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From left, Stephen D. Nimer, M.D., director of Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, and researchers, including Jashodeep Datta, M.D., Peter Hosein, M.D., Gretel Terrero, M.D., and Nipun Merchant, M.D., enlightened supporters on the innovative pancreatic research and life-altering discoveries taking place at the cancer center.
Editor’s Note: Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Health System, has been sponsoring PanCAN PurpleStride in South Florida for more than 10 years, returning this year as Premier Sponsor for PurpleStride Miami and PurpleStride Broward-Palm Beach. Between sponsorship and enthusiastically fielding teams at PurpleStride, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and their dedicated staff have raised more than $100,000 in support of patients and families with pancreatic cancer.
The Sylvester Pancreatic Cancer Research Institute (SPCRI) recently hosted an evening for supporters, highlighting the innovative research and life-altering discoveries taking place at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. We’re reposting an article by Stacy Bomser that originally appeared on the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s website.
Pancreatic cancer survivor Paul Flamm has nothing but praise and admiration for Peter Hosein, M.D., a renowned medical oncologist at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
“From the very beginning, he told me, ‘We’re going to treat this. It’s not going to be easy, but we’ll get through it,” said Flamm, who is now in remission. “I can’t thank him enough. He’s given me at least two years, and I don’t know how many more. His dedication to his research and his patients is unmatched.”
As an expression of gratitude to his physician and friend, Flamm supports Dr. Hosein philanthropically and personally. That commitment inspired him to travel from his home in Palm Beach County to Miami recently to attend the Sylvester Pancreatic Cancer Research Institute (SPCRI) Conversations and Cocktails event and to learn more about the innovative research and life-changing progress taking place at the SPCRI.
Targeting the Toughest Cancers
Patients like Mr. Flamm turn to Sylvester for the level of expertise available at South Florida’s only NCI-designated cancer center. Sylvester consistently delivers extraordinary outcomes, especially for patients with hard-to-treat cancers such as pancreatic cancer, which has a five-year survival rate of only 13%.
Sylvester patients experience survival rates up to 14% higher than the national average for early- and late-stage pancreatic cancer. This success is driven in large part by the SPCRI, which integrates outstanding clinical care with world-class research to discover, develop and deliver personalized treatment strategies to pancreatic cancer patients.
“At Sylvester, we have made it our mission to tackle the most difficult-to-treat cancers,” said Sylvester Director Stephen D. Nimer, M.D., who is also executive dean for research at the Miller School and the Oscar de la Renta Endowed Chair in Cancer Research. “We established the SPCRI to bring together the most talented minds in the field and equip them with the tools needed to advance science and develop novel treatments that can save more lives.”
SPCRI’s latest advancements were highlighted during Conversations and Cocktails, held at the Rubell Museum in Miami and generously hosted by contemporary art collectors and longtime Sylvester supporters Don and Mera Rubell.
Revolutionizing Pancreatic Cancer Care
Dr. Nimer moderated a panel of distinguished physician-scientists who shared their progress in shaping the future of pancreatic cancer care through immunotherapy, genetics and precision medicine.
“What we are doing here at the SPCRI is reshaping how we treat this disease,” said SPCRI Director Nipun Merchant, M.D., professor in the DeWitt Daughtry Family Department of Surgery and chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology at the Miller School. “Our teams are making discoveries at every stage, from early detection to innovative clinical trials that involve multiple specialists, bringing us closer to the possibility of a cure.”
Some of the most promising research has been in drug development targeting the KRAS mutation, which drives the aggressiveness of this disease and is present in the vast majority of pancreatic cancer patients.
“Until recently, KRAS was extremely difficult to target with drugs, but that is changing,” said Dr. Hosein, associate director of clinical research at the SPCRI, co-leader of Sylvester’s gastrointestinal cancer site disease group and associate professor in the Division of Medical Oncology at the Miller School. “We just completed a phase 3 clinical trial for a new drug developed to specifically target KRAS. We think this may be the next big breakthrough in pancreatic cancer treatment.”
The Promise of Personalized Medicine
Calling this an exciting time in precision oncology, Gretel Terrero, M.D., an associate professor in the Division of Medical Oncology at the Miller School, described how advances in cancer genomics are allowing doctors to tailor treatment with greater precision.
“We are now using novel biomarkers, often called liquid biopsy or circulating tumor DNA, to detect fragments of DNA from tumor cells in the blood,” said Dr. Terrero, associate director of community engagement and outreach at the SPCRI, who designed and launched a clinical trial examining circulating tumor DNA patterns and dynamics in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer. “Our goal is to use a routine blood draw, and look at circulating tumor DNA, to further personalize treatment for each individual patient, determining whether their cancer is shrinking with the current treatment or whether we should make a change to a more effective and/or less toxic treatment.”
Researchers at the SPCRI are also further investigating the striking results they witnessed using immunotherapy, an oncologic treatment that helps activate the patient’s own immune system to fight their cancer, in a subset of pancreatic cancer patients.
Jashodeep Datta, M.D., associate director of translational research at the SPCRI and associate professor in the DeWitt Daughtry Family Department of Surgery, explained that he and his colleagues are about to launch another first-in-class clinical trial combining immunotherapy with standard treatment to amplify anti-cancer immune responses. He believes the results may not only improve outcomes but also help clarify why some patients respond to immunotherapy while others do not.
The Sylvester Difference
“When you come to the Sylvester Pancreatic Cancer Research Institute, you are not just seeing a surgeon or medical oncologist or radiation oncologist. You are meeting a coordinated team of experts who collaborate to bring discoveries from the research lab directly to the clinic,” said Dr. Datta, who is also the DiMare Family Endowed Chair in Immunotherapy. “That is the Sylvester difference.”
Dr. Merchant emphasized that the pace of progress is creating opportunities and patient responses that were unimaginable even five or 10 years ago.
“We see a patient through the lens of what is possible, not through the lens of limitation,” said Dr. Merchant, the Alan Livingstone Endowed Chair in Surgical Oncology. “With every advance our scientists make, we are changing the paradigm of how to treat pancreatic cancer.”
Concluding the program, Dr. Nimer told the audience, “Treatment advances cannot come quickly enough for us. Our scientists are working day and night in our race to find more cures for this terrible disease.”
Connecting with the Community
The SPCRI Conversations and Cocktails event provided Sylvester supporters and those impacted by the disease an opportunity to hear about promising research from leading physician-scientists. Mr. Flamm says he was most impressed by the advances being made in genetic research that are leading to the discovery of less toxic treatments.
“For doctors to be able to look at a patient’s cancer cells, see how they operate and what can be done to make treatments more effective and palatable will be life-changing for pancreatic cancer patients,” he said.
