July 6, 2012

Announcements

Daniel Petrylak Named Head of Prostate and GU Medical Oncology

Roy Herbst and I are pleased to announce the appointment of Daniel P. Petrylak, MD, an internationally known medical oncologist, to lead the genitourinary cancers medical oncology team at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven and as director of the prostate cancer research group. Dr. Petrylak joins Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital from New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. He will begin his new appointment at Yale on September 1, 2012. 

Dr. Petrylak is an expert in the treatment of genitourinary (GU) malignancies and is a national leader in clinical trials for advanced prostate cancer. He also conducts research in bladder cancer is the head of the advanced bladder subcommittee of the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) genitourinary committee. Dr. Petrylak has served as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on 7 SWOG protocols. Most notably, he served as the PI for a randomized trial comparing docetaxel and estramustine to mitoxantrone and prednisone in men with hormone refractory prostate cancer. This trial was one of two studies that demonstrated a survival benefit for docetaxel-based therapy in men with advanced prostate cancer and supported the approval of docetaxel for hormone refractory prostate cancer by the FDA.

Howard Hochster, Dan DiMaio, and George Miller

YCC UCL Retreat

Yale Cancer Center and University College London held their 3rd annual joint retreat last week in London to discuss research opportunities and possible collaborations between the two institutions. The retreat followed up on initial discussions from the 2011 retreat at Yale and included 8 presentations from Yale Cancer Center faculty, and a keynote lecture by Richard Flavell.

The UCL-YCC connection continues to benefit cancer research at both institutions, and the retreat featured breakout groups discussing projects related to multi-institutional early phase clinical trials, joint grant proposals, anti-PD-1 immunotherapy, head and neck cancer, and DNA repair. 

Notables

Peter Glazer and Regina Hooley have been awarded grants through the Women's Health Research at Yale program. Dr. Glazer's study will focus on an antibody, 3E10, and its ability to improve the efficacy of chemotherapy and radiation to treat breast and ovarian cancers. Dr. Hooley will use the grant funding to review the results of breast ultrasound screening in Connecticut since 2009 to determine its usefulness in screening women for breast cancer.

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Two Yale Cancer Center members were recently honored with awards from the Yale School of Medicine. Farzana Pashankar received the Department of Pediatrics Teaching Award and Kavita Dhodapkar recently the Department of Pediatrics Junior Faculty Research Award. 

In the News

In Real Time, Yale Scientists Watch Stem Cells at Work Regenerating Tissue

Scientists have for the first time watched and manipulated stem cells as they regenerate tissue in an uninjured mammal, Yale researchers report July 1 online in the journal Nature.

Using a sophisticated imaging technique, the researchers also demonstrated that mice lacking a certain type of cell do not regrow hair. The same technique could shed light on how stem cells interact with other cells and trigger repairs in a variety of other organs, including lung and heart tissue.

"This tells us a lot about how the tissue regeneration process works," said Valentina Greco, Assistant Professor of Genetics and of Dermatology at the Yale Stem Cell Center, researcher for the Yale Cancer Center and senior author of the study.

Greco and her team focused on stem cell behavior in the hair follicle of the mouse. The accessibility of the hair follicle allowed real-time and non-invasive imaging through a technology called 2-photon intravital microscopy.

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News from the Cancer Care Centers

Anne Chiang and Roy Herbst

On June 21, 14 specialists from the Smilow Cancer Hospital clinical programs, including surgery, cardiology, nephrology, interventional pulmonology, and gastroenterology, met with our newest faculty in medical oncology from the Smilow Care Centers as well as from Greenwich to discuss cancer care options through the Smilow Cancer Network.   Physicians from the new Torrington and Sharon Cancer Care Centers also attended. 

Over the last few months, Roy Herbst and Anne Chiang have visited the 6 Cancer Care Centers that joined the Smilow in January and have plans to visit the two newest locations in Torrington and Sharon soon.  

Germ-Cell DNA Bank

The Department of Therapeutic Radiology has been developing a germ-line cancer sample collection of patient's treated at Yale University. There is ample germ-line DNA available, as well as sequenome platform plates being built containing ovarian cancer patients, or containing breast cancer patients. In all cases patients are clinically fully annotated and have cancer specific follow up information. If you are interested in this resource, please contact the study PI, Joanne Weidhaas, for pricing information.

Closer to Free Bike Ride

Employee Profile: Michele Dingus

The Employee Profile recognizes the diverse contributions made by Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital staff have to meet our patient care, research, education, and outreach goals.The staff profiled are examples of the great work being done here, and the dedication and values we possess. To suggest someone to be profiled, please contact Emily Fenton. 

As an Accountant for Yale Cancer Center's Business

Office, Michele Dingus is responsible for the many day to day financial operations for the Cancer Center including billing, expense reports, and purchase orders. She also assists in grant submissions by preparing budgets and applications, including grant progress reports. In order to obtain the necessary information for these, she collaborates with other departments, administrative assistants, and even other universities.

Michele is also responsible for four Internal Service Providers and she assists in the calculation of their rates and oversees the monthly billing process. She works with several principal investigators within the Cancer Center and manages the numerous pilots that are issued to principle investigators in various departments.

"I am very lucky to be part of a team that works well together. It is an extremely rewarding job because I know that everything we do supports cancer research in some way," Michele said.

Michele has been in her current position for almost two years and began at Yale working for the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation.  Having been diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) in 2001, the work she does at the Cancer Center is especially close to her heart. She commented that she enjoys her job because in some way she feels like it helps to facilitate someone else's recovery.

Adam Roshka, Associate Administrator for the Business Office, commented, "Michele is hardworking and dedicated and approaches her responsibilities with an optimistic view. Her ability to handle complex grant budgets and applications, including the Cancer Center Support Grant, has made her an essential member of our team."