Since joining the faculty at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2001, Dr. Tsimberidou’s clinical research has focused on the development of therapeutic strategies for advanced hematologic malignancies and solid tumors. She has served as the Principal Investigator for 20 investigator-initiated clinical trials for the treatment of patients with advanced cancer.
In 2007, Dr. Tsimberidou designed the Initiative for Molecular Profiling and Advanced Cancer Therapy (IMPACT) trial in the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics, and also developed the departmental protocol for the associated tissue bank. The hypothesis for IMPACT was to have tumor molecular profiling of patients with advanced cancer, then to treat patients with targeted therapies in order to counteract their molecular abnormalities. This, in turn, would improve the clinical outcomes of patients with advanced cancer. Results demonstrated that tumor molecular profiling and identification of tumor specific molecular aberrations and selected therapy based on these abnormalities is associated with higher rates of response, time to treatment failure, and survival in patients with advanced cancer compared to the standard approach.
