Message from Dr. Karen Ballen, Division Chief of Hematology and Oncology

Karen Ballen MD It is an honor to highlight the successes of our incredible Hematology/Oncology Division. We have had another excellent year in clinical care, research, education, and community engagement.

In the past year, we have had the good fortune to recruit three new clinical faculty, with two physicians starting in the next few months. Dr. Nate Roberts, a graduate of our training program, has joined our Lymphoma Team, specializing in T cell lymphomas. Dr. Ludi Cavalcante, a sarcoma expert, leads our Medical Sarcoma program and is expanding our Phase I research program. Dr. Manny Cirenza has rejoined our team and is working hard in our Fishersville office. We welcomed Dr. Joseph Clara in March 2025 to our Stem Cell Transplant Team, and in September, Dr. Jack Masur will join our Genitourinary Oncology and Head and Neck Cancer team. Many thanks to our Administrative Specialists and Search Committees for the time and hard work on these successful recruitments.

Congratulations and thanks to our Advanced Practice Provider leads, Jessica Kassay-McAllister and Susie Herndon. Our APP program continues to expand. APPs Philip DeTrana, Allyson Doss, Christina Ide, Rachel Thai-Larsen, Stephanie Good, Ryan Boyles, and Corah Kaufman joined our team this year.

We are proud that 28 of our providers were recognized for achieving Press-Ganey scores above the 90th percentile. Based on the growth of our clinical program, new infusion units are opening this year in Pantops and Gainesville. Press Ganey recently recognized our clinics as a Pinnacle of Excellence.

In research, we started a new Section of Hematology/Oncology: Basic Research, led by Charles Chalfant. Dr. Chalfant is mentoring several colleagues as part of our UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center led by Dr. Tom Loughran. We received notice of awards on several RO1 grants studying novel drug development and nanomedicine.

In clinical research, we have 155 open clinical research treatment trials. We are grateful to the many friends of the Cancer Center and Hematology/Oncology who provide philanthropic support for our research efforts and help to improve access to clinical trials.

In education, Dr. Trish Millard assumed leadership of our fellowship program in July 2024. We had over 500 applicants for four slots and were excited to match with four UVA residents. In undergraduate medical education, Dr. John Densmore has successfully led the program at Inova.

We continue to work towards greater engagement with our community; we are partnering with our colleagues in Community Outreach and Engagement and have several clinical trials dedicated to improving access to sub-specialty care.

I am most grateful for our fantastic colleagues. We appreciate such excellent colleagues in other divisions and departments and our dedicated and outstanding nurses, division staff, research coordinators, and other team members. You all make my job and our essential work such a pleasure!

~ Karen K Ballen, MD

CLINICAL UPDATE

We continue to grow our clinical volumes and move more of our services to outpatient. Clinical Volumes grow yearly in all of our locations.

Hematology Oncology UVA

EDUCATIONAL UPDATE

Letter from the Program Director
By Trish Millard MD

Hematology Oncology UVA The UVA Hematology/Oncology fellowship program consists of four fellows per year for a total of twelve fellows. The three-year training program makes the fellows board eligible for hematology and oncology. The first year of fellowship is principally clinical training, including service months on inpatient malignant hematology, classical hematology, and oncology consults. Fellows participate in 6-month continuity clinics throughout their three years. The second and third year of fellowship includes greater elective time for clinical sub-specialization and research work.

In 2024, we welcomed first-year fellows: Zoe Begun (Thomas Jefferson University), Jean Clement (University of Maryland), Charles Morris (University of Virginia), and Shaunak Varma (Emory University). We are so grateful for the members of our fellowship family.

Fellow Highlights

Jack Masur

Jack Masur MD
Jack has a reputation for a superior work ethic, which pays off with academic success. He is the first author of a manuscript in the Internal Journal of Molecular Sciences: “Clinical and Genomic Features of Androgen Indifferent Prostate Cancer.” He attended GU ASCO in February 2025, where he presented two abstracts, and he was selected to participate in the 2025 GU Oncology Early Career Thought Leaders Conference in Philadelphia in March 2025. We are thrilled that Jack will join the UVA faculty specializing in GU and Head & Neck! (L to R: Jack Masur MD and GU Oncology Faculty Member Paul Viscuse MD)

Valerie Tran MD
Valerie stands out in the hematology/oncology division for her positive attitude and hard work, which makes her a pleasure to work with. She has found a niche in malignant hematology and successfully published as the first author in Current Hematologic Malignancy Reports in June 2024: “MRD in Philadelphia Chromosome-Positive ALL: Methodologies and Clinical Implications.”

Fabian Bolte

Jeffrey Lantz MD
Jeffrey demonstrates a superior ability to practice hematology and oncology thoroughly and efficiently. In addition to his clinical talent, he has had academic success collaborating with the malignant hematology team and UVA IM resident Natalie Pham MD, with his project presented at the 2024 ASH Annual Meeting: Quality Improvement Initiative of Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia Receiving Non-Intensive Therapy in Academic-Community Medicine Partnerships in Rural Appalachia.

Fabian Bolte MD
We are endlessly impressed with Fabian’s dedication to furthering the field of oncology through his research work. He is our 2024 Farrow and Weiss Award recipient and a UVA DOM Physician Scientist Training Program member. Fabian participated in the “Tiny Packages with Big Impact on Extracellular Vesicle Separation and Characterization” workshop in March 2024. He established a collaboration with Uta Erdbrügger (Division of Nephrology) and launched an investigator-initiated trial on extracellular vesicles in advanced kidney cancer at UVA Cancer Center. This pilot study aims to identify predictive and prognostic biomarkers, paving the way for more personalized care of patients with kidney cancer.

Shipra Maheshwari

Shipra Maheshwari MD
Shipra has been well-known in the Division since her time as an outstanding UVA IM resident, and we have loved seeing her grow into a skilled hematologist/oncologist. She recently published a manuscript on her lung cancer research as the first author in the Journal of Thoracic Disease: “Implications for practice: Phase II/III trial of carboplatin and irinotecan for elderly patients with extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer in Japan.” She also presented at the 2024 ASCO Quality Care Symposium on Improving Discharge Times for Patients Admitted for Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation, earning a Conquer Cancer Merit Award.

Sean Dougherty

Sean Dougherty MD
We are pleased to announce that Sean Dougherty has been selected as our Chief Fellow for 2025-2026. Sean stands out for his dedication to his co-fellows and patients alike. He has shown outstanding academic success in fellowship with three recent publications, including his manuscript Osimertinib for Uncommon EGFR Mutations: Herding UNICORNs in a Field of Horses. He has collaborated with the thoracic oncology team. He will present two posters at the 2025 Targeted Therapies in Lung Cancer Conference, including work with his co-fellow, Fabian Bolte, on “Real-world Experience and Efficacy of Tarlatamab for Small Cell Lung Cancer in the Second-Line Setting and Beyond.”

From left: Jeffrey Lantz, Jenna Schlefman, Shipra Maheshwari, and Jack Masur

Upcoming 2025 Graduations
We are incredibly proud of our third-year fellows and are confident they are ready to embark on their careers. We look forward to celebrating each of them at graduation in June. Jeffrey Lantz MD (Community Practice at Blue Ridge Cancer Care, Roanoke, VA), Jenna Schlefman MD (Breast & GI oncology faculty at Levine Cancer Institute, Charlotte, NC), Shipra Maheshwari MD (GI oncology faculty at Inova Schar Cancer Institute, Fairfax, VA), and Jack Masur MD (GU & Head & Neck oncology faculty, UVA, Charlottesville, VA).

RESEARCH

DISEASE SECTIONS

Medical Oncology
By Robert Dreicer MD

The section of medical oncology concluded a productive clinical and academic year. At the beginning of the new academic year, the section welcomed Dr. Ludi Cavalcante to join the Division as the new head of the medical sarcoma program and her role as Associate Director of the Phase I program. In the short period since her arrival in concert with her colleagues, she has reconstituted a sarcoma tumor board and opened several therapeutic sarcoma trials.

Our thoracic medical oncology program (Drs. Gentzler/Hall) has successively implemented a new bi-specific T-cell engager (BiTE) program for patients with small cell lung cancer, including a process to treat these patients in the outpatient setting.

A trial for which our thoracic oncology team made important contributions, MARIPOSA-2, published in the Annals of Oncology in January 2024, resulted in FDA approval of amivantamab + chemotherapy for EGFR-mutated lung cancer.

Jack Masur MD, a current third-year Hem/Onc fellow (mentored by Dr. Paul Viscuse) who will be joining the section at the beginning of the new academic year, presented A Single-Institution Experience of Pneumonitis in Patients with Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Treated with Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors at the ASCO GU 2025 meeting in San Francisco.

Dr. Varinder Kaur assumed the medical director role of the UVA Cancer Center Infusion Center, and Dr. Mike Devitt was named Hem/Onc Division Clinical Documentation Initiative MD advisor.

Ongoing recruitments include both breast and thoracic oncology clinical investigators.

Melanoma/and related disorders
Drs. Liz Gaughan and Varinder Kaur
APP: Jennifer Eccles, Jenea Brown

Breast Medical Oncology
Drs. Christiana Brenin, Patrick Dillon, and Trish Millard
APP: Paul “Mike” Marshall and Melody Noble

Thoracic Medical Oncology
Drs. Ryan Gentzler and Richard Hall
APP: Marie Thomas

Head and Neck Oncology
Drs. Jack Masur and Varinder Kaur
APP: Jenea Brown

Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology and Unknown Primary Neoplasms
Drs. Tri Le, Paul Kunk, Muneeb Rehman, and Matthew Reilley
APP: Jenna Ally, Jenna Campo and Susie Herndon

Genitourinary Medical Oncology
Drs. Michael Devitt, Robert Dreicer, Jack Masur, William Paul Skelton, Paul Viscuse
APP: Jennifer Eccles and Katie Stiebing

Sarcoma
Drs. Ludimila Cavalcante and Michael Douvas

Infusion/Urgent Care
APP: Rachel Chai, Elizabeth Coyman, Stephanie Good, Elizabeth Lester, and Rachel Thal-Larsen

Stem Cell Transplant
By Karen Ballen MD

The Stem Cell Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program continues to expand our clinical and research programs. We perform transplants for plasma cell dyscrasias, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, acute leukemias, myelodysplastic syndrome, myeloproliferative disorders, and bone marrow failure states. Our chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T program continues to grow, and we have both FDA-approved and research CAR T products for myeloma, lymphoma, and acute leukemia. We had 11 presentations at the Transplant Cell Therapy Meeting this year. We held our first annual BMT Patient Picnic with over 300 attendees. A significant advance in our field is new treatment strategies to prevent graft vs host disease, allowing us to perform mismatched transplants safely.

Stem Cell Transplant
Drs. Karen Ballen, Joseph Clara (starting March 2025), Krithika Shanmugasundaram, Indumathy Varadarajan, Leonid Volodin, and John Wagner
APP: Hania Bushnaq-Aloul, Jessica Kassay-McAllister, and Kristen Noonan
APP Inpatient: Ryan Boyles, Isabel Burgess, Mary Faith Dudley, Kristine Gillis, Erin Harr, Jordyn Sewell, and Philip DeTrana

Hematologic Malignancies
By Karen Ballen MD

The Hematologic Malignancy Program continues to grow in patient care and research. We welcomed Dr. Nate Roberts to our lymphoma program this summer—the lymphoma team of Drs. Ayers, Marchi, Portell, Roberts, and Williams have had several national and international presentations on lymphoma. Dr. Keng leads our quality program and inpatient units. Dr. Danny Reed is working on novel treatments for acute myeloid leukemia. Dr. Douvas is an active educator focusing on the complex young adult population. Dr. Garrett-Bakelman is studying epigenetics and older patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. In myeloma, Drs. Densmore and Foster are focusing on novel strategies for this population, with many exciting new treatment options for these patients.

Lymphoma and CLL
Drs. Emily Ayers, Enrica Marchi, Craig Portell, Nate Roberts, and Michael E. Williams,
APP: Kim Conrad, Allyson Dalton, Christina Ide

Myeloma
Drs. John Densmore and Laahn Foster
APP: Allyson Dalton and Christina Ide

Leukemia
Drs. Michael Douvas, Francine Garrett-Bakelman, Michael Keng and Daniel Reed
APP: Kim Conrad and Amelia Hodson

Classical Hematology
By Kelly Davidson MD

Classical Hematology has had another dynamic year, marked by significant clinical care and education advancements. As the primary academic referral center for much of Virginia and the surrounding region, we continue to provide expert care for patients with a wide range of complex and rare hematologic disorders. Given the interdisciplinary nature of classical hematology, our faculty remains deeply engaged in medical education, delivering lectures and leading conferences for medical students, residents, fellows, and colleagues across multiple specialties.

Dr. Louise Man continues to lead the grant-supported Adult Comprehensive Bleeding Disorders Clinic. In March, she and the Bleeding Disorders team will expand their outreach efforts by launching a clinic in Bristol. Additionally, she serves as the site primary investigator for a newly opened multicenter clinical trial investigating emicizumab-kxwh as a hemostatic treatment alongside standard immunosuppressive therapy in newly diagnosed acquired hemophilia A. Dr. Davidson leads the Adult Sickle Cell Disease Comprehensive Center and collaborates with the CDC and the Virginia Department of Health to establish a statewide SCD registry. She has joined the American Society of Hematology Committee on Practice, which addresses critical issues affecting hematology practice and helps shape national policies. Dr. Hillary Maitland has started enrolling patients in a pilot project to decrease post-operative thromboembolic events in the bariatric surgery population. Patients are sent home with a wireless sequential compression device to improve venous return from the legs in obese, sedentary patients.

Our team also remains committed to addressing iron deficiency across multiple patient populations, including pregnant individuals, cardiac surgery patients, and emergency department patients. In September 2024, we launched Virginia’s first NP-driven Iron Deficiency Anemia Clinic at Pantops, run by Tammy Tedsen. This innovative clinic has significantly reduced referral wait times and received high patient satisfaction by offering rapid access to IDA management, including intravenous iron infusions.

We are actively recruiting two additional faculty and look forward to adding another APP to our growing team in the coming months.

And last (but not least!), congratulations to Katie Gabler, NP, and her husband, Lee, on the arrival of their second son, Henry Willys Gabler, born 9/6/2024.

Classical Hematology
Drs. Kelly Davidson, Valery Kogler, Hillary Maitland, and Louise Man
APP: Julie Armatas, Katie Gabler, and Tammy Tedsen

Basic Research
By Charles Chalfant, MD

Basic Research in the Division of Hematology and Oncology had a robust month. Drs. Loughran and Feith and Dr. Aakrosh Ratan in the Department of Genomic Sciences received a notice of award for their National Institutes of Health grant, R01CA178393, entitled, “Genomic Architecture of LGL Leukemia.” The award is for $3.4M over five years.

A new clinical trial stemming from research guided by the Program Project (PO1CA171983) currently led by Drs. Chalfant and Loughran is FDA-approved. Specifically, the Ceramide Nanoliposome (CNL) initially developed by former UVA Researcher Dr. Mark Kester has been approved by the FDA to begin clinical trials in Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) (NCT04716452). The P01 group led by Drs. Chalfant and Loughran also recently reported in Blood Advances a new subclassification of AML based on sphingolipid context, which is the target of CNL. This P01 group also received an outstanding score on their new NIH P01 application studying Ceramide-Directed Therapeutics for the Treatment of AML.

In addition to the intense efforts from researchers studying leukemia, Dr. Chalfant received an outstanding score on an NIH R01 grant that proposes to study metabolic reprogramming in macrophages, which is linked to tumor microenvironment regulation and sensitivity of tumors to immune checkpoint inhibitors. His group also published a report in Molecular Therapy-Nucleic Acids characterizing a new long non-coding RNA (CyKILR) linked to specific oncogenotypes with plausible roles in precision medicine.

The Basic Research Section continues to expand, leading to the implementation of new grantsmanship workshops and the development of new mentoring committees and a grant review committee for Hematology and Oncology Research Faculty.

UVA Community Oncology
By Karen Ballen MD

Moving to Community Health contracts, this year was a transition for our team. The UVA Community Oncology Section serves patients with a spectrum of hematologic and solid tumor diagnoses in Fishersville, Culpeper, and Manassas. We thank Liz Gaughan for her excellent leadership of this team for eight years. Dr. Manny Cirenza joined the program in Fishersville, and an expansion of exam and infusion areas is planned. We started seeing patients in Manassas up north and plan to open the UVA Cancer Center in Gainesville.

Fishersville
Drs. Gwendalyn Garcia, Manny Cirenza, and Nicholas Paphitis
APP: Corah Kaufman

Culpeper
Drs. Ali Mahjoub, Pranav Patel, and Balraj Singh
APP: Michelle Otto

Prince William/Manassas
Dr. Balraj Singh

Advanced Practice Providers
Meet the team: Oncology Advanced Practice Provider Supervisors, Jess Kassay-McAllister, DNP, Susie Herndon, NP, and Alycia Yowell-Many, FNP-C, with additional support provided by Bill Lombardi, DNP, Administrator of the UVA Center for Advanced Practice (CAP). There are currently 34 APPs in Hematology/Oncology.

We welcomed eight new faces to our team this year.
Tammy Tedsen, NP – Classical Hematology
Philip DeTrana, PA – Inpatient SCT/Cellular Therapy
Allyson Doss, DNP – Malignant Hematology
Christina Ide, PA – Malignant Hematology
Corah Kaufman, PA – Community Oncology
Rachel Thai-Larsen, PA – CERT team
Stephanie Good, PA – CERT team
Ryan Boyles, – Cellular Therapy/SCT Inpatient

Hematology Oncology UVA

ADMINISTRATION NEWS

New Hires!

Jaime Collins joined Hematology/Oncology in March 2024 as an Administrative Generalist. Jaime has worked for UVA for 5 years, and we are delighted that Jaime has joined our administrative team.

Mandana Hyder joined Hematology/Oncology as Finance Generalist on May 6, 2024. Mandana has worked for UVA for 26 years, and we are delighted that Mandana has joined our finance team.

Eileen Trainum joined Hematology/Oncology on December 2, 2024, as the Pre-Award Grants and Contracts Financial Services Specialist. Eileen has worked for UVA for 20 years.

We are delighted that Jaime, Mandana, and Eileen have joined our administrative team!