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Dennis Slamon, MD, PhD (UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center)

Researchers Discover Possible Way to Repair Organs, Deliver Cancer Vaccines

Cancer researchers at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., have developed a way to biologically fuse living cells through the use of a genetically engineered cell membrane. This process, which Mayo researchers call "biofusion," could speed development of new tumor treatments and cancer vaccines.

The researchers report their new process kills cancer tumor cells, based on their successful treatment of mice into which human cancers were implanted. The study on biofusion appears in a recent issue of Nature Biotechnology.

"Our biofusion research represents a promising new technological platform for enlisting natural properties of fused cells to kill cancers, stimulate immune responses or repair damaged tissues," says Stephen Russell, MD, PhD, director of Mayo Clinic's molecular medicine program and head of the Mayo Clinic cancer center's gene and virus therapy program.

The key to biological cell fusion is that two cells come into contact and the fusion proteins on the surface of one cell recognize a receptor on the other cell. This act of recognition triggers fusion of their respective outer lipid membranes.

"It's like two bubbles merging into one bigger bubble," says Russell. With cancer, the fusion rules change, he says. When cancer cells fuse with each other, the "big bubble" formed may grow dramatically – containing up to 1,000 cancer cells – and it is nonviable. The cancer cells, therefore, die. This fact that fused cancer cells kill each other has been known for some years. The missing element has been a way to direct fusion partners to exploit this tendency and use it as a basis for anticancer treatment.

The ability to target fusion partners is important. If the wrong cells fuse, then healthy cells – instead of cancer – can be killed. "Our biofusion research brings a new level of control to the system so the right fusion matches are made to serve therapeutic ends," says Russell. "It offers a biotechnology platform that provides a way to choose and direct the agents of fusion by getting tumor cells to fuse with dendritic cells – one cell type in the immune system."

The result is biofusion that prompts the immune system to attack the tumor. "This is important because the exploitation of cell fusion, whether for killing cancer cells, repairing damaged tissues or stimulating the immune system, depends on making sure that it is accurately targeted," Russell says.

The ability to fuse tumor cells to treat cancers is one application the research team envisions for their biofusion platform. Another possible application involves cancer vaccines that prevent the disease from progressing or developing. Current vaccine approaches involve taking dendritic cells from cancer patients, feeding the dendritic cells tumor antigens, and then reintroducing the dendritic cells into the patient's body and relying on the body's natural process of "instruction" to help the body create cells that attack cancer. In this natural system, dendritic cells present antigens to other immune cells in a way that effectively "teaches" them what they are to attack.

Russell believes the biofusion technology would be a better way of "feeding" the dendritic cells the information they need to "learn" what they are to attack.

For more information, call 507-284-2511 or visit www.mayoclinic.org.

— Mayo Clinic

Survey Illustrates Oncology Radiation Practices

The Society for Radiation Oncology Administrators (SROA) announces the results of its first-ever benchmarking survey. The survey reveals extensive data on staffing, treatment, patient volumes and equipment use. It will provide information for radiation business managers who wish to make comparisons of facilities similar to their own.

"Based on our needs assessment, we organized the research to provide information that was most useful and important to universities, community hospitals and free-standing facilities," says Steve Ritz, SROA's secretary to the board of directors and chairman of the benchmarking and best practices committee.

With the help of Richard Harris, PhD, director of research at Association Management Company, the SROA benchmarking and best practices committee collected, compiled and analyzed data. Highlights of the results show typical radiation oncology facilities across all practice types: n see 317 to 919 patients per year n perform 15,853 to 52,404 procedures per year n employ from 3-1/2 to 10 full-time staff therapists and one to three full-time dosimetrists n perform 4,554 to 6,545 procedures on each machine per year

Other survey results review the types of equipment used, treatment volumes and the number and types of procedures provided.

"This survey is good data for those trying to assess reimbursement values of procedures performed," Ritz says. "In addition, the survey would provide information to help justify adding new therapists to cover patient volume or to add new equipment to maintain volume."

Members who participated in the survey will receive a complimentary copy of the results. Otherwise, full results of the survey can be purchased for $190 for members ($290 non-members) on the SROA Web site (www.sroa.org). The full survey includes a summary of practices and methodology, a sample questionnaire, a summary of results, data reports for facilities by practice type and side-by-side comparisons of data reported.

For more information, call 800-444-2778 or visit www.sroa.org.

— Society for Radiation Oncology Administrators

Slamon Receives ACS Top Research Award

Dennis Slamon, MD, PhD, whose laboratory and clinical research led to the development of the molecularly targeted breast cancer drug Herceptin, has received the highest honor the American Cancer Society bestows on scientists. Slamon, director of Clinical/Translational Research at the University of California, Los Angeles' (UCLA) Jonsson Cancer Center, is the recipient of the Medal of Honor award for clinical research.

Medal of Honor winners are nominated by members of the American Cancer Society's board of directors and other individuals interested in cancer research, says Harmon Eyre, MD, the society's chief medical officer.

"The selection of Dr. Slamon to receive this award is indicative of the high esteem in which his peers and colleagues hold him," Eyre says.

Slamon was the primary force behind the development of Herceptin during 12 years of discovery and development research in his lab and in the clinic.

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug in September 1998 for use against advanced breast cancer. Slamon currently is investigating whether Herceptin is effective in women with newly diagnosed breast cancer.

"I'm very grateful and honored to be acknowledged by the American Cancer Society for this work," says Slamon, who is also the director of the Revlon/UCLA Women's Cancer Research Program at UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center. "The development of targeted therapies like Herceptin is ushering in a new age in how we treat cancer. But the real heroines of the Herceptin story are the hundreds of women who were committed enough to try this drug in clinical trials. I also owe a great debt of gratitude to my colleagues and coworkers at the Jonsson Cancer Center and at the Revlon Foundation for their continued support of this work."

Development of this molecularly targeted drug, among the first targeted therapies approved for cancer, proved the theory that if researchers could figure out what was broken in a cancer cell, they could fix it.

For more information, call 310-825-5268 or visit www.cancer.mednet.ucla.edu.

— UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center