January 7, 2016
MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR
Dr. Stan GersonStan Gerson, MD
Director, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center
[email protected]
 
Happy New Year!

I have an answer to the question you might be asking:  "What ever happened at the External Advisory Board meeting November 20, 2015?"

Well to start, your Program Leaders worked hard to assemble and convey all of your incredible work so we could showcase a very active cancer center with remarkable contributions and even practice changing discoveries that will benefit patients and populations in short order.  As is always the case, outside reviewers offer a different perspective and see us as we are, while providing thoughtful assessments and suggestions.

The Executive Committee and Program Leaders have the full report and will be responding to the suggestions made over the coming weeks and months.  The EAB recognizes that we are entering the year prior to our renewal application and they focused on the areas that will impact that application and review.

We continue to be and present ourselves as a very strong - "outstanding" - cancer center.  Each program boasts highly significant discoveries.  For instance, the Program Leaders highlighted, and I have augmented, the following remarkable work (and there is much more!) from our members:
All of these have ongoing exciting follow-on studies, whether they be a validation, therapeutic initiative, practice changing effort or direct impact on patient care.  These are exactly what we want to be known for!

The EAB group did ask us to continue to emphasize multi-investigator efforts, to document programmatic activities and meetings, to show the value added by the Cancer Center, and encouraged us to use and continue to upgrade our shared resources. 

They recognize the powerful therapeutic agent pipeline and appreciate that we have thought through plans for their continued development toward and through clinical applications.  We also engaged in discussions about issues that are priorities at all of the NCI-designated cancer centers - sufficient support and efficiencies in clinical trials activity; how to manage genomics in personalized cancer care; bioinformatics and biorepository support and resources; and how to describe our attention to our catchment area in our presentation of our science. 

You can help in all of these areas: 
  • Collaborate when you can and let us know how we can help you build your research team.  
  • Develop large-scale multi-investigator efforts, and think about transdisciplinary efforts across departments and institutions.
  • Take advantage of imaging, nanotechnologies and genomics. 
  • Let us know when you are working with investigators at another cancer center or have a new multi-investigator project that has recently been funded or accepted for publication. 
  • Participate in clinical trial accrual if you are a clinician and write up those trials that are completed. 
Our past successes promise an even more exciting year ahead. The most appealing aspect of my work is to promote and advocate for what you do.  If there is something you need - administrative support, seed funds, an upgrade to a core-  let me know and I will do my best to help you realize your great ideas into new discoveries and applications in cancer research. 
MEMBER HIGHLIGHTS
Educating Patients Improves Knowledge and Attitudes about Participating in Research
Dr. Neal Meropol
Neal J. Meropol
A five-center national study led by Neal J. Meropol, MD, Associate Director for Clinical Research at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, and a team of researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals Case Medical Center demonstrated that a little information goes a long way in encouraging cancer patients to enroll in clinical trials, a decision that could be potentially lifesaving.

The findings, which appeared in the December 21st, 2015 issue of Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO), showed that among 1,255 cancer patients taking part in an educational program, 21 percent of patients chose to enroll in cancer clinical trials. Traditionally, less than 5 percent of cancer patients choose to participate in clinical trials, according to the American Cancer Society.
"Unfortunately, although clinical trials are critical for advancing cancer treatment and ultimately serve as the basis for new standards of care, very few patients participate," said lead author Neal J. Meropol, MD, Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and Chief, Hematology and Oncology, University Hospitals Case Medical Center Seidman Cancer Center. "We want to close the patient knowledge gap and positively affect their attitudes toward clinical trials." more>
Simple Shell of Plant Virus Sparks Immune Response Against Cancer
Nicole Steinmetz
Nicole Steinmetz
The shells of a common plant virus, inhaled into a lung tumor or injected into ovarian, colon or breast tumors, not only triggered the immune system in mice to wipe out the tumors, but provided systemic protection against metastases, researchers from Case Western Reserve University and Dartmouth College report.

The scientists tested a 100-year-old idea called in-situ vaccination. The idea is to put something inside a tumor and disrupt the environment that suppresses the immune system, thus allowing the natural defense system to attack the malignancy.

That something-the hard coating of cowpea mosaic virus-caused no detectible side effects, which are a common problem with traditional therapies and some immunotherapies. The team's research is published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

"The cowpea virus-based nanoparticles act like a switch that turns on the immune system to recognize and fight against the tumor-as well as to remember it," said Nicole Steinmetz, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve, appointed by the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, and member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. more>
BME Team Shows Computational Imaging can Predict Survival in Brain Tumors
Pallavi Tiwari
Pallavi Tiwari
A
Anant Madabhushi
Anant Madabhushi
team from the CWRU Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME), including Cancer Center members Drs. Anant Madabhushi and Pallavi Tiwari has developed an MRI-based texture analysis technique to predict survival in patients with Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a highly aggressive brain tumor. 

The work was recently presented at the radiological society of north america (RSNA) meeting held at Chicago where the team demonstrated on N=62 patients that computer-extracted texture features from peritumoral regions as defined on MRI were prognostic of long-term and short-term GBM survivors. Interesting, features (including volume) from enhancing tumor alone were not found to be predictive of survival.  Currently all GBM patients are given "one-dose-fit-all" treatment in the absence of reliable measures to allow for stratification of patients into specific clinical trials. The ability to reliably and non-invasively stratify patients based on their prognosis will allow for ultimately designing personalized therapeutic decisions in GBM patients. 
CASE CCC IN THE NEWS
ideastream - Jan 4, 2016
In this show, we'll hear stories from families in Northeast Ohio who are in the thick of a cancer diagnosis. We'll hear about how the disease can have a ripple effect on the whole family as well as on a person's pocketbook. Interviews with Mellar Davis, MD, Professor, Hematology and Oncology, Cleveland Clinic and Neal Meropol, MDChief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at University Hospitals Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University and Associate Director for Clinical Research at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center
Helio/HemOnc Today - Dec 29, 2015
Study results presented at the ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition on the use of triple therapy with daratumumab for relapsed, refractory multiple myeloma generated excitement in the hematology-oncology community about the potential for expanding the use of this recently approved agent...The toxicity observed with daratumumab in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone was also clinically important. Toxicity was "very similar to what we would expect for a [monoclonal] antibody," said Mitchell R. Smith, MD, PhD, director of the Lymphoid Malignancy Program at Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute and member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, including infusion-related reactions. This makes daratumumab "easy to combine with other agents."
Helio/HemOnc Today - Dec 28, 2015
During a special symposium dedicated to quality at the ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition, speakers addressed the role of metrics in health care, from their origins to importance. The discussions focused on pay-for-performance, particularly how the strategy being used in the United States and elsewhere directly impacts physician and institutional remuneration...Brian Bolwell, MD, chairman of both the Taussig Cancer Institute at Cleveland Clinic and the department of hematologic oncology and blood disorders and member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, concurred.
"The whole movement towards the value-based healthcare system is real, and we're on that journey," he told Healio.com.
Helio/HemOnc Today - Dec 17, 2015
Perspective by Mitchell R. Smith, MD, PhD, director of the Lymphoid Malignancy Program at Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute and member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. Temsirolimus (Torisel, Pfizer) is approved in Europe but not in the U.S. for mantle cell lymphoma, so in the U. S. we do not use it very much. From a day-to-day standpoint, this study really doesn't change much, at least in the U.S.; however, it may have an effect on practice in Europe. This trial was designed as a registration study, but the single-agent ibrutinib (Imbruvica; Janssen, Pharmacyclics) performed so well that it got registered on that basis - so in the end, end, this current trial acted as a supportive follow-up study. The bottom line, in terms of treatment, is most of us would use ibrutinib anyway.
New York Times - Dec 23, 2015
The surprising answer, researchers reported Wednesday in the journal Nature, is that the three-dimensional structure and organization of the DNA had been disrupted. As a result, two genetic neighborhoods that are usually separated, as if they are two gated communities, were merged. The effect was to allow a powerful snippet of DNA from one neighborhood into the one next door, where it woke up a near-dormant growth gene. And the cells took off...The finding was surprising, others said. "What this tells me is that I know a lot less than I did before," said Dr. Jeremy Rich, a brain cancer expert at the Cleveland Clinic and member of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center.
ASH Clinical News - Dec 2015
Editor's Corner: Mikkael Sekeres, MD, MSDirector of the Leukemia Program at the Cleveland Clinic and Deputy Associate Director for Clinical Research and Director of Clinical Trials at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and editor-in-chief of ASH Clinical News. I can understand if maybe you missed the big announcement on September 8. Perhaps you were out apple-picking with your kids, or were getting ready for a hot date that night. Or maybe you failed to scroll through your entire Twitter feed that day. If that's the case, brace yourself. This is a big one. Years from now, this will be akin to the day that president Kennedy was shot, or the day the Space Shuttle exploded. People will ask you "Where were you when ...?" On September 8, 2015, the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published in the Federal Register its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Research Subjects! 
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Molecular Oncology Program Mini-Retreat
The regularly scheduled DNA Damage and Repair meeting for Monday, January 11 has been cancelled. In its place, please join us at a mini-retreat with Dr. David Cortez, Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Co-Leader of the Genome Maintenance Program at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.  

The mini-retreat will be Friday, January 15 starting at 8:30a in Wolstein 2-136. Dr. Cortez will also be presenting at the Cancer Center Seminar Series immediately following the mini-retreat. The title of his talk is "Genome Maintenance During DNA Replication." Please contact Kristin Waite ([email protected]) with questions about the mini-retreat. 
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
Limited Submission: NCI Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award (F99/K00)(RFA-CA-16-005)
The objective of the NCI Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award (F99/K00) is to encourage outstanding, late-stage graduate students with a demonstrated potential and interest in pursuing careers as independent researchers by facilitating the successful transition to their postdoctoral positions.
 
The F99/K00 award is intended for individuals who require 1-2 years to complete their PhD dissertation research training (F99 phase) before transitioning to mentored postdoctoral research training (K00 phase). Consequently, applicants are expected to propose an individualized research training plan for the next 1-2 years of dissertation research training and a plan for 3-4 years of mentored postdoctoral research and career development activities that will prepare them for independent cancer-focused research careers.

There is a limit of ONE application per institution. 

Interested applicants should submit a one paragraph abstract (limited to 300 words) on the proposed research, the name of your research mentor, and an F-type NIH biosketch to Paul N. MacDonald, PhD, Associate Dean for Graduate Education, CWRU, at [email protected] by EOB this Friday, Jan 8.
Request or Proposals for Case CCC Funding for Pilot/Phase I Clinical Trials
The Case CCC is encouraging investigators to submit Letters of Intent (LOI) for Early Phase Clinical Research Support (EPCRS) funding. These in-house funds are available for the conduct of early phase clinical trials of relatively short duration. Priority will be given to trials which are developed jointly between UH and CCF with planned accrual at both institutions.

In addition, this particular RFP is seeking to identify and fund investigator-initiated trials which qualify for EPCRS and which are either already open to accrual or will be submitted to the Case CCC Protocol Review and Monitoring Committee within two weeks of the application deadline.

Questions and requests for the memo about the process and budget template should be directed to Katarzyna Karelus, Case CCC Clinical Research Office, [email protected]216.844.4176.

Deadline: Jan 19
NCCN ImmunoGen Research Grant Opportunity
National Comprehensive Cancer Network� (NCCN�) is pleased to announce that it has received a research grant from ImmunoGen, Inc. to support NCCN investigator initiated clinical studies of mirvetuximab soravtansine (previously known as IMGN853) for selected solid tumors. The Request for Proposals (RFP) clearly outlines the scope and process that will be followed for the submission of proposals. This RFP can be accessed online by signing in as a member at www.nccn.org/clinical_trials/investigators.

In brief, investigators are asked to submit a proposal detailing proposed research studies. The overall aim of this RFP is to develop innovative studies of mirvetuximab soravtansine in ovarian, endometrial, and breast cancer. It is hoped that the concepts submitted in response to this RFP will prove useful in guiding the further development of mirvetuximab soravtansine. Collaborative studies between NCCN Member Institutions are encouraged.   

For additional information, please contact Doreen Walker, Administrative Assistant, Oncology Research Program, at 215.690.0565 or via email at [email protected].

Deadline: Feb 15
Cancer Center Summer Training for Medical Students
The Case Comprehensive Cancer Center is looking for medical students interested in summer research opportunities.

There are 8 openings available, with 4 supported by the Brian Werbel Memorial Fund sponsored through University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center and 4 by the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. Awardees must be conducting cancer research with a Case Comprehensive Cancer Center member. View list of members.

Deadline: Feb 26

NIH BULLETIN - Notices and Funding Opportunities


EVENTS
Fri, Jan 8
Hem/Onc Fellows Conference
8a Breen Conf Rm
Taussig Cancer Institute Grand Rounds
Mikkael Sekeres MD, MS; Alok Khorana MD; Yogen Saunthararajah MD; Jaroslaw Maciejewski MD, PhD
Cleveland Clinic
"ASH Oral Presentations"
8a R3/002-003 Cleveland Clinic
LRI Seminar
Michelle Longworth, PhD
Staff, Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Lerner Research Institute
Cleveland Clinic
"Control of Cell Fate Determination by the Condensin II Protein dCAP-D3"
10a NC1-202 Cleveland Clinic
Cancer Center Seminar Series
Pradeep Chaluvally-Raghavan, PhD
Instructor, Systems Biology - Cancer Medicine
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
"Non-coding Aberrations in Ovarian Cancer"
12p BRB 105
Cancer Center Research in Progress Seminar
Letterio lab
4p WRB 3-136
Mon, Jan 11
Pathology Seminar
Lan Zhou, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Pathology
CWRU
"A Mouse Model of Colitis and Colon Cancer Promoted by Interplay of Fucose- and Notch-regulated Epithelial Barrier, Immunity, and Gut Bacteria"
12p WRB 1-413
GMI Seminar
Asha Kallianpur, MD, MPH
Staff, Genomic Medicine Institute
Cleveland Clinic
"Iron and Mitochondrial Genomics, Epigenetic Changes, and CNS Inflammation in HAND"
12:30p NE1-205 Cleveland Clinic
Tues, Jan 12
Pharmacology Seminar
Qingzhong Kong, PhD
Associate Professor, Pathology
CWRU
"Human Transmission Risks of Animal Prions from Deer and Cattle"
12p SOM W331
Wed, Jan 13
Hem/Onc Div Res Conf
8a Lerner B-151
Immunology Faculty Candidate Lecture
Aaron Schmidt, PhD
Boston Children's Hospital
"Immuno-viral Archaeology: Uncovering history of antigen exposure and mechanisms of antibody affinity maturation"
9a WRB 1-413
Immunology Faculty Research In Progress Series
Tom Hamilton, PhD
Chair, Immunology
Cleveland Clinic
12p NC1-202 Cleveland Clinic
Thurs, Jan 14
Immunology Faculty Candidate Chalk Talk
Aaron Schmidt, PhD
Boston Children's 
Hospital
"Immune-profiling of B-cell Responses and Immunogen Design Strategies for Evolving Pathogens"
10a WRB 1-403
Fri, Jan 15
Hem/Onc Fellows
8a Breen Conf Rm
TCI Grand Rounds
Ming Chi, MD

Taussig Cancer Institute
Cleveland Clinic
"Brain Metastases: The Changing Landscape"
8a R3/002-003 Cleveland Clinic
Molecular Oncology Mini-Retreat
8:30a WRB 2-136

Cancer Center Seminar Series
David Cortez, PhD

Professor, Biochemistry
Ingram Professor of Cancer Research
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
"Genome Maintenance During DNA Replication"
12p BRB 105
Cancer Center Research in Progress
Goutham Narla, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Medicine
Harrington Scholar
Institute for Transformative Molecular Medicine
Pardee-Gerstacker Professor in Cancer Research
"Small Molecule PP2A Activators for Cancer Treatment"
4p WRB 3-136

Case CCC Calendar

 

LRI Calendar

 

ADDITIONAL UPCOMING SYMPOSIUMS & EVENTS

ASH Review 
Jan 21, 2016
InterContinental Hotel and Conference Center

2016 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Update
March 11-12, 2016
Pelican Grand Beach Resort
Fort Lauderdale, FL

GvHD National Symposium 2016
May 13, 2016
Pittsburgh, PA
Details

Case CCC Annual Scientific Retreat
July 7-8, 2016 

Great Lakes Breast Cancer Symposium 2016
Sep 8-9, 2016
Pittsburgh, PA
PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED OPPORTUNITIES
Case Comprehensive Cancer Center 
11100 Euclid Avenue, Wearn152
Cleveland, OH 44106-5065