December 9, 2011

Breast Center Receives NAPBC Accreditation

I am proud to announce that after months of planning and preparation the Breast Center at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven has received a full, three-year accreditation from the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC). We are the only NCI designated comprehensive cancer center in the Northeast to also hold an accreditation from the NAPBC.

Anees Chagpar and the entire team from the Breast Center worked very hard to ensure we were successfully reviewed and I commend their efforts. In his written report, the surveyor commented, "I have surveyed many good programs and a few great programs, but this is the first superlative program that I've seen...The Breast Center at Smilow Cancer Hospital has all the elements in place that the NAPBC wants in any breast center. It is clearly a 'best practice' and worthy of immediate full accreditation."

Accreditation by the NAPBC is only given to this centers that have voluntarily committed to provide the highest level of quality breast cancer and undergo a rigorous evaluation process.

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Peter Marks Appointed at the FDA

It is with a great sense of pride that I announce that Dr. Peter Marks has been appointed to be the Deputy Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research of the Food and Drug Administration.  Peter was chosen from a group of the nation's top academic physician scientists to provide leadership of the government's efforts to evaluate and regulate new biologic agents including gene therapies and products derived from plasma and blood.  He is also going to have direct influence on our national preparedness for potential bio-terrorism. 

It goes without saying that Peter will be greatly missed at Yale. He is one of the country's finest clinical hematologists and is a skilled administrator.  We will miss his passion for patient care and his enthusiasm for teaching and mentoring the next generation of doctors and nurses.  Most of all we will miss his enthusiasm and friendship that endeared him to his patients and colleagues.  Please join me in congratulating Peter on this tremendous accomplishment.

The NCI Center for Global Health

The Center for Global Health was recently established at NCI and is beginning to plan new efforts and activities in global cancer research. To begin their efforts, the NCI would like to identify a few researchers at Yale, with ongoing international efforts, to begin to establish collaborations. If you are interested in participating, or learning more, please contact Chad Ellis.

YCC and SCH Celebrate the Holidays

Stay for a few minutes or stay for a few hours. Bring your family. And watch out for a guest appearance from one of everyone's favorite holiday characters!    

Smilow Update  

Julie Ann Sosa and Sanziana Roman performed the first posterior retroperitoneal laparoscopic adrenalectomy in Smilow Cancer Hospital on November 29th. The procedure on the 4 cm left adrenal tumor took just 55 minutes to do, record time compared to a traditional transabdominal laparoscopic adrenalectomy. The surgical team used live videoconferencing in the operating room during the procedure with Dr. Nancy Perrier, an endocrine surgeon at MD Anderson Cancer Center with experience in this novel approach. Loretta Grecu was the anesthesiologist during the case.

PRA Team in the OR Following the Surgery

Waun Ki Hong Presented Calabresi Lecture

On November 15, Dr. Waun Ki Hong presented the Paul Calabresi, MD Memorial Lecture at Yale Cancer Center Grand Rounds. Several members of the Calabresi family were in attendance at the lecture, including Dr. Calabresi's son, Peter Calabresi, MD, and his uncle, the Honorable Guido Calabresi. Prior to the lecture members of the family, Dr. Hong, and Yale Cancer Center faculty rededicated the Paul Calabresi Conference Room in WWW 208.

Learn More >> (PDF)

Roy Herbst, Guido Calabresi, Waun Ki Hong, Peter Calabresi, and Tom Lynch

Notables

Five Yale Cancer Center employees were recently recognized for their superb efforts implementing the Patient Protocol Manager (PPM) system at Yale School of Medicine. During last week's PPM focus group meeting, BrieAnna Hamel, Christina Lakomski, Meghan McCarthy, Kimberly Hall, and Dee Radziunas were recognized for their effort in getting all cancer center studies with billable services into PPM.  

In the News 

Gilead cancer strategy relies heavily on Yale

Gilead Sciences Inc. is best known for combining HIV-fighting drugs for AIDS patients, but it may draw on that experience as it pursues a two-pronged strategy in cancer.

After a decade away from the oncology space, Gilead's buyouts of CGI Pharmaceuticals, Arresto Biosciences and Calistoga Pharmaceuticals over the past 18 months allow the Foster City-based biotech giant to hurdle some of the early cancer drug development challenges.

Given less attention, at least after the deal's initial announcement in March, is the company's collaboration with heavy-hitting cancer researchers at Yale University. That $40 million, four-year effort is sequencing various types of tumors to identify new targets.

After checkpoints at four and seven years, the collaboration could total $100 million over 10 years. Definitely longer term, it has "innovation" written all over it.

It's no accident that Gilead picked Yale and Joseph "Yossi" Schlessinger, director of Yale's Cancer Biology Institute, for that long-term investment. It might have a little to do with geography - Gilead has a research facility in nearby Branford, Conn. - but it has a lot more to do with research firepower and a familiarity with moving that work from bench to bedside.
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Tiny Genetic Variation Can Predict Ovarian Cancer Outcome

Yale Cancer Center researchers have shown that a tiny genetic variation predicts chances of survival and response to treatment for patients with ovarian cancer. The findings, published in the journal Oncogene, provide new insights into the biology of a new class of cancer marker and suggest a genetic test may help guide the treatment of women with ovarian cancer.

Women who possess the biomarker identified by the Yale team - a variant of the well-known KRAS oncogene - are three times more resistant to standard platinum chemotherapy than women without the variant. Also, post-menopausal women with the variant are significantly more likely to die from ovarian cancer. About 12-15 percent of Caucasians and 6 percent of African-Americans are born with the variant of the gene, which helps regulate destruction of damaged cells. This variant is found in up to 25% of newly diagnosed ovarian cancer patients.

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Novel nanoparticle mimicking virus offers new route to gene therapy
Researchers at Yale University have developed a novel nanoparticle with promising applications in gene therapy, a type of medical treatment that addresses the root causes of diseases now typically treated for symptoms.

The advance could lead to new therapies for many forms of cancer, including brain tumors, as well as for cystic fibrosis and Huntington's Disease.

"The systems we developed could be used for any kind of gene therapy," said W. Mark Saltzman, professor and chair of biomedical engineering at Yale and a principal investigator of a paper on these findings, published Dec. 4 online in the journal Nature Materials. "Using novel chemistry, we synthesized a new family of polymers and produced materials that are unlike any that have been used before."

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San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium

Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven were once again well represented at this week's San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research. The following research was presented at this meeting from Yale:

Impact of Quantitative Measurement of HER2, HER3, HER4, EGFR, ER and PTEN Protein Expression on Benefit to Adjuvant Trastuzumab in Early-Stage HER2+ Breast Cancer Patients in NCCTG N9831 

Perez EA, Ballman KV, Reinholz MM, Dueck AC, Cheng H, Jenkins RB, McCullough AE, Chen B, Davidson NE, Martino S, Kaufman PA, Kutteh LA, Sledge GW, Geiger XJ, Ingle JN, Tenner KS, Harris LN, Gralow JR, Rimm DL.

Quantitative Measurement of Antigen Degradation in NCCTG N9831 Tissue Microarrays 

Cheng H, Rimm DL, Reinholz MM, Lingle WL, Ballman KV, Dueck AC, Chen B, McCullough AE, Jenkins RB, Perez EA.

Do Serum Cytokines Predict Breast Cancer Behavior? 

Lush E, Dedert E, Daup M, Dhabhar F, Spiegel D, Tillie J, McMasters K, Sephton SE, Chagpar A.  

Changes in Gene Expression after One Dose of Trastuzumab (T) in HER2+ Breast Cancer Cell Lines Predict Novel Pathways of Response in HER2 Positive Early Stage Breast Cancer 

Sprecher E, Lezon-Geyda K, Sarkar S, Bossuyt V, Narayaan M, Kumar A, Krop I, Winer E, Tuck D, Kleinstein S, Harris L.

Nuclear Localization of Stat5a Predicts Response to Antiestrogen Therapy and Prognosis of Clinical Breast Cancer Outcome 

Peck AR, Witkiewicz AK, Liu C, Klimowicz AC, Stringer GA, Pequignot E, Freydin B, Yang N, Tran TH, Rosenberg AL, Hooke JA, Kovatich AJ, Shriver CD, Rimm DL, Magliocco AM, Hyslop T, Rui H.

Preanalytical Variables Affect Protein Expression in Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded Tissue - Assessment of Intrinsic Controls To Define Tissue Quality for Immunohistochemical Analysis 

Neumeister VM, Lostritto K, Siddiqui S, Anagnostou V, Vassilakopoulou M, Zarrella EA, Molinaro AM, Hicks DG, Rimm DL.

A 3'UTR Functional Variant in BRCA1: A Predictor of Poor Outcome in Breast Cancer 

Dorairaj JJ, Miller N, Newell J, Kerin MJ, Weidhaas JB.

Hormone Receptor Heterogeneity in Ductal Intraepithelial Neoplasia (Ductal Carcinoma In Situ) of the Breast 

Sowden M, Flynn C, Bossuyt V, Lannin D, Chagpar AB.

Next Generation RNA Sequencing Reveals Changes in Gene Expression and Alternative Splicing upon Brief Exposure to Therapy in Early Breast Cancer 

Varadan V, Kamalakaran S, Janevski A, Banerjee N, Lezon-Geyda K, Bossuyt V, Flowers D, Sikov W, Abu-Khalaf M, Rizack T, Dimitrova N, Harris LN.

Sno/miRNA Expression Via Next Generation Sequencing: Variation in Patients before and after Treatment 

Banerjee N, Kamalakaran S, Varadan V, Janevski A, Lezon-Geyda K, Bossuyt V, Flowers D, Sikov W, Abu-Khalaf M, Rizack T, Harris L, Dimitrova N.

How Generalizable Is the Patient Population Enrolled in ACOSOG Z11? 

Lannin DR, Killelea BK, Grube BJ, Horowitz N, Chagpar AB.

Clinical Validation of Immunohistochemical Signature Predictive of Patients' 8 Year Outcome in Node Negative Breast Carcinomas 

Charpin C, Tavassoli F, Giusiano S, Secq V, Villeret J, Garcia S, Lavaut M-N, Bonnier P, Birnbaum D, Iovanna J.

Development Update

Give Closer to Free - A Holiday Gift of Hope 

A recent donor to the Closer to Free Fund shared the following with us:  "I just want to thank you for your recent card and for giving me an opportunity to donate.  I am not working at the time, but I am enclosing a small check.  Maybe there will be more than one cure for cancer as you say."  

As this year draws to a close, encourage your friends and family to make a gift to Closer to Free in your honor - or make a donation yourself for that hard-to-please person on your list.  A unique and personalized card will be prepared and sent to the recipient in time for the holidays.  You will receive an acknowledgement of your donation and a tax-receipt for your use.  

Employee Profile:

Rhonda Naylor

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

Rhonda Naylor is a Clinical Referral Specialist in the Breast

"My goal is to make it as easy a process as possible for patients. The last thing they need to worry about is billing issues, and to be able to help put them at ease is a great accomplishment for me," said Rhonda.

Rhonda has been in her current position for a year and a half and has always been interested in the medical field, but decided to go the business route instead. She is now able to combine both of her interests into one career. Her manager, Maria Michelangelo, commented, "Rhonda is a great asset to the Breast Center and the organization. She is professional and well rounded. Her warm personality compliments her outstanding customer service ethics, and that is what makes her stand out!"

Funding Opportunities 

TSA SPIRiT Consortium Pilots (PATS)- Yale Funding Opportunity   

Yale University, along with The Johns Hopkins University, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, and Washington University in St. Louis, comprise the SPIRiT Consortium of the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award Program.

The Yale Center for Clinical Investigation as part of SPIRiT, the Sharing Partnership for Innovative Research in Translation, is pleased to announce the 

Letter of Intent Deadline: December 16, 2011

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NCI Administrative Supplement to Enhance Collaborations with Chinese Scientists

The National Cancer Institute is participating in an NIH initiative to enhance ongoing research efforts through collaborations with Chinese scientists under the new U.S.-China Program for Biomedical Research Cooperation. This Administrative Supplement opportunity is available only to active research projects that are supported by specified NIH funding mechanisms. All the requests for supplemental funding must be based on collaborations involving eligible awardees and qualifying Chinese investigators.

Application Deadline: February 21, 2012