Latest in Advances in Cancer Research: Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University LIVE
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Wafik El-Deiry at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University said that it is an "exciting time" to be in the field of cancer research -- and spoke to what he sees as the most promising advances in the field, when he appeared on "Smart Health" on GoLocal LIVE.
El-Deiry, who is an MD, PhD, FACP, and an internationally recognized physician-scientist, academic leader, and medical oncologist, served as deputy director for translational research and co-leader of the Molecular Therapeutics Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center before being recruited to Brown last fall.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST"I saw a great opportunity [at Brown] to build cancer programs. We have a great university, a great medical school, we have a school of public health, and then we have a number of affiliated hospitals, including the Lifespan Cancer Institute, the Children’s Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital — several hospitals," said El-Deiry, when he joined GoLocal News Editor Kate Nagle on Smart Health. "I met a number of great colleagues here and thought this would be a great environment to build cancer programs. "
VIDEO: Watch "Smart Health" Interview BELOW
El-Deiry spoke to his success in cancer research prior to arriving at Brown -- and how he plans to build on it.
"I’m a physician-scientist who runs a basic science lab studying cancer and I also see patients," said El-Deiry. "So we’ve been interested in finding new treatments for cancer and we’ve focused for.a number of years on how cancers grow — what are the effects of chemotherapy or radiation on the tumors and we’ve always believed that if we understand these processes we could then design drugs to boost the immune system or get the tumors to die and that’s what we want to see in our patients."
"So I was very fortunate in being involved with a drug discovery of the last 15 years and had one of the really most exciting things that can happen in the career of a physician-scientist which is to discover a drug in the lab and have it move to the clinic, and then see and hear about patients who are having response for example with brain tumors or there types of aggressive tumors in clinical trials when there really aren’t any other options," said El-Deiry.
Rhode Island in Focus
El-Deiry spoke his focus in Rhode Island -- and what he has found so far.
"So interestingly Rhode Island has higher rates of certain tumor types. I was interested to learn that bladder cancer is fairly common in Rhode Island — it is really the place with the highest rates of bladder cancer in the country and higher rates of other tumors like lung cancer and breast cancer and thyroid cancer," said El-Deiry. "Studying a population in a specific location, there are other issues that are important such as access to care and screening prevention of cancer — are people at risk being screened and are they getting the latest technologies to help them do well in the long run?"
El-Deiry spoke to working with a group looking at a national lung cancer screening project — and seeing that some areas in Rhode Island specifically were underrepresented
"So we’re learning about issues that would help us take better care of the population in Rhode Island," said El-Deiry.
MORE BELOW VIDEO
Advancements in the Field of Cancer Research
"This is an exciting time to be in the field of cancer research and to see the advances that have been coming along over the last few years and I would talk about a couple of things," said El-Deiry.
"One, is there are have incredible advances in immunotherapy over the last few years. Now, not everyone benefits from immunotherapy and in fact one of the big questions is who benefits and why and how can we have patients benefit long-term and there are plenty of clinical trials combining immunotherapy with either chemotherapy or other forms of targeted cancer therapy so this is an area where we’re going to see more happening," said El-Deiry.
"Another area that is very much on people’s minds and has resulted in some advances in understanding the genetics of cancer have to to do with what’s referred to as precision medicine or precision oncology, in that for tumors to develop, they need to acquire certain mutations," said El-Deiry. "An if we know what the mutations [are] that drive the cancer we could treat the patient with specific drugs that are tailored to their genetic drivers."
" So a lot of progress has been made and we do have a number of examples of tumors that are now treated specifically based on the genetics of the tumors. We’ve also had advances in the molecular testing of tumors so we can uncover these vulnerabilities," said El-Deiry. "Cancer is complex — and even with a certain type of cancer, like colon or breast cancer, it’s many, many different diseases. It could be said no two tumors are exactly alike. But there are some common themes in terms of how they’re treated, and I’m somewhat optimistic about the prospects of new treatments for cancer, especially immunotherapy."
"Smart Health" is a sponsored content series by the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University
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