News | DirectConnect | 2009 | 2009-12-04

December 4, 2009

December 4, 2009

Announcements

Yale Cancer Center Members Honored at Conclave

I was pleased to be able to share the evening with many of you at the first annual Yale Cancer Center Conclave on Monday, November 23rd. One of my many goals is to increase the opportunities we have to gather as a Center and I look forward to increasing the attendance next year.

The highlight of the evening was the presentation of the Yale Cancer Center Clinical and Research prizes. The senior leadership team selected the recipients of these awards in recognition of their outstanding contribution to cancer care and research.

Ronald Salem, MD

, Lampman Professor of Surgery, was honored with the 2009 Award for Clinical Excellence. Ron is a wonderful example of a physician who is respected by his colleagues, students, and, most of all, his patients, for his exemplary standards of patient care. In April he will celebrate 20 years of practice at Yale Cancer Center and Yale-New Haven Hospital and I am grateful to have his skill and knowledge on our team.

Frank Slack, PhD and Joanne Weidhaas, MD, PhD

shared the 2009 Research Prize for their paper

A SNP in a let-7 microRNA Complementary Site in the KRAS 3' Untranslated Region Increases Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Risk

in the October 2008 issue of

Cancer Research

. Their collaboration is an excellent example of the interactions the Cancer Center can stimulate between basic and clinical researchers, and the impact joint research can have on cancer discoveries. I look forward to learning about the new discoveries that result from Frank and Joanne's research partnership.

Cancer Center Support Grant Renewal

Yale Cancer Center will begin to plan its Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) application this spring in anticipation of our next submission. In preparation for the application process, Chad Ellis, PhD, Deputy Director of Research for Yale Cancer Center, will include background information and suggestions highlighting different aspects of the grant renewal in upcoming issues of DirectConnect. Please begin to familiarize yourself with the 2008 CCSG guidelines to facilitate the grant application and process.

Review Grant Policies and Guidelines >>

Publication Reviews

Protein Markers Predict a Patient's Risk of Melanoma Recurrence

A new prognostic tool, based on five proteins expressed in melanoma tissue, has been developed by researchers at Yale Cancer Center to determine the risk of recurrence in melanoma patients. The technology can stratify patients into a low-risk group, with 10% chance of recurrence at 8 years, and a high-risk group that has a 40% probability of recurrence.

Continuing Smoking and Drinking Increases Risk of Death Among Survivors of Head and Neck Cancer

Continuing to regularly smoke or drink alcohol after a diagnosis of head and neck cancer increases a patient's chance of dying, a Yale-led team of researchers has found. The study appears in the December issue of

Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention

, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Smilow Update

We are on track to open two new areas of Smilow Cancer Hospital in early December. The diagnostic radiology area on the second floor will open for patients on December 7th and the first floor Women's Health Center, which includes all services for breast cancer and gynecologic oncology patients, will open on December 14th. Patients have been notified of the changes in their appointment schedules and the physicians, caregivers, and staff of each area are finalizing the last minute preparations.

Radiation Oncology has been open for just over a month now and all patients are receiving radiation therapy in the lower level of Smilow. Two linear accelerators are fully operational and a third will be available in January. The Hunter Radiation clinical facility is no longer in operation.

350 construction workers are still on site every day working to complete the finishes on the upper level patient floors 9-15. The major mechanical infrastructure has been completed. Workers are now concentrating on the finishes such as the ceilings, floor work, casework, and millwork, and finishing up small mechanical work. Floors 4, 6, and 7
will be completed and turned over to Yale-New Haven Hospital today.

Recent Publications

Melanoma prognostic model using tissue microarrays and genetic algorithms.

Gould Rothberg BE, Berger AJ, Molinaro AM, Subtil A, Krauthammer MO, Camp RL, Bradley WR, Ariyan S, Kluger HM, Rimm DL.
J Clin Oncol. 2009 Dec 1;27(34):5772-80.
Read More >>

Is ALDH1 a good method for definition of breast cancer stem cells?

Neumeister V, Rimm D.
Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2009 Nov 28.
Read More >>

Treatment of Lung Cancer in Older Patients.

Gettinger, S.
PCCU Volume 23, Lesson 23.

Testing the Circadian Gene Hypothesis in Prostate Cancer: A Population-Based Case-Control Study.

Zhu Y, Stevens RG, Hoffman AE, Fitzgerald LM, Kwon EM, Ostrander EA, Davis S, Zheng T, Stanford JL.
Cancer Res. 2009 Nov 24.
Read More >>

Hypoxia-Regulated Delta-like 1 Homologue Enhances Cancer Cell Stemness and Tumorigenicity.

Kim Y, Lin Q, Zelterman D, Yun Z.
Cancer Res. 2009 Nov 24.
Read More >>

Molecular Analysis of Tumor-Promoting CD8(+) T Cells in Two-Stage Cutaneous Chemical Carcinogenesis.

Kwong BY, Roberts SJ, Silberzahn T, Filler RB, Neustadter JH, Galan A, Reddy S, Lin WM, Ellis PD, Langford CF, Hayday AC, Girardi M.
J Invest Dermatol. 2009 Nov 19.
Read More >>

The Bethesda thyroid fine-needle aspiration classification system: year 1 at an academic institution.

Theoharis CG, Schofield KM, Hammers L, Udelsman R, Chhieng DC.
Thyroid. 2009 Nov;19(11):1215-23.
Read More >>

In vitro activity of pertuzumab in combination with trastuzumab in uterine serous papillary adenocarcinoma.

El-Sahwi K, Bellone S, Cocco E, Cargnelutti M, Casagrande F, Bellone M, Abu-Khalaf M, Buza N, Tavassoli FA, Hui P, Silasi DA, Azodi M, Schwartz PE, Rutherford TJ, Pecorelli S, Santin AD.
Br J Cancer. 2009 Nov 17.
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Epothilones in prostate cancer.

Kelly WK.
Urol Oncol. 2009 Nov 12.
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Treatment patterns of aging Americans with differentiated thyroid cancer.

Park HS, Roman SA, Sosa JA.
Cancer. 2009 Nov 11.
Read More >>

Some Attenuated Variants of Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Show Enhanced Oncolytic Activity Against Human Glioblastoma Relative to Normal Brain Cells.

Wollmann G, Rogulin V, Simon I, Rose JK, van den Pol AN.
J Virol. 2009 Nov 11.
Read More >>

The Yale University Experience of Early-Stage Invasive Lobular Carcinoma (ILC) and Invasive Ductal Carcinoma (IDC) Treated with Breast Conservation Treatment (BCT): Analysis of Clinical-Pathologic Features, Long-Term Outcomes, and Molecular Expression of COX-2, Bcl-2, and p53 as a Function of Histology

Moran, MS, Yang, Q, Haffty, BG.
Breast J. 2009 Nov 2.
Read More >>