News | DirectConnect | 2009 | 2009-12-18

December 18, 2009

December 18, 2009

Announcements

Deborah Chirnomas to Lead Pediatric Transplant Program

I am delighted to announce that Dr. Deborah Chirnomas has been named an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine and will lead the development of a Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Program at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven. Debbie is a national leader in pediatric bone marrow transplantation. Her clinical research concentrates on the impact and management of iron overload, a common side effect of stem cell transplantation. Debbie was the Chief Resident in Pediatrics at Yale-New Haven Hospital and returns to Yale after serving as an Attending Physician at Children's Hospital Boston.

Dr. Michael Hurwitz Appointed Assistant Professor

Mike will focus his research at Yale on the role of the protein Abl tyrosine kinase in cell migration, cell morphology, and cell death using

C. elegans

. His strengths in basic cancer research will complement our efforts to expand the efforts of the cancer biology group at Yale Cancer Center. In addition to his research responsibilities, Mike will be an active member of the Yale Cancer Center Prostate and Urologic Cancers Program. He joins Yale Cancer Center from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Leonard Farber and Dr. Arthur Levy Join Yale Cancer Center

Drs. Farber and Levy will begin seeing patients at Yale Cancer Center on January 1st. Their recruitment to Yale Cancer Center's clinical practice will give greater strength to our ability to ensure all patients at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven are provided optimal patient care. Both physicians are extremely talented oncologists and their expertise will be an asset to our inpatient care units.

Dr. Farber, Clinical Professor of Medicine, has been on the clinical staff at Yale for 38 years and will now care for patients in the Melanoma Program. Dr. Levy, Associate Clinical Professor, first joined Yale-New Haven Hospital in 1973 as an attending and will see women with breast cancer in the Women's Health Center. They both join Yale Cancer Center from Medical Oncology & Hematology, P.C. of New Haven, CT.

Notables

Vincent DeVita elected Second Vice-President of the ACS

Vincent T. DeVita, Jr., MD,

former Yale Cancer Center Director, was recently elected Second Vice-President of the American Cancer Society National Board of Directors. He is the Amy and Joseph Professor of Medicine, and Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Cancer Center. Dr. DeVita spent the early part of his career at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, and in 1980 was appointed by the President of the United States as Director of NCI and the National Cancer Program. As Second Vice-President, Dr. DeVita will succeed to National President of the ACS during its 100th Anniversary year in 2012.

Yale Research in the News

Tiny RNA Has Big Impact On Lung Cancer Tumors

Yale University researchers reversed growth of lung cancer tumors in mice, illustrating that a tiny bit of RNA may one day play a big role in cancer treatment. The tumors in mice with non-small-cell lung cancer shrank after the Yale Cancer Center team delivered an intranasal dose containing a type of micro-RNA called let-7, the authors reported in the December 7th issue of the journal

Oncogene

In Cancer-Ridden Rats, Loneliness Can Kill

Socially isolated female rats develop more tumors - and tumors of a more deadly type - than rats living in a social group, according to researchers at Yale University and the University of Chicago. The dramatic increase in mammary tumors among isolated Norway rats - which, like humans, are a highly social species - illustrates how loneliness can be deadly, the authors report in findings published on December 6th in the

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Scientists Use Nanosensors for First Time to Measure Cancer Biomarkers in Blood

A team led by Yale University researchers has used nanosensors to measure cancer biomarkers in whole blood for the first time. Their findings could dramatically simplify the way physicians test for biomarkers of cancer and other diseases. The team used nanowire sensors to detect and measure concentrations of two specific biomarkers: one for prostate cancer and the other for breast cancer.
See More News >>

Smilow Update

On Monday, December 14th the Women's Health Center opened on the first floor of Smilow Cancer Hospital. This was a significant milestone in achieving our cancer care vision as both the Breast Cancer and Gynecologic Oncology Programs implemented our plans to see patients using a multidisciplinary model. The day was not without incident, but concerns and issues have been identified and the transition team is working to quickly resolve them. Patient feedback has been generally positive throughout the week.

All patients are being urged to valet park their cars for their visits in Smilow Cancer Hospital until the 4th floor of the Air Rights Garage opens in February and dedicated patient parking in the garage is available. The rate for valet parking has been decreased to $5 per visit during this transition period. Radiation Oncology patients will continue to receive free valet parking curbside on Park Street.

Floors 4, 7, and 8 were successfully turned over to YNHH earlier this month and installation of the furniture, computers, and equipment has started. The glass bridge connecting Smilow to the Children's Hospital is also completed. The construction team will complete floors 9 and 10 next month.

Recent Publications

Regression of murine lung tumors by the let-7 microRNA.

Trang P, Medina PP, Wiggins JF, Ruffino L, Kelnar K, Omotola M, Homer R, Brown D, Bader AG, Weidhaas JB, Slack FJ.
Oncogene. 2009 Dec 7.
Read More >>

Alcohol and tobacco use prediagnosis and postdiagnosis, and survival in a cohort of patients with early stage cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, and larynx.

Mayne ST, Cartmel B, Kirsh V, Goodwin WJ Jr.
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2009 Dec;18(12):3368-74.
Read More >>

Phase II Clinical Trial of Paclitaxel Loaded Polymeric Micelle in Patients with Advanced Pancreatic Cancer.

Saif MW, Podoltsev NA, Rubin MS, Figueroa JA, Lee MY, Kwon J, Rowen E, Yu J, Kerr RO.
Cancer Invest. 2009 Dec 7.
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C/EBPepsilon directs granulocytic-vs-monocytic lineage determination and confers chemotactic function via Hlx.

Halene S, Gaines P, Sun H, Zibello T, Lin S, Khanna-Gupta A, Williams SC, Perkins A, Krause D, Berliner N.
Exp Hematol. 2009 Dec 4.
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The impact of Medicaid coverage and reimbursement on access to diagnostic mammography.

Schuur JD, Shah A, Wu Z, Forman HP, Gross CP.
Cancer. 2009 Dec 1;115(23):5566-78.
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AAPM recommendations on dose prescription and reporting methods for permanent interstitial brachytherapy for prostate cancer: report of Task Group 137.

Nath R, Bice WS, Butler WM, Chen Z, Meigooni AS, Narayana V, Rivard MJ, Yu Y.
Med Phys. 2009 Nov;36(11):5310-22.
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Is ALDH1 a good method for definition of breast cancer stem cells?

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