Florida Archives - Page 4 of 8

Vincent Luca, Ph.D.

Funded by the Constellation Gold Network Distributors

Over the past several years, immunotherapy has emerged as a highly effective treatment for cancer. In contrast to chemotherapy, which kills cancer cells with toxic chemicals, immunotherapy teaches a patient’s immune system to attack tumors. As current immunotherapy treatments are only successful in~ 30% of cases, scientists are actively searching for ways to create new classes of immunotherapy drugs. One promising treatment works by deactivating proteins that serve as “off-switches” for the immune system. However, we do not understand how several of these switches carry out their functions on the molecular level.

My research group is using two different methods to guide the development of next-generation immunotherapies. Our first strategy is to use a high-resolution imaging technique called x-ray crystallography to “see” how different types of off-switch proteins send signals. By visualizing these molecules on the atomic scale, our goal is to obtain molecular blueprints that can teach us how to design more effective drugs. For our second strategy, we will use these blueprints to create decoy proteins that can block incoming signals from reaching immune receptors. These decoys will then be used to prevent the natural off-switch proteins from shutting down the immune response. Initially, the decoys will be used to re-activate immune cells in a laboratory setting. However, if these tests are successful, our long-term goal is to proceed to clinical trials in melanoma patients.

Michael Zinner, M.D.

Funded by Hooters of America, LLC

The healthcare landscape has dramatically changed in South Florida, and we welcome you to be a partner in this transformation. Miami Cancer Institute at Baptist Health South Florida opened its doors in 2016 and is now seeing nearly 1,200 patients per day. The Institute, supported by a clinical and research alliance with Memorial Sloan Kettering, one of the leading academic cancer centers in the world, grants our patients access to the most advanced clinical trials for breast cancer. Patient accrual remains a huge challenge in clinical research, and the grant will go towards supporting recruitment for the important studies which in many cases, may give patients access to new therapies that are not yet readily available. The Institute will be proactive with the creation of recruitment materials as part of a well-coordinated campaign to address all aspects of enrollment as well as presenting information in an easy to understand and honest way including translation of all materials into Spanish. It is our goal to track enrollment efforts and adjust accordingly to what works best for our patient base and the community we serve. The mission of the breast clinical trial enrollment program is to provide innovative, patient centered cancer care through access to cutting edge treatments.

Hatem Soliman, M.D.

Funded by Hooters of America, LLC

Only a small percentage of patients with cancer in the US enroll on to clinical trials. This is creating a bottleneck for the development of new treatments.  Efforts to improve how patients are identified for clinical trials are important to overcome this problem.  One such effort which is showing promise is to use an individual known as a “pre-screener” to aid the clinical team in identifying eligible patients. The pre-screener functions as an extra set of eyes to review information generated from our electronic medical record as their records come in from referring physicians.  They will be trained to look for patients meeting certain eligibility criteria and then notify the clinical team about the matches ahead of their visit. This will allow the team to better prepare and notify the coordinator for the study to be available at that time. The pre-screener will also serve as a resource for patients using our clinical trial education center in the clinic waiting area to help them navigate through the available information to identify a potential trial option to discuss with their physician during their visit.

Paulo Rodriguez, Ph.D. & Jose Conejo-Garcia, M.D., Ph.D.

Funded by 2019 Kay Yow Cancer Fund Final Four Research Award

Cancer in the ovaries is an aggressive and deadly disease with limited treatment choices. A crippled protective immune system is commonly found in patients with ovarian cancer and limits the effect of multiple treatments. We recently described a new therapy based on the transfer of immune T cells engineered to spot and kill ovarian cancer cells. These therapeutic cells are referred as FSH-CER T cells. Here, we propose a plan to boost the effects of FSH-CER T cells by promoting the growth of T cell subsets with a higher capacity to eliminate tumors. This will be done by the inhibition of key drivers of cellular stress. Thus, our data will set the basis for a therapy to efficiently treat ovarian cancer patients.

Michael Zinner, M.D.

Funded by Hooters of America, LLC

The healthcare landscape has dramatically changed in South Florida, and we welcome you to be a partner in this transformation. Miami Cancer Institute at Baptist Health South Florida opened its doors in 2016 and is now seeing nearly 1,000 patients per day. The Institute, supported by a clinical and research alliance with Memorial Sloan Kettering, one of the leading academic cancer centers in the world, grants our patients access to the most advanced clinical trials for breast cancer. Patient accrual remains a huge challenge in clinical research, and the grant will go towards supporting recruitment for the important studies which in many cases, may give patients access to new therapies that are not yet readily available. The Institute will be proactive with the creation of recruitment materials as part of a well-coordinated campaign to address all aspects of enrollment as well as presenting information in an easy to understand and honest way. It is our goal to track enrollment efforts and adjust accordingly to what works best for our patient base and the community we serve. The mission of the breast clinical trial enrollment program is to provide innovative, patient centered cancer care through access to cutting edge treatment.

Hatem Soliman, M.D.

Funded by Hooters of America, LLC

Only a small percentage of patients with cancer in the US enroll on to clinical trials. This is creating a bottleneck for the development of new treatments. Efforts to improve how patients are identified for clinical trials are important to overcome this problem. One such effort which is showing promise is to use an individual known as a “pre-screener” to aid the clinical team in identifying eligible patients. The pre-screener functions as an extra set of eyes to review information generated from our electronic medical record as their records come in from referring physicians. They will be trained to look for patients meeting certain eligibility criteria and then notify the clinical team about the matches ahead of their visit. This will allow the team to better prepare and notify the coordinator for the study to be available at that time. The pre-screener will also serve as a resource for patients using our clinical trial education center in the clinic waiting area to help them navigate through the available information to identify a potential trial option to discuss with their physician during their visit.

Damon Reed, M.D.

Funded by the Dick Vitale Gala

There are over 170 FDA approved chemotherapeutic medications.  These medications have shown benefit to a particular segment of cancer populations, often multiple groups of patients.  Because of the rarity of pediatric cancers, very few of the medications that are used to improve the lives of children with cancer are FDA approved for that specific use, so called off-label use.  Incorporating new medications into childhood cancer treatment often involves testing one agent at a time across a variety of diagnoses followed by focusing on a subset or a few types of cancer.  This process has been slow to identify new agents in a group of tumors known as sarcomas.  Recently, there have been a significant number of medications approved and it would be impossible to test them all on patients in the manner described above. Furthermore, studies in models of sarcomas have not always been reliable predictors of the medications because they have been tested in amounts that are not achievable in humans or for durations that cannot be achieved without unacceptable side effects.  We propose looking at many FDA approved agents at levels that can be safely achieved in people across a panel of sarcoma models to identify agents and then combinations of agents that can be rapidly incorporated into a disease specific trial.  We aim to test these agents, and, in the coming two years, identify promising combinations in the four most common sarcomas: osteosarcoma, Ewing Sarcoma, alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma and embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma.

Calvin Lee, Ph.D.

Funded by Tampa Bay Lightning Foundation

Rhabdomyosarcoma is the most common soft tissue tumor in children.  This cancer seems to be related to muscle cells that have not been able to mature normally.  This project is investigating the manipulation certain proteins called polycomb proteins.  The main goal is to determine if polycomb proteins change the production of other genes that are vital to normal cellular maturation in rhabdomyosarcoma.  the hope is to define polycomb proteins as regulators of muscle development and use this information to produce new and targeted treatments for this disease.

Sara St. George, Ph.D.

Funded in partnership with Miami Dolphins Foundation

Having an unhealthy weight increases one’s chance of getting cancer. It also increases the chance of dying in people who already have cancer. Keeping a healthy weight is important, especially for people from Hispanic and non-Hispanic black families who have a high chance of having an unhealthy weight. A program that helps cancer survivors lead their children and grandchildren in keeping a healthy weight may help them make their own health better and may also make their children’s and grandchildren’s health better. If the program uses smartphones and tablets, it may help connect family members who are different ages. The goal of this project is to develop and test a program that uses the Internet and mobile devices to help Hispanic and/or non-Hispanic black female cancer survivors lead their families in keeping a healthy weight. The first part of the project will develop the program by getting feedback from Hispanic and non-Hispanic black female cancer survivors. The second part of the project will test the program to determine if it is possible, well-liked, and shows improvements on the weight, physical activity, and diet of cancer survivors, their children, and grandchildren.

Michael Zinner, M.D.

Funded by Hooters of America, LLC

Funding from the V Foundation was used to expand Miami Cancer Institute’s services available to breast cancer patients, particularly access to breast cancer clinical trials. The major clinical services which have been funded with the V Foundation grant award include cancer genomic profiling for twenty eight (28) women. Each participant is enrolled into MSK-12-245 (NCT # NCT01775072, see enclosed ClinicalTrials.gov description) and receives a personalized genomic profile of their specific breast cancer. These profiles help to guide clinicians with matching these women to precision therapy treatments and available clinical trials which are specific to their individual tumor mutations.