Inside the Tulane Cancer Center

Summer 1998
Headlines in this Issue:
A Message from the Director

Research: Making a Difference Your Partner for Life: Tulane Celebrates the First Day of Spring
Bone Marrow Transplant Reunion
AACR Forum: Progress and New Hope in the Fight Against Cancer
'98 Sports for Life: Teaming Up Against Prostate Cancer
10th Annual Tulane Health Research Day
Recent Honors and Awards
Index to all archived issues
Index to archived articles by topic
Editorial Staff & Contacts


A Message from the Director
Roy S. Weiner, M.D.
Director, Tulane Cancer Center

Summer at the Tulane Cancer Center
While summer brings school recess, long sultry days and visions of beach and sea, the Tulane Cancer Center is dedicating this summer to vigorous activity to achieve our goals and advance our mission.

Prescott Deininger's arrival invigorates our research organization, bringing tremendous strength and opportunity to Tulane and to our region. We will be recruiting three new faculty members to work and define research programs. We will search the world to bring the very best and brightest researchers to Tulane, and assure they have the facilities and resources necessary to fulfill their potential in our programs.

Preparations are also underway to search for premier candidates to fill the new Lily and Edmond Safra Chair in Basic Breast Cancer Research. With the strength we already have in breast cancer-related research, we are confident that the Safra professor will solidify our leadership in this important area.

In addition to these vital recruitment efforts, we will all be involved in implementing Sports for Life and assuring its success. Bettina Beech, DrPH, and Charlotte Cunliffe, PhD have established a solid platform upon which to build this outreach towards men, and the prevention of suffering from prostate cancer. All will be in readiness for a record-breaking turnout at the Sports for Life activities, and hopefully a record-breaking turnout for the prostate screenings which will follow.

Summer for us also means the arrival of new trainees in clinical and basic science specialties. The vigor and enthusiasm of these new colleagues energizes all of us and supports our confidence that new discoveries will translate into new therapies for the benefit of the patients we serve. Come visit us this summer. You will find us at work, creating the future, exuberant, like the energy of the sea.

Research: Making a Difference
A Triple Threat Player
The Tulane Cancer Center's new Director of Basic Science Programs, Prescott Deininger, Ph.D., holds appointments in three departments: Environmental Health Sciences, Biochemistry, and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.

Dr. Deininger's ability to play several positions springs from his knack for finding a moving target within genetic material. "I focus on a process of instability in DNA, in all kinds of situations, not just cancers," says Dr. Deininger, formerly Associate Director for Basic Science at LSU's Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center.

"Cancer is a series of diseases in which genetic information gets screwed up," he explains. "The best estimates are that it takes five to six different changes to begin a cancer." Dr. Deininger notes that, if we live long enough, we are almost guaranteed to develop cancer because of the accumulation of mutations. His work exploits certain mutations.

Of special interest is a fragment of DNA he discovered two decades ago. The fragment, called Alu, is very small, only about 300 base pairs, and appears every 3000 bases or so. Altogether, however, it represents about 5 percent of the mass of DNA in the human genome. What is so interesting about Alu is its ability to "jump" from one area of the human genome to another. "They copy themselves and insert themselves in new locations. When they insert, they mutate the gene and cause damage," explains Dr. Deininger. The fragment has a high rate of association with genetic diseases. Dr. Deininger says that in the genetic database, there are 60 diseases caused by Alu, half of them cancers.

Dr. Deininger and five co-workers, who will be coming with him to his new post at Tulane this summer, want to take advantage of the ambulatory temperament displayed by similar fragments of DNA to build therapeutic agents. A fragment of DNA could become a better tool to deliver gene therapy. Dr. Deininger explains that gene therapy is currently delivered most often by putting the desired genetic material into an adenovirus and inserting the virus into cells. The process does work, but only temporarily because the immune system sees it as a foreign element and attacks. Using genetic fragments such as Alu or L-1, a larger element that can accommodate additional material to carry the therapeutic information, means that it would be incorporated into the genome. Then it is stable, and the immune system will not attack, explains Dr. Deininger.

The task is but one in which Dr. Deininger, like all Tulane Cancer Center affiliates, combines basic science with medical and clinical goals. As Associate Director and the first Marguerite Main Zimmerman Professor of Basic Cancer Research, he will bring this perspective to developing long-range plans for the Cancer Center, including complementing the existing task forces with field orientations, such as genetics, environmental studies or tumor biology.

Dr. Deininger describes himself as "primarily a technical molecular geneticist. I develop tools for others to use, tools to take advantage of biological systems."

He is also adept with other tools, as well. An accomplished woodworker, he built much of his office furniture. He also makes his own tennis rackets, favoring ash and walnut for materials but using contemporary designs associated with graphite.

Dr. Deininger has current research support from the Department of Defense to study breast cancer, and from the National Institute of Health. He earned his Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of California-Davis and has held academic appointments at LSU Medical Center and at Harvard University School of Medicine. He has served as a reviewer for a number of molecular biology study sections, as well as for the International Science Foundation, the Veterans Administration and the National Science Foundation.

by Anne Yeoman

Research: Making a Difference
Vaccine Created from Gene Therapy Found to be Effective in Treating Ovarian Cancer
William R. Robinson, MD; April O'Quinn, MD; Scott M. Freeman, MD; Jan Adams, RN; Anupuma Munshi
The authors of this study found that genetically altered tumor cells expressing the Herpes Simplex Virus-Thymidine Kinase (HSV-TK) gene, used previously as a vaccine therapy for multiple cancers, may be equally effective in treating women with ovarian tumors. Experiments with mice and a Phase I clinical trial involving 17 patients with recurrent chemotherapy-resistant ovarian cancer revealed that vaccine therapy could be associated with tumor regression in the laboratory animals, and suggested future positive use in human patients. In most cases, when ovarian cancer is first diagnosed, the disease has already spread, leading to a five year survival rate of just 30%. Treatment options for ovarian cancer are generally limited to surgery and chemotherapy, the latter providing an initial response generally followed by tumor recurrence within a few months. Immunotherapy, an attempt to boost the immune system's function, or a way to attack the cancerous cells directly, has been investigated as an alternative or adjuvant to traditional chemotherapy but preliminary trials have been disappointing. To enhance chemotherapeutic treatments, the medical researchers proposed that transferring the HSV-TK gene into the cancer cells would create a "suicide gene." Ovarian cancer tumor cells carrying this mutated gene would be susceptible to the antiviral drug, ganciclovir (GCV). In addition, after treatment, nearby tumor cells would be killed as a result of a "bystander effect" whereby unmodified tumor cells are also killed. The Phase I trials with human patients, all with advanced ovarian cancer, found that this form of treatment is technically feasible. Accordingly, a new round of testing is now in the planning process.

Research: Making a Difference
Modulation of Leukocyte Activity by Thrombospondin (TSP) Peptide 296: A Possible Role for Inhibition of Retinal Angiogenesis
Vincent F. LaRussa, PhD; A. Shafiee; D.D. Roberts; D.A. Blake
In this study, these researchers investigated the activities of thrombospondin synthetic peptide (TSP) 296 to stimulate peripheral blood mononuclear cells because activated lymphocytes and monocytes from the peripheral blood may secrete substances that inhibit the formation of new blood vessels (angiogenesis). These cells of the immune system were pre-exposed to TSP-296, and were found to secrete enhanced levels of transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-B1) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a), suspected to play a role in inhibiting the formation of blood vessels. It was found that when these activated immune regulatory cells were cultured with retinal tissue, they inhibited the formation of new blood vessels. Implications of this model can translate to the use of anti-angiogenic factors, such as TSP- 296, to prevent or to treat other diseases that are dependent on blood supply by inhibiting the development of microvessels to stop their growth (such as metastatic breast cancer, and perhaps leukemia growth in the marrow).

Research: Making a Difference
Activation of Nuclear Factor kB: Potential Role in Metallothionein-Mediated Mitogenic Response
Krishna C. Agrawal, PhD and Asim B. Abdel-Mageed, PhD
In this article, authors have reported that enhanced cellular proliferative and antiapoptotic response induced by agents such as zinc, estrogens and phorbol esters in human breast adenocarcinoma cells (MCF-7) is mediated by metallothionein (MT), a heavy metal binding protein. Inhibition of MT biosynthesis by a MT antisense caused cellular growth arrest suggesting a potential role of MT in cell proliferation. In explaining the mechanism of action of this response, the authors showed that MT causes activation of nuclear factor kB (NFkB), a dimeric protein involved in transactivation of genes during cell growth. By utilizing gel shift assays and anti-MT antibody the authors demonstrated a specific interaction of MT with NFkB. Using purified proteins, this interaction was shown to be with p50 subunit of NFkB. The protein-protein interaction of MT with NFkB is a novel finding that may help explain the mechanism for MT mediated mitogenic response in breast cancer cells.


Your Partner for Life
Tulane Celebrate the First Day of Spring
The annual Friends for Life First Day of Spring Membership Drive was once again a success in recruiting new members from the Tulane Medical Center community. Over 800 individuals were enrolled in the free program which focuses on the early detection and prevention of cancer by encouraging friends to remind each other to practice self-exams and to maintain healthy living habits.

Each new member was given a spring flowering plant for signing up on the day.

Friends for Life: Your best protection against cancer is early detection!

Tulane Bone Marrow Transplant Reunion

Over 100 former patients, family and friends of the Tulane Bone Marrow Transplant Program joined together on April 4 at the House of Broel to celebrate the second Reunion of the program.

Pictured from front to back (left to right) are:
Pat Toben, Rahna Hamilton, Yvonne Besson, Wayne Schmidt, Margaret Crosley
Pat Cameron, Lola Bates, Rose Stasch, Chris Terracina
Sheryl Givens, Regina McMorris, Shirley Howard, Joseph Messina
Kathy Obiorah, Gail White, Shirley Byrd, Tara Reed
Dr. Alan Miller, Tammy Dours, Diane Wheelock

Progress and New Hope in the Fight Against Cancer
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), one of the most prestigious organizations in the world dedicated to the cure and prevention of cancer through laboratory and clinical cancer research, recently held its public forum at the Morial Convention Center as part of its 89th Annual Meeting.

Entitled Progress and New Hope in the Fight Against Cancer, the forum enlisted a panel of physicians, researchers, cancer survivors and other national oncology representatives to examine pivotal research discoveries in the areas of prevention, diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer and colon cancer. Panelists from the Tulane Cancer Center included Dr. Derrick Beech, Dr. Suzette Cullins and Dr. Roy Weiner.

'98 Sports for Life
Teaming Up Against Prostate Cancer

On September 19, the second annual Sports for Life Basketball Tournament will be held at the Reily Student Recreation Center, Tulane Uptown Campus.

On September 19, 1998 the second annual Sports for Life Basketball Tournament will be held at the Tulane University Reily Student Recreation Center. In an effort to increase community awareness of prostate cancer and the importance of annual screening, the Tulane Cancer Center will sponsor Sports for Life: Teaming Up Against Prostate Cancer, a day filled with 3-on-3 basketball, shooting contests, celebrity judges and lots of fun and education. In addition to the tournament this year, a Basketball Clinic led by Alvin Gentry, head coach of the Detroit Pistons and Brian James, head coach of the Toronto Raptors, has been scheduled the evening before for 8 to 14 year old boys and girls.

"Like breast cancer, prostate cancer is also a significant disease in the United States. The prevalence rate of prostate cancer is nearly twice that of breast cancer. However, unlike breast cancer, prostate cancer has not received the attention necessary to place this disease at the forefront of public action," noted Dr. Bettina Beech, Assistant Professor at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. "We wanted an event that would raise the awareness of prostate cancer, but we wanted everyone to have fun learning about it." Having Lenny Wilkins, head coach of the Atlanta Hawks and NBA Hall of Famer, as the Honorary Chair of the event should help in gaining national attention for the cause.

At last year's inaugural event, 58 teams participated in the tournament; over 400 men received prostate cancer screening free of charge; and over $30,000 was raised for prostate cancer research. "We hope to increase the numbers in each of these areas this year," notes Dr. Beech. Prostate cancer is the second leading form of cancer in American men. Dr. Raju Thomas, chair of the Department of Urology, Tulane University Medical Center, believes, "as an age-related disease, men 40 and older are at increased risk for developing prostate cancer. It is estimated that 1 in 8 men will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime. African-American men, and those with a family history of prostate cancer, regardless of ethnicity, are at an increased risk of developing this disease." As part of the Sports for Life Program, Dr. Thomas will oversee the prostate screening sessions to be held at the Tulane Cancer Center Comprehensive Clinic the week following the tournament.

Dr. Roy Weiner, Director of the Tulane Cancer Center, said, "the American Cancer Society estimates 184,500 new cases of prostate cancer in the United States will be reported in 1998, and an estimated 39,200 men will die of it. In Louisiana alone, 3,100 men are estimated to be diagnosed with this disease, with 700 estimated deaths. Early diagnosis may help cure more men, and increase the quality of their lives."

To participate in the Sports for Life Program activities, please contact Angela Latino for more information, at (1-888-255-4244)

Annual Screening For Men Aged 40 And Older Is Currently The Most Effective Method Of Early Detection And The Best Opportunity To Decrease The Mortality Associated With Prostate Cancer.


Health Research Day
The 10th Annual Tulane Health Research Day took place on April 30, 1998, attracting 133 abstracts with a significant turn-out of medical students and residents. The number of awards increased from four to nine, including two sponsored by the Tulane Cancer Center. Bridgette Collins-Burrow won the Basic Cancer Research award for her study on environmental estrogen, and Dr. Rusty Robinson won the Translational Cancer Research award on a gene therapy Phase I trial.

Judging staff and research award recipients are featured above: (left to right) Rusty Robinson, MD; Heidi Sinclair; Yanding Zhang, PhD; Sebastian Karavattathayyil, MD; Wai-Choi Leung, PhD; Bobby Nossamen, MD; John Krause, MD; Gabriel Navar, PhD; John Beier, DSc; Dean James Corrigan, MD; Richard Harlan, PhD; Laura Levy, PhD; Chancellor John LaRosa, MD; Arnold Brody, PhD; Deborah D'Souza; Regina Graham; Carolyn Mattingly; Bridgette Collins-Burrow; Roy Weiner, MD; Charles Hemenway, MD, PhD

A Salute to TCC Members & Friends:
A Sampling of News, Awards, and Accolades
Barbara S. Beckman, Ph.D. Derrick Beech, M.D. German Beltran, M.D. Timothy C. Flynn, M.D. Steven Hill, Ph.D. David Jansen, M.D. Linda Lee, M.A.A. Rusty Robinson, M.D.
Charles Scher, M.D.

INSIDE THE TULANE CANCER CENTER
 Your Partner for Life!
 Editorial Staff & Contacts
EDITORIAL
Editor: DR. ROY S. WEINER
News & Features Editor: ANGELA M. LATINO
Art/Production: STEVEN D. PIERRE

How to Contact Us

Tulane Cancer Center
(504) 988-6060
(504) 988-6077 fax
Box SL-68, 1430 Tulane Ave., New Orleans, LA 70112-2699, USA
WWW homepage: http://www.som.tulane.edu/cancer

Friedler Cancer Counseling Center
(504) 988-2120
WWW homepage: http://www.som.tulane.edu/cancer/friedler.html

Tulane Access
Physicians' referral line: (800) 588-5300
WWW homepage: http://www.tuhc.com

The Professionals
Patients' referral line: (800) 588-5800
WWW homepage: http://www.tuhc.com


------------
This page is http://www.som.tulane.edu/cancer/newsltr0698.html
This page was last updated on
Return to the top of this page.
Return to the Tulane Cancer Center homepage.

Calendars Clinical Trials Faculty Links Location News

Search Site index