Agenda

A member of the Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute and Miami Cancer Institute physician team, Dr. Gandhi specializes in minimally invasive treatments for peripheral vascular disease, cancer, and other diseases.

Dr. Gandhi did his undergraduate studies at Northwestern University and Harvard University. He graduated summa cum laude. He received his degree in medicine from Northwestern University Medical School, where he also graduated with honors. Following medical school, he completed a surgical internship at Cornell University Medical Center and New York Presbyterian Hospital. He completed his residency training and fellowship at UCLA Medical Center.

Dr. Gandhi also dedicated an entire year to biomedical research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and also served as a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Prior to joining Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, he was an international visiting scholar at Asan Medical Center/University of Ulsan Medical School in Seoul, South Korea. He has published numerous scientific papers, authored several textbook chapters and presented his research at national and international meetings.

He is also a fellow of the Society for Vascular Medicine and a fellow of the Society of Interventional Radiology. He is the co-author of the textbook Interventional Oncology. Dr. Gandhi is also a program director for the International Symposium on Endovascular Therapy (ISET) and Symposium on Clinical Interventional Oncology (CIO).

Constantino S. Peña, M.D., serves as the Section Head of interventional radiology. He is the medical director of vascular imaging at Baptist Health Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute.
Dr. Peña earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Stanford University, and his medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in diagnostic radiology and a vascular and interventional fellowship in Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.
Dr. Peña is a clinical associate professor of radiology at Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine. He has presented in numerous national and international meetings as well as participated in multiple clinical trials.
He has served for many professional organizations. He serves as the chair for the Cardiovascular Radiology & Intervention Council of the American Heart Association. He presently serves on the executive council of the Society of Interventional Radiology and was a past Annual Meeting Chair. He has served on several committee on the American Board of radiology and is a Board examiner. He also served on the Radiology Info Committee of the American College of Radiology and Radiological Society of North America and the Society of Interventional Radiology Oncology Service Line.
Dr. Peña is a fellow of the Society of Interventional Radiology, American Heart Association and the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (CT). He is also a member of the Radiological Society of North America, American College of Radiology, Society of Cardiovascular CT, Iberoamerican Society of Interventional Radiology and the North American Society for Cardiac Imaging.

Robert J. Lewandowski, M.D., FSIR, is a Professor of Radiology, Medicine, and Surgery in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. He serves as the Director of Interventional Oncology at the Northwestern University Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Lewandowski joined the staff at Northwestern in 2006 upon completion of his fellowship training in Vascular and Interventional Radiology. Dr. Lewandowski is a practicing interventional radiologist who specializes in liver-directed therapy. Based on his clinical oncology program, he has authored or co-authored > 200 articles for peer-reviewed journals on the application of liver-directed therapies for patients with gastrointestinal malignancies. Dr. Lewandowski also performs pre-clinical oncology research in the Northwestern University Interventional Oncology Laboratory and Center for Translational Imaging. In this capacity, he is developing and evaluating novel oncology therapeutics, delivery mechanisms, and imaging modalities. Dr. Lewandowski’s work has been supported by the National Institute of Health, American Cancer Society, the Society of Interventional Radiology Foundation, and through industry collaboration via the investigator-initiated trial mechanism.

Ghassan Abou-Alfa is an Attending Physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), Professor of Medicine at Weill Medical School at Cornell University, and Adjunct Professor in Medical Diplomacy at Trinity College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland.

Professor Abou-Alfa completed his undergraduate studies with a major in biology, and his medical doctorate training at the American University in Beirut (AUB). Professor Abou-Alfa completed his postdoctoral training in internal medicine, medical oncology, and hematology at Yale University. He received his MBA from Columbia University and is completing his JD from Fordham University.

Professor Abou-Alfa specializes in in the treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies and in particular, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), intrahepatic and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (IHC), gallbladder cancer (GB), and fibrolamellar carcinoma (FLC). Professor Abou-Alfa leadership effort in the field led to the FDA and other agencies approval of several checkpoint inhibitors and tyrosine kinase inhibitors and biologic targeted therapies

Professor Abou-Alfa is the immediate previous Chair of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Hepatobiliary Task Force and currently serves at the NCI AIDS Malignancy Consortium (AMC) Vice-Chair for Solid Tumor Working Group. Professor Abou-Alfa serves on the council of the governing board of the Asia Pacific Primary Liver Cancer Expert Association.

Dr. Chapiro is a ABR-certified Diagnostic and Interventional Radiologist and an Associate Professor of Radiology, Digestive Diseases (Hepatology) and of Biomedical Engineering. He is the Principal Investigator of the Yale Interventional Oncology Research Lab and Director of the Center for Minimally Invasive Therapies. Dr. Chapiro’s research focuses on developing new quantitative imaging biomarkers for the diagnosis, characterization, and therapeutic management of liver cancer. His translational research portfolio includes the development of novel embolic agents as well as the application of artificial intelligence solutions for the management of liver cancer. His basic research interest mainly focuses on developing new tools to characterize the tumor microenvironment and the immune system in the setting of loco-regional, image-guided therapies of liver cancer. He authored and co-authored >180 original research articles, reviews and book chapters and gave more than 150 talks and invited lectures at national and international forums within the last seven years including in Europe, China, South Korea and the Middle East. Dr. Chapiro is an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Hepatology (EASL), Radiology and Radiology: AI (RSNA), Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (SIR) and Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology: Oncology (CIRSE). He chairs the Research Committee of the Society of Interventional Oncology and chaired the Annual Meeting Program Planning Committee for the Subspecialty of Interventional Radiology at the Annual Radiological Society of North America meeting 2021-2023. He is the co-initiator of the "Rising Star" Student Exchange Program in collaboration with the Charité University Hospital in Berlin.

Dr. Constantinos T. Sofocleous is clinician scientist specializing in interventional oncology, caring for people with cancer. He has been practicing interventional radiology since 1998 and joined the Interventional Radiology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering in 2002. His expertise include the treatment of primary and metastatic liver and lung cancers using thermal ablation (radiofrequency, microwave, cryoablation) or other non-thermal sources of energy (NanoKnife ® or irreversible electroporation and histotripsy). He also specializes in catheter-directed therapies that treat malignant liver tumors that cannot be removed through surgery or destroyed locally (ablation). He lectures nationally and internationally on topics such as embolization, radio embolization, and ablation of liver tumors — particularly metastases from colorectal cancer in the liver and lungs. His research interest is the assessment, validation, and development of biomarkers and surrogate imaging biomarkers. He was the MSK site primary investigator, of a multi-institutional, RCT Yttrium 90 glass microspheres in addition to standard of care second-line chemotherapy for colorectal liver metastases. He has the Optablate NIH Supported R01 clinical trial. He led the ACCLAIM trial as the global PI. He is currently leading and SIR foundation supported trial to optimize dosimetry for Y90 TARE via post treatment PET guided biopsies. He also explores the immunomodulation effcets of locoregional therapies uisng peripheral and tissue biomrakres. Despite his strong interest in research, Dr. Sofocleous' main focus remains caring for patients.

William S. Rilling, MD, FSIR, is a Tenured Professor of Radiology and Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He completed his diagnostic radiology residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin and his fellowship in Vascular and Interventional Radiology at Northwestern University in Chicago in 1996. He has been practicing at the Medical College of Wisconsin since 1996 and is the Vice Chair of Clinical Operations in Radiology and is also the former Division Chief of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, a role he held for 14 years.

Dr. Rilling has served on the Executive Council for the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR), the Board of Directors for World Congress of Interventional Oncology (WCIO), SIR Foundation, and Society of Interventional Oncology (SIO). As Education Councilor for SIR, he co-directed the first three professional education meetings dedicated to Interventional Oncology, beginning in 2002. He has also served as the annual meeting chair for both SIR and WCIO and is the past-president for the Society of Interventional Oncology (SIO). He has served as local and national principal investigator for several important IO trials and is currently active as a consultant for several companies working to improve outcomes in IO.

Dr. Ghassan El-Haddad is the Head of the Radionuclide Therapy Program at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute. He is a Vice Chair, Radiopharmaceutical and Nuclear Oncology. Senior Member in Interventional Radiology at Moffitt Cancer Center, and a Professor of Radiology and Oncologic Sciences at the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL.
He is board certified by the American Board of Nuclear Medicine, and the American Board of Interventional Radiology/Diagnostic Radiology.
He is an active member of multiple medical societies, including the SIO, SIR, NANETS, and SNMMI. He is a member of the Therapy Center of Excellence and Targeted Radioisotope Therapy outreach working group for the SNMMI and Continuing Medical Education for NANETS. He is a principal investigator and co-investigator on several phase I/II, and phase III multicenter randomized clinical trials on Liver-directed Embolotherapy, and Radiopharmaceutical Therapy.

Ghassan Abou-Alfa is an Attending Physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), Professor of Medicine at Weill Medical School at Cornell University, and Adjunct Professor in Medical Diplomacy at Trinity College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland.

Professor Abou-Alfa completed his undergraduate studies with a major in biology, and his medical doctorate training at the American University in Beirut (AUB). Professor Abou-Alfa completed his postdoctoral training in internal medicine, medical oncology, and hematology at Yale University. He received his MBA from Columbia University and is completing his JD from Fordham University.

Professor Abou-Alfa specializes in in the treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies and in particular, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), intrahepatic and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (IHC), gallbladder cancer (GB), and fibrolamellar carcinoma (FLC). Professor Abou-Alfa leadership effort in the field led to the FDA and other agencies approval of several checkpoint inhibitors and tyrosine kinase inhibitors and biologic targeted therapies

Professor Abou-Alfa is the immediate previous Chair of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Hepatobiliary Task Force and currently serves at the NCI AIDS Malignancy Consortium (AMC) Vice-Chair for Solid Tumor Working Group. Professor Abou-Alfa serves on the council of the governing board of the Asia Pacific Primary Liver Cancer Expert Association.

Dr. Chapiro is a ABR-certified Diagnostic and Interventional Radiologist and an Associate Professor of Radiology, Digestive Diseases (Hepatology) and of Biomedical Engineering. He is the Principal Investigator of the Yale Interventional Oncology Research Lab and Director of the Center for Minimally Invasive Therapies. Dr. Chapiro’s research focuses on developing new quantitative imaging biomarkers for the diagnosis, characterization, and therapeutic management of liver cancer. His translational research portfolio includes the development of novel embolic agents as well as the application of artificial intelligence solutions for the management of liver cancer. His basic research interest mainly focuses on developing new tools to characterize the tumor microenvironment and the immune system in the setting of loco-regional, image-guided therapies of liver cancer. He authored and co-authored >180 original research articles, reviews and book chapters and gave more than 150 talks and invited lectures at national and international forums within the last seven years including in Europe, China, South Korea and the Middle East. Dr. Chapiro is an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Hepatology (EASL), Radiology and Radiology: AI (RSNA), Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (SIR) and Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiology: Oncology (CIRSE). He chairs the Research Committee of the Society of Interventional Oncology and chaired the Annual Meeting Program Planning Committee for the Subspecialty of Interventional Radiology at the Annual Radiological Society of North America meeting 2021-2023. He is the co-initiator of the "Rising Star" Student Exchange Program in collaboration with the Charité University Hospital in Berlin.

William S. Rilling, MD, FSIR, is a Tenured Professor of Radiology and Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He completed his diagnostic radiology residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin and his fellowship in Vascular and Interventional Radiology at Northwestern University in Chicago in 1996. He has been practicing at the Medical College of Wisconsin since 1996 and is the Vice Chair of Clinical Operations in Radiology and is also the former Division Chief of Vascular and Interventional Radiology, a role he held for 14 years.

Dr. Rilling has served on the Executive Council for the Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR), the Board of Directors for World Congress of Interventional Oncology (WCIO), SIR Foundation, and Society of Interventional Oncology (SIO). As Education Councilor for SIR, he co-directed the first three professional education meetings dedicated to Interventional Oncology, beginning in 2002. He has also served as the annual meeting chair for both SIR and WCIO and is the past-president for the Society of Interventional Oncology (SIO). He has served as local and national principal investigator for several important IO trials and is currently active as a consultant for several companies working to improve outcomes in IO.

Dr. Constantinos T. Sofocleous is clinician scientist specializing in interventional oncology, caring for people with cancer. He has been practicing interventional radiology since 1998 and joined the Interventional Radiology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering in 2002. His expertise include the treatment of primary and metastatic liver and lung cancers using thermal ablation (radiofrequency, microwave, cryoablation) or other non-thermal sources of energy (NanoKnife ® or irreversible electroporation and histotripsy). He also specializes in catheter-directed therapies that treat malignant liver tumors that cannot be removed through surgery or destroyed locally (ablation). He lectures nationally and internationally on topics such as embolization, radio embolization, and ablation of liver tumors — particularly metastases from colorectal cancer in the liver and lungs. His research interest is the assessment, validation, and development of biomarkers and surrogate imaging biomarkers. He was the MSK site primary investigator, of a multi-institutional, RCT Yttrium 90 glass microspheres in addition to standard of care second-line chemotherapy for colorectal liver metastases. He has the Optablate NIH Supported R01 clinical trial. He led the ACCLAIM trial as the global PI. He is currently leading and SIR foundation supported trial to optimize dosimetry for Y90 TARE via post treatment PET guided biopsies. He also explores the immunomodulation effcets of locoregional therapies uisng peripheral and tissue biomrakres. Despite his strong interest in research, Dr. Sofocleous' main focus remains caring for patients.

Robert J. Lewandowski, M.D., FSIR, is a Professor of Radiology, Medicine, and Surgery in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. He serves as the Director of Interventional Oncology at the Northwestern University Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Lewandowski joined the staff at Northwestern in 2006 upon completion of his fellowship training in Vascular and Interventional Radiology. Dr. Lewandowski is a practicing interventional radiologist who specializes in liver-directed therapy. Based on his clinical oncology program, he has authored or co-authored > 200 articles for peer-reviewed journals on the application of liver-directed therapies for patients with gastrointestinal malignancies. Dr. Lewandowski also performs pre-clinical oncology research in the Northwestern University Interventional Oncology Laboratory and Center for Translational Imaging. In this capacity, he is developing and evaluating novel oncology therapeutics, delivery mechanisms, and imaging modalities. Dr. Lewandowski’s work has been supported by the National Institute of Health, American Cancer Society, the Society of Interventional Radiology Foundation, and through industry collaboration via the investigator-initiated trial mechanism.