SCIENTIFIC REPORT 2004 - Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

I N T R O D U C T I O N A N D P R O G R E S S R E P O R T
professor of Medicine at the University of
Miami School of Medicine, is leading the
investigation. ADI-PEG is a targeted approach
to fighting cancer, which focuses on enzymes
that are very common in all melanoma cell
lines. ADI-PEG attaches to arginine, an amino
acid in the blood, which malignant tumor cells
rely on to grow. The ADI-PEG degrades the
arginine, making it impossible for the cancer
to synthesize and use. This has significant advantages
over previous treatments. Because
this treatment is not chemotherapy, it can be
administered as an outpatient treatment with
a single weekly injection, rather than requiring
a hospital stay or a long infusion.
• Sheldon Greer, Ph.D., professor of Microbiology
and Immunology at the University of
Miami School of Medicine, has made many
important discoveries in the course of his distinguished
scientific career. An experimental
radiosensitizer developed by Dr. Greer will
shortly enter a phase I clinical trial for head
and neck cancer patients. Cytochlor, developed
by Dr. Greer and NCI-approved for patient
trials to be conducted by Luis E. Raez, M.D.,
F.A.C.P., enters tumor cells and renders them
much more susceptible to low-dose radiation.
This enables a much higher success rate against
cancer cells and the potential for reducing
patient side effects.
• Theodore J. Lampidis, Ph.D., professor of Cell
Biology and Anatomy, has discovered one way
to attempt to tackle the problem of targeting
non-dividing tumor cells that are resistant to
chemotherapy and/or radiation. He has
found that slow dividing cells located in the
middle of the tumor grow under low oxygen
conditions (hypoxia) and differ in their metabolism
of glucose from normal cells in the body.
To exploit this difference, he has shown that by
simply using a false sugar—2-Deoxyglucose
(2-DG)—instead of glucose, the slow growing
tumor cells take up more 2-DG than the slow
growing normal cells and consequently starve to
death. Luis E. Raez, M.D., F.A.C.P., and Shou-
Ching Tang, M.D., Ph.D., have initiated the
first clinical trials in lung cancer patients using
this highly novel approach.
• A unique peptide (IEP11) was defined by
Diana M. Lopez, Ph.D., professor of Microbiology
and Immunology and leader of UM/Sylvester’s
Tumor Immunology Program. This
peptide appears to elicit a powerful immune
response in mice that have been injected with
various types of tumor cells. Subsequent studies
indicate that those animals that were “IEP11
immunized” were found to form tumors at a
greatly reduced rate. This suggests that the
peptide could serve as an adjuvant treatment to
enhance many cancer vaccine therapies in the
treatment of a variety of tumor types. Viragen,
a new biotechnology company located in
Plantation, Florida, will collaborate with the
University’s team to develop the peptide for
use in human clinical trials.
• Azorides Morales, M.D., chairman of Pathology
at the University of Miami School of Medicine,
has devised a way to use microwave radiation
to reduce tissue pathology processing from
one day to about one hour. The Jackson Health
System and UM/Sylvester are the only institutions
in the world offering this technique. This
is not frozen section pathology, but accelerated
tissue processing patented by the University of
Miami, which may revolutionize the way tissues
are processed, while allowing pathologists to
extract vital molecular information in ways not
previously possible.
• Eckhard R. Podack, M.D., Ph.D., has developed
a new antibody that can be used to target
Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cells.
The development of this novel antibody called
SGN30, which identifies a protein on the surface
of the cancer cells and “labels” the cells
with an antibody therapy, allows the immune
system to target them for destruction. This is a
more “intelligent” treatment and should have
fewer side effects than with traditional chemotherapy.
Joseph D. Rosenblatt, M.D., and
iv
UM/Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center Scientific Report 2004