March 2023 Update
Your quarterly update from the MCGI team
January 2023 — March 2023
LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER! 2023 MCGI FORUM
The 2023 MCGI Forum is only a week away! Register for this free event now and join us on Friday, 3/31 at 12:00 PM ET.
Click here to register as a virtual attendee – Registration closes Friday, 3/31
Unable to attend the Forum? No problem. Register by 3/31 and get access to select presentation recordings and panel discussions, viewable through Friday, 4/28.
Registration for in-person attendance is now closed. Visit our event page to download a copy of the agenda, view our incredible speaker line-up, and learn more about what’s in store for this year’s annual event.
Please contact us at mcgi@jax.org with any questions. We hope to see you there!
INTERN SPOTLIGHT
MCGI works directly with Colby College and the Daniel Hanley Center for Health Leadership to offer internship opportunities to undergraduate students. These data-driven internship experiences help to advance genomic medicine and transform health-related decisions.
Over the past several months, these bright and motivated individuals have made significant contributions to our team. We are thrilled to introduce our recent Colby College interns and share the remarkable achievements they made during their time with us.
Saki Imai
Saki is a junior at Colby College majoring in Computer Science and Mathematical Sciences. Since January of 2022, Saki has standardized and automated data feeds from external CLIA laboratories that are testing MCGI 2.0 patient samples. She followed a Scrum Agile framework to organize her work while collaborating with the DevOps team and other stakeholder collaborators. She also worked on the implementation and bug fix of key data transformation pipelines for data coming into the MCGI Registry.
Julia Miller
Julia is a junior at Colby College majoring in Biology with a concentration in Neuroscience. Since January of 2022, Julia has developed patient resources for understanding cancer risk and recommended screening guidelines, while pursuing self-directed learning on cancer genomics and genetics. Additionally, she identified support programs and services available to patients and their families across the state. View some of Julia’s work by visiting the ‘For Patients’ section of the MCGI webpage.
John Tayeri
John is a senior at Colby College majoring in Biology. Since January of 2023, John has helped guide the implementation of a publication policy for the MCGI by researching the requirements for authorship on clinical research publications and best practices for including researchers who have contributed to certain aspects of research as authors.
Sandy (Meng) Wu
Sandy is a sophomore at Colby College majoring in Biology and minoring in Mathematics and Computer Science. Since January of 2023, Sandy's work centered on the compilation and unification of GTB operational records, and the review of GTB session minutes containing oncology patient cases summaries.
Naji Yerokun
Naji is a freshman at Colby College double-majoring in Biology with a concentration in Neuroscience, and Physics. Since December of 2022, Naji has begun developing a resource for MCGI network providers to summarize the publicly-available guidelines for biomarker testing based on each tumor type. The resource will include tests for assessing specific biomarkers, and what targeted treatments are available for specific biomarkers.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our interns for their hard work and dedication. We hope their time with us has been valuable and wish them all the best in their future endeavors!
SWOG S2108CD UPDATES
We are pleased to announce the start of enrollment for our SWOG study, “S2108CD: A Cluster Randomized Trial Comparing an Educationally Enhanced Genomic Tumor Board Intervention to Usual Practice to Increase Evidence-Based Genome-Informed Therapy.”
The study aims to enroll over 1,000 patients nationwide to help our collaborative team at JAX and Columbia University learn if using Genomic Tumor Boards (GTBs) to advise doctors on treatment options will ultimately improve outcomes for cancer patients.
The study opened in October of 2022, and subsequently 18 NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) sites across the country have started enrolling patients. Participation has exceeded expectations, as we are nearing 15% of our total enrollment goal.
Additionally, S2108CD was presented at the 2022 SWOG Fall Meeting in Chicago where we had the pleasure of meeting many of the study participants during the in-person kick-off meeting. For more information on our new SWOG study, click here.
FREE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Consider the following clinical situation. You have a patient with melanoma and are considering adding Pembrolizumab to their treatment. Recent biomarker testing did not include PD-L1 testing. Do you need to order more testing?
Learn more about when PD-L1 testing is needed for prescribing immunotherapy in the resources Evaluating Immune Checkpoint Inhibition Biomarkers for Immunotherapy Options and PD-L1 Testing: Ordering & Interpreting.
JOIN US ON LINKEDIN & TWITTER!
As we continue to grow and expand our reach, we invite you to connect with us on our social media platforms. Follow us on LinkedIn and X for behind-the-scenes updates and the latest news from the MCGI team.
We look forward to engaging with you!