Experimental Therapeutics Program |
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The principal goal of the Experimental Therapeutics Program is the development and implementation of human cancer clinical research based on discovery science. The program emphasizes two subprograms, 1) Immune Therapy and 2) Targeted Therapy, Biomarkers and Imaging. The two subprograms are led respectively by Craig L. Slingluff, M.D., Department of Surgery, and by Geoffrey R. Weiss, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine. The Program has 49 members from 19 different departments or divisions of the University of Virginia Health System. The goals of Program 7 include the development of investigator-initiated clinical trials based in the discovery science of laboratories within the Cancer Center, expansion of the Clinical Trials Office as a comprehensive resource for support of the clinical investigator, and recruitment of new clinical scientists to the program. The Immune Therapy Subprogram is invested in a broad array of clinical trials evaluating multipeptide vaccines in malignant melanoma, colorectal cancer and ovarian cancer, antibody therapies of hematological malignancies, and cytokine therapies of melanoma and renal cell carcinoma. Investigators of the Targeted Therapy, Biomarkers and Imaging Subprogram are evaluating tyrosine kinase inhibitors, angiogenesis inhibitors and aromatase inhibitors with accompanying collaborative studies to confirm "proof-of-principle" impact of therapy upon the intended targets. Novel biomarkers of early and advanced cancer are sought in bladder cancer, breast cancer, gynecologic cancers, and melanoma. New imaging technologies are being applied to identification of breast cancer lesions and primary prostate cancer, while imaging technology is applied to radiation planning for helical tomotherapy in head and neck cancer. |