A Changing of SWOG’s Lymphoma Guard

After a national search chaired by our group statistician Dr. Mike LeBlanc, we have just selected Dr. Sonali M. Smith to be chair of SWOG’s lymphoma committee. Pending approval by the board of governors, she will succeed Dr. Jonathan W. Friedberg, who is stepping down as chair after leading our lymphoma committee with distinction since 2014.

Dr. Smith is the Elwood V. Jensen Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, where she also serves as section chief of hematology/oncology. Within SWOG, she serves as senior PI on several lymphoma studies:

• our S1918 study in DLBCL – the first trial in this disease focused specifically on patients who are 75 years or older;
• our S2207 trial in patients with relapsed or refractory DLBCL who are not candidates for CAR-T cell therapy; and 
• the soon-to-be-launched S2506 MOZART MZL trial, the NCTN’s first study in marginal zone lymphoma (you can learn more about this study at the dual S2504/S2506 kickoff session at SWOG’s spring meeting).

Dr. Smith’s compelling vision for the lymphoma committee going forward includes establishing subtype-specific working groups, a route to addressing the complexity of lymphoma subtypes while also opening additional leadership roles for investigators. Formalizing such professional development opportunities for committee members has long been a priority for her (as vice chair, she has overseen mentoring of the committee’s early-career investigators).

Dr. Smith is also committed to growing the committee’s translational medicine (TM) program, particularly as the NCTN groups collaboratively develop the LymphoMATCH basket trial for patients with newly diagnosed DLBCL.

Serving as the SWOG lead on LymphoMATCH and as a long-time member of the NCI’s lymphoma steering committee, Dr. Smith – like her predecessor – sees continued cross-NCTN collaboration as essential to continued progress in the disease.

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Smith as chair of SWOG’s lymphoma committee, and in thanking outgoing chair Dr. Jonathan W. Friedberg for his visionary leadership of our lymphoma research effort. We also thank the search committee for their diligent work.

Welcome to your new leadership role, Dr. Smith! We look forward to seeing how the lymphoma committee’s next chapter unfolds.