News | DirectConnect | 2011 | 2011-05-13

May 13, 2011

May 13, 2011

Announcements

Celebrate Cancer Survivors Day on May 25

Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven will celebrate Cancer Survivors Day with our patients and their families on Wednesday, May 25th at Yale's West Campus. The evening will begin at 5:30 PM with a keynote presentation by Ethan Zohn, winner of Survivor Africa and a leukemia survivor.

At 6:30, Dr. Mel Goldstein will host a picnic supper with entertainment by local band, 5-Metal Chemistry. Please encourage your patients to attend with their families. I hope to see many of the clinicians and caregivers in attendance as well.

To register, please email Emily Fenton.

Yale Cancer Center Annual Scientific Retreat

I hope you have Tuesday, May 31 marked on your calendars for our annual scientific retreat on Yale's West Campus.

We will welcome members of the University College of London Cancer Institute, including their director, Chris Boshoff, and hear presentations Roy Herbst, Yossi Schlessinger, and several cancer center members.

Please RSVP to Hilary Prosnitz.

Yale Cancer Center Participates in ASCO

I am looking forward to seeing many of you at the annual ASCO meeting beginning on June 3. Below is a list of participants from Yale Cancer Center during the education and oral abstract sessions. If your schedule permits, I hope you will take time to add these to your agenda.

Please send Renee Gaudette poster session information for inclusion in the May 27 issue of DirectConnect so we can highlight all of the participation from YCC at this year's meeting.

Howard Hochster, Scientific Program Committee Member

Educational Session

Friday, June 3; 1:00 PM; Arie Crown Theater

High-risk Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma

Francine Foss

Oral Abstract Session

Saturday, June 4; 3:00 PM; Hall D1

Discussion Leader - Gastrointestinal Cancers

Howard Hochster

Oral Abstract Session

Saturday, June 4; 3:15 PM; Arie Crown Theater

Discussion Leader - Melanoma

Mario Sznol

Oral Abstract Session

Monday, June 6; 3:45 PM; S406

A randomized phase II/III trial of a tumor vascular disrupting agent fosbretabulin tromethamine (CA4P) with carboplatin (C) and paclitaxel (P) in anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC): Final survival analysis for the FACT trial

Julie Ann Sosa

Smilow Cancer Hospital

New Cardio-Oncology Program

Dr. Kerry Russell and Dr. Raymond Russell, both Associate Professors of Medicine in Cardiology, co-direct the Cardio-Oncology Program at Smilow Cancer Hospital. The program is designed to help address the cardio-toxic side effects of chemotherapy treatment, as well as the confounding problem of co-existing cardiac disease and cancer. The Program also provides pre-surgical and pre-treatment cardiac evaluation for patients with cancer.

Patients can be referred to the Program by calling (203) 785-2241.

Oncodermatology Clinic to Open on Monday

Dr. Jennifer Choi, Assistant Professor of Dermatology, will lead the Yale Oncodermatology Clinic, which is scheduled to open in Smilow Cancer Hospital starting May 16, 2011. The purpose of the clinic is to serve the dermatologic needs of cancer patients. Such issues include very dry skin, itching, skin changes as side effects from chemotherapy including rashes, nail and hair changes, skin infections, cancer involvement of the skin, radiation dermatitis, and other changes due to radiation. In addition, Dr. Choi specializes in caring for patients with skin cancer, including melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancer, beginning with rigorous skin screening examinations to detect skin cancers and sun damage and optimize prevention and therapy.

The clinic will be located on the 8th floor and is scheduled to be open every Monday afternoon from 1-5:30 p.m.

Physician referrals are encouraged; please call (203) 785-2442 to schedule an appointment. The clinic is designed to accommodate both routine and urgent visits.

Notables

Nita Maihle, PhD, Professor of Obstetrics/Gynecology and Pathology, Beth Jones, PhD, MPH, and Jason Wilken, PhD have been awarded a $270,000 grant from Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

The award will be used to study healthcare disparities in Hispanic women with breast cancer, and will support two trainees from backgrounds disproportionately affected by disparities in breast cancer.

Narendra Wajapeyee, PhD is the recipient of a Sidney Kimmel Scholar Award to support his project, Deciphering and Targeting RAS-mutant Cancers. The $200,000 award is given in recognition of the promise of young cancer researchers.

Dr. Wajapeyee is an Assistant Professor of Pathology and a member of the Yale Cancer Center Signal Transduction Research Program.

Research in the News

Yale Researchers Explain Why Cancer "Smart Drugs" May Not Be So Smart
Some of the most effective and expensive cancer drugs, dubbed "smart drugs" for their ability to stop tumors by targeting key drivers of cancer cell growth, are not effective in some patients. In two related studies, Yale School of Medicine researchers examined one such driver, the EGF receptor (EGFR), and found that a decoy receptor might be limiting the amount of drug that gets to the intended target.
In a study published recently in the journal Cancer, Yale Cancer Center member Nita Maihle and her team isolated a protein from human blood that looks like EGFR, but is actually a closely related variant called serum sEGFR. They showed that Cetuximab binds equally as well to serum sEGFR as it does to the intended EGFR cancer target.
Those study results showed that sEGFR might act as a decoy receptor in the blood of cancer patients, tying up Cetuximab and therefore limiting the amount of Cetuximab that actually gets to the intended target.
Learn More >>

Funding and Award Opportunities

Breast Cancer Alliance Young Investigator Grant

To encourage a commitment to breast cancer research, the Breast Cancer Alliance invites clinical doctors and
research scientists who have been appointed to a position equivalent to Assistant Professor within three years of
the appointment, and whose primary focus is breast cancer research, to apply for funding for the Young
Investigator Grant.

Application Deadline:

July 31, 2011

Find a Doctor

May 13, 2011