The American Association for Cancer Research is pleased to announce that George Prendergast, Ph.D., has been appointed editor-in-chief of Cancer Research, the oldest journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Prendergast, president and CEO of Lankenau Institute for Medical Research in Wynnewood, Pa., will assume the post on January 1, 2010, and serve for five years.

“My goal is to make Cancer Research the top journal for those scientists who are interested in the management and eradication of cancer,” said Prendergast. “There are other journals that present different perspectives on the problem of cancer, but Cancer Research will be the ‘go to’ source for laboratory and translational scientists who are interested in real improvements rather than just interesting concepts.”

Cancer Research is published twice a month, and will celebrate its 70th year of publication in 2011.

“The American Association for Cancer Research is proud to have a prominent scientist like Dr. Prendergast take lead of our premier journal,” said Margaret Foti, Ph.D., M.D. (h.c.), CEO of the American Association for Cancer Research. “His in-depth knowledge of the biological basis for drug development and molecular underpinnings of cancer will help drive the field forward.”

Prendergast had previously served as a senior editor and deputy editor for Cancer Research. He has been honored with numerous accolades from the Pew Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the American Cancer Society. His primary research interests include the molecular and cellular biology of cancer, cancer immunology, preclinical models of cancer progression and therapy and drug discovery and mechanisms. He is an author on several early scientific papers on the mechanisms of action for drugs that are now in clinical development.

Prendergast received his doctorate in molecular biology from Princeton University in 1989, a Master of Science in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University in 1984 and a Bachelor of Arts in biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1983.

Source
American Association for Cancer Research

Can environmental and lifestyle factors
predict whether young girls will be at risk for breast cancer in the
future? That is what the Jersey Girl Study at The Cancer Institute of New
Jersey (CINJ) aims to find out, as it is being expanded to double the
participants in order to obtain a more comprehensive sample. CINJ is a
Center of Excellence of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

The goal of the Jersey Girl Study is to understand how puberty is affected
by environmental, hormonal and nutritional factors in nine- and
ten-year-old girls, who live in the Garden State. Research studies have
clearly identified puberty as a critical window in a woman’s development
that has a major impact on her future risk of developing breast cancer.
According to a 2007 Breast Cancer Fund study, women who started their
period before age 12 have a 50 percent higher risk of developing breast
cancer, compared to those who started at age 16, an important finding
given that the average age at which girls in the United States reach
puberty has been declining.

Elisa Bandera, MD, an epidemiologist at CINJ and assistant professor of
epidemiology at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and UMDNJ-School
of Public Health, is conducting the study. She notes, “Since there is
growing evidence that early life factors have a significant impact on
breast cancer risk, it is critical that we have a better understanding of
what causes the early onset of puberty in young girls. We are hopeful to
use the data from this study to improve the health of this population, as
well as reducing their long-term risk of developing breast cancer.”

According to the American Cancer Society, aside from skin cancer, breast
cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in women. In 2008, there
were 183,000 new cases of breast cancer nationwide and 6,300 new cases in
New Jersey.

Healthy girls aged nine and ten are eligible to take part, although other
criteria must be met. Girls must live with their biological mother so
that personal and family history can be documented. Once eligibility is
determined, data will be collected on environmental exposures and
lifestyle factors including diet and physical activity. Body measurements
(including weight, height and body fat) and puberty scale are recorded,
and urine and saliva samples are collected. Data, which will be kept
completely confidential, will be collected initially over a two-hour
period, followed by annual ten-minute phone calls for two to four years.
More information on the Jersey Girl Study can be found by e-mailing
jerseygirlstudy@umdnj.edu or calling 732-235-9860.

The research study is a collaboration between CINJ, the Environmental and
Occupational Health Sciences Institute (jointly administered by
UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers, The State University
of New Jersey), Robert Wood Johnson Medical School’s Department of
Pediatric Endocrinology, UMDNJ-School of Public Health, and the New Jersey
Family Medicine Research Network.

As New Jersey’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive
Cancer Center, CINJ offers patients access to treatment options not
available at other institutions within the state. CINJ currently enrolls
more than 1,000 patients on clinical trials, including approximately 15
percent of all new adult cancer patients and approximately 70 percent of
all pediatric cancer patients. Enrollment in these studies nationwide is
fewer than five percent of all adult cancer patients.

Source
The Cancer Institute of New Jersey

An effort is under way at the University of Houston to use technologies with origins in the automobile industry to develop new tools that will help doctors and technicians better plan radiation therapy for patients with head and neck cancer.

Dr. Ali Kamrani, founding director of the Design and Free Form Fabrication Laboratory at UH and a former auto industry researcher, is teaming up with Dr. Lei Dong, associate professor and deputy research director of radiation physics at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, to develop predictive models of tumors that hopefully will increase the accuracy of radiation therapy.

“We aim to better understand tumor deformations using geometric and statistical models - rather than repetitive CT scans,” said Kamrani, an associate professor of industrial engineering at the Cullen College of Engineering. “In this case, patients will undergo a minimum number of CT scans, and the radiation plans will be developed using the predictive models.”

Traditional computed tomography sessions, also known as CT scans, require a large series of two-dimensional X-ray images that, when combined, provide detailed three-dimensional images of many types of tissue.

“A CT scan is used to collect information with respect to tumor size, location and volume,” he said. “But the CT scan itself is a source of harmful radiation to body tissues and other organs. During the treatment, patients undergo a series of CT scans, which are costly and tedious.”

Reducing the number of CT scans is a primary objective for Kamrani, because it will reduce patient’s risk to unwanted radiation.

Dong said patients receiving radiation usually have up to 40 treatment sessions, which are administered about five days a week for six to eight weeks. Thanks to computers, the treatment plans are now designed “almost perfectly,” he said, and they may be “too good to be true.”

“A tumor shrinks as it responds to the treatment,” Dong said. “Unfortunately, as they do, the beautiful plan at the beginning may not be optimal for later treatment. Essentially, the patient has changed.”

Since 2000, Dong and his colleagues at M.D. Anderson have been using computerized treatment planning systems, called “intensity-modulated radiation therapy,” to design highly precise dose distributions tailored to the specific shape of the tumor. For the past year, they have been designing new radiation plans that account for changes in the tumor volume and organ position in a selection of patients who are being rescanned daily.

“You can imagine there is lots of new information as you rescan a patient,” Dong said. “Replanning a patient can take between three and five days. It’s a big effort. Then the question becomes: Can we predict how the tumor changes based on a limited number of CT scans? Then, we can decide when to replan during the treatment course.”

Treatment for a head and neck tumor depends upon the type, size and stage of the cancer, where it is located and the patient’s general health.

“Radiation therapy is a compromise between treating the cancer cells and, at the same time, sparing normal cells,” Dong said. “It’s very easy to kill cancer by radiation, but not harming normal organs at the same time can be tricky. So, it’s a delicate, fine balance.”

Kamrani hopes that, based upon initial CT scan readings, the team will be able to classify tumors and predict through radiation models the various stages of their demise.

“The purpose is to create a model to show this trend, with some level of acceptable error, by looking at the initial tumor and classifying it based on these attributes,” Kamrani said. “If there is a correlation, we have to figure out why there is a correlation and then create classification of tumors. So if a patient comes in, and he falls into that attribute, we can say, with some degree of accuracy, the tumor will be of this size at this point.”

As a tumor changes, Dong said, radiation oncologists can reduce the radiation treatment volume.

“Say the tumor shrinks by half. Then you can reduce the target volume and spare the normal tissue,” he said. “Your side effects will be reduced because you’re adapting. The benefit is you’re not compromising the treatment and still reducing the toxicity.”

Dong emphasized the importance of high-quality visualization tools in his field.

“You need that object - that 3-D representation - to make your plan,” he said. “This is a real human patient. It’s not a theory. It’s both.”

Kamrani has a long history with visualization and rapid prototyping, a fabrication technique common in the auto and manufacturing industries.

“Rapid prototyping is a technology that allows the automatic construction of physical models and prototyping of parts directly from a three-dimensional computer-aided design model,” Kamrani said. “Thin, horizontal cross-sections are used to transform materials into physical prototypes layer by layer.”

Rapid prototyping, also known as solid free-form fabrication, has changed the face of manufacturing, he said.

“In traditional manufacturing, you design something, send it to a foundry, and they make it for you. Now, with rapid prototyping, you design something and send it directly to the printer,” he said.

Back in Michigan, Kamrani prototyped valves and cylinders. Today, he’s prototyping bones and organs.

“The concept is the same,” he said. “When I came here, with the Texas Medical Center, it kind of came together. The industry is different here, so I started focusing on a particular problem: trying to create a three-dimensional geometry, going from valves to skulls and things like that.”

Dong called Kamrani’s idea of applying the auto prototyping tools to tumor modeling “novel.”

“It can help us solve the problem. There’s a big workflow issue. If we do replanning every day and re-CT every day, that’s lot of effort,” he said. “We’re thinking there is a better, smarter way.”

Source:
Angela Hopp

University of Houston

The American Association for Cancer Research held its 100th Annual Meeting in Denver, Colo., in April and drew more than 15,000 people from all over the world to network and learn about the latest breakthroughs in scientific cancer research.

The economic impact on Denver and the surrounding area was approximately $26.7 million including $6 million on hotels and other lodging, $6 million on food and beverage and $5.5 million in direct costs paid by the AACR.

At 15,131 attendees, the 100th Annual Meeting was down slightly from the 2008 Annual Meeting in San Diego. However, Margaret Foti, Ph.D., M.D. (h.c.), CEO of the AACR, said the 2008 meeting was a record-breaking year that did not face the unique challenges of 2009.

“The American Association for Cancer Research was able to hold a phenomenally successful Annual Meeting in a climate of economic uncertainty where cancer institutes and corporations are cutting travel budgets significantly,” said Foti. “This speaks to the value of what we offer each year to cancer scientists and others who are interested in furthering the important goal of the prevention and cure of cancer.”

Although overall attendance this year was down 13 percent from the record-breaking 2008 meeting, attendance by members of the AACR, the largest category, was down by only 1 percent. Non-members, a smaller category of attendees, were down 10 percent, for a total reduction in scientific attendance of only 8 percent.

Despite the increased cost of international travel and the worldwide nature of the economic crisis, international attendance at the 100th Annual Meeting accounted for 23 percent of participants, which was an increase from the 20 percent international attendance at the 2008 Annual Meeting.

The largest reduction in attendance came in a category that the AACR deemed “other attendees,” which included a 19 percent drop in exhibitor attendance. Foti said this is typical of other medical meetings being held at this time and reflects an economic climate of restricted travel budgets at major medical companies.

“Cancer knows no boundaries and cancer research is a worldwide endeavor. The American Association for Cancer Research continues to lead the world in cancer science and medicine as evidenced by the strong international interest in our Annual Meeting,” said Foti.

Source
American Association for Cancer Research