From Bench to Bedside and Back

From Bench to Bedside and Back spring | summer 2014 contents spring | summer 2014 10 4 8 features departments 2 What if you were the patient? 1 Director’s Letter Clinicians redesign care. 7 Advances 4 From Bench to Bedside and Back Breakthrough research from Yale Cancer Center The rallying cry at Yale Cancer Center is “translational medicine.” 8 Forefront Cancer Center chosen for groundbreaking study 10 Arming the Immune System to Fight Back against Cancer 12 Prevention Bill Brown’s success story. Millions of lives saved by surgeon general’s report on smoking but the fight isn’t over 14 Giving High-risk, high-reward fund aims to accelerate cancer research 16 Meet the Physician Q&A with Dr. Steven Gore On the Cover 17 New Faces Dr. Lajos Pusztai, Director of Breast Appointments at Yale Cancer Center Medical Oncology and Co-Director of Cancer Genetics and Genomics, with Dr. Anees Chagpar, Director of the Breast Center at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven. Peter Baker photographer director’s letter yale cancer center Thomas J. Lynch, Jr., MD Director Kevin Vest, MBA, FACHE Deputy Director, Administration and Clinical Affairs Renee Gaudette Director, Public Affairs and Marketing art + production Greg Mursko Creative Director contributors Writers Emily Fenton Steve Kemper Colleen Shaddox Photographer Peter Baker pbakerphoto.com Design Peter Baker Studios www.pbakerstudios.com Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven have joined the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) with official acceptance into the organization at their annual submit your ideas... Do you have an idea for a story meeting in March. As many of you know, NCCN is a prestigious group of Cancer Centers who come you’d like to see featured together to set national guidelines for cancer care and I am pleased that our faculty will now share their in Centerpoint Magazine? Submit your ideas to: expertise on the NCCN guideline setting committees. Our membership in NCCN is a reflection of the [email protected] outstanding clinical care provided to our patients at Smilow Cancer Hospital and the increasingly fast pace of our translational research efforts from Yale Cancer Center. April’s American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting was a great opportunity for Yale Cancer Center to highlight the translational science breakthroughs coming from our laboratories to our clinics. Major research contributions were highlighted at the podium at AACR from Dr. Roy Herbst, chair of the Association’s Tobacco and Cancer subcommittee, on tobacco control and the Lung Cancer Master Protocol; Dr. Katerina Politi on EGFR resistance; Dr. Mario Sznol on PD-1 pathway inhibition; Dr. Lieping Chen on harnessing the immune system; and Dr. Lajos Pusztai and Dr. Christos Hatzis on bioinformatics and sequencing analysis. I look forward to updating our readers on the progress of their research in upcoming issues of Centerpoint Magazine. Patient and family-centered care is a primary focus of the Smilow Cancer Hospital leadership each day. Catherine Lyons, RN, MS, NEA-BC, Executive Director of Patient Care Services, continues to concentrate on our patient satisfaction surveys and makes continuous recommendations and adjustments to our services based on patient responses. Considerable efforts have been made toward improving our patients’ experience in our outpatient clinics in Smilow and we are seeing continued Centerpoint Magazine is published two times a year by Yale Cancer Center improvement in our patient satisfaction results. to inform the public and the Center’s Our overall Press Ganey score for all of our outpatient clinics was just reported for the first quarter friends, volunteers, donors, and staff on current items of interest at Yale of 2014 and it is our highest score ever! Even more meaningful, we are now benchmarking our results Cancer Center. against 34 other NCI-designated Cancer Centers; our overall score for the period ending March 31 puts Yale Cancer Center our rank at the 65th percentile against this peer group! I appreciate all of the efforts of the physicians, 333 Cedar Street, PO Box 208028 nurses, and staff who continually strive to improve our patients’ experience each day. New Haven, CT 06520-8028 yalecancercenter.org I look forward to updating you on new research initiatives and translational research developments in the next issue of Centerpoint Magazine. Enjoy the summer season with your families! ©Copyright 2014, Yale Cancer Center. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced by Sincerely, any means, prints, electronic, or any other, without prior written permission of the publisher. Editorial Office Thomas J. Lynch, Jr., MD Yale Cancer Center 100 Church Street South, Suite 160 Director, Yale Cancer Center New Haven, CT 06510 [email protected] Physician-in-Chief, Smilow Cancer Hospital yalecancercenter.org | centerpoint magazine 1 Clinicians redesign care asking: What if YOU were the patient? endell Yarbrough’s patient was having a ‘realistic template’ that creates a true picture of how long trying day. She saw him for a follow-up various patients need. Scheduling according to these templates PETER BAKER appointment after her surgery to remove – rather than to an arbitrary appointment length – should cut the cancer in her larynx (voice box), had an down on patient wait times. Dr. Rogerio Lilenbaum and W Dr. Wendell Yarbrough imaging procedure in a different building, and finally needed Often doctors will be ready to see a patient, but there is no to make her way to the speech pathologist to get a prosthetic available room, Dr. Lilenbaum said. Smilow has implemented to enable her to speak. He spotted her in front of the wrong new electronic status boards to notify staff immediately when building shortly before that third appointment. Dr. Yarbrough a room is empty. Another innovation to speed patient care is pushed the patient’s wheelchair to the correct clinic. While encouraging oncologists to write chemotherapy orders before that solved her immediate problem, he knew that other patients the visit. These orders will, of course, be verified before faced similar hurdles. administration, but should reduce the amount of time that a patient “We can’t expect patients to navigate all this when they waits for his or her chemotherapy to be mixed in pharmacy. are sick,” explained Dr. Yarbrough, MD, MMHC, Professor Patient care will also be improved by making better use of of Surgery and Pathology. Dr. Yarbrough leads the Head and nurse practitioners and physician associates, Dr. Lilenbaum Neck Cancer Program at Smilow Cancer Hospital, whose explained, and by giving patients the option to go to one of the patients typically encounter a large number of team members 8 Smilow Cancer Hospital Care Centers scattered throughout both before and after therapy. Dr. Yarbrough met with the the state. program team and leaders in Smilow and they set out to While trying to make services more efficient for a large make the logistics of getting all that care simpler. The team volume of patients, services are also being expanded. “We redesigned the patient experience using one overarching want to offer psychological support for oncology patients who question: “If you were the patient, how would you want to may be in distress,” he said. Genetic testing will also be more be treated?” widely available with more rapid access. Screenings are being A variety of innovations in scheduling and communication increased for various kinds of cancers as well. “We are renewing are now in place to streamline care. The Head and Neck Cancer our efforts to be a leader in patient experience and patient Program is the vanguard of a larger clinical redesign involving satisfaction,” Dr. Lilenbaum said. the entire hospital. Making care more efficient will help us care Great communication is critical to both. “Patients want to for more patients, according to Rogerio Lilenbaum, MD, Chief know: Is my spouse going to need a hotel room? Will I know Medical Officer of Smilow Cancer Hospital. how to take care of the drain when I go home?” Dr. Yarbrough As part of a larger multidisciplinary project to improve said. The Head and Neck Cancer Program connects each patient flow, patients began noticing differences as soon as patient with a clinical coordinator, a point person who plays the they entered the building. Blood drawing is now centralized key role of answering questions and connecting the patient with to Smilow’s fourth floor lab, which patients pass when they available services. enter from the parking garage. More phlebotomists and nurses Patients with head and neck cancer require care from many have been hired to speed the process. An increasing number of providers to assure the best outcomes. The Head and Neck patients will be getting their blood drawn at various labs in their Cancer Program strives to coordinate as many visits as own communities before their appointments so that results are possible into a single day – a major feat of scheduling and space ready when they meet with their doctors. allocation that involved many departments. Getting different Some appointments take much longer than others. “A visit professionals to work together has long been seen as critical to here is by nature more complex than it is in a private office,” effective health care, but it is equally vital to delivering health Dr. Lilenbaum said. So physicians have been asked to design a care that is convenient and patient-centered. 2 centerpoint magazine | spring-summer 2014 yalecancercenter.org | centerpoint magazine 3 From BENCH To BEDSIDE Lajos Pusztai, MD, PhD And and Vikram Wali, PhD Sophia N. Ononye, PhD BACK PETER BAKER The rallying cry at Yale Cancer Center is “The breast team leads the Cancer Center in therapeutic one person embodies that loop. On the breast cancer team receptors.

Load more