Hello and Greetings from the Windy City, Chicago, IL!
I am in Chicago attending the Investigator Site Study Training for a new lung cancer trial we will be opening up at WVMC this month. I am joined by fellow investigators and trial coordinators representing cancer centers from around the country. This new trial will be with a new and novel drug called ramucirumab. It will be for patients whose metastatic non-small cell lung cancer has worsened after they have already been treated with initial chemotherapy. What a wonderful group of patients that so desperately need our help.
"RIght Drug, Right Patient, Right Time" was emphasized by presenter Samantha Melemed, Ph.D. Dr. Melemed is echoing one of the new mantras in oncology. It describes the effort to find the best treatment for every individual patient based on individual characteristics of that patient and specific characteristics of the tumor that is in each patient. "Personalized Medicine" is our goal. We have such sophisticated tools to peer into the deepest molecular aspects of tumors that we are starting (and have been successful) in developing compounds that can target the most vulnerable and necessary parts of the tumor needed for growth, while avoiding normal tissues. This will minimize toxicity that has been a hallmark and an obstacle for much oncology care up until this point.
Dr.Sergey Yurasov, a pediatric oncologist from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York presented the scientific data and study design of ramucirumab. Ramucirumab is an antibody that will bind to an essential receptor on cancer cells that is used to increase blood vessel growth into the tumor. Thus, by blocking blood vessel growth into the tumor, the tumor will be starved of essential nutrients and oxygen needed to grow. Since tumors have more of these receptors compared to normal tissue in the body, the antibody has a preferential effect on tumor growth without effecting normal tissues too dramatically.
The clinical trial is sponsored by Eli Lilly and Company. It is an international trial involving approximately 180 cancer treatment sites in the USA, Europe, South America, and Japan. Wenatchee Valley Medical Center is slated to be the first cancer treatment site worldwide to open the trial! 1242 patients will be enrolled onto this trial which is expected to take about two years to complete. Patients will either be given a standard chemotherapy drug for their lung cancer or the standard chemotherapy plus ramucirumab.
I am so excited to bring such new and exciting cancer therapies to the great people, patients and patient families in North Central Washington!
In addition to attending meetings all day and into the night, I was able to get to see the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks play in the United Center. It was an exciting game. The people in Chicago were the most patriotic fans I have ever seen. They were also a heavily devoted group of fans with many of the 21,000 in attendance wearing red Blackhawk Jerseys. Unfortunately Chicago lost to the lowly, cellar-dwelling New Jersey Devils 5-3.
Best Regards Always,
Mitch
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