Author: Department of Surgery

 

Elizabeth A. Mittendorf, MD, PhD
Rob and Karen Hale Distinguished Chair in Surgical Oncology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Director of Surgical Research, Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC) Breast Program
Director, Breast Immuno-Oncology Program, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Co­-Director, Breast Cancer Clinical Research Program, Breast Oncology Program, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Dr. Elizabeth A. Mittendorf is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, OH where she also completed a residency in General Surgery.  After completing her residency, she served on active duty in the United States military before completing a fellowship in Surgical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. Dr. Mittendorf also holds a PhD in Immunology from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston.

Prior to joining Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dr. Mittendorf was a professor in the Department of Breast Surgical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. She joined the faculty at MD Anderson in 2008.

Dr. Mittendorf is board certified by the America Board of Surgery. She maintains a busy clinical practice and oversees a portfolio of clinical trials as well as a basic laboratory effort.

She is principal investigator on a number of clinical protocols including the phase III PRESENT (Prevention of Recurrence in Early-Stage, Node-Positive Breast Cancer with Low to Intermediate HER2 Expression with NeuVax Treatment) study, and a multicenter phase II trial investigating the efficacy of a CD8+ T cell eliciting vaccine in combination with trastuzumab which is based on preclinical data generated in her laboratory and follows a phase I trial she conducted demonstrating the combination to be safe. This trial is supported by a Breakthrough Award from the Department of Defense (DoD).

Dr. Mittendorf is also the principal investigator on a multi-center trial supported by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) evaluating the impact of vaccination in patients with ductal carcinoma in situ, a trial evaluating the impact of preoperative radiation therapy on the immune response in breast tumors, as well as two investigator initiated studies evaluating immune checkpoint blockade administered in the presurgical setting to breast cancer patients.

Her laboratory work is focused on identifying novel tumor antigens and investigating aspects of the tumor microenvironment that impact the response to immunotherapy. Specifically, she is investigating mutations in the ESR1 gene as targets for vaccination as well as the impact of standard therapies on the immune microenvironment with the goal of informing rational clinical trials evaluating the addition of immunotherapy to treatment regimens for breast cancer patients. This work is supported by the Komen for the Cure Foundation and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.

The following recipients were recently honored with awards at Final Service Conference and the Department of Surgery Graduation Dinner.

Student Teaching Awards

PGY 1: Bixiao Zhao, MD
PGY 2: Jason Pradarelli, MD
PGY 3: Danny Mou, MD
PGY 4: Bethany Strong, MD
PGY 5: Gaurav Sharma, MD  [Recipient of the Robert T. Osteen Award for Medical Student Education in Surgery]

Murray-Simonian Research Awards:

Quoc-Dien Trinh, MD (mentor) and Alexander Cole, MD (mentee)
Robert Riviello, MD, MPH (mentor) and Kristin Sonderman, MD (mentee)

Surgery Class of ’63 Scholar: Gillian Fell, MD

PBB Scholar Award: Karan Chhabra, MD and George Li, MD (tie)

Grant Rodkey Award (VA Hospital Award): Anu Seshadri, MD

Christine Weeks Award (South Shore Hospital Award):  Lily Saadat, MD

Edward Kwasnik Award (South Shore Hospital Award):  Anupamaa Seshadri, MD

The Vollman Award (Faulkner Hospital Award): Becca Scully, MD

Francis D. Moore, Sr. Award: Gaurav Sharma, MD

Donald D. Matson Award: Brent Shoji, MD

Richard E. Wilson Award: Naomi Shimizu, MD

 

Andrea L. Pusic, MD, MHS, FACS, FRCSC, chief of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Brigham Health has been appointed professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School.

 

 

Andrea L. Pusic, MD, MHS, FACS, FRCSC
Chief, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Brigham Health
Director, Patient-Reported Outcomes, Value & Experience (PROVE) Center, Brigham Health
Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School

Andrea L. Pusic, MD, MHS, FACS, FRCSC, completed her medical degree at the Cumming School of Medicine (University of Calgary) in Canada and master of public health at Johns Hopkins University. She completed a general surgery residency at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, and a plastic surgery residency at McGill University in Montreal, followed by a plastic and reconstructive surgery fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC).

Dr. Pusic is an internationally-renowned innovator and leader in the area of patient-reported outcomes and surgical experience. This is increasingly important in the current health care environment of measuring quality, assessing value and ultimately, influencing how health care is funded. Dr. Pusic leads the Patient-Reported Outcomes, Value & Experience (PROVE) Center at Brigham Health. The scope of the PROVE Center is focused on patient-reported outcomes, patient experience and value-based surgery in surgical patients throughout Brigham Health.

Dr. Pusic’s research focuses on the measurement of quality of life and patient satisfaction in surgery. Dual training in epidemiology and surgery has enabled her to lead a team of experts in psychometrics, quality of life and social science methods to develop, validate and use new quantitative measures to assess patient outcomes. The patient-reported outcomes instrument she developed for breast surgery, the BREAST-Q, has been widely adopted for research and clinical care and serves as the basis for development of other outcome measures in surgery.

Throughout her career, Dr. Pusic has been involved in research studies that seek to better understand the patient perspective on surgical outcomes and experiences. She is principal investigator of a study funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) that examines how electronic patient-reporting of symptoms may improve surgical care. Altogether, she has been a principal investigator or co-principal investigator on over $10 million in federal research grants.

Dr. Pusic has authored over 200 scientific articles and book chapters and has mentored more than 24 surgeons during various stages of their academic careers. In 2017, she was awarded the Research Achievement Award from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons/Plastic Surgery Foundation. Dr. Pusic is vice-president of WomenforWomen Reconstructive Surgery and regularly leads surgical camps to provide reconstructive surgery for injured women and girls in the developing world. She is a past board member of the International Society of Quality of Life (ISOQOL) and was recently elected president-elect of the Plastic Surgery Foundation.