Category: Events

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CCSG Events Research

Getting ready for spring

I don’t know about you, but knowing that Spring Training has started gives me some hope that Winter is finally winding down! It will feel good to walk around without needing a coat.

As always, this is a very busy time of the year. Last week, John Marshall and I had a very interesting conference call regarding a new vaccine that could be used in pancreatic cancer patients. This week, Khaled El Shami, Carolyn Hurley, and I are meeting with the NCI bone marrow transplant program people to further develop an exciting allogeneic natural killer cell infusion protocol for refractory myeloid leukemia patients. This collaboration truly represents an integrated clinical and laboratory research initiative with our NCI colleagues.

And, on Wednesday, Anton Wellstein showed me some really interesting data from the new Translational Laboratory headed by Narayan Shivapurkar, who joined us in January from the University of Texas, Southwestern, where he worked with John Minna. This laboratory plans to use multiplexed protein and phosphoprotein detection assays on a novel instrument, the Meso Scale Discovery Platform, and the data thus far indicate that a sensitive and fairly comprehensive analysis of key protein phosphorylation events can be monitored using small tissue samples. This tool should greatly expand our capacity to conduct correlative science in the context of clinical trials; if you have any questions, check with Anton or Narayan. Narayan is also developing microRNA expression assays; the very early returns are encouraging. Once the assays have been successfully developed, they too can serve to extend our clinical trial support repertoire. Needless to say, both the phosphorylation and microRNA technologies will prove to be valuable for all types of science that is done at Lombardi.

I’ve also had some interesting meetings in the last week. For example, I participated in a conference call with our Population Science focused External Scientific Advisory Committee (ESAC) on Monday, and received helpful suggestions and very positive feedback as we head into the homestretch for our CCSG submission. I’ll have more information about this at Wednesday’s Town Hall Meeting.

On that note, have a great rest of the week and please make sure to join us at the Lombardi Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday, March 4th.

Categories
Events Outreach

Support Lombardi’s Avon Walk Team

In a horrifying convergence of the forces of nature, my wife Harriet has joined with Jeanne Mandelblatt to take a lead role in Lombardi’s support for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. As many of you know, Jeanne has long been associated with this effort and Peter Shields has made remarkable contributions to oversee the Medical Team that supports the walk. Last year the Lombardi effort was spirited, but relatively small. As a recipient of generous support of the Avon Foundation and to support the incredibly important cause that inspires the event, I am hoping that Lombardi will really ramp up its presence at this year’s event.

Already the team has swelled to 13 members – each of whom has pledged to raise at least $1,800 from friends, family, and other sources. However, there’s no reason why the team can’t be much larger. Moreover, the team could sure benefit from support at the various cheering stations along the route. If you can, I urge you to join the Walking Team, to cheer them on, or sign up for the Medical Team.

Let’s show Washington that Lombardi really cares and aim to have the largest team of any comprehensive cancer center at the Walk.

Categories
Clinic Events Research

Exciting projects for the New Year

I very much enjoyed attending the clinic’s holiday party on Wednesday, and I was impressed by Tod Greene’s excellent taste in music. I’m looking forward to tonight’s Lombardi-wide celebration as well.

I was very pleased by the positive response when I presented at last week’s Committee on Medical Center Affairs (COMCA) Board meeting. Our COMCA members are incredibly knowledgeable, deeply engaged, and very interested in helping the cancer center succeed in its mission. I came with a 12 slide presentation, but could only get through 9 slides because I was peppered by so many questions. While some of the COMCA members primarily have backgrounds in business, several of them are extremely knowledgeable about medical center operations and provided valuable feedback and informed advice.

I had the pleasure of meeting with Subha Madhavan yesterday to review the status of the G-DOC effort. It seems hard to believe she’s only been here for 3 months since she’s been an absolute whirlwind of activity since her arrival. I’m extremely excited to see our ideas transforming into tangible action, and am very excited to see what happens in the next 3 months.

I was gratified that my comments about Mike Pishvaian’s Drug Discovery and Developmental Therapeutics meeting generated such a nice response. Mike has organized a follow-up meeting on January 6th at 4 pm in E501, and we look forward to identifying the most promising clinical trial concepts for cancer center investment and rapid activation.

Categories
Events Outreach

Greetings from Miami

Greetings from Miami, where I am attending the AACR Tumor Immunology Conference. The high today was 75 degrees. Cuban coffee is wonderful.

I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving as we head into the full force of the holiday season. As you do your holiday shopping, please remember to check out shopforcancercures.org, which is a fundraising initiative of the Cancer Research Alliance; a portion of sales through that organization goes to the 11 member institutions (including Lombardi).

Things are very busy as we prepare for the meeting of the Committee on Medical Center Affairs (COMCA) of the Board of the Directors. I always look forward to the opportunity to share my vision and excitement about the cancer center, and the Board has proven to share in that enthusiasm.

I hope everyone stays warm (I guess I’ll miss Miami when I return to DC tomorrow).

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Events

A Great Week

Sorry I missed you last week, but I was a little busy. We had an opportunity to host a delegation from the largest hospital in China last week. The Chinese PLA 301 General Hospital – also known as Hospital 301 – is, I am told, the Chinese equivalent of a hybrid of Massachusetts General Hospital and Walter Reed Hospital. The chairman of the Chinese Traditional Medicine Department presented his work on using traditional medicines to limit radiation therapy-related injury to the lung, and several Lombardi investigators described our work in drug discovery and establishing G-DOC. There’s strong interest from both sides in continuing to explore collaboration opportunities.

It was also very interesting to be a guest for dinner at the Chinese Embassy where I learned the elaborate rituals for drinking shots of a traditional liquor called Maotai. I lost count after the 7th toast, but our hosts seemed to have a very good time.

However, the true highlight of the week for me occurred on Wednesday. I was in Philadelphia for a cancer center site visit and the baseball gods decreed that my beloved Phillies should win the World Series while I was in town. I got to join a horde of surprisingly well-behaved Philadelphians in an impromptu victory parade that lasted well into the night. Hence, the absence of a blog last week…

Like many of you, I was up far too late on election night this week. It’s hard to know how the changes in the administration and Congress will affect the work we do here at Lombardi. However, President-Elect Obama has previously indicated a desire to double the NCI budget in 5 years. I don’t have to tell you how I would feel if he and Congress are able to deliver on that particular promise.

Harriet and I are wondering whether we should watch the inaugural parade in person, from our home, or if we should get out of town. We’ll probably hang around because it should be quite a remarkable occasion.

And while I can’t promise that next week’s Town Hall meeting will be as remarkable as a Presidential Inauguration, I do hope to see you all there.

Categories
Clinic Events

Congratulations to Lucile Adams-Campbell

I have the distinct pleasure of announcing that Lucile Adams-Campbell has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (read the press release). This is a remarkable achievement. I am sure you’ll join me in congratulating Lucile. As you know, Lucile recently joined us, and this external recognition further reinforces my delight in having her at Lombardi. Stay tuned for news about a special reception to recognize her achievement.

Dr. Potter with his portrait.
Dr. Potter with his portrait.

I really enjoyed last Friday’s lecture and reception honoring Dr. John Potter. I know the recognition of his founding contributions meant a lot to him. If you haven’t seen his portrait, check it out by the elevators in the Lombardi lobby.

Thursday is a big day for me, as I finally start seeing patients again. I’ll only have one half-day of clinic per week, but I can assure you that patient care is very important to me, and I am convinced that the humbling responsibility that comes with the territory inspires me and lends added urgency to my research and my research ambitions for Lombardi. What we all do really matters.

Finally, plans for submitting our competitive CCSG renewal are humming along. We have received first drafts for all the programs and cores, and now the hard work of reviewing the write-ups (I will be ably assisted by a small army of internal reviewers) has begun. After one round of revisions, the write-ups will go out to our ESAC for their review and comments.

That’s all for this week.

Categories
Education Events Research

Celebrating Lombardi’s Past, Present & Future

One of the most remarkable features of Lombardi is that our total funding for research actually rose over the past six years, despite the end of the NCI doubling in 2003. This certainly reflects the excellence of our investigators, as we all compete in much deeper and more treacherous funding waters than in the past. So, I am delighted to report that we continue to compete very successfully. For example, our T32 grant, which supports many of our most important educational programs, fared extremely well in review, and will be highly competitive for a favorable funding decision. Congratulations and thanks to Anna Riegel for taking the lead on this very important initiative.

I spent Monday and Tuesday in Chicago, at the AACI meeting, with other Cancer Center Directors. One session focused on the importance of creating tissue banks, and developing high-quality methods for accessing, processing and distributing tissue specimens. We are fortunate to have developed a powerful collaboration with Indivumed to facilitate these activities; needless to say, this will be a fundamental backbone of efforts to create integrated clinical and molecular cancer databases. John Niederhuber, the Director of the NCI, gave a very thoughtful address, and was mercifully spared the onerous task of defending federal funding decisions regarding the NCI budget during the question and answer period.

Speaking of Dr. Niederhuber, I hope everyone will attend the inaugural John F. Potter, MD, Distinguished Lecture, which will be held at 4 pm today in the Gorman Building auditorium. We are honored by Dr. Niederhuber’s presentation of his lecture, but it is important to recognize that he in turn joins us in honoring Dr. John Potter, who is the founding director of the Lombardi Cancer Center. Dr. Potter was on the team of doctors that cared for Vince Lombardi, and occupies a special place in the history of Georgetown University and the Medical Center for having recognized, advocated and developed the Cancer Center. We are all here today because Dr. Potter had the vision and energy to make cancer research and cancer care a priority at Georgetown. To commemorate Dr. Potter’s accomplishments, a reception will follow his comments and Dr. Niederhuber’s presentation, with a rededication of his portrait, which currently hangs in the Martin Marietta conference room, to a more prominent location in the Atrium of the Lombardi building. I do hope you can join us for this memorable event.

Categories
Clinic Events

Hope on Wheels

On Wednesday, Lombardi hosted the now annual Hyundai Hope on Wheels Event. This year, Aziza Shad’s pediatric survivorship program received a $40,000 check from the Washington area Hyundai dealers, bringing their contributions to more than $200,000 over the past five years. The touching handprint ceremony celebrates the achievements of our pediatric team and the brave patients we serve. In recognition of the event, DC Mayor Adrian Fenty proclaimed Wednesday, September 24th, 2008, the official Hope on Wheels Day for the District of Columbia.

Hope on Wheels
Hope on Wheels

On that note, I hope that many of you have had a chance to meet Joe Teague, who is spearheading Lombardi’s Advancement efforts. Joe is working hard to identify and expand our donor base, and we are putting together case statements for our high priority initiatives. You’ll hear more about them in the near future. We are fortunate to have unified and powerful support for our fundraising efforts from all of the important stakeholders at Georgetown. We need to be patient, since it will take time to create and benefit from having a real fundraising engine, but I am very optimistic.

For next week, please mark your calendars to attend the Fisher Center’s first annual lecture coming up on Thursday. The speaker, Dr. Steven Narod, was named the most highly cited scientist in the world in the field of breast cancer.

Finally, I spent time in the Lombardi clinic yesterday so John Deeken could show me the ropes. My first day seeing patients is in the middle of next month. While I’ll have to keep my practice small, I really look forward to getting back to patient care; I am always inspired by my patients, and reminded that cancer research should always be conducted with the knowledge that people depend on us to help them. We have lots of work to do!

Categories
Events Research

My Blue Suede Shoes

 

I’m glad to be back at work, though my schedule has been pretty hectic this week.

My blue suede shoes
My blue suede shoes

In my last post, I neglected to mention the fabulous Doo Wop Concert for Cancer, held at the Warner Theater on October 6. Thanks to the fabulous efforts of the organizing committee the theater was full, and everyone seemed to have a great time (special kudos to Paul Schweitzer and Jack Schneider, and to Elena Jeannotte for carrying on the great work started by Bonnie Roberts). I do not know what I will do with the blue suede shoes I purchased for the occasion, though I am open to suggestions. We raised a lot of money for Lombardi programs, and I hope we will have similar events in future years. And, don’t forget that the Gala will be back next year!

For those of you who did not attend, we had a very nice reception yesterday in the E501 conference room to congratulate Chip Albanese, Rabindra Roy, Offie Soldin, and Ken Tercyak on their promotions. Expect this to become a Lombardi tradition. It was also great to see Arnie Potosky and Subha Madhaven at the reception, so I could informally welcome them too, as new members of our faculty.

I was at the Georgetown University Board of Directors meeting on Thursday morning, and as always, came away impressed by the commitment of the Board to the success of Lombardi.

Finally, I really enjoyed Jeff Toretsky’s research presentation this week. It is always fun to witness the early development of exciting translational research initiatives, though I was disappointed that Jeff did not bring his clarinet to play a tune appropriate for the occasion.