Retiring executive from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society still plans to ‘follow the science’
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Lee Greenberger, PhD, has retired as The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s chief scientific officer after more than a decade in the position.
Greenberger, whose responsibilities focused on devising and executing the strategy for all The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) research programs, has guided the organization’s mission to fund innovative research that demonstrates strong potential to translate basic biomedical knowledge to clinical application.
“It’s bittersweet — it’s been 11 years at LLS, and I’ve been in the cancer drug discovery and development business for 38 years,” Greenberger told Healio. “But I will still follow the science. It’s been a privilege to be chief scientific officer of an organization like this and be able to have such an impact.”
Before joining LLS, Greenberger served as global head of research and diligence for oncology and immunology at Bristol Myers Squibb, where he explored opportunities for more than 200 oncology companies and helped establish business strategies for oncology and immunology.
Greenberger noted that although he is retiring from his full-time role as chief scientific officer, he will remain in an ongoing consulting role to help make the complex science of blood cancer research relatable in LLS’s fundraising efforts.
“It is now more important than ever that the public understand the value of basic science and translation to new therapeutics to treat cancer,” he said.
Healio spoke with Greenberger about the highlights of his tenure with LLS, his commitment to the science of blood cancer, and the research efforts he’d like to see prioritized to continue making progress in blood cancer treatment.
Healio: When you reflect on your career, what are you most proud of?
Greenberger: When I look back at the entire 38 years of my career, the first thing that stands out is the 100 publications I have done. My interests span cytotoxic drugs, antibodies and targeted oral therapies to treat many cancers. When COVID-19 hit, I teamed up with Larry Saltzman, MD, from LLS to be the first to publish showing blood cancer patients were at higher risk for COVID-19 infections, weak response to COVID-19 vaccines, and poor outcomes.. I’m very proud of my publications. Beyond that, during the past 11 years at LLS, about a thousand projects have gone out through the group, and that’s about $600 million in funding. We’ve been able to make a huge impact.
Healio: What do you consider the most notable advances in blood cancer treatment during your tenure with LLS?
Greenberger: We’ve done a look back over the last 75 years at LLS, and the progress has been significant. There was tremendous progress in acute lymphoblastic leukemia and Hodgkin lymphoma in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The concept of radiation and combination chemotherapy also stands out.
In the last 10 years, however, immunotherapy and the concept of activating the immune system has been a major development.
LLS has been funding CAR T-cell therapy since the 1990s. It didn’t really take off until about 2010, just when I was arriving. We saw the first approval of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy in 2017, and we now have 17-plus approvals and six different products, so there has been a huge expansion. Using genetic engineering to program T cells to attack tumors has definitely stood out in blood cancers.
Checkpoint inhibitors, which have been so important for solid tumors, have had limited impact on blood cancers except for Hodgkin lymphoma, for which they are FDA approved
Healio: How do you foresee this evolving in the future?
Greenberger: In the next 10 to 15 years, someone is going to crack that code for solid tumors and successfully apply CAR T-cell therapy. I also expect to see advances in the use of kinase inhibitors — in particular Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitors — for chronic lymphocytic leukemia, mantle cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
Healio: What important challenges do you think need to be overcome in the field of hematologic malignancies?
Greenberger: We have a lot of work to do in acute myeloid leukemia. Even if you look back at how much we’ve accomplished in terms of 5-year survival for AML, the needle hasn’t moved much. This is particularly true when onset occurs at the median age of diagnosis, which is about 68 years. Particularly when transplant is a limited option for these patients, the 5-year survival is about 10% to 20%, and it hasn’t really changed much since cytotoxic therapy was brought online decades ago. The good news is that the first menin inhibitor has been approved for AML, accompanied by other small molecules many FDA-approved in 2017-2019). LLS funded the work to identify menin as a target as well as develop the first menin small molecule inhibitor, supporting it all the ways through to FDA approval — a 20 year process!
AML is a heterogenous and rapidly progressing disease that evolves quickly. The challenge is to be able to have an arsenal of drugs so we have the right therapies for the right patient at the right time. Combination therapy is going to be very important in AML, and we’re going to have to get that solution in the clinic.
Healio: What has LLS’s venture philanthropy program achieved during your leadership?
Greenberger: The venture philanthropy program has been funding biotechnology companies and, — in earlier days — academic institutions. We put in millions of dollars to develop new therapies to FDA approval, particularly some of the rare diseases. Our venture philanthropy program has been running about 14 years now, and we have ushered in three FDA approvals and one National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidance. It’s been remarkably successful. We have collaborated with these companies along the way to efficiently and successfully get drugs approved. It’s been especially successful for rare cancers where companies may be less interested because of the market size.
Healio: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?
Greenberger: It will be valuable to see if we can develop therapies for prevention of cancer, or at least identify healthy people who are at high risk for converting to blood cancers. Can we stop that conversion so that they never get blood cancer? That is going to be very important.
For more information:
Lee Greenberger, PhD, can be reached at lee.greenberger@lls-contractor.org.
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