Group 4F: HER2+ & Triple Negative Breast Cancer; Brain Metastasis; Clinical Trials; Immunotherapy
Thursday, June 15
10:00 am – 11:30 am Eastern Time (US/New York)
Mentor: Marina Ivanovskaya
Marina’s goal is to support young breast cancer survivors and to encourage patient-centered, safe, and innovative breast cancer research. She has attended several different scientific conferences and advocacy trainings, including The Project LEAD Institute by the National Breast Cancer Coalition.
Marina hopes to contribute to a meaningful connection between doctors, researchers, and patients and to facilitate the use of complementary (integrative) medicine in the cancer care arena and access to healthcare.
Marina has served as a consumer reviewer with the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Breast Cancer Research Program (BCRP), the Susan G. Komen Research Grant (Advocates in Science), and METAvivor. Marina is also involved in legislative advocacy with different advocacy organizations. She is a member of the Johns Hopkins Oncology Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) and the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center’s INSPIRE Advocacy Program.
Twitter: @4RiseUp
Scientist: Selena Lorrey, Ph.D. Candidate
A native of Maine, Selena is now an Immunology PhD candidate at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She is driven by the goal of helping cancer patients by understanding barriers to treatment success and developing rational, targeted interventions to overcome these limitations. As an immunologist (someone who studies the immune system), Selena is really interested in the application of immunotherapies, treatments that “harness the power of the immune system to fight cancer.” Although immunotherapies work really well in some cancers, they’re less effective in the setting of brain metastases and quite ineffective against primary brain tumors like glioblastoma. Selena’s work is focused on understanding the challenges that prevent effective use of immunotherapies in brain tumors and finding ways to overcome these challenges.
Prior to graduate school, Selena graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine, then worked at Massachusetts General Hospital under the guidance of Dr. Marcela Maus focusing on CAR-T cell research in cancer.
Please feel free (and encouraged!) to reach out to her at any time!
Twitter: @selenalorrey
