Inside the Tulane Cancer Center

Fall 1997
Headlines in this Issue:
A Message from the Director
Scientific Education: Breast Cancer
Sports for Life Basketball Tournament
Photo Album: Summer Events
Cancer Crusaders brunch ... Tribute to Breast Cancer Survivors ... National Cancer Survivors Day ... A Night with the Nevilles
Research: Making a Difference AT A GLANCE:
1997 Calendar of Events
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

In my role as Director of the Tulane Cancer Center I am privileged to be surrounded by excellence and achievement in the vanguard of medical education, research and practice. Over the last four years the Tulane Cancer Center has opened our research facility in the Health and Environmental Research Building, expanded its membership to 107 faculty, recruited six basic scientists and eleven clinical oncologists, established the state's premier Bone Marrow Transplant Program, renewed Tulane's program in Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, increased annual grant funding from $8 to $11 million, and had a two-fold rise in annual patient visits.

In an era of limited resources, both of time and money, the TCC continues to move forward. Our progress to date and our ambitious plans for the future require the dedication and committment of each member of our faculty and our staff. Of equal importance, is the support of our community partners. In this issue, you will see the faces of those individuals who are most closely allied with Tulane's fight against cancer. As always, it is the continuing support of our friends that has made the real difference in our ability to sustain the Tulane tradition of excellence.

We now stand on the threshold of seeing our first patient in the new Comprehensive Clinic. We have invested heavily in "bricks and mortar," but of tantamount importance are our developing programs which will demonstrate our commitment to TCC patients, their families, and our community. Through these outreach and education programs, with the assistance of the TCC Community Advisory Board, our goal is to have Tulane emerge as the regional leader in Cancer Awareness, Early Detection and Prevention.

The Tulane Cancer Center is actively reaching out to this community, providing opportunities to become involved in the battle against cancer. It is time to acknowledge that even though we have much work to be done, through research and application we have faced some of cancer's strongest foes and come out the victor.

The time we spend in celebration is far less than the hours we devote to discovery, problem analysis and resolution. Join me now in celebrating the accomplishments we share with our partners, today and tomorrow.
Scientific Education: Breast Cancer
A musical evening, an arduous mountain climb, a laboratory filled with highly focused researchers. What do they have in common?

Each activity, each individual, forms a critical link in a chain that will lead finally to prevention of breast cancer and related tumors. Each has come to the larger endeavor from a different direction, but all offer their unique talents to the long-term goal.

Of the motivation is personal. Jennie McNeill's mother was the third generation in her family to succumb to cancer originating in the breast, and McNeill herself is in remission after having uterine cancer. As a result, she has committed her considerable energies to supporting research and education about cancer -- and found a new profession along the way.

Andrea Martin lost both breasts to different occurrences of cancer. Like McNeill, she is determined that her daughter will not have the same experience. She turned her skills as a political fundraiser to establishing a national organization to focus on the issue. Both have many friends and acquaintances who had or still have the disease.

At the other end of the chain, are researchers like Steven Hill, professor of anatomy and chair of the Breast Cancer Task Force, who focuses on the molecular and cellular events that foster or inhibit the tumors of the breast. Though his busy lab seems worlds away from the offices of McNeill and Martin, their paths inevitably cross in the mission of the Tulane Cancer Center. While Hill and other members of the task force tease out the many factors that make breast cancer still so difficult to treat, individuals like McNeill and Martin are doing all they can to keep the support flowing and keep the public aware of the progress and of the distance yet to go.

Hill studies how hormones, especially estrogen, influence breast cancer cells, and on the factors that, in turn, affect estrogen production. "Estrogen works by binding to and activating an estrogen receptor protein. Many breast tumors contain and express this receptor, and estrogen, though not the cause, can promote growth in a large proportion of breast tumors," said Hill.

If the tumor has the estrogen receptor, for example, treatments such as the estrogen-like tamoxifen should not be used, because it will accelerate tumor growth.

Hill has found variants that precede the estrogen receptor and that some cells do not make estrogen receptors at all. In receptor-positive cells and breast cancer cells, there is a binding factor that multiplies the level of estrogen receptor many fold, and tumors seem to grow more quickly.

The estrogen receptor itself, however, is affected by melatonin, another hormone that Hill is studying. "Melatonin can crosstalk and regulate activity of the estrogen receptor in breast tumor cells," says Hill.

Hill has shown that, in culture, melatonin combined with retinoic acid in a specific, timed sequence can kill one type of breast cancer cell. He hopes to apply this knowledge in clinical trials within a year.

McNeill appreciates the importance of new trials. Her support originally focused on research because an experimental treatment then available only at the NIH added four years to her mother's life. "I always knew she wouldn't be cured, but we made the most of it," said McNeill. The therapy enabled her mother to be the bookkeeper for McNeill's first fundraiser in 1992, though it had been planned as a memorial. After the event, McNeill received so many requests to manage other functions that, in 1994, she started the Jennie McNeill Enterprises, LLC, now a leading meeting management business.

A few months after her mother's death in 1996, McNeill learned, through a routine exam, that she had uterine cancer. She is in remission now and says the experience added more focus to her life. She accelerated targets for her business, and turned her pain into disciplined work that benefited her family and her cancer program. Said McNeill, "I used these projects and goals to help myself."

This year, McNeill has gone a step further to establish the non-profit Virginia H. McNeill Cancer Research Foundation. The foundation will do a major fundraiser annually and a special event focused on a single cancer, such as a golf tournament to support education and research on testicular cancers. McNeill plans to implement a buddy system, support groups for family and caretakers, and a hotline. All this activity takes a lot of time and organizational skill, but McNeill is more than up to the challenge. "I've been on the side of the family and felt helpless," she says. "Now I have the disease and it will be with me always, but I've learned to handle it in a productive way." There are similarities between McNeill's profession and the effort to defeat cancer. Speaking of the recent gala, An Intimate Evening with Aaron Neville on August 9, McNeill said, "You can't do this without a team of players. If you have a group that can work together, you will progress so much further."

Like McNeill, Andrea Martin is determined to enlist more support in the fight against breast cancer, which is hereditary in about 5 percent of cases. That is a goal these entrepreneurs share with Hill and the many other players on the Tulane Cancer Center team, including social workers, nurses, clinicians, researchers, therapists and others. By the time she had survived her second bout with breast cancer, in 1991, Martin had decided to turn her successful career as a political fundraiser toward defeating cancer by founding The Breast Cancer Fund, a national organization to support research, prevention and education on breast cancer. She also soon staged a unique event to heighten public awareness and demonstrate the courage and strength of breast cancer survivors.

Martin has written, "Our mission is to shake up the status quo and to innovate and accelerate the response to this silent but deadly epidemic." In 1995, along with 16 other women in Expedition Inspiration, Martin climbed the highest peak in the Americas, Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina. Since then, The Breast Cancer Fund has held a number of more accessible events to generate support for breast cancer research in non-traditional areas and new treatments and technologies that may detect tumors earlier than mammography. The most recent in New Orleans was a fashion show in which survivors modeled the clothes. The Fund also supports outreach, education, patient support and advocacy programs.

Martin is especially interested in research on environmental factors, and another of Hill's lines of inquiry is how environmental chemicals affect the estrogen receptor pathway in breast cancer cells to play a role in the marked increase of the disease in every age group.

Though they came to the team from different perspectives, these players share the same goal, to reduce the incidence of breast cancer -- now one in eight among American women -- and, in the end, to prevent cancers all together. Hill, McNeill and Martin, each according to his or her gifts, demonstrates daily an unparalleled tenacity and commitment to this goal.

by Anne Yeoman
Sports for Life
The Tulane University Reily Recreation Center was the site for the first annual Sports for Life Program on September 6. Over 200 players -- men, women, and children -- competed in a 3-on-3 basketball tournament, shooting contests, and other special events, all to mark the opening weekend of Prostate Cancer Awareness Week.

Also included in the day's festivities was health fair featuring displays by the Gideon Christian Fellowship Church, Hoescht Marion Rousell, Home Care Alliance, the TUHC Breast Health Clinic, the Tulane Departments of Urology and Dermatology, and Tulane's Healing Touch program. A special interactive exhibit was featured as well for all of the participants and their family members by the Audubon ZooMobile.

The event acknowledges a two month-ling public awareness campaign designed to promote prostate cancer screening. In conjunction with the campaign, Dr. Raju Thomas and the TUMC Department of Urology implemented a no-charge prostate screening session program on September 8. Over 300 New Orleanians were examined as a result of the program. Due to the overwhelming community response for screening other sessions are being planned.

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.
Research:
Making a Difference
New Clinical Protocols at TCC
Trial of Taxotere (R) and Adriamycin (R) as Neo-Adjuvant Therapy in Locally Advanced Breast Cancer (BMT 97-2)
Suzette Cullins, MD, Hana Safah, MD, Roy S. Weiner, MD
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the combination of two chemotherapy drugs, docetaxel [Taxotere(R)] and doxorubicin [Adriamycin(R)], as compared to doxorubicin alone as the initial portion of an overall treatment plan for patients with locally advanced or inflammatory breast cancer. All patients who respond to the initial treatment will receive further treatment with higher doses of chemotherapy and infusion of their own stored peripheral blood progenitor cells (PBPC) (cells that circulate in the blood that can be used to replace damaged bone marrow after a person has received high doses of chemotherapy).

While standard dose chemotherapy has increased the survival of patients who present with locally advanced inflammatory breast disease, a substantial proportion of these patients relapse. Even with the combination of surgery and irradiation leading in most instances to better local control, relapse remains the major obstactle to prolonged disease-free survival.
Photo Album: Summer Events


The Cancer Crusaders recently hosted their annual spring brunch. A highlight was the presentation of $32,217 to Tulane University. From left are Dr. Pelayo Correa, acting director of the LSU Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center, Sherron Leggio, past president of the Cancer Crusaders, and Dr. Roy Weiner, director of the Tulane Cancer Center.


The Breast Cancer Fund gave a "Tribute to Breast Cancer Survivors and Other Heroes" fashion show on May 9. The runway featured models who have faced breast cancer, and their New Orleans celebrity escorts. Fashions were provided by JC Penney. Frankie Ford and Jenny Winstead


On June 1, over 200 cancer survivors joined in the Celebration of Life for the annual nationwide National Cancer Survivors Day held at the New Orleans Survivors Plaza on Poydras Street.


The Virginia H. McNeill Cancer Research Foundation sponsored A Night with the Nevilles on August 9 at City Park's Pavilion of the Two Sisters to benefit the Tulane Cancer Center. Featured from the fun-filled evening are Aaron Neville, Dr. Roy S. Weiner, and Charmaine Neville.
Upcoming Events
September 20, 1997 Friedler Cancer Counseling Center Open House and Benefit Dinner
"The New Medicine: Mind, Body & Soul", featuring Dr. Stephanie Simonton

September 21, 1997 Friedler Cancer Counseling Center Public Forum
"New Frontiers in Medicine: The Mind/Body Connection in Cancer", featuring Dr. Stephanie Simonton
3:30-5:30 pm, Tulane Uptown Campus, McAlister Auditorium

September 22, 1997: Friedler Cancer Counseling Center Academic Seminar
"Mind, Immunity & Cancer Treatment", featuring Dr. Stephanie Simonton

September 24, 1997: Public Forum:
"Why Everyone is at Risk" & "What Does it Mean to Have the Gene?"
Sponsored by CAGNO, LA Breast Cancer Task Force, Office of Public Health, and the Edna B. & Joyce Fay Washington Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc.
Featuring Roy S. Weiner, MD and Maureen Sintich, MN, FNP
3:00 - 5:00 pm, UNO University Center, room 211

October 1, 1997: TCC Comprehensive Clinic Grand Opening Concert featuring Kevin Sharp

October 4-5, 1997: TCC Oncology Update '97 conference

October 5, 1997: Third annual Race for the Cure 5K Run & Fitness Walk (Woldenberg Park)
Sponsored by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation

October 17, 1997: TCC Comprehensive Clinic Open House, 5:00 - 7:00 pm

October 20, 1997: Friends for Life Program: First Lady of Louisiana Kick-off Reception

October 25, 1997: New Orleans Revlon Run/Walk Festival for Women

November 7, 1997: "Two Chicks, Two Bikes, One Cause" Public Health Fair & Panel Discussion
featuring Porter Gale and Donna Murphy, Tulane Uptown Campus

December 7, 1997, noon - 3:00 pm: Breast Cancer Fund Silver Tea
Royal Sonesta Hotel, 300 Bourbon St.
$25 donation to benefit The Breast Cancer Fund
Contact Angela Latino at (504) 599-6592 or by e-mail at
Recent Honors and Presentations
Bettina Beech, DrPH
Derrick Beech, M.D.
NSF/EPSCoR sponsored Travel Grants for Emerging Faculty
Mary Coniglio, BCSW
AACE Oral presentation: "Teaching Patients/Families about Coping with Cancer: A Model for Understanding Self & Relieving Emotional Pain"
Melanie Ehrlich, Ph.D.
Chair, Gordon Conference
Michael Gerber, M.D.
Presented at International Conference on Gastrointestinal Tumors
Steven Hill, Ph.D.
Speaking engagements:
Roy Weiner, M.D.
Chair, 1998 Meetings of the Association for Cancer Research
Chair, Program for Southern Association of Oncology
New Orleans Magazine "Top Doctors" Listings:
INSIDE THE TULANE CANCER CENTER
 Your Partner for Life!
 Editorial Staff & Contacts
EDITORIAL
Editor: DR. ROY S. WEINER
Managing Editor: JAMES R. YATES
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


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