Category: Weekly post

I am knee-deep in CCSG preparations; the grant is due in two months. I was reviewing my Director’s Overview this weekend. In the heat of the moment, it is challenging to maintain perspective, but I truly marvel at what we have accomplished over the past five years. I thought I would share some of those accomplishments in this blog. Please recall that the CCSG, while it is vitally important, does not encompass all we do. I think it’s a pretty impressive list nevertheless.

We have:

• Increased our cancer-focused peer-reviewed funding by 51%, and it is still rising. Some of this derives from our consortium partner at John Theurer Cancer Center/Hackensack Meridian Health. This is a remarkable increase in only five years.
• Added about 30 Georgetown Lombardi members in accord with our Strategic Plan priorities. These members hold $46.2M total direct cancer-focused peer reviewed funding; 10 are based in New Jersey.
• Added about 30 Georgetown Lombardi members who focus on clinical research (many of them external recruits) in accord with Strategic Plan priorities.
• Refreshed and diversified leadership; six of the current 17 Senior and Program Leaders were externally recruited; eight are women. Diversification has also occurred in our internal and external committees.
• Completed 75% of our prior 2017-2023 Strategic Plan; given changes in our Consortium and cancer landscape, we implemented a new 2021-2026 Strategic Plan with enhanced vision, mission and strategic goals.
• Through the strategic planning process, realigned Georgetown Lombardi research around three CCSG research programs: Cancer Cell Biology, Cancer Host Interactions, and Cancer Prevention and Control. The result has been increased scientific impact, evidenced by 974 unique peer reviewed publications (not including reviews, chapters, etc.), with 29% having Impact Factors greater than 10.
• Formally integrated Community Outreach and Engagement and integrated initiatives across the Consortium.
• Strengthened interactions across the Consortium, exemplified by our retreat this coming weekend.
• Increased Clinical Research Management Office staffing and improved processes that include accelerating time to activation and focus on investigator-initiated trials. Interventional therapeutic clinical trial accruals (523 in 2022) have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels across the Consortium.
• Established a new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office.
• Expanded administrative staff to support growing Georgetown Lombardi operations, consortium activities, new services to members and leaders, and new strategic planning initiatives.
• Increased the number of cancer-focused training grants (three T32s, four K awards, four F awards) and cancer-research education activities across the education continuum.
• Invested $11.6M in Shared Resources instrumentation across the Georgetown Lombardi Consortium.
• Received substantial institutional commitments to support Georgetown Lombardi’s trajectory per the Strategic Plan.
• Enhanced the clinical enterprise by unifying the efforts of the Hematology/Oncology divisions at MGUH and MWHC.
• Expanded Georgetown Lombardi’s efforts in the hematologic malignancies and cellular therapy (both stem cell transplants and cellular therapies such as CAR-T cells).

I don’t have room to crow about all of our high-impact papers. But we have good reason to be proud of our collective accomplishments, undeterred by the pandemic and its smoldering aftermath. Thanks to you, our future is bright indeed.

Stay safe and be well.

Lou

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.

I think I am done with red-eye flights. Last week, I had to fly out to Tucson on Thursday morning for a meeting of the University of Arizona Cancer Center’s External Advisory Board. The meeting ended at about 4 p.m. on Friday, and there were no evening flights back east from Tucson. I chose to fly home on the 12:50 a.m. red-eye from Phoenix, reasoning that I would be able to have more of the weekend at home. Well, I was wrong.

The trip was uneventful, and I got a bit of sleep on the plane. I made it home, slept for about three hours and then took two more naps. I finally felt like a human by about 4 p.m. on Saturday (about when I would have landed had I taken a Saturday-morning flight). When I was a medical resident, sleep disruption would have been better tolerated. I guess that ship has sailed. Lesson learned…

Prior to that trip, my week was dominated by pancreatic cancer. Last Friday marked the 50th anniversary of my paternal grandmother’s death from that disease. She lived three months following the diagnosis and spent the last two weeks of her life in a coma. One week after her death, I received my first acceptance to a medical school. I was very close with her; how I wish I could have shared that news with her.

Looking back on that time, I believe her illness guided my career path, even though I was largely unconscious to that impact for many years. On the anniversary date, I finished my resubmission of an R01 that focuses on pancreatic cancer; three days later I gave a lecture about that work at Johns Hopkins, and the day after that I gave the same presentation to my CHI program colleagues.

If my work in pancreatic cancer somehow leads to improved understanding and treatment of that dreadful disease, it will honor the memory of my grandmother and the countless others who have suffered and died at its hands. If not, at least I will know I tried as hard as I could. I’d even be willing to take more red-eyes to make it happen.

Stay safe and be well.

Lou

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.

I hope you had a great week and weekend.

CCSG preparations are heating up, and I was so distracted that I ran out of time to write a thoughtful blog this past weekend. I’ll resume next week; until then stay safe and be well.

Lou

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.

Only about 10 months to go! BellRinger 2023 is off to a good start, with 112 riders signed up as of February 24.

When I think about the 2022 BellRinger ride, I can’t help but remember how this started. I had witnessed some notably successful cancer fundraising bike rides around the country, and also knew that success required a great cause, first-rate organizational support and a community that would rise to the challenge. Buoyed by the very positive experience of Pelotonia, a charity bike ride that benefits cancer research at The Ohio State University, we took the plunge in 2019, aiming to start in 2021. We were so fortunate to have fabulous commitment from Georgetown University, and engaged with very experienced race organizers to maximize our chances for success. It was off to the (non) races!

Of course, the pandemic had other ideas, so the first official BellRinger ride was held this past October. At first, the going was rough, since we could not do the expected level of in-person engagement to build ridership due to pandemic precautions, but over time momentum built, and by the weekend of the ride, we had more than 800 registered riders. I could feel the “buzz” all around me, starting with the Friday-evening festivities on campus. By Saturday, morning the buzz had transformed into a roar. It was simply fabulous.

So was the ride. I was able to do only 25 miles, as I was recovering from COVID. To be sure, some inclines felt like hills, and some hills felt like the Himalayas, but we got through it. Everything about the experience was first class. It was a lot of fun! But make no mistake about it; it was fun in the service of an important mission. BellRinger is a ride, not a race, but we are in a race to prevent, intercept, treat and cure cancer. The momentum generated will resonate for years to come.

The ride benefits Georgetown Lombardi and, as you know, our focus is on lifesaving research and patient care. BellRinger helps by building a community of patients, their loved ones, doctors, nurses and researchers, all committed to ending cancer as we know it. I have so many wonderful memories of the ride, but I will never forget the big white cube, where participants used Sharpies to write messages about their own cancer-related experiences or in honor of a loved one. It was powerful and deeply moving. The BellRinger community is proof that we can come together to make a big difference.

The money raised by BellRinger has been used to support high-impact cancer research by Georgetown Lombardi scientists such as Dr. David Robbins, who studies abnormal signals used by colon and brain cancers to support their survival. His discoveries will lead to important new therapies for these cancers. Every dollar raised is used with one purpose in mind: to save lives. The bigger the ride, the more money we raise, enabling more research and saving more lives. So, as I look forward to the 2023 ride in October, my biggest hope is that we at least double our ridership, build an even stronger community, and save more lives through the work that we do. I am sure of one other thing — it will be a lot of fun!

Stay safe, be well, and join the BellRinger community! I hope to see you at the ride in October.

Lou

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.

I really thought the Eagles were going to win the Super Bowl. It would have been so nice. But sports, like life, can be both thrilling and disappointing. One never knows what next year might bring, but Philly should be competitive next year as well. We shall see. On to baseball …

The week was very busy, filled with budget meetings. One scientific highlight was a joint lab meeting with Alejandro Villagra and his team. It was really fascinating to learn about our respective research areas, and to think about opportunities for future collaborations. Another highlight was Friday’s MedStar Georgetown Joint Scientific and Education Council retreat, the first in-person retreat since the onset of the pandemic. It was very nice to see people in three dimensions again!

I spent the long holiday weekend working on my R01 submission and edited a few sections of our CCSG application. When not working, we spent some time in Ellicott City with Elana, and then in DC with our kids and their families. Harriet and I got in a few nice walks when the weather was nice.

The coming week will be busy, kicked off by a meeting in New York City on Tuesday. Hopefully I’ll get the R01 finished this week, and then will concentrate my efforts on our CCSG submission. We have had a lot of accomplishments since 2018, and I am excited to share them with our reviewers.

Stay safe and be well.

Lou

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.

Greetings on Saturday night. Tomorrow evening is the Super Bowl, between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs. Cheesesteaks and Italian hoagies have been ordered. We are nervously optimistic about the outcome. Whatever happens, it has been a great season for Eagles fans. I am holding my breath.

By the time you read this blog on Monday, we’ll know who won. Until my next blog, stay safe and be well.

Lou

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.

Viruses have spent the weekend visiting my Philadelphia-based family members and acquaintances. My brother and his wife each tested positive for COVID-19 this weekend, shortly after two of their adult daughters recovered from their infections. Meanwhile, our oldest son’s family has spent the weekend suffering from some form of gastroenteritis. We have been planning to visit our son’s family this coming weekend to celebrate a few birthdays, but of course that will now depend on their health. While their infections are likely to be no more than inconveniences in the larger scheme of things, one of our Philly acquaintances, a 78-year-old man with longstanding diabetes (but doing well at the time) contracted COVID a couple of weeks ago, and then rapidly deteriorated and succumbed to viral pneumonia. So, it continues. And to think that I decided that infectious diseases would not be a good career choice for me because all the tough challenges had been met and conquered. Nostradamus can continue to rest easy …

Some combination of us is still hoping to watch the Super Bowl together next weekend. It will be only the fifth time in my life when the Eagles have played for a championship. It should be an exciting game. I attended the 2018 Super Bowl with our youngest son, David; it was a thrilling and cathartic experience when the Eagles won their first Super Bowl. I hope Sunday marks a second win, and this time I hope to share the moment around a TV.

On the work front, not a lot to report, except that several of my longtime patients are in challenging moments of their cancer journeys. One of them, a man in his 40s, will be meeting a hospice team this week. This is a sad and persistent part of being an oncologist, and even after all these years, it doesn’t get easier. Every time I get excited about all the progress being made in the field, one of my patients reminds me that so much work remains to be done.

This will be a big week. I’ll be providing the Georgetown Committee on Medical Center Affairs (COMCA) with an update on our CCSG readiness on Wednesday. On the same day a small group of us will be meeting with the NCI Centers Program leadership and staff for our CCSG pre-application meeting, where I will also provide an update and get their feedback. We expect to receive their formal approval to proceed with our competitive renewal. It is a bit of a formality, but as you can expect, it requires a lot of preparation!

Stay safe and be well.

Lou

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.

It is a beautiful Saturday afternoon. I am writing this week’s blog a day early so I can watch the Eagles play in the NFC Championship game tomorrow. I hope they reward me with a win. I am recovering from a very busy week, as I chaired a CCSG site visit. It was a lot of work! I certainly learned a lot that is relevant to our cancer center, and for that reason alone, it was highly valuable. It was an in-person meeting, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to personally interact with colleagues for several days. That type of camaraderie simply cannot be replicated on Zoom. As I reflect on our upcoming CCSG application, I see quite clearly how our preparations are placing us in a good position for success.

Speaking of success, last year’s BellRinger bike ride raised $1.45M! Cancer does not take time off, and neither do we. Registration for the 2023 BellRinger ride opened this past week, and as of Friday, we already had 54 rider registrations and nine teams formed. The 2022 ride had more than 800 riders, and we are looking to at least double that number in 2023. So, please remember to register, volunteer and do what you can to support this ride, which supports our cancer research efforts.

I simply cannot let go of the events of this past week or two in the world around us. It seems as if every day we were plagued by multiple mass murders in California, violence on the West Bank, murders in a synagogue and evidence of horrific police brutality in Memphis. Closer to home, antisemitic symbols appeared on our own campus. We seemingly live in a world gone mad — and thanks to modern technology, each of us has access to the videos, audio feeds, and bodycams, amplifying the horror, the impact and the inescapable feeling that this is happening to us. And, in a real way, it is.

Have we lost our way? Or do we have a heightened awareness and sensitivity that makes us intolerant of the intolerable? If the former, then we have a big, big problem. If the latter, then perhaps we see the glimmer of a future solution. Problems can’t be solved until they are recognized as such. And that is what I think is going on today. We have big problems, and while some would celebrate or deny the existence or magnitude of the challenges we face as a society and in our world, most people are increasingly intolerant of intolerance, cannot stomach wanton violence and reject hate as an animating principle of life.

Solutions will not be easy, and my guess is that they will evolve only when there is a broad demand for meaningful change that will arise when we return to first principles of acceptance, tolerance, community, family and for many of us, faith. If we can view each other more as neighbors than strangers, and if we remember that common courtesy creates uncommon connectivity, perhaps we can recapture some of the magical innocence of my youth, when children played outside without supervision, front doors were unlocked, we all looked out for each other, and guns were for soldiers and the police.

Here’s hoping for a peaceful week.

Stay safe and be well.

Lou

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.

Greetings from Florida, where Harriet and I are celebrating our anniversary with a brief trip. We read just now that it is about to start snowing in DC. Not happening here! It was a very busy few days before that; I am chairing a cancer center site visit later this week and had a lot of work in that regard. Plus, I revised my R01 grant revision in response to internal review and have sent it out for another round, with a couple of new readers.

Longtime readers of my blog may remember an entry from September 2019, where I wrote about our friend Sandy, who was quite suddenly diagnosed with metastatic adenocarcinoma of the GE junction. I mused about the value of showing up for the people we care about, and marveled at her unusual and inspiring blend of optimism and clear-eyed realism. She has had a remarkable life since then, inhaling life with gusto, traveling around the world with her husband and an ever-shifting coterie of friends and family — all while receiving various standard and investigational chemotherapy regimens. Plus, she scored a hole-in-one (presumably when she was not wearing a pump)! Just a few months ago, we all were together in New York to see our niece’s off-Broadway show. She has been a model of how to live with cancer, on her terms, with joy and determination. Her disease has worsened, she has run out of therapeutic options, and she does not feel well. Sandy knows what this means, accepts it and somehow is maintaining her upbeat style, all the while understanding what is going to happen. I am in awe of her.

She will be starting home hospice in the next week or two. Many people with the same disease would have traded places with her in a heartbeat in 2019. She has outlived any and all reasonable expectations. It has been a great run. She knows it and is appreciative, but I must say that I and everyone who knows her and cares about her are not content. We talk about how we can help people live with cancer, but quite frankly, Sandy’s experience reminds me that I want to beat cancer, not just control it.

That is what we are going to do. Fortunately, there are many people stepping up to help in our mission to end cancer, including the owner of Alexandria Hyundai, Kevin Reilly. This weekend, Kevin led the popular and fun Hyundai Hands On Hope Contest at the Washington, DC Auto Show, where three of our Georgetown Lombardi colleagues competed to win a new car. You can read about the outcome elsewhere in this newsletter. We are so grateful for Kevin’s energy and enthusiasm, and the financial donation made to Georgetown Lombardi on behalf of the Washington Area Hyundai Dealers.

Finally, this should be a time of joy for many in our community as the Lunar New Year observances began on Sunday. Sadly, though, a deadly mass shooting over the weekend at a Lunar New Year celebration in California has dampened the happiness. If you or someone you know needs support coping with this tragedy, you’ll find mental and emotional health and well-being resources on Georgetown’s Every Hoya Cares website.

Stay safe and be well.

Lou

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.

I hope you had a meaningful MLK Day holiday weekend. Georgetown’s celebration of his legacy at its annual Kennedy Center event is a most fitting tribute.

In thinking about Martin Luther King Jr.’s contributions to our society, I find that there are so many lessons, and so much that is worthy of emulation. Lost in my well-deserved respect for Dr. King’s leadership, courage and moral clarity is the fact that he was an extraordinary observer — he understood his world, its problems, its challenges and its opportunities. He was eerily prescient; listen to clips of his interviews, and he described so much of the world we find ourselves living in today. So much has changed, there has been so much progress, but there is so much more left to do.

We can honor him by working to achieve his dream — and make it ours too.

I’ll be away next weekend, so my blog will resume in two weeks.

Stay safe and be well.

Lou

The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.