Page 17 - Delaware Medical Journal - March/April 2021
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COVER STORY
suppressing genes. Each of these chosen genes, when inhibited either alone or with either the proliferative or effector ability of T-cells. Lentiviral packaging and delivery were used to create T-cell lines. Delivery of multiple particles containing single viral payloads was successful,
and multiplexing CRISPR using single lentiviral vectors has also been developed. Preliminary experiments have shown that CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knockout of each of the sites leads to drastically increased T-cell-mediated cytotoxicity. The plan
in patients is to modify T-cells ex vivo and reintroduce them into the patient as immunotherapy. If the GEI approach is validated, the strategy will be processed rapidly toward clinical application.
Head and Neck Cancer
This research will expand clinical trials into new realms for head and neck cancers. Although relatively uncommon, oropharyngeal cancers are increasing in incidence despite the declining prevalence of smoking and in direct opposition
to a decreasing incidence of all other
head and neck cancers.1 An epidemic of human papillomavirus (HPV)–associated oropharyngeal cancers seems to account
for these incidence trends. Important demographic, behavioral, and prognostic It is estimated that more than 2,370 new cases of HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancers are diagnosed in women and nearly 9,356 are diagnosed in men each year in the United States.1 These numbers are based on and do not include cancers in all areas of the head and neck or oral cavity.
An alarming rise in HPV-driven mouth and throat cancers among young, non-smoking men drives the urgency for research into new clinical trials and treatments. Investigators at the Helen
F. Graham Cancer Center — under the
Direction of Adam Raben, MD, Chair of Radiation Oncology — are using novel therapies combining immunotherapy and precision radiation with the newest- generation Elektra Versa HD linear accelerator to improve cure rates and
set new standards of care for early and advanced-stage head and neck cancers.
The Helen F. Graham Cancer Center’s nationally recognized Head and Neck Multidisciplinary Center — co-directed by Adam Raben, MD and Neil Hockstein, MD — is expanding its already robust clinical trials program into unprecedented world- class realms, including genomic testing and targeted therapeutics that provide the most effective, least toxic therapies to improve quality and length of life. The Head and Neck Multidisciplinary Center is also selectively obtaining important genomic recurrent head and neck cancers through Next Generation Sequencing technology. This research is supported by the Stacey and Gregg Bacchieri Foundation.
Research Resource – Genetic Counseling & Gene Testing
The Statewide High-Risk Family Cancer Registry was established in 2002 and is its kind. The program is staffed by seven full-time adult genetic counselors based
at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center under the direction of Zohra Ali-Khan Catts, MS, LCGC. To date, approximately
the program have changed health care management, opting for prophylactic surgery, chemoprevention, or increased screening starting at a younger age than the general population. This program is credited for consistently lowering cancer mortality rates in the state of Delaware twice as fast as the national rate.14 It is
the ultimate in cancer prevention and
risk reduction. Unique biospecimens collected as part of the program are banked for future collaborative studies with the Wistar Cancer Institute
Institutional Review Board protocols and consents. With information on over 9,403 individuals, 372,014 family members, and 646 clinically-annotated biospecimens already banked, the registry provides a unique resource in translational cancer cancer susceptibility genes across different tumor diagnoses. The registry however, when a gene alteration is not resources for translational research
novel changes that may be missed by standard technology. Clinical testing
Investigators at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center — under the Direction of Adam Raben, MD, Chair of Radiation Oncology — are using novel therapies combining immunotherapy and precision radiation with the newest-generation Elektra Versa HD linear accelerator to improve cure rates and set new standards of care for early and advanced- stage head and neck cancers.
Del Med J | March/April 2021 | Vol. 93 | No. 2 65
