Hope vs Hype in Veterinary Oncology Diagnostics

Dr. Philip Bergman is the Director of Clinical Studies for VCA.  Prior to Dr. Bergman joining VCA, he served as the CMO for BrightHeart Veterinary Centers and he was the head of the Donaldson-Atwood Cancer Center at AMC.  After finishing veterinary school from Colorado State in 1990, he was an intern at Kansas State and returned to CSU for his medical oncology residency and then completed a PhD Fellowship in human cancer biology.  He was previously Chair of the ACVIM Board of Regents and President of the Veterinary Cancer Society.

Dr. Chad M. Johannes is an Associate Professor and Director of the James L Voss Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Colorado State University. Dr. Johannes joined CSU after 7 years working to develop the oncology program at Iowa State University. His industry experience includes former Medical Director at Aratana Therapeutics and coordination of the launch of Palladia® during his time with Zoetis. Dr. Johannes’s practice experience includes primary care, specialty care and academic settings. His areas of research interest include oncology therapeutic development and market introduction, environmental causes of cancer, and effective management of treatment-related side effects.

Dr. Chand Khanna is a veterinary oncologist, CSO of Ethos Veterinary Health & President of Ethos Discovery, a non-profit incubator of scientific innovation.  Dr. Khanna’s career has included clinical practice as a veterinary oncologist, and as a scientist in the field of metastasis biology and therapy where he directed a team within the Pediatric Oncology Branch of the NCI and was the founding Director of the Center for Cancer research Comparative Oncology Program the NIH.

Dr. London is the Associate Dean for Research and Anne Engen and Dusty Professor of Comparative Oncology at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University. She also leads the Clinical Research Shared Resource at Cummings School and holds a joint appointment with the Tufts Clinical Translational Science Institute.  Dr. London completed her DVM at Tufts, Medical Oncology residency at UW-Madison and PhD in Immunology at Harvard University.  Her research centers on leveraging dogs with spontaneous cancer to interrogate novel small molecule/immunotherapy combinations.

Dr Kai Shiu is a medical oncologist with VCA in Madison, WI. He has a degree in veterinary pathology from the Royal Veterinary College and his veterinary degree from the University of Glasgow Scotland. He completed post graduate clinical training at Cornell University and UW Madison, becoming board certified in 2010. He is the Assistant Chair of the VCA Pet CancerCare Alliance advisory board.  He serves on the Morris Animal Foundation feline scientific advisory board and he is the co-founder of the Czar's Promise non-profit foundation.

Dr. Doug Thamm is the Barbara Cox Anthony Professor of Oncology and Director of Clinical Research at the Colorado State University Flint Animal Cancer Center. He is also a member of the Developmental Therapeutics Section of the University of Colorado Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Program at Colorado State University. He has authored over 175 peer-reviewed publications and 25 book chapters in veterinary and basic cancer research, is Co-Editor for the most recent edition of the textbook Withrow and MacEwen’s Small Animal Clinical Oncology, and is Co-Editor-In-Chief of the journal Veterinary and Comparative Oncology.  His clinical and research interests include novel targeted therapies for animal and human cancer and ways to integrate these therapies with existing treatment.

Dr. Craig Clifford is a graduate of Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine and received an MS degree in Animal Science/Virology from the University of Delaware. After completing an internship and a medical oncology residency at the University of Pennsylvania, he became a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Oncology) in 2003. He is a medical oncologist at BluePearl Malvern, and has recently been named the director of BluePearl science. He is active in clinical research within a referral setting and serves as an advisory board member with both industry and non-profit foundations. He is a renowned oncologist who has authored/co-authored over 70 papers and book chapters. He is a frequent lecturer at major veterinary meetings in the USA and abroad. Dr. Clifford is a member of the VCA Pet Cancer Care Alliance Committee and has served on the VCS executive board, ACVIM Exam Rating Committee, Residency Training and Credentials Committee, Oncology Pathology Working Group, Co-chair of the Standards of Excellence in Residency Education Task Force and an Examiner for the Australian Scientist’s Oncology Specialty Exam. 

Dr. Weishaar is the Director of the Oncology Clinical Trials service at the Colorado State University Flint Animal Cancer Center. She oversees the clinical operations of the trials service and also assists investigators in the development of clinical research studies. The CSU FACC has a very robust clinical trials service, with approximately 15-25 clinical trials open for enrollment at a time. In 2021, the service saw 638 appointments and enrolled 126 patients into clinical trials.