I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We are back from Philly for a family Thanksgiving weekend at my father’s house. I enjoyed relaxing and eating more than I should. I hope you had a great holiday, too.
To follow up on last week’s blog, our grandson Isaac went home last Monday, but not until he climbed into our bed last Sunday night, and then pounded me in the back at 4:30 am with the happy news that he was 1) awake, 2) hungry and 3) wanted to play. I was none of those things. We were really sorry to see him leave but not so sorry that we didn’t catch up on our sleep. I am still a little tired; I uncharacteristically fell asleep while watching the Georgetown-Indiana basketball game last week. It was probably just as well, since the game was very exciting and the Hoyas eventually lost in overtime. That just would have compounded my sleep deprivation!
Last Monday’s Faculty Sector meeting was jammed with a variety of items, and I was pleased to report that MedStar Health’s excellent financial performance has resulted in a 2012 gainsharing of $13 million with Georgetown University. This presumably will support GUMC activities and create a bit of budgetary bandwidth that can help many medical center activities.
On a somewhat related note, we had a conference call on Tuesday of the Oncology Strategic Planning Committee of our developing cancer network, and we now have a real name (to be announced soon) that will be applied to all clinical and clinical research cancer-related activities at MedStar Health’s hospitals in the Washington region, and possibly beyond as the Network establishes operational traction. As per the strategic plan for the network our clinical trial accruals are pretty much on pace to meet our targets; in the first quarter, we had 81 accruals to therapeutic clinical trials. As Mike Atkins establishes his research studies and Beppe Giaccone does as well, I am confident that we will achieve and likely surpass our goal of 400 therapeutic clinical trial accruals in 2014. This rate of accrual will enable us to have the type of impact that befits a comprehensive cancer center. We want to offer “tomorrow’s treatments today” to cancer patients in our region.
Speaking of which, if you haven’t already, don’t forget to register for this week’s Ruesch Center symposium on clinical research and barriers to patient accrual. It’s this Friday, Nov. 30 from 1-5 pm at Georgetown Hotel & Conference Center, and it is free for GU and MedStar employees.
I only saw one patient last Tuesday, a lovely 69-year-old woman with metastatic duodenal cancer whose disease has worsened despite two distinct chemotherapy regimens. We had to have the “talk” about the advisability of additional chemotherapy, and she has opted for supportive care, which is appropriate, though very sad. I cannot wait for a time when we have better treatments to offer our patients.
I headed straight from that clinic visit to my lab meeting. We have so much good stuff going on that my spirits were lifted; the new tools and concepts that drive modern science surely can be used to help fight cancer more effectively.
Have a great week.