD and PhD from Baylor College of Medicine, completed an internship at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and completed a dermatology residency at Yale. He remained at Yale for a research fellowship in cancer biology, and then joined Huntsman Cancer Institute and the University of Utah School of Medicine faculty in 2001.

Scott Florell, MD is one of four dermatopathologists in the department that analyzes skin biopsies. He uses his clinical and dermatopathology skills to assist our clinicians in diagnosing skin diseases. His main clinical focus I diagnosing and treating patients with skin cancer. Dr. Florell is board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology, dermatology and dermatopathology.

Dr. Hyngstrom is an Associate Professor in the section of Surgical Oncology, division of General Surgery within the department of Surgery at the University of Utah. His medical practice is in general surgical oncology with a focus on melanoma and sarcoma, treating patients at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. His research interests include immunotherapy clinical trial development and survivorship issues in cancer patients. He currently serves as the site primary investigator at HCI on multiple therapeutic cooperative group and industry sponsored clinical trials focusing on improving care for patients with advanced melanoma and other solid tumors. He is co-director of the physician-lead Clinical Trials Research Group and the clinical lead of the Melanoma Disease Center at HCI. He also serves as the Surgery Chair of the Melanoma Working Group of the Southwest Oncology Cooperative Group through the NCI.

Dr. Hyngstrom earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He earned his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and completed his general surgery residency at the University of Chicago Medical Center. During his residency, he completed a two-year clinical research fellowship in surgical oncology and tumor immunology at the Surgery Branch of the NCI/NIH in Bethesda, Maryland. After finishing his general surgery training, Dr. Hyngstrom obtained his fellowship training in general surgical oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Since 2012, he has worked as a faculty surgeon at the University of Utah Huntsman Cancer Institute, and as a contracted surgeon at Intermountain Medical Center.

I am a cancer surgeon with a clinical and research focus in melanoma and other advanced skin cancers as well as sarcomas of the skin and abdomen. I completed my Surgical Oncology training at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. I have extensively researched melanoma prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment. I am actively involved in local, regional, and national groups that focus on improving the treatment for melanoma patients. I am an investigator for several local melanoma studies that provide options in treatment for more advanced melanoma. My passion is patient-centered care and I work to understand the specific needs and wants of each patient. I teach medical students and surgery residents and I enjoy educating my patients about their illness. I am actively involved with a melanoma survivor group which includes planning of our yearly melanoma walk to support melanoma patients and research. Outside of the hospital I enjoy the nature beauty of Utah and spending time with family.

Dr. Siwen Hu-Lieskovan is an Associate Professor of Medicine, and Director of Solid Tumor Immunotherapy at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah. She is a recent recruit from UCLA, where she received her Hematology/Oncology Fellowship training and held a faculty position under the mentorship of Dr. Antoni Ribas. She is a board-certified oncologist with clinical focus on melanoma and early phase testing of cancer immunotherapies in solid tumors. She is experienced with protocol development and conduct of immunotherapy-based clinical trials, and has been a principal investigator of industry-, investigator- and cooperative group-initiated clinical trials testing immune checkpoint inhibitors, oncolytic viruses, cancer vaccines and other immune-modulatory agents, as well as cell therapy with genetically modified T cells and hematopoietic stem cells. Dr. Hu-Lieskovan chairs the SWOG Immunotherapeutics Committee, and is a study chair and translational lead of several cross-NCTN protocols initiated by SWOG, including the immunoMATCH trial. She is also a consultant on cancer immunotherapy drug development strategies for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.

Dr. Hu-Lieskovan is a physician scientist with research focus on characterization of tumor immune microenvironment, development of biomarkers to predict response and resistance to immunotherapies, and combination strategies to overcome immune resistance, by studying patient-derived clinical samples and immune-competent (syngeneic) animal models. In the past, she and her research teams made contributions in understanding the role of driver mutations in oncogenesis and immune evasion, mechanisms of response and resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors, and developing novel drug delivery systems. She led the first studies showing efficacy of nanoparticle delivered siRNA targeting oncogenes in treating metastatic cancers, and synergistic effect of combining BRAF and MEK inhibitors with immunotherapy in BRAF mutant melanoma. She has authored/co-authored research articles, reviews, editorials and book chapters in peer-reviewed journals including Nature, Science Translational Medicine, Cell, New England Journal of Medicine, etc. She is a recipient of the prestigious National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award (CCITLA), American Society of Clinical Oncologist (ASCO) Young Investigator Award (YIA) and Career Development Award, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Sharp Award, the Hope Foundation Dr. Coltman Award, the Melanoma Research Alliance YIA and Team Science Award, the Tower Research Foundation Award, the UCLA KL2 Translational Award, the Daniel Von Hoff Innovative Protocol Award, among others. Siwen is a member of the NCI Investigational Drug Steering Committee (IDSC) Immunotherapy Task Force, Society of ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (SITC) Biomarker Taskforce, ASCO, and AACR. She was an associate director of the UCLA Parker Institute of Cancer Immunotherapy supervising biobanking and translational studies. She currently serves as co-Chair of the SITC Biomarker Taskforce Resources and Useful Tool Subcommittee, and Leader of the ASCO annual meeting Education Committee Developmental Therapeutics Immunotherapy Track.

Ben combines elements of Swedish massage with structural, myofascial, and gentle stretching techniques to relax, reduce pain, and free up restrictions. He specializes in neuromuscular release, sports massage, and trigger point release. He has been an instructor al Healing Mountain Massage School in Salt Lake City since 2016.