PROMISE& PROGRESS THE SIDNEY KIMMEL COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTE R AT JOHNS HOPKINS TRANSFORMIN G PROS TA TE CANCER DETECTION, DIAGNOSIS, AND TREATMENT 2012/2013 PROMISE&PROGR ESS 2012/2013 VOLUME ONE Promise & Progress is published by The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins 06 Office of Public Affairs 901 South Bond Street Suite 573 Baltimore, Maryland 21231 (410) 955-1287 William G. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D. Director Amy Mone Director of Public Affairs Valerie Matthews Mehl Editor and Sr. Writer [email protected] Michelle Potter Production Manager and Editorial Assistant Vanessa Wasta Associate Director, Media Relations and Web Projects Keith Weller Feature Photography Peter Howard Cover Photography MSK Partners, Inc. Design and Production Printed in the USA CONTENTS ON THE WEB CONNECT WITH US 34 WWW.HOPKINSKIMMELCANCERCENTER.ORG 02 40 CANCER MATTERS , OUR BLOG FEATURING Headline Makers In The News Philanthropy TOPICS FROM CLINICIANS, RESEARCHERS, The latest research from Noteworthy progress, Gifts and donations that PATIENTS, AND STAFF. the Kimmel Cancer Center new appointments, and are funding our cancer including new discoveries other cancer news. research and advancing CANCER NEWS REVIEW , MONTHLY PODCAST in cancer treatments and clinical care. FROM DIRECTOR WILLIAM NELSON half-matched transplants MEDIA CENTER , VIDEO AND PODCAST GALLERY that may cure sickle cell disease. P&P PROMISE & PROGRESS WEB EXCLUSIVES On the Cover: Former Temptations singer Damon Harris, at his Owings Mills home. @HOPKINSMEDNEWS For additional copies of this publication or further information about the SEARCH FOR JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE Kimmel Cancer Center, please call (410) 955-1287 or email [email protected] © 2012 The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins DIRECTOR’S LETTER REDEFINING CANCER THE KIMMEL CANCER Center is an treatment is delivered with evidence-base d, incredible cancer discovery engine. Our personalized care that gets interventions laboratory scientists have made world- to patients who we know will benefit and class findings that have revolutionized moves them away from those we know cancer research. Still, what we are most will only be harmed. At the same time, we proud of is how we are using these break - are using the clinical characteristics that throughs to improve the experience and distinguish one group from the other to outcomes of patients. This only occurs develop novel prevention approaches, when scientists work side by side with better screening and diagnostic markers, clinicians, and this is the Kimmel Cancer and more effective treatments. Center model. A new clinical arm of our As a prostate cancer clinician-scientist, genetic and epigenetic sequencing labora - and a member of this team, I am so proud tories (see page 40) is focused on translat - of this work. As the Kimmel Cancer Cente r ing these revolutionary discoveries about Director, I am excited about the possibili - the unique molecular blueprints of cancers ties because I recognize that much of what into clinical tests that will help identify we learned about prostate cancer can be those people most at risk and guide applied to make similar advances against diagnosis and treatment. other cancer types. Johns Hopkins clinicians and scientists WE ARE NOT CONTENT WITH THE STATUS QUO. have a long history of pioneering advance s against prostate cancer. It was here that WITH DISCOVERY COMES THE OPPORTUNITY, AND the first radical prostatectomy was per - I BELIEVE THE OBLIGATION, TO RE-EVALUATE formed, and here that it was reinvented. Here, laboratory scientists developed the AND IMPROVE HOW WE DELIVER CANCER CARE. first animal models to characterize the We are not content with the status quo . Our ability to make these unprecedented properties and types of prostate cancer, With discovery comes the opportunity, gains is tied directly to the generosity of and here, current researchers and and I believe the obligation, to re-evaluate our donors. The National Cancer Institute , clinicians build upon this work to deliver and improve how we deliver cancer care. the Department of Defense, Sidney Kimme l, 21st century personalized cancer medici ne. In this issue, you will read about signifi - David H. Koch, the Commonwealth This bench-to-bedside tradition is what cant advances in how we detect, diagnose Foundation for Cancer Research, the sets Johns Hopkins apart and ensures and treat prostate cancer. We recognized Prostate Cancer Foundation, Safeway, continued progress against prostate that this is a disease that is too frequently Jones Day, AEGON, the Patrick C. Walsh cancer and all cancers. overdetected and overtreated but, at the Prostate Cancer Research Fund, the same time, is a leading killer of men. Wit h Maryland Cigarette Restitution Fund, the multidisciplinary expertise of some of and many dedicated individual donors the world’s best urologists, oncologists, are among the contributors who have William G. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D. radiation oncologists, pathologists, radiol - made the Johns Hopkins prostate cancer Marion I. Knott Professor and Director ogists, and cancer scientists we are trans - program one of the strongest and most The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive forming how prostate cancer screening and productive in the world. Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins 2012/2013 PROMISE &PROGRESS 1 HEADLI NE MAKERS THE LATEST RESEARCH from the JOHNS HOPKINS KIMMEL CANCER CENTER HALF-MATCHED TRANSPLANTS MAY CURE SICKLE CELL DISEASE Blood , September 6, 2012 Kimmel Cancer Center bone marrow transplant researcher Javier Bolanos- Meade, M.D. , and team have shown that half-matched (hap - loidentical) bone mar - row transplants can cure sickle cell anemia, a painful and debilitat - ing blood-forming dis - Bolanos-Meade ease in which red blood The crescent-shaped red blood cells are shaped like crescents instead of cells of sickle cell anemia discs and clog blood vessels, cutting off oxygen to tissues and organs. Bone marrow transplant replaces the “We’re trying to reformat the blood of lung cancer, known as small cell lung diseased marrow with the healthy marrow system and give patients new blood cells cancer (SCLC). “Small cell lung cancers of a donor. After an average of two years Brodsky to replace the diseased are very aggressive. Most are found late, of follow-up, eight of 14 patients treated ones, much like you when the cancer has spread, and typically with a half-identical transplant and would replace a com - survival is less than a year after diagno - another three who all received a fully puter’s circuitry with an sis,” says Charles Rudin, M.D., Ph.D. , matched bone marrow transplant remain entirely new hard professor of oncology and Director of the symptom free. Ten patients are believed drive,” says Robert Kimmel Cancer Center Lung Cancer to be cured of their sickle cell disease. Brodsky, M.D. , Therapeutics Program. “Our genomic Patients with severe sickle cell disease Director of Hematology and The Johns studies may help identify genetic pathways (SCD) face shortened life spans, intractab le Hopkins Famil y Professor of Medicine and responsible for the disease and give us pain and eventual organ damage as a Oncology. “Whil e bone marrow transplant s new ideas on developing drugs to treat it.” result of their disease. SCD primarily have long been known to cure sickle cell Among the genetic alterations identified affects African Americans. Most patients disease, only a small percentage of patient s by the investigators was an increase in t he die before age 50, and many suffer poor have fully matched, eligible donors.” number of copies (amplification) of a gene quality of life with frequent episodes of Six of the transplants were not suc - called SOX2. Normal cells should contain “off-the-charts” pain, and an increased cessful. The patients own diseased blood just two copies of the gene (one copy from risk for kidney failure, stroke, deep-vein cells eventually returned. Work to improve each parent), which is involved in embryo thrombosis, and lung disease. The ability the rate of bone marrow engraftment in development. In cancer, researchers sus - to safely use half-matching donors (parents, half-identical transplants for sickle cell is pect that amplification causes an overpro - most siblings, ongoing. duction of SOX2 proteins that, in turn, and all chil - Funding for the research was provided by reignites and sustains cell growth associ - dren of the the National Cancer Institute and National ated with tumor formation. “SOX2 is an patient) makes Institutes of Health grants P01CA15396 and important clue in finding new ways to bone marrow K23HL083089 and Sistema Nacional de treat small cell lung cancer,” says Rudin. transplant a n Investigadores (Mexico). • “We may be able to link a patient’s out - effective option come to this gene and develop a drug to EMBRYO GENE LINKED TO target it or other genes it regulates.” for the majori - Fuchs and Luznik ty of sickle cell LETHAL LUNG CANCER The research was funded by the Burroughs patients. Kimmel Cancer investigator s Nature Genetics , September 2, 2012 Wellcome Fund, the Flight Attendant Medical Ephraim Fuchs, M.D. , and Leo Luznik, Scientists from several institutions, led by Research Institute, the National Cancer M.D. , pioneered the haploidentical version researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center, Institute grants P50CA058184, P50CA70907, of the therapy to help patients who do not completed a comprehensive map of the and P50CA058187, the CAPES Foundation, have matching donors. genetic