News | DirectConnect | 2010 | 2010-07-09

July 9, 2010

July 9, 2010

Announcements

NMDP Allogeneic Bone Marrow Transplant Center Data

The National Marrow Donor Program recently updated their stats on Transplant Center data to include information through 2007. Under the leadership of Dr. Dennis Cooper, the Yale-New Haven Hospital survival statistics are incredibly strong. The one-year survival is 67% based on 84 patients from Yale, with a severity rating of 3. The predicted survival is between 48-68%.

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Dan DiMaio to Serve as Interim Deputy Director

I am grateful that Daniel DiMaio, MD, PhD, Scientific Director of Yale Cancer Center, has agreed to serve as Interim Deputy Director of the Center when Ed Chu steps down later this month to assume his new position at the University of Pittsburgh. Dan is a wonderful partner in Cancer Center decision-making and will help to ensure we continue to achieve our goals in the coming months. He has led the research program initiatives for the Center, as well as served as program director for the Molecular Virology Research Program since 1993. Dan is also the principal investigator of an ongoing Program Project grant from the NCI to study tumor virology.

Nina Horowitz Joins Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Nina Horowitz will join the surgery faculty at Yale School of Medicine in the Section of Surgical Oncology beginning September 1st. Nina has built a strong practice in New Haven and has been affiliated with Yale-New Haven Hospital and Yale School of Medicine as an Assistant Clinical Professor for the last 26 years. Her dedication to her patients and excellent clinical care will be a wonderful addition to the breast surgery team of Dr. Donald Lannin, Dr. Baiba Grube, and Dr. Brigid Killelea and all the dedicated members in the Women's Health Center at Smilow Cancer Hospital. Please join me in welcoming Nina to Yale Cancer Center.

Dr. Wasif Saif to Leave Yale Cancer Center

I would like to congratulate Dr. Wasif Saif on his new position as Professor of Medicine at Columbia University and Director of the Clinical Division of GI cancers at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. In addition, Wasif will be the Medical Director for the Pancreas Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital. His new appointment takes effect on August 1st.

Wasif joined Yale Cancer Center in 2005 and has successfully built our Gastrointestinal Cancer Program, along with Dr. Ronald Salem. His commitment to his patients, and efforts to develop new therapies for pancreatic, liver, and colorectal cancers through clinical trials at Yale Cancer Center, will be greatly missed.

Notables

Tobias Carling, MD, PhD

has been named the first

Doris Duke-Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator

. Dr. Carling will receive a total of $486,000 over three years for his project "Molecular Genetics of Endocrine Tumor Disease." In addition, The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation will retire up to $100,000 of any outstanding medical debt still owed by Dr. Carling. His project will complete a comprehensive genomic analysis of patients with endocrine tumor disease in order to identify individual genes involved in early cancer formation. Dr. Carling works under the mentorship of Richard Lifton, MD, PhD and Robert Udelsman, MD, MBA.

Lynn Wilson, MD, MPH

was awarded a RO3 grant from the

National Cancer Institute

for his study titled, "Racial Disparities in Clinical Outcomes and the Therapeutic Use of Radiotherapy for Patients with Cutaneous Lymphoma." The study will be based on an evaluation of the SEER data.

James Yu, MD

is a co-investigator on the project.

Clarence Sasaki, MD

, the Charles W. Ohse Professor of Surgery, has received the 2010 ALA Award from the

American Laryngological Association

for unique and significant contributions to the advancement of medicine. The

American Broncho-Esophagological Association

also honored Dr. Sasaki with the 2010 Chevalier Jackson Award for lifelong outstanding advancement in broncho-esophagology, the Society's highest recognition. Dr. Sasaki is the past President of the American Broncho-Esophagological Association and President Elect of the American Laryngological Association.

Funding Opportunities

The ASCO Cancer Foundation Improving Cancer Care Grant, funded by Susan G. Komen for the Cure

The

Improving Cancer Care Grant

will provide funding for research studies that implement and evaluate new ways to solve major problems in quality of, access to, and delivery of health care. Proposals must be focused on developing solutions to current problems, not just describing disparities in care that currently exist. Project Proposals must be research-focused, with specific aims and hypotheses, not a request for support of a program. Proposals are not required to focus on breast cancer, but the study findings must have general applicability to breast cancer care.

A required letter of intent is due September 1, 2010.
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ACS Training Grants in Health Disparities Research

The American Cancer Society has set the reduction of health disparities as a priority area of focus, with a call for applications in psychosocial and behavioral research and in health policy and health services research that address health disparities. Of particular interest are studies that focus on reducing disparities in the following population groups: African Americans, Hispanic/Latinos, Asians/Pacific Islanders, Native Americans/Alaskan Natives; Low Income/Rural Poor.

Priority Funding: Meritorious applications focusing on disparity reduction will be funded prior to meritorious applications focusing on other areas in cancer control and prevention research. The priority on disparity-focused research does

not

apply to research focusing on palliative care and symptom management or to research in basic, preclinical and clinical research.

Application deadline is October 15, 2010.
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Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation Offers Support for Young Researchers in Pediatric Oncology

The foundation's "A" Award is a three-year grant designed for young scientists who want to jump-start their career in pediatric oncology research. The ideal candidate has an original project that is not currently being funded. Demonstration of outstanding mentorship and a future commitment to pediatric cancer investigation are critical components of a successful application. Candidates may have their M.D., Ph.D., or M.D./Ph.D., and must not have achieved an appointment higher than assistant professor.

Application deadline is August 2, 2010.

Join us at the Connecticut Challenge

Join the team "Yale, Smilow and Friends" for the 6th annual Connecticut Challenge - a fantastic and fun bike ride to support cancer survivors this summer. All ages and abilities are welcome to ride. Now in its 6th year, the Connecticut Challenge is an annual ride with participants choosing distances of 12, 25, 50, 75 and 100 miles.

This year's ride begins and ends in Fairfield on Saturday, July 24, 2010. Many throughout the Yale community have ridden in past years and we invite you to join us again or for the first time! Bikes are available for rent at the ride. Please read all the ride and fundraising information carefully and if you choose to ride, please join the team "Yale, Smilow and Friends." If you wish to simply support the team with a donation please do so!
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Team Tri-Captains
Melinda Irwin, Robert Dubrow, and Peter Lamothe

Recent Publications

A New Formula for Prostate Cancer Lymph Node Risk.

Yu JB, Makarov D, Gross C.
Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2010 Jun 29.
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Down-regulation of a host microRNA by a Herpesvirus saimiri noncoding RNA.

Cazalla D, Yario T, Steitz J.
Science. 2010 Jun 18;328(5985):1563-6.
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PMCA2 regulates apoptosis during mammary gland involution and predicts outcome in breast cancer.

VanHouten J, Sullivan C, Bazinet C, Ryoo T, Camp R, Rimm DL, Chung G, Wysolmerski J.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 Jun 22;107(25):11405-10.
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Impact of the hypoxic tumor microenvironment on the regulation of cancer stem cell characteristics.

Lin Q, Yun Z.
Cancer Biol Ther. 2010 Jun 11;9(12).
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Influence of patients' preferences and treatment site on cancer patients' end-of-life care.

Wright AA, Mack JW, Kritek PA, Balboni TA, Massaro AF, Matulonis UA, Block SD, Prigerson HG.
Cancer. 2010 Jun 22.
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Fertility among testicular cancer survivors: a case-control study in the U.S.

Kim C, McGlynn KA, McCorkle R, Zheng T, Erickson RL, Niebuhr DW, Ma S, Zhang Y, Bai Y, Dai L, Graubard BI, Kilfoy B, Barry KH, Zhang Y.
J Cancer Surviv. 2010 Jun 23.
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Dietary Components Related to N-Nitroso Compound Formation: A Prospective Study of Adult Glioma.

Dubrow R, Darefsky AS, Park Y, Mayne ST, Moore SC, Kilfoy B, Cross AJ, Sinha R, Hollenbeck AR, Schatzkin A, Ward MH.
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2010 Jun 22.
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Role and cost effectiveness of PET/CT in management of patients with cancer.

Saif MW, Tzannou I, Makrilia N, Syrigos K.
Yale J Biol Med. 2010 Jun;83(2):53-65.
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