Dr. Hedy Lee Kindler

Bio

Losing a parent to a deadly illness is a devastating experience, yet for Hedy Lee Kindler, M.D., it was one that sparked a career.

After her father passed away from mesothelioma, Kindler embarked on a path to specialize in treating the cancer, which is almost always caused by asbestos exposure.

Kindler began by obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Yale University, after which she earned her M.D. at the State University of New York in 1989. Her two consecutive residencies at the University of California Los Angeles and Montefiore Medical Center further educated her in internal medicine.

A fellowship at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 1995 was Kindler's next step in becoming a mesothelioma specialist. The fellowship's hematology and oncology focus prepared her for her current position as the medical director of Gastrointestinal Oncology and the director of the Mesothelioma Program at the University of Chicago. She also serves as an associate professor of medicine for UC.

While working at the University of Chicago Medical Center and the Center for Advanced Medicine, Kindler continues to conduct research on emergent drugs for malignant mesothelioma.

As the chair of the Mesothelioma Subcommittee of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B, Kindler is responsible for designing and overseeing clinical trials for novel medications. These trials have included a phase II study of high-dose chemotherapeutic drugs for advanced lung carcinoma and a comparison of CT techniques for the diagnosis of mesothelioma.

In a slide show assembled for a 2008 presentation, Kindler highlighted the shift in mesothelioma treatment over the years. She cited a 2003 clinical trial as changing her outlook on the role of chemotherapy for malignant mesothelioma, leading her to favor a pemetrexed and cisplatin combination for her patients.  She also advocated the development of better drugs through more selective clinical trials.

Kindler has contributed to more than 80 articles published in scholarly journals, including "Update on Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma” in Seminars in Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and "Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma: an Update on Biomarkers and Treatment." She also authored the book, "Mesothelioma: An Issue of Hematology/Oncology Clinics."

While malignant mesothelioma is Kindler's main clinical interest, her board certification in internal medicine and medical oncology also extends to other illnesses such as colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, rectal cancer and gastrointestinal tumors. Kindler was invited to speak at the 2011 Workshop on Foundations of Pancreatic Cancer. She also has been involved with several pancreatic cancer clinical trials.

Kindler is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, the International Mesothelioma Interest Group and the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation.

Publications

Kindler's expertise has been widely sought and she has contributed to more than 70 scholarly articles for medical journals such as Cancer Biology and Therapy. Recent publications include the 2011 articles "Update on Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma," and "Computerized segmentation and measurement of malignant pleural mesothelioma"