Research Briefs

UAB Joins Elite Brain Cancer Research Group     
The UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center has been selected for membership in the Ivy Genomics-Based Medicine Project, a national consortium of nine hospitals and academic centers focusing on malignant brain tumors known as gliomas.

UAB is the consortium’s only research site in the Southeast; Cancer Center senior scientist G. Yancey Gillespie, Ph.D., serves as principal investigator.

Gliomas are tumors that arise by the transformation of the body’s glial cells, which make up 90 percent of the brain and spinal cord and normally work in concert with neurons. The consortium members work to understand how genetic differences among gliomas can lead to more effective and even personalized treatments for patients. During an intensive 18-month research period, the nine academic laboratories will screen dozens of anti-cancer drugs, then compile that data with other genetic profiling and analyze it through a secure network. The goal is to help predict the tumor-fighting response of the drugs; the project’s second phase will likely involve human clinical trials.  

UAB Among America’s Best Hospitals
U.S. News & World Report has ranked nine UAB Hospital specialty programs among the nation’s best—including the cancer program, which ranked 20th. The rankings appear in the magazine’s 18th annual list of top hospitals.

UAB was one of only 170 hospitals that rated high enough in even one specialty to earn the prestigious honor.

In addition, UAB is the only hospital in Alabama or Mississippi to appear on the “America’s best” list.  

Pediatric Doctor Wins ACS Award
Thomas Howard, M.D., professor of pediatric hematology-oncology and Cancer Center senior scientist, was recently honored as the 2008 winner of the American Cancer Society’s Life Inspiration Award.

In his 22 years at UAB and Children’s Hospital of Alabama, Dr. Howard has founded advanced-care and survivorship programs that are now considered essential to pediatric cancer care. He is credited with helping to establish UAB’s experimental cancer therapeutics program for children and expanding clinical offerings to include comprehensive psychosocial support for patients and caregivers. He also helped develop a pediatric bone-marrow transplant program and pediatric neuro-oncology program at UAB.

Each year the American Cancer Society’s Birmingham chapter presents the Life Inspiration Award to a medical professional nominated for extraordinary kindness, compassion and excellence as a cancer caregiver.  

Saturated Fat Linked to Cancer of the Small Intestine  
A study published in the journal Cancer Research found that diets high in saturated fats are a possible risk factor for cancer of the small intestine. Though this type of cancer is rare, its rates have been rising since the 1970s. Individuals with this cancer also have an increased risk of developing colorectal cancer as a secondary malignancy.

Researchers at the National Cancer Institute tracked the food intake of 500,000 men and women over an eight-year period. They noted the development of 60 adenocarcinomas and 80 carcinoid tumors of the small intestine. The study’s author suggests that further investigations focusing on other populations and different types of saturated fat are needed to better understand the dietary risks.

Cancer Incidence and Death Rates Declining
For the first time in 10 years, the incidence and death rates for all cancers combined are decreasing for both men and women. That’s the conclusion of the new Annual Report to the Nation from the nation’s leading cancer organizations.

Although cancer death rates have been dropping since the inaugural Annual Report was issued in 1998, the latest edition marks the first simultaneous decline for both men and women in cancer incidence, the rate at which new cancers are diagnosed. Based on the long-term trend, rates for all cancers combined decreased 0.8 percent per year from 1999 through 2005 for both sexes combined.

This is due in part to declines in the three most common cancers among men (lung, colorectal and prostate) and the two most common cancers among women (breast and colorectal), combined with a leveling of lung-cancer death rates among women.

The new report also shows that from 1996 to 2005, death rates for all cancers combined decreased for both men and women among all racial and ethnic populations, except for American Indian/Alaska Native men and women, whose rates remained stable. The drop in death rates has been steeper for men, and death rates declined for 10 of the top 15 causes of cancer death among both sexes.

However, death rates for certain individual cancers are increasing, most notably esophageal cancer for men, pancreatic cancer for women and liver cancer for both men and women. Overall cancer death rates were highest for African-Americans and lowest for Asian-Americans/Pacific Islanders.  

Virotherapy featured in Scientific American
Two Cancer Center researchers were recently featured in Scientific American for their work with virotherapy, an experimental technique that uses genetically engineered viruses to target cancer cells while leaving healthy cells untouched.

Cancer Center senior scientists David Curiel, Ph.D., and Ronald Alvarez, M.D., have been working with virotherapy since the late 1990s. Their collaboration has resulted in a therapy now being tested in ovarian-cancer patients. Early results of the trial are promising, with patients tolerating the treatment well and experiencing little toxicity.

Drs. Curiel and Alvarez remain cautious but hopeful about their research. After completing the current clinical trial, their next step is to use viruses that have the ability to send signals that can be detected by medical imaging technology; the resulting data could lead to a way to effectively kill cancer cells.