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Issue 2 | November, 2022
Director's Message
It is a pleasure to reflect back on the last three months of tremendous growth at the Legorreta Cancer Center. In early October we were excited to publish a story in the journal Nature that highlighted, on an international scale, the partnerships and progress that we have made. New recruits to Brown, Lifespan, and Care New England strengthen our ability to care for patients, search for new treatment targets, and help train the next generation of physicians and scientists. A new faculty search is underway at Brown as we seek to hire additional talent in the area of cancer biology and therapeutics. These faculty will partner with our physicians to help move the science toward new discoveries that will ease the cancer burden in our community.
As we move into the holiday season, I’d like to take this opportunity to give thanks to all who have helped the Legorreta Cancer Center live up to its potential and to wish you each a holiday season filled with health and happiness.
Wafik S. El-Deiry, MD, PhD, FACP
Associate Dean, Oncologic Sciences
Director, Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University
Director, Joint Program in Cancer Biology
Research
Sheldon L. Holder, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, has garnered several awards recently to support his work on genitourinary cancers. He received a $75,000 Kidney Cancer Association Trailblazer Award to study the application of an approved prostate cancer drug in kidney cancer. In October, Holder won "CureAccelerator Live for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion 2022," a competitive funding program sponsored by Cures Within Reach. Their mission is to leverage the speed, safety, and cost-effectiveness of testing already approved therapies for new indications. Holder’s project proposed reusing the prostate cancer drug degarelix to treat bladder cancer and received $70,000.
In addition, Holder, Hina Khan, assistant professor of medicine, clinician educator, and Emily Hsu, assistant professor of medicine, received $240,000 Bristol Myers Squibb-Association to Accelerate Cancer Research grants to increase minority enrollment in clinical trials in lung and prostate cancer.
New Grant
Michelle Dawson, PhD, assistant professor of molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry, received a $1.7 million R01 award to study invasive and chemoresistant ovarian cancer from the National Cancer Institute.
Faculty Recruit
Robert W. Sobol, PhD, has joined the Legorreta Cancer Center as associate director for Basic Research and the co-leader of the Cancer Biology Program. He was previously chief of the Molecular and Metabolic Oncology Program at the Mitchell Cancer Institute, University of South Alabama.
Brain Cancer Findings
Researchers have demonstrated in mice a new approach for delivering medication across the blood-brain barrier to treat glioblastoma, an aggressive, lethal brain cancer. Not only were they able to get a drug into the brain, but to deliver it at a concentration that should be able to kill tumor cells.
Community
Legorreta Cancer Center faculty and staff are a fixture at community events such as the Gloria Gemma Passport to Survivorship (above). The Cancer Center team brings cancer screening information to events all over Rhode Island, like the Puerto Rican Bay Fest and Blackstone Community Health Fair. The Cancer Center was also represented at advocacy events such as the American Cancer Society-Cancer Action Network 9th Annual Rhode Island Research Breakfast held in October and the Annual Cancer Summit hosted by the Partnership to Reduce Cancer in Rhode Island. Community outreach and advocacy are a core part of the Legorreta Cancer Center's mission.
Cancer Summit's Community Partnership Award
The Program in Women’s Oncology at Women & Infants’ Hospital, represented by Paul DiSilvestro, MD, and Jennifer Scalia-Wilbur, PhD, received the Community Partnership Award for their contribution to the signing of the Genetic Counselors Licensing Act.
New Legislation
The Rhode Island General Assembly has approved legislation introduced by Rep. Joseph M. McNamara and Sen. Joshua Miller to create a program to redistribute unused prescription medications to aid people who cannot afford their prescriptions.
Education
Pathobiology graduate student Lindsey Carlsen won best poster at the 2022 WIN (Worldwide innovative networking in personalized cancer medicine) Consortium meeting in Barcelona, Spain, in October. Lindsey's oral presentation and poster detailed clinically relevant chemotherapy treatments that enhance immune cell killing of colorectal cancer cells.
Diversity in Clinical Trials
Wafik El-Deiry, MD, PhD, director of the Legorreta Cancer Center, commented on the need to address the lack of diversity in cancer clinical trials in an article for Oncology Nurse Advisor.
