Category: Laboratory Research

Weill Cornell’s Dr. John Leonard Named Chair of NCI’s Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology Lymphoma Committee

Weill Cornell’s Dr. John Leonard has been named chair of the Lymphoma Committee for the prestigious Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

John Leonard, MD
John Leonard, MD

Dr. Leonard is the Associate Dean for Clinical Research at Weill Cornell Medical College, the director of the Joint Clinical Trials Office at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical College, and the clinical director of the Weill Cornell Lymphoma Program. An internationally-recognized hematology and oncology expert specializing in the treatment of lymphoma, Dr. Leonard has been a pioneer in the development of novel lymphoma therapeutics. .

In his role as chair of the NCI-sponsored Lymphoma Committee, Dr. Leonard will help guide the national agenda for lymphoma research by developing, supporting and shepherding Phase II and Phase III clinical trials funded by NCI at medical centers around the United States. Dr. Leonard will direct a team of lymphoma clinical and laboratory researchers from academic and community medical centers across the country to create and implement new standards of treatment as well as foster the development of novel therapeutics.

“I am honored and deeply humbled to be chosen to lead this vital national effort to improve cancer care for patients in the United States,” said Dr. Leonard. “This appointment, I believe, is a true reflection of the programs and major accomplishments we’ve made here at Weill Cornell in advancing lymphoma research and clinical care. We are recognized as a leading center internationally in contributing new approaches to lymphoma management, and I am excited to continue collaborating with colleagues both here and across the country to move the field forward and improve the effectiveness of therapies that are available for patients.”

Dose-Adjusted EPOCH-Rituximab Shows Encouraging Results for Patients with Primary Mediastinal B-Cell Lymphoma

Initially recognized in the 1980s, primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL) is a subtype of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) arising in the thymus. Representing less than 3% of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases, PMBCL has a skewed age distribution affecting young adults, especially young women. Historically, patients with PMBCL have been treated with mediastinal radiation following chemotherapy based on evidence that chemotherapy alone was insufficient. Despite the high cure rates with this strategy, mediastinal radiation in young patients can be associated with late adverse effects, including premature cardiovascular disease and secondary cancers.

Researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and their partner institutions recently completed a phase II study of infusional dose-adjusted etoposide, doxorubicin, and cyclophosphamide with vincristine, prednisone, and rituximab (DA-EPOCH-R) with no mediastinal radiation complement. In 51 patients with a median age of 30 years, of which 59% were women, the overall survival rate was 97% at the median 5-year follow-up. From these results, researchers suggested that DA-EPOCH-R therapy obviated the need for radiotherapy in patients with PMBCL.  

While these results from this phase II study are encouraging, they will need to be confirmed with further research.

Rally for Medical Research: Help Protect Funding for Medical Research

On April 8, 2012 thousands of individuals and nearly 200 partnering programs, including representatives from the American Society of Hematology (ASH), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) gathered at the Carnegie Library grounds in Washington, D.C. for the Rally for Medical Research. Here medical research supporters sought to raise public awareness over the importance of federally funded medical research. This need has been magnified by the March 1 sequestration mandated cuts to all areas of the federal budget, and a decade long decline in funding for the National Institute of Health (NIH).

As ASH wrote, this decline in money for medical research is not a new development:

“Research supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is in serious jeopardy. NIH’s inflation-adjusted budget today is almost 20 percent lower than it was in FY 2003…Under sequestration, the NIH budget will be cut by an additional $1.6 billion over the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2013. While the impact of these cuts may not be felt all at once or immediately, the harm caused to bio-medical research will be devastating- progress toward cures for deadly diseases and efforts to prevent costly chronic conditions will be slowed…”

Besides these  budgetary concerns, ASCO President Sandra M. Swain noted the human cost of such budget cuts, stressing the impressive strides made in cancer research due to federal funding:

“As a direct result of the federal investment in cancer research, we understand more about cancers than at any point in human history. This understanding of cancer at the molecular level has created unprecedented opportunities to slow the growth of cancer diseases. As a country, we can be proud that two of three people in the U.S. with cancer live at least 5 years after their diagnosis. This is up from one of two in the 1970s before the passage of the National Cancer Act. Since the 1990s, the nation’s cancer death rate has dropped 18 percent, reversing decades of increases. More than 13 million people in the U.S. are cancer survivors.”

Considering these new fiscal realities, the researchers and clinicians in the Lymphoma Program at Weill Cornell Medical College are adjusting accordingly. They will continue to do all that they can to deliver the latest in ground breaking research and clinical care.

Click here to use the ASH advocacy tool to contact your Representative and Senators about protecting medical research. Contact information for individual Representatives and Senators can be found here and here.