_Dr. Robert Taub
Dr. Robert Taub is Professor of Clinical Medicine and director of the Mesothelioma Center. His laboratory in Black Building 903 continues to develop assays to support our own translational clinical trial work. The laboratory is studying elaboration of cytokines, particularly TGF-beta 1 and IL-6, , and their potential role in tumor progression and postoperative fibrosis, and possible treatments including specific inhibition with interferon gamma. The laboratory is providing tissue culture assays for our developing pharmacokinetic studies of doxorubicin and cisplatin in serum and cavitary fluids and the value of “heated” versus normothermic chemotherapy. These studies are being carried out with the collaboration of investigators in the Clinical Research Center (Doxorubicin) and the School of Public Health (Cisplatin) We are continuing to examine possible uses of drugs (doxorubicin, cisplatin) loosely bound to gelatinized protein and fibrin carriers, so that they can be directly applied where they are needed to pleural or peritoneal tissues during surgery for localized intense chemotherapy. Dr. Taub is principal investigator on numerous ongoing clinical trials in mesothelioma, including MORAB-009 (Pharma); Mitomycin/Methotrexate/Cisplatin/Vorinostat (Investigator Initiated); Bortezomib /Oxaliplatin (investigator initiated); anti-TNF-monoclonal antibody (Pharma); and separate multimodal trials of intracavitary chemotherapy plus surgery in pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma. |
_ Elethea Hare PA-C
Elethea Hare PA-C is a Physician Assistant at Columbia University Medical Center’s Mesothelioma Center in New York City. She received her B.A. degree from the University of Southern California and a M.S. from Western University of Health Sciences. Ms. Hare currently works with Dr. Robert N. Taub, MD, PhD in a clinical trials based academic practice focusing on the treatment of mesothelioma and sarcomas. She has been working in clinical research for nearly four years and has published multiple abstracts and articles in the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Journal of Clinical Oncology. Her current research includes intra-cavitary treatment of pleural and peritoneal based cancers, evaluation of radiographic evidence of response to treatment, and the pharmacokinetics of intra-cavitary chemotherapy administration. |
__ Dr. John Chabot
Dr. John Chabot, David B. Habif Professor of Clinical Surgery, assistant professor of surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Cornell division, have published details of the surgical treatment and complications that occurred in 54 patients with peritoneal mesothelioma in the European Journal of Surgical Oncology. The principal finding was that the tandem operations performed at Columbia with the main intent of preparing the peritoneal cavity for intraperitoneal chemotherapy have an equivalent or lower morbidity and mortality than currently performed single operations aimed at extensive resection of disease. |
_Dr. Joshua Sonett
Dr. Joshua Sonett, Professor of Clinical Surgical Oncology, has been a lead investigator in our multimodality novel lung-sparing treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma using intracavitary chemotherapy and intracavitary radiotherapy. Our experience at this institution has now been extended to 25 patients. The conclusions drawn are that this technique is safe and feasible, and may be appropriate for patients in whom initial surgery is not appropriate. Data from this effort was presented at the 2010 meeting of the American Society of Thoracic Surgeons by Dr. Javanshir J Javidfar, Fellow in Thoracic Surgery and Joanna Miller. An abstract is to be submitted to ASCO 2011. Far Dr. at the 2009 meeting of American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). This year, Dr. Sonett will discuss the merits of multimodal lung-sparing treatment of pleural mesothelioma at a panel discussion during the 2011 meeting of the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation (MARF). |
_Dr. Igor Matushansky
Dr. Igor Matushansky, Assistant Professor of Medicine, is currently involved in clinical and translational research in sarcomas, and more recently mesotheliomas as well. He serves as coinvestigator on all ongoing mesothelioma clinical trials with Dr. Taub. Dr. Matushansky’s recent work has pointed out a close relationship at the stem cell level between sarcomas and mesotheliomas, indicating that changes in the expression of WT-1, a differentiation gene, may be crucial to the malignant transformation of normal mesothelium into epithelioid or sarcomatoid tumor cells. Understanding these processes will quickly lead to specific drug combinations aimed at inhibiting or manipulating expression of this gene to influence tumor growth. Together with Dr. Taub, he is exploring the use of hypomethylating agents such as 5-azacytidine and vorinostat in the abrogation of chemotherapy resistance. The two agents used, temozolomide and 5-azacytidine, have been tested in a phase I clinical trial, the results of which have been submitted as an abstract to ASCO 2011. |
__Dr. Alain Borczuk
Dr. Alain Borczuk, Professor of Clinical Pathology and Cell Biology and a member of the Mesothelioma Center, has assembled an annotated pathology tissue bank of patients with peritoneal mesothelioma that, at over 100 patients, is arguably the largest in the country. Examples of studies that have been completed or that are ongoing include: (1) Pre-clinical evaluation of proteasome inhibitors such as bortezomib in conjunction with oxaliplatin, which has now led to a formal clinical trial described below; (2) evaluation of peritoneal mesothelioma in women, with special attention to the well-differentiated papillary variety, and immunohistochemical differentiation of mesothelioma from ovarian and other Mullerian tumors using monoclonal antibodies against PAX8; (3) single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP chip) analysis of radiation-induced versus asbestos induced mesothelioma, with a preliminary finding suggesting the presence of characteristic mutations. |
_ Joshua C. Leinwand
Joshua C. Leinwand, is a Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellow at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and a Fourth Year Medical Student at Yale Medical School. He is researching pharmacokinetics and outcomes of intracavitary chemotherapy. At Yale, he has served as President of the Yale Medical Student Council. |
___ Gleneara E. Bates MSW
Gleneara E. Bates MSW, is a social worker at Columbia University Medical Center department of oncology in New York City. She received her B.A and B.S from the University of Tucson and a Masters of Science in Social Work from Columbia University School of Social Work. Ms. Bates currently works with Dr. Robert N. Taub in a clinical trials based academic practice focusing on improving the quality of life of cancer patients. |