will boost clinical care
Over the past year, the Yale Cancer Center has recruited 10 new physicians who are on the cutting edge in the study and treatment of a variety of different kinds of cancers.
"The addition of 10 oncologists making important contributions to the field of cancer treatment has enabled Yale Cancer Center to enhance our comprehensive multidisciplinary disease teams' capacity to provide the most advanced cancer care to patients in Connecticut," says Dr. Richard L. Edelson, director of the center.
"The expertise of our medical, surgical, and radiation oncologists and their leadership on national clinical trials gives our patients access to the latest cancer treatments and therapies," adds Edelson.
Dr. Edward Chu, chief of medical oncology at the center, says, "We are extremely fortunate in having recruited highly accomplished clinical investigators and clinicians to Yale Cancer Center. These individuals bring a high level of commitment to clinical care, and several of our new faculty members are leaders in their respective fields.
"The main focus of this group," notes Chu, "is to develop novel clinical trials to provide the newest cancer therapies for patients with melanoma, lymphoma, and colorectal, pancreatic, prostate, lung, breast, and head and neck cancers."
Brief profiles of the newest additions to the Yale Cancer Center follow:
Dr. Frank C. Detterbeck, professor of surgery at the School of Medicine, is the new associate director for clinical affairs at the Yale Cancer Center.
In this post, he is responsible for coordinating the day-to-day clinical activities of all of the center's oncology-related departments and services, and serves as the liaison between the administration of Yale-New Haven Hospital, the School of Medicine and the medical staff.
A leader in multidisciplinary cancer care and a nationally recognized thoracic surgeon, Detterbeck is also chief of the Section of Thoracic Surgery at the medical school and surgical director of the Yale-New Haven Thoracic Oncology Program.
His major clinical interest is in thoracic oncology and he has focused his research on evidence-based medicine, improvements in outcomes for patients with lung cancer and multidisciplinary care programs. While in his previous post at the University of North Carolina, he founded the Multidisciplinary Thoracic Oncology Program, which has received national recognition as a model for cancer care because of its efficient and streamlined care of patients and excellent clinical results.
Dr. Francine Foss, professor of medicine in the Section of Medical Oncology at the Yale Cancer Center, is an internationally recognized clinician and clinical researcher with expertise in adult lymphomas and in stem cell allotransplantation.
She has derived and tested therapies that have been used to treat thousands of cancer patients, and her recent research has potential to substantially impact the field of stem cell research, benefiting patients at Yale and around the world.
Foss has brought a nationally established clinical trials program to the Yale Cancer Center. In her previous post at Tufts New England Medical Center in Boston, she designed, initiated and directed multi-center national clinical trials of two pharmacologic agents for lymphoma, which have subsequently received FDA approval and are widely used treatments. One of these, Interleukin-2 conjugated to Diphtheria toxin, was the first FDA-approved fusion biologic drug to be approved for use in the United States.
She also developed a treatment for patients undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplant that reduced the development of graft-versus-host disease from 40%-50% to only 15%. These findings led to the initiation of two National Cancer Institute-sponsored trials to confirm these results in patients with lymphoma and myelodysplastic syndrome.
Dr. Wm. Kevin Kelly, associate professor of medicine in the Section of Medical Oncology, leads the medical oncology disease unit in the Prostate and Urologic Cancers Program at the Yale Cancer Center, spearheading patient care and clinical research for bladder, kidney and prostate cancer.
In addition, as associate director of Solid Tumor Clinical Investigation, he oversees the clinical development programs for solid tumors as well as directs the clinical trials operations for the Yale Cancer Center.
Kelly, who came to Yale from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, is nationally recognized for his pioneering work in developing innovative and more effective chemotherapy regimens for patients with advanced prostate cancer. He has developed approaches for treating aggressive localized prostate cancer, using chemotherapy with radiation and/or surgery. He is currently focusing his clinical research on developing novel strategies to evaluate and treat prostate cancer. He is the principal investigator for several phase I, II and III clinical trials for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer.
Dr. M. Wasif Saif, associate professor of medicine in the Section of Medical Oncology, is an expert in gastrointestinal cancers, with a specific interest in pancreatic and colorectal cancers.
Throughout his career, Saif has played a leading role in the development of novel anticancer agents and therapy regimens for the treatment of gastrointestinal malignancies. His investigation into pancreatic cancer currently focuses on the molecular biology of this disease and the identification of novel biological targets for drug development. He is also interested in improving upon the response and survival rates for colorectal cancer with the development of novel molecular and pharmacogenetic approaches for the treatment of the disease.
Saif came to Yale from the University of Alabama Cancer Center, where he was actively involved in both clinical and scientific research and which places special emphasis on Phase I and II clinical trials and new drug development.
Dr. Mario Sznol, associate professor of medicine and vice-chief of the Section of Medical Oncology, is helping to direct the academic and clinical research activities of the section.
Sznol, formerly with the National Cancer Institute, has an international reputation in cancer drug development. He currently cares for patients with melanoma and serves as head of the melanoma disease unit. In addition, he chairs the Yale Cancer Center's Protocol Review Committee and is a member of the Yale Human Investigations Committee.
Sznol's expertise and experience is in cancer immunotherapy, drug development for cancer, and treatment of patients with melanoma and renal cell carcinoma. He is working to establish a strong multidisciplinary clinical research program for patients with melanoma by expanding the opportunities for clinical trials at the Yale Cancer Center, particularly those focusing on immunotherapy and novel agents.
Dr. Maysa M. Abu-Khalaf, assistant professor of medicine in the Section of Medical Oncology at the School of Medicine, is caring for patients with breast cancer at the Yale Cancer Center.
Abu-Khalaf is working in close collaboration with members of the Departments of Surgery, Therapeutic Radiology and Diagnostic Radiology to develop integrated clinical programs for patients with early-stage and locally advanced breast cancer. In addition, she is focusing on the development of novel treatment strategies for patients with metastatic breast cancer.
Abu-Khalaf received her medical degree from Jordan University School of Medicine in Amman, Jordan. She completed her internship and residency training in internal medicine and a fellowship in medical oncology at the Yale School of Medicine, where her clinical research focus was in breast cancer.
Dr. Hari Deshpande, assistant professor of medicine in the Section of Medical Oncology, is caring for patients with head and neck cancer in the medical oncology clinic and is collaborating with other disciplines throughout the Medical Center to run the Head and Neck Cancer Clinic.
Previously in practice at both the New London Cancer Center and Las Vegas Cancer Center, Deshpande has clinical interests in prostate cancer and genitourinary (GU) cancers and will be establishing a new GU clinic with Dr. Mario Sznol. Deshpande is also the medical director of the Medical Oncology Outpatient Clinic at Yale Cancer Center.
Dr. Scott Gettinger, assistant professor of medicine in the Section of Medical Oncology, is involved in the Yale Cancer Center's multidisciplinary disease programs for head and neck and lung cancer.
Gettinger, who came to Yale from Beth Israel Medical Center, is working closely with the Head and Neck Cancer Program to develop innovative therapies for these diseases, with the goal of improving the efficacy of current treatment modalities with particular attention to patients' quality of life.
He has also joined the Yale-New Haven Thoracic Oncology Program and will be involved in designing and launching clinical trials exploring newer treatment options for lung cancer patients.
Dr. James J. Lee, assistant professor of medicine in the Section of Medical Oncology, is a key member of the gastrointestinal cancer program at the Yale Cancer Center and brings specific expertise in liver cancer to the program.
A graduate of the Seoul National University College of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea, Lee earned his Ph.D. degree at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his internal medicine residency training at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center before continuing on to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to complete a fellowship in medical oncology.
At the NCI, he focused his research on the development of new anti-cancer drugs for breast cancer, and he has been involved in clinical development of an epothilone, a new generation of microtubule stabilizing agents.
Dr. Kenneth Miller, assistant professor of medicine in the Section of Medical Oncology, is director of supportive care programs at the Yale Cancer Center and is working to develop innovative clinical programs for both the inpatient and outpatient settings.
Formerly with Connecticut Hospice, Miller is nationally known for his work with patient survivorship issues and has spoken at cancer centers throughout the country on the topic "Walking in our Patients' Shoes -- The Role of Empathy in Medicine."
He will also serve as medical director of the proposed Connecticut Challenge Adult Survivorship Clinic scheduled to be launched late in 2006. This center, supported by the fundraising efforts of the Connecticut Challenge, will provide progressive care for the increasing population of cancer survivors in Connecticut.
T H I S
Dr. Frank C. Detterbeck
Dr. Francine Foss
Dr. Wm. Kevin Kelly
Dr. M. Wasif Saif
Dr. Mario Sznol
Dr. Maysa M. Abu-Khalaf
Dr. Hari Deshpande
Dr. Scott Gettinger
Dr. James J. Lee
Dr. Kenneth Miller
The Yale Cancer Center has been selected by "Coast to Coast: A Run for Survivorship" as the primary beneficiary for its cross-country run in 2006.
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