Bloom Named DUHS Vice President of Oncology Services
Published
Mara Bloom, JD, MS
Mara Bloom, JD, MS, has been named Vice President of Oncology Services for Duke University Health System, effective Feb. 4. Bloom will oversee the administrative aspects of oncology operations throughout the health system.
Bloom comes to Duke from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where she most recently served as a Senior Vice President of the Cancer Center, Radiation Oncology, and Dermatology. In that role, she oversaw the entire cancer clinical and research enterprise, as well as the regional cancer network and international affairs.
During her time at MGH, Bloom played a key role in developing innovative clinical and research programs including MGH Cancer Center’s Gene and Cellular Therapy Program, Cancer Early Detection and Diagnostics Program, and an Early Phase Clinical Trials Program. In addition, Bloom led the first ever proton beam upgrade using conservation to reduce the carbon footprint.
New research indicates antibodies produced in tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) could help target tumor cells and cells in the surrounding environment, enhancing existing immunotherapies for cancer patients.Jose Conejo-Garcia, MD, PhD, an immunologist and Duke Cancer Institute member, led this study and presented findings at the 2025 American Associate for Cancer Research Immuno-Oncology meeting.While most cancer immunotherapies focus on T cells, which play a vital role in a person’s immune system and help protect the body from diseases like cancer, Conejo-Garcia and his team focused on how B cells could factor into these treatments. B cells are a type of white blood cell that produces antibodies to help fight pathogens in the body.“We do not understand why immune checkpoint inhibitors do not work against ovarian cancer, which is an immunogenic disease,” he said. “We’ve found that patients with evident TLS activity had improved outcomes, but we wanted to understand why.”Using ovarian cancer samples, Conejo-Garcia and his team extracted DNA specifically from TLS to examine how antibodies produced in TLS worked. They found TLS produced highly clonal immunoglobulin A (IgA) and immunoglobulin (IgG) antibodies, which the team previously showed are important to maintain immune pressure against malignant progression.The team then produced one of these antibodies and used it to restrain the growth of the tumor where the antibody originated. These discoveries indicate that immunologists could trigger TLS in ovarian cancer cells to improve immunotherapy responses.“We are applying this approach to clone antibodies produced in intra-tumoral TLS that could serve as novel immunotherapeutic tools, in ovarian cancer and other tumors,” he said.Conejo-Garcia and his team continue to examine how cloning antibodies could impact treatment for cancer patients. The team was recently issued a notice of award from the U.S. Department of Defense, as well as grants for similar methods to identify ways to tailor this approach for cancer prevention.“We hope to characterize T cells and plasma cells from ovarian tumors, as well as develop therapies based on antibodies and T cell receptors,” Conejo-Garcia said. “We are collaborating with other investigators at Duke to define the potential of tumor-derived antibodies to develop novel cellular immunotherapies or antibody-drug conjugates, with a promising lead so far.”
A recent study sheds new light on the prevalence of positive lung cancer screenings in patients following a low-dose chest CT (LDCT) for lung cancer screening. Tina Tailor, MD, diagnostic radiologist with the Duke Cancer Institute (DCI) thoracic cancer disease group, published her findings from this study in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.Tailor’s research compared clinical screening results from the American College of Radiology’s (ACR) Lung Cancer Screening Registry, a national registry of LDCT screening exams, to results from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), which was a hallmark clinical trial establishing reduced lung cancer mortality in high-risk patients receiving annual screening with LDCT exams. Tailor and her team found higher rates of positive LDCT screening exams in the national screening registry compared to the NLST, likely implying a need for more follow-up imaging and interventions in clinical screening practice.Tailor’s research focused on a heterogeneous group of patients from the U.S. and is one of the first studies to compare large scale real-world national screening data to the NLST’s findings.“While the ACR Lung Cancer Screening Registry did not have robust data on actual lung cancer outcomes, we can infer that more positive screening exams lead to more follow-up imaging or biopsies than observed in the NLST population,” Tailor said.An important distinction between patients in clinical screening practice and participants in the NLST is that patients undergoing screening in actual clinical settings may have higher morbidities, such as respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease. This may help explain the higher positive screening rate found in the national clinical setting. Tailor also notes that their study provides a national bird’s-eye view of lung cancer screening, and how and if these results will be mirrored in individual screening programs is unknown.Beyond a better real-world understanding of the national landscape of lung cancer screening, Tailor said these results highlight how important it is for lung cancer screening programs to be fully equipped to offer the necessary downstream care that must occur after a positive screening exam. Tailor encourages patients who have a current or former history of smoking to speak to their provider about seeking screening at Duke. Tailor is the research director of Duke’s Lung Cancer Screening program, which features a dedicated lung cancer screening clinic and multidisciplinary review of all positive screening scans by a team of Duke subspecialty providers, including radiology, thoracic surgery, and pulmonology. These capabilities help set Duke apart from other screening programs.“When providers identify high-risk patients who are eligible for screening, they should work to get those patients screened at an institution like Duke with appropriate mechanisms for downstream care and treatment,” she said. “These patients benefit from comprehensive screening programs with robust follow-up capabilities, and Duke is in a unique position to offer that.”
New research indicates antibodies produced in tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) could help target tumor cells and cells in the surrounding environment, enhancing existing immunotherapies for cancer patients.Jose Conejo-Garcia, MD, PhD, an immunologist and Duke Cancer Institute member, led this study and presented findings at the 2025 American Associate for Cancer Research Immuno-Oncology meeting.While most cancer immunotherapies focus on T cells, which play a vital role in a person’s immune system and help protect the body from diseases like cancer, Conejo-Garcia and his team focused on how B cells could factor into these treatments. B cells are a type of white blood cell that produces antibodies to help fight pathogens in the body.“We do not understand why immune checkpoint inhibitors do not work against ovarian cancer, which is an immunogenic disease,” he said. “We’ve found that patients with evident TLS activity had improved outcomes, but we wanted to understand why.”Using ovarian cancer samples, Conejo-Garcia and his team extracted DNA specifically from TLS to examine how antibodies produced in TLS worked. They found TLS produced highly clonal immunoglobulin A (IgA) and immunoglobulin (IgG) antibodies, which the team previously showed are important to maintain immune pressure against malignant progression.The team then produced one of these antibodies and used it to restrain the growth of the tumor where the antibody originated. These discoveries indicate that immunologists could trigger TLS in ovarian cancer cells to improve immunotherapy responses.“We are applying this approach to clone antibodies produced in intra-tumoral TLS that could serve as novel immunotherapeutic tools, in ovarian cancer and other tumors,” he said.Conejo-Garcia and his team continue to examine how cloning antibodies could impact treatment for cancer patients. The team was recently issued a notice of award from the U.S. Department of Defense, as well as grants for similar methods to identify ways to tailor this approach for cancer prevention.“We hope to characterize T cells and plasma cells from ovarian tumors, as well as develop therapies based on antibodies and T cell receptors,” Conejo-Garcia said. “We are collaborating with other investigators at Duke to define the potential of tumor-derived antibodies to develop novel cellular immunotherapies or antibody-drug conjugates, with a promising lead so far.”
A recent study sheds new light on the prevalence of positive lung cancer screenings in patients following a low-dose chest CT (LDCT) for lung cancer screening. Tina Tailor, MD, diagnostic radiologist with the Duke Cancer Institute (DCI) thoracic cancer disease group, published her findings from this study in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.Tailor’s research compared clinical screening results from the American College of Radiology’s (ACR) Lung Cancer Screening Registry, a national registry of LDCT screening exams, to results from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), which was a hallmark clinical trial establishing reduced lung cancer mortality in high-risk patients receiving annual screening with LDCT exams. Tailor and her team found higher rates of positive LDCT screening exams in the national screening registry compared to the NLST, likely implying a need for more follow-up imaging and interventions in clinical screening practice.Tailor’s research focused on a heterogeneous group of patients from the U.S. and is one of the first studies to compare large scale real-world national screening data to the NLST’s findings.“While the ACR Lung Cancer Screening Registry did not have robust data on actual lung cancer outcomes, we can infer that more positive screening exams lead to more follow-up imaging or biopsies than observed in the NLST population,” Tailor said.An important distinction between patients in clinical screening practice and participants in the NLST is that patients undergoing screening in actual clinical settings may have higher morbidities, such as respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease. This may help explain the higher positive screening rate found in the national clinical setting. Tailor also notes that their study provides a national bird’s-eye view of lung cancer screening, and how and if these results will be mirrored in individual screening programs is unknown.Beyond a better real-world understanding of the national landscape of lung cancer screening, Tailor said these results highlight how important it is for lung cancer screening programs to be fully equipped to offer the necessary downstream care that must occur after a positive screening exam. Tailor encourages patients who have a current or former history of smoking to speak to their provider about seeking screening at Duke. Tailor is the research director of Duke’s Lung Cancer Screening program, which features a dedicated lung cancer screening clinic and multidisciplinary review of all positive screening scans by a team of Duke subspecialty providers, including radiology, thoracic surgery, and pulmonology. These capabilities help set Duke apart from other screening programs.“When providers identify high-risk patients who are eligible for screening, they should work to get those patients screened at an institution like Duke with appropriate mechanisms for downstream care and treatment,” she said. “These patients benefit from comprehensive screening programs with robust follow-up capabilities, and Duke is in a unique position to offer that.”
