The following are members of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute Thoracic Oncology Team with a brief description of each role.

Thoracic (Lung) Surgeon
Role is to evaluate the patient for a biopsy of and/or surgery to remove the tumor

Todd Demmy, MD	Chukwumere Nwogu, MD	Sai Yendamuri, MD

Medical Oncologist
Role is to manage patients with lung cancer using chemotherapy

Alex Adjei	Grace Dy, MD

Radiation Oncologist
Role is to evaluate and provide radiation to a tumor site or
to areas where the tumor may have spread.

Jorge Gomez, MD	Anurag Singh, MD	Gary Yang, MD

Pulmonologist: Evaluates patient preoperatively to determine if the patient could undergo surgery given their current lung function. Performs lung cancer screening. Performs “interventional” procedures on the airways of the lung, including photodynamic therapy (PDT), bronchial stents and laser surgery.  Samjot Dhillon, MD, is a pulmonologist on this team.

Pathologist: Evaluates the tissue obtained in a biopsy. Richard Cheney, MD and Paul Bogner, MD are the pathologists for the Thoracic Team.

Fellow: A physician who is training in a specialty area such as medical oncology or surgical oncology.

Radiologist: Evaluates films taken of a patient’s body part such as the CT scan or MRI. Also performs biopsies under ultrasound or CT guidance.  Donald Klippenstein, MD is one of the radiologists on the team. (photo at right)

The Nurse Practitioner is a nurse with a master's degree who works in collaboration with the physicians to manage the overall care of each patient.

Margaret Gould, NP
Sandra Jacob, NP
Karen Pfentner, NP
Kelly Reese, NP

Physician's Assistant: Works in collaboration with the physicians to manage the overall care of the patient.

Jamie Fraas, PA
Jennifer Meyer, RPA-C

Resident: In collaboration with the University of Buffalo School of Medicine, a resident is a “doctor-in-training” who is getting experience in the field of oncology.

A Nurse works with the entire team to manage the patient's overall care.

April Proefrock, RN
Jodi Witman, RN

Social Worker: Key role is to provide the patient and family with emotional support and counseling, assist with transportation and lodging issues, assist with arranging hospice care.

Case Manager: An RN who works closely with the social worker to provide a safe discharge plan. Also arranges home care, medications given through an IV.

Pastoral Care: Provides nondenominational spiritual guidance to patients and their families. Helps with end of life issues.

Patient Advocate: Available to patients and their families for any issues of concern.

Support Staff help the team and may be available to assist with questions

Vanessa Kitaw
Karen Madden
Sharon Osborne
Nancy Sikora

Lung Cancer Prevention Research Team promote awareness of and seek new ways to prevent lung cancer.

Mary Reid, PhD – Director of the Stacey Scott Lung Registry
Alex A. Adjei, MD, PhD– co director of the Stacey Scott Lung Registry
Monica Lopez Murphy, BSMT – project manager- Stacey Scott Lung Registry
Sandy Michel, RN – research coordinator
Adriane Kahler, MS – data coordinator
Pam Salter – data coordinator