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Getting to the Root of
Leukemia UNIQUE PROGRAM DELIVERS CU SCIENCE STRAIGHT TO PATIENTS
10: MEET THE DIRECTOR, RICHARD SCHULICK, MD, MBA 12: TO SCREEN OR NOT TO SCREEN? 16: DOG BITES MAN, SAVES LIFE
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO ANSCHUTZ MEDICAL CAMPUS
N WS Brigatinib And Electinib Poised To Replace Crizotinib As First-Line Options For Alk+ And Ros1+ Non-Small Lung Cancers receive FDA approval to treat non-small cell lung
of brigatinib clearly support its use in the first-line setting,” says D. Ross
cancers (NSCLC) driven by changes in these genes.
Camidge, MD, PhD, Joyce Zeff Chair in Lung Cancer Research at CU Cancer
Now CU investigators report promising clinical trial
Center and the lead author of ALTA-1L.
results of next-generation ALK and ROS1 inhibitors. For ALK+ NSCLC, results of a 275-patient,
CAMIDGE
“Even with only 9-to-11 months of follow-up, the safety and efficacy
outreach
patients evaluable for response, with median duration of response of 24.6 months. In 30 patients without brain metastasis at baseline, the median time of
option. Overall, patients given brigatinib saw a
cancer control (known as progression free survival or PFS)
51 percent reduction in the risk of progression
was 26.3 months; in patients who presented with brain metastases at baseline,
or death compared with those given crizotinib.
PFS was 13.6 months. “The data look very exciting. The hope is that entrectinib could replace
progression or death was 80 percent. At one year of treatment, 67 percent of
crizotinib as a first-line therapy against ROS1-positive NSCLC,” says Robert
patients treated with brigatinib remained progression-free, compared with 43
C. Doebele, MD, PhD, director of the CU Cancer Center Thoracic Oncology
percent of patients treated with crizotinib.
Research Initiative and the studies’ principal investigator.
Color ado Cancer Screening Progr am Helps Underinsured/ Underserved Patients Access Cancer Screening After a decade of success in increasing colon cancer screening rates in Colorado, the Colorado Colorectal Screening Program is getting a facelift as the Colorado Cancer Screening Program (CCSP). In an effort to provide “whole-person cancer screening”
More Than Half Of Retail Stores Sampled In Color ado Study Still Selling Cigarettes To Minors
CCSP is working to expand its patient navigational
A CU Cancer Center study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics reports that
many stores sell cigarettes to kids. It’s way off the mark,” says Arnold Levinson,
and familial screening, and to better align with breast
the method federal regulators use to monitor illegal underage tobacco sales fails
PhD, CU Cancer Center investigator and associate professor at the Colorado
cancer and cervical cancer programs. The initiative is
to detect most stores that sometimes sell cigarettes to adolescents. The study,
School of Public Health, who directed the study.
designed to help patients navigate and understand
Overall, 54.7 percent of retailers violated at least once in six purchase
services to include lung cancer screening, genetic
the healthcare system when it comes to screening,
method of a single purchase attempt by an undercover minor identified only
attempts, 26.4 percent violated at least twice, and 11.9 percent violated more
diagnosis, treatment, follow up procedures and
one-third of the violators that were found when the same stores were visited
than half the time.
making cancer prevention a priority.
“What we’ve seen is a change from the 1980s, when a kid could walk into a
“The increased screening will have an enormous
percent of the time, stores often failed to properly scrutinize identification – two-
store and buy cigarettes almost all the time. Now kids walk into a store and are
impact on preventing cancer diagnoses and deaths
thirds of the violations occurred after the minor presented his or her ID showing
almost sure to be asked for their ID,” Levinson says. “The problem is that when
in our state, with a focus on high-risk, lung and
that they were 15 or 16 years old.
they do show an ID, a whole lot of the time the clerk doesn’t look at it carefully
colorectal cancers,” says Andrea (Andi) Dwyer,
and ends up selling to the kids anyway. The stores have come one step forward
CCSP director.
six times over a period of weeks. Although stores asked for ID more than 90
“The argument the industry has started making is that they’ve shown themselves to be complying with the law and everyone should leave them alone
in complying with one piece of the law, but there’s another piece they’re doing a
and not try to enforce the laws more strictly. But the federally required method
poor job of.”
The Colorado Colorectal Screening Program started in 2006 as a way to reach people in urban
Revisions To Cu Cancer Center Progr ams And New Progr am Assignments A The University of Colorado Cancer Center will refocus our existing six research programs into a four-program structure, including Cancer Prevention
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and Control, Developmental Therapeutics, Molecular and Cellular Oncology, and Tumor-Host Interactions. This revised structure brings together investigators with similar research interests within the same program, while providing new opportunities for intra- and inter-programmatic collaborations. The leadership for the revised programs is as follows:
other types of drugs; the environment in the stomach is simply too harsh. You have to get them injected or else they get chewed up,” says Tom Anchordoquy, PhD, CU Cancer Center investigator and professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. However, there is an exception to this rule: A mother’s milk includes special particles called exosomes that are not degraded by the digestive system, and instead help to shepherd infection-fighting antibodies from the mother into the baby. “Instead of antibodies, we’re working to attach chemotherapy drugs to this system,” Anchordoquy says. Anchordoquy and collaborators were recently awarded a research grant from the National Institutes of Health to discover and design the best possible combinations of milk particles and chemotherapy drugs. In fact, the team is already sourcing milk from Mucca Bella Dairy (Carr, CO) and running experiments to test strategies for loading drugs into milk exosomes. “Chemotherapy requires going to the hospital. It’s inconvenient, it forces cancer patients to be around other sick people, and it costs the healthcare industry billions of dollars every year. But now we have the prospect of stuffing cow’s milk with chemotherapeutics,” Anchordoquy says. “And who wouldn’t love to just drink a glass of milk or eat an ice cream cone instead of being infused?”
later, nearly 30,000 people have been screened and it is estimated that more than 500 cancers have
A CU Center study shows that women with obesity are more likely
been prevented thanks to the initiative. In order
to experience a recurrence of breast cancer once their treatment is
to reach as many people as possible, the CCSP
complete, and they may respond differently to treatment.
works with safety net primary care clinics all over the
Elizabeth Wellberg, PhD, a CU Cancer Center member, has
state to increase screening rates. The program has
shown for the first time that an otherwise normal process that
partnered with local clinics in 56 of the 64 counties
allows the body to store excess energy can produce an unwanted
in Colorado.
result when it occurs in fat cells near breast tumors. “Our study investigated how obesity, metabolic disease, and weight gain influence a tumor’s response to therapy,” says Wellberg. “We found that in the obese, weight gain caused
Myles Cockburn, PhD and Rajesh Agarwal, PhD
the production of growth factors in the fat tissue. This process
Developmental Therapeutics (DT):
is necessary for energy storage; however, the growth factors
Lia Gore, MD, Dan Gustafson, PhD, and Antonio Jimeno, MD PhD
produced by the fat can stimulate tumors.”
Joaquin Espinosa, PhD and TinTin Su, PhD Tumor-Host Interactions (THI): Jennifer Richer, PhD, Mike Verneris, PhD, and Eduardo Davila, PhD
WWW.COLORADOCANCERCENTER.ORG
This is why you can’t swallow vaccines or many
Cancer Prevention & Control (CPC):
Molecular & Cellular Oncology (MCO):
2
up into tiny amino acids that are absorbed.
Obese Breast Cancer Patients More Likely To Have Recurrence
screening rates were lowest. Now, over a decade
www.coloradocancerblogs.org
kind of protein, you digest it and it gets chewed
and rural parts of the state where colon cancer
for doing these checks is inadequate, and it clearly does not estimate how
Get more CU Cancer Center news on our blog:
the molecules you eat into smaller pieces that
“For example, when you eat a steak or any
to underserved and underinsured Coloradans, the
co-authored by several leading researchers of the topic, found that the federal
because your digestive system breaks down
bloodstream.
entrectinib in ROS1+ NSCLC show a response rate of 77.4 percent for 53
ALTA-1L argue for brigatinib as a first-line treatment
Generally, you can’t eat chemotherapy. That’s
can be absorbed through the gut into the
Meanwhile, results of phase 1 and phase 2 clinical trials of the drug
multi-national phase III clinical trial known as
Among those with brain metastases at baseline, the reduction in the risk of
PROMISING
CU C a n ce r C e n t e r
C U C a n ce r C e n t e r
Crizotinib was the first ALK/ROS1 inhibitor to
Could Edible Chemother apy Attached To Milk Particles Someday End Infusions?
WELLB E R G
Wellberg says the growth factors that stimulate tumor growth also can also predict whether certain types of breast cancer may be resistant to hormone therapies. “Years ago, scientists discovered that there are different kinds of breast cancer that need to be treated as different diseases,” says Wellberg. “Now we know obesity is a relevant and critical biological variable that influences the way breast cancer responds to treatment.”
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Getting to The
The day before Joel Rutstein planned to leave for a week-long trip to Hawaii with his wife, Barbara, and their grown children, an oncologist in Fort Collins gave Joel bad news.
Leukemia
“I said, Barbara, I think I just got a death sentence,” Joel says. “The oncologist said it was very bad
Root of
UNIQUE PROGRAM DELIVERS CU SCIENCE STRAIGHT TO PATIENTS
In the course of his annual checkup, Joel’s primary care physician had noticed a trend of declining hemoglobin in his blood. It was probably nothing. But after other tests couldn’t explain the problem, Joel’s doctor referred him to an oncologist for a bone marrow biopsy. It was the result of this biopsy that Joel learned that day before Hawaii.
and that I probably wasn’t going to live.” They went to Hawaii. Joel and Barbara agree that it was not their best vacation.
BY GARTH SUNDEM
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The Science of Leukemia Stem Cells “People had been talking about the idea of leukemia stem cells (LSCs) since the 1950s. In the mid-1990s, they finally found them,” says Craig T. Jordan, PhD, investigator at CU Cancer Center, Chief of the Division of Hematology and the Nancy Carroll Allen Professor of Hematology at the CU School of Medicine. At that time in the 90s, Jordan had recently completed school and training at Berkeley, Princeton, and M.I.T., and had just taken his first independent research position as an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky. His previous studies had been focused on normal blood-forming stem cells, called hematopoietic stem cells, or HSCs. As a new assistant professor, Jordan was intrigued by the challenge of LSCs, and shifted his research to focus on understanding and eradicating these cells. What is an LSC? Think of it like an HSC with a pirate’s eye patch – if you can recognize the eye patch, you can distinguish beneficial HSCs from dangerous LSCs. In the year 2000, Jordan found it – an “eye patch” in the form of a cell-surface protein called CD123. LSCs coat themselves with CD123. HSCs don’t. “That gave us the ability to separate normal HSCs from leukemia stem cells. Once you can separate them, you can study the differences between them,” Jordan says. Jordan started looking for the LSC Achilles’ heel, not only a difference like CD123 that marked LSCs as distinct from HSCs, but a difference that LSCs needed to live – a difference that could be a target for drugs that would kill them. In fact, it turned out to be surprisingly easy to find differences between HSCs and LSCs. There were literally hundreds of them! The problem was that stem cells within one leukemia proved to be incredibly diverse, and there seemed to be no common difference. “We found lots of things that were different and lots of ways to kill them, but few ways to kill all of them,” Jordan says. “If you kill 99 percent of the LSCs driving a leukemia, you can knock the disease down temporarily, but that little bit’s always going to grow back.”
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C U C ANC E R C E NT E R
What Joel’s biopsy showed was that he had a malignant condition called myelodysplastic syndrome, or MDS. In Joel’s form of MDS, blood-forming cells in bone marrow had mutated so that instead of making healthy blood cells, they were making dangerous, immature blood cells, called blasts, which were accumulating in his blood. If Joel’s bone marrow passed 20 percent blasts, he would technically no longer have MDS, he would have acute myeloid leukemia (AML). For patients under age 60, treatment for AML includes chemotherapy and, if needed, bone marrow transplant. Patients over age 60 are often unable to withstand such aggressive treatment. Despite the fact that Joel is unusually fit – he swims most days at the noon-hour faculty and staff fitness program at Colorado State University, where he spent his career overseeing the library system – his age made him an imperfect candidate J o e l a n d B a r b ar a R utste in for treatment. “When I was diagnosed, we heard about other people we know who had MDS,” Joel says. “One of them was a woman my brother knew, whom we had met, who was living in the Boston area. She started getting chemotherapy. Her MDS morphed into leukemia and she eventually died.” The problem, even for younger patients, is that MDS and AML are conditions caused not just by cancer cells, but by cancer stem cells. And while chemotherapy kills run-of-the-mill cancer cells, it is almost completely useless against cancer stem cells. In fact, despite decades of research, cancer stem cells remain about as easy to kill as goat head weed. And like a weed, even when chemotherapy is an option for AML, it often kills the bulk of the “plant” without killing the “root” – despite killing leukemia cells, unless you kill the leukemia stem cells, the disease will almost inevitably regrow. Once Joel’s MDS progressed to AML, his prognosis would be poor, with survival likely measured in months. Thus his oncologist’s pessimism. But what Joel and Barbara didn’t know at the time is that just down the I-25 on the Anschutz Medical Campus, a unique treatment program had grown up around groundbreaking research targeting these cancer stem cells that create MDS and eventually AML.
To understand what he means, let’s go back to our pirate. In addition to their eye patch, some pirates depend on a peg-leg. But others have hook hands. Sawing off the peg-leg does nothing against the pirates with hook hands. And attacking the hookhands does nothing against the ones with peg-legs. It’s the same with LSCs – targeting one weakness killed some cells, but not others. And when some LSCs survived, they were able to regrow the disease. In order to attack all LSCs, Jordan needed to find the common weakness shared by all of these cells (and not also shared by the HSCs, which he didn’t want to kill!). In a major contribution to the field of cancer research, Jordan found it. “It turns out that the most common weakness of LSCs is how these cells make energy,” Jordan says. “The way leukemia stem cells make energy is different than how normal stem cells make energy. And we found that a drug called venetoclax stops them from making energy in this way, without harming the mechanism that normal stem cells use to make energy.” With that discovery, Jordan had the science. Now he needed a doctor to help him deliver that science to patients who desperately needed it.
Doctors Enter Stage-Left While Jordan was picking apart the science of LSCs, Daniel Pollyea was a hematology fellow at Stanford University. “Fellows had to present journal articles at a weekly meeting, where faculty enjoyed grilling the presenter to ensure he/she understood the paper,” Pollyea says. “When it was my turn, the paper I chose happened to be from the lab of Craig Jordan, describing a new therapy he was developing to target leukemia stem cells. Over the course of my preparation I learned that paper very well, and starting then, became fascinated with the biology of leukemia stem cells and the potential to target them in the clinic.” A few years later, Dr. Pollyea finished “We immediately began to his fellowship and accepted a position as junior faculty at CU Cancer Center. collaborate, and decided He was closely followed by Clay Smith, that the central theme MD, and established leader in the study of our leukemia program of blood stem cells, who was recruited would be the study of as program director of CU’s Blood leukemia stem cells and Cancer and Bone Marrow Transplant the clinical development program. By 2013, with Smith and of targeted therapies to Pollyea in place, even a researcher of Craig Jordan’s stature couldn’t help but eradicate this population.” notice that a new kind of blood cancer -Dan Pollyea program was coalescing in Colorado. “There were a couple of important reasons I came to CU,” Jordan says. “The first was the opportunity to build a program with Clay Smith, whom I had known for 20 years. The second big reason I chose CU was the opportunity to work with Dan Pollyea. It was clear from the first time we met that he would be a great partner in developing novel AML therapies.” “We immediately began to collaborate,” Pollyea says, “and decided that the central theme of our leukemia program would be the study of leukemia stem cells and the clinical development of targeted therapies to eradicate this population.” In the subsequent 5 years, what Jordan, Pollyea, and Smith have built together at the CU Cancer Center is a unique program targeting these cells at the root of blood cancers. “We’ve had an extraordinary partnership,” Jordan says. “Me in the lab, and Dan and Clay in the clinic. We live in each other’s worlds as closely as we can. That’s allowed us to do really deeply integrated research. We do things in the lab that are informed by the clinical problem, and then when things move into the clinic, we have an unprecedented level of depth with the patients.”
Science Saves Lives One of these patients is Joel Rutstein. “In February 2016, we got blood count results back and everything was shot to hell,” Joel says. “Normal blood cells had all dropped to practically zero. The MDS was morphing into leukemia.” His request for a second opinion brought him to CU Cancer Center, where Pollyea explained the options: They could treat Joel’s leukemia with chemotherapy, but the stem cells that survived would likely restart the disease. Or Joel could take part in a
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DING CANCER
new clinical trial open at CU and a few partner centers around the country, adding venetoclax to standard-of-care treatment. For Joel, the choice was obvious. He started the trial. First was a course of the commonly-used, low-intensity chemotherapy, azacitidine, to knock down the bulk of the cancer cells (even while killing the “root” of LSCs was the goal, why not also mow over the “weeds” of regular leukemia cells?). Along with chemotherapy, Joel took the drug venetoclax to block the leukemia stem cells’ ability to make energy. After the short course of chemotherapy ended, Joel stayed on venetoclax. “Blood counts recovered, blast counts went down. Eventually, by early fall, blood counts and even hemoglobin were back to normal,” Joel says. His only side effect has been diarrhea a few times per month. “Since I can live a normal life with this drug, I don’t have any interest in going off of it,” he says. Joel was not alone on the clinical trial. In all, there were 33 patients treated on this round of the trial. All were older than age 65 and ineligible for the extremely taxing chemotherapy that is used to treat AML in younger patients. Thus all 33 patients had very poor prognosis. In this group, 91 percent of patients achieved what Pollyea calls an “overall response,” many of whom continue to be in durable remissions – which less careful people might be tempted to call a cure.
A New Paradigm for the Treatment of AML Since the early 1970s, chemotherapy and sometimes bone marrow transplant have been the standard-of-care for AML. The results have never been anywhere near perfect. And because the side effects of treatment itself are life-threatening, for older patients, even this imperfect treatment has been impossible. Now the basic science from Jordan’s lab and the results from clinical trials in Pollyea’s and Smith’s patients are leading to a new paradigm for the treatment of AML – one that offers real hope for all patients. And Jordan has groomed a new generation of scientists to lead this change. Just this fall, working in the Jordan lab, Courtney Jones, PhD, and “We do things in the Brett Stevens, PhD, were able to pinpoint the LSC’s source of energy – lab that are informed instead of glucose, it turns out these cells depend on “burning” amino acids by the clinical problem, – and these young researchers were also able to show why ventoclax works: It stops the cells’ ability to use amino acids for energy. and then when things “The work to understand how amino acids fuel LSCs was only possible move into the clinic, we through a great collaborative effort,” Jordan says. “Alongside our team’s have an unprecedented expertise in stem cells, we partnered with Dr. Angelo D’Alessandro, a leading level of depth with the expert on metabolism.” patients.” -Craig Jordan “We had previously shown that some alternate form of energy was important for LSCs and that ventoclax stopped their ability to use it,” says Courtney Jones. “Now, after these studies, we were able to fill in that missing piece of the puzzle to implicate amino acids: LSCs need amino acid metabolism and venetoclax stops it.” Their results are published in the journal Cancer Cell. Meanwhile the Jordan lab’s Brett Stevens, Courtney Jones, Amanda Winters, Shanshan Pei, and Mohammad Minhajuddin, had been backfilling our understanding of the science behind Joel Rutstein’s clinical trial, showing that the clinical trial did, in fact, target LSCs in these patients, and that the trial accomplished this, as predicted, by nixing LSCs’ energy metabolism. “Patients’ results showed that the trial was working, but we also needed to show why it was working – that it wasn’t just some other effect of adding venetoclax to treatment. Our work shows that the reason patients improved is because we turned off LSC metabolism and specifically killed these cells,” says Brett Stevens. Stevens’s science is published along with the results of the clinical trial in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine. Based on the very promising clinical trial results at CU, along with similar findings from several other cancer centers around the country, venetoclax is poised to receive FDA approval for the treatment of AML. More importantly, the science from Jordan’s lab and the unique collaboration with Pollyea and Smith who believed in it promises to provide even better therapies for AML.
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The Science of Venetoclax Sometimes a drug is developed for one purpose, but then used for another. For example, Rogaine and Viagra were both designed to lower blood pressure, and the anti-malaria drug chloroquine is being used against some brain cancers. That’s the case with venetoclax, too. It was developed to block the action of a gene called Bcl-2 that some cancers use to create a kind of cellular immortality. But it turns out that venetoclax also blocks the ability of cells to use amino acids for energy. For most cells, that’s no big deal: They would rather use glucose for energy, anyway. But leukemia stem cells absolutely depend on amino acid metabolism. Without it, they die. And because venetoclax had already been through the process of safety testing needed to earn FDA approval for its first use, doctors are able to easily repurpose the drug for its second use. Basically, venetoclax lets doctors switch off amino acid metabolism, killing leukemia stem cells without harming the other cells in the blood system.
“There is still plenty of work to do for patients with AML,” says Jordan. “Even though the early trials have shown major improvements, it’s clear that not all patients are cured.” Now with a better understanding of LSCs in hand, Jordan and his collaborators are optimistic that they and scientists around the country will soon be able to provide even more options for patients with AML. “When I was a fellow, I learned how to tell AML patients they were going to die,” Pollyea says. “Now I’m talking with my patients about their vacations and how their grandchildren are doing. It’s a fundamental change to the treatment of AML.” As for Joel Rutstein, he says, “My story isn’t a real exciting one. There’s no car chase, no femme fatal. I don’t know why I happened to get diagnosed when I did or why this treatment happened to come around when it did. I just know that if I weren’t on this drug program, I wouldn’t be here.
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D I R E C T O R
“No One Hates Cancer More Than Me” CU CANCER CENTER WELCOMES NEW DIRECTOR, RICHARD SCHULICK, MD, MBA BY GARTH SUNDEM which provoked an immune response that, as a
treatable cancer caught at an early stage.” Now 20
byproduct, attacked any remaining cancer. But
years after treatment, his mother remains cancer-
then during World War I, British researchers noticed
free and Schulick says that his parents’ experiences
that German mustard gas killed white blood cells
help to frame his understanding of cancer diagnosis
want CU Cancer Center to have an impact on
and began to develop this chemical weapon as a
and treatment: “I don’t want anyone to have to be
developing the next cures for cancer,” he says.
treatment against leukemia… and in the excitement
diagnosed with cancer,” he says. “But if you do
over what would become known as chemotherapy,
have to be diagnosed, I would rather someone go
pipeline of laboratory work, leading to drug design,
immunotherapy was forgotten for nearly a century.
through my mom’s experience and not my dad’s.”
leading to clinical trials, leading to the approval and
From 1999 until 2012, Schulick was a surgical
wide use of new treatments against cancer, but for
In 1991 when Schulick was postdoctoral
Schulick “curing” cancer goes beyond that. It also
was just rediscovering the potential of cancer
Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
includes increasing access to care.
immunotherapy. Or, more accurately, the field
University, where from 2006-2012, he was Chief
as a whole continued to look down its nose at
of the Division of Surgical Oncology. Through high
in the world, but if people can’t access them, you
immunotherapy, while a handful of maverick
school, med school, surgical residency, junior
haven’t achieved your goal. Sometimes access
researchers scraped for the funding they needed to
faculty and professional success, Schulick had
has to do with socioeconomics, and other times
drive the science forward.
effectively been at Hopkins.
it means location, because, guess what, not
Now immunotherapy is a staple of treatment for many cancers. But even while his work in the
Why, then, in 2012 did he accept the position
“In the end, you can build the best programs
everyone lives in Aurora. We’re here to serve the
of Chief of Surgery at the University of Colorado
people of Colorado – all across Colorado! – and
School of Medicine?
not just in Denver, Aurora and the Front Range,”
“In Colorado, I had the opportunity to build
Schulick says.
lab started to gain acceptance, Schulick continued
something. And as Chief of Surgery, I would
to hear the words of his early mentor, Lance Pohl:
have a much broader influence and the ability to
increasing access to care, Schulick says that
“You want to be a physician!”
accomplish big things in terms of taking care of
another goal is to “train the next generation of care
cancer patients on a bigger scale,” Schulick says.
providers, researchers and educators.”
In addition to developing new treatments and
Richard Schulick was born in Rangoon, Burma,
where he was placed in the laboratory of Lance
the capital city of the country now known as
Pohl, PharmD, PhD, a pioneer in the study of
Myanmar, where his father was stationed as a
immunology and auto-immune conditions. Schulick
accepted to John’s Hopkins School of Medicine.
at Hopkins, where he was mentored by John
diplomat with the U.S. State Department. A coup
would end up working in the Pohl lab for the next
And after med school, he stayed at Hopkins to train
Cameron, MD (“Who trained about 30 current/
School of Medicine, UCHealth’s University of
and perhaps someday three of his own children.
d’état had recently installed a military government,
six years, full-time in the summers and part-time
in surgery. Most young surgeons transition directly
recent Chairs of Surgery in the U.S.,” Schulick
Colorado Hospital, and the University of Colorado
Schulick’s eldest son is a 3rd-year medical student
and it was a relief, about a year after Richard was
while an undergraduate student studying Chemical
from being a “junior” surgery resident to being
says), Schulick accepted a surgery fellowship at
Cancer Center have seen tremendous growth, not
at the CU School of Medicine. His daughter
born, when Schulick’s father was transferred to a
Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
a “senior” resident, but Schulick took two years
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. While
just in prestige and national recognition, but in the
recently graduated from NYU and is applying to
between these steps to revisit the lab, working at
at Sloan Kettering, Schulick trained with Murray
metric that Schulick values most.
med schools (“we’ll keep our fingers crossed,”
the NIH Experimental Immunology Lab.
Brennan, MD and some of the same doctors that
post in Thailand. Schulick’s mother is Thai and the family
“Lance got to know me pretty well and I remember him saying to me, ‘I’m a PhD and I love
often stayed with her brother, an obstetrician-
my job. But you – you want to be a physician!’”
gynecologist whose clinic was on the ground floor
Schulick says.
After undergrad, Schulick applied for and was
“My first faculty office wasn’t in a department of surgery, but in immunology,” Schulick says. In fact,
After going back to finish his surgery residency
had treated his father 15 years earlier. “They were incredibly compassionate
During Schulick’s time in Colorado, the CU
“Patients vote with their feet. If you look at how many more patients come to see us for our various services every year, it’s increased tremendously,
In fact, this next generation includes two
he says). And his youngest son just started as a freshman at CU Boulder. “CU Cancer Center is an organization that will
What this early mentor meant is that while
he even earned NIH funding for his work in basic
physicians,” he says, “many of whom I ended up
10-20 percent every year. It’s not just that the
help to eradicate cancer,” Schulick says. “How will
Schulick certainly had the mind of a scientist, he
science, exploring how tumors evade the immune
working with closely.”
population of Colorado is growing; people who
the Cancer Center help eradicate cancer? One is
Schulick says. “There were four floors, with his
had the personality of someone meant to work with
system and how the immune system could be
clinic on the first floor, and when we walked in and
patients (no offense to CU Cancer Center basic
retrained to recognize and attack tumor tissue.
out of his house, we would walk through the clinic.”
researchers…).
of the apartment-style building where he lived. “That was my earliest exposure to medicine,”
The first use of immunotherapy against cancer
Also while at Sloan Kettering, Schulick tracked
before might have gone out of state for treatment
prevention. Two is early diagnosis. Three is better
down a sample of his father’s tumor, which had
are realizing they can get the best treatment in the
treatments. Four is to make sure that everyone
been preserved for research, and had it genetically
world, right here, and are choosing to stay.”
who needs these treatments gets them. All that
was in the late 19th century when New York City
tested to see if there was a hereditary component
college, his father was diagnosed with metastatic
surgeon William Coley noticed that his cancer
of his father’s cancer that might affect Richard, his
trajectory” comes the ability to attract the best
years it will take. I don’t know the answer, but I
colorectal cancer. Though his father traveled to
patients who got infections after surgery actually
brother, or their children. “It was squeaky clean,”
doctors and researchers.
don’t want it to be 100 years or even fifty. Five to
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New
tended to fare better than those that did not. Coley
he says. But cancer wasn’t done with his family:
“Whenever you have high performing hospitals and programs, in a city as beautiful as Denver and with surroundings as beautiful as Colorado, it’s
us how to get there. Under the leadership of Richard
relatively straightforward to recruit top talent here,”
Schulick, CU Cancer Center will continue pushing
he says.
forward toward this goal of eradicating cancer.
During his early childhood years, Schulick
Then, when Schulick was a sophomore in
lived in Burma, Thailand, India, Philadelphia, and the Washington D.C. area, moving to the States fulltime for high school in Bethesda, Maryland. In his junior year of high school, Schulick applied for
York City to receive the best treatment of the time,
hypothesized that something about infection must
His mother was diagnosed with and successfully
and won a scholarship with the American Heart
it was not enough.
work against cancer. Trying to replicate this effect,
treated for breast cancer.
Association, which included a summer research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH),
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With these words, it’s easy to picture the
oncologist and faculty member at Sidney Kimmel
Schulick says. “I always saw the path forward.”
became clear: He wanted to work in oncology.
As always, Schulick doesn’t set a low bar. “I
fellow in immunology at the NIH, the field
“I always believed in cancer immunotherapy,”
R I C H A R D SCHULI CK, MD, MBA
Still, “The beauty and the challenge is that there’s still much more to do,” he says.
WWW.COLORADOCANCERCENTER.ORG
“No one hates cancer more than me,” Schulick says. With his father’s experience, Schulick’s path
he developed and injected a slurry of killed bacteria called “Coley’s Toxins” into his cancer patients,
“My father’s cancer was a bad cancer caught at a late stage,” Schulick says. “My mother’s was a
Along with what Schulick calls “an excellent
is absolutely possible. The question is how many
10 years sounds about right to me.” There is a goal. There is a roadmap that shows
C3: SPRING 2018
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To screen or not to screen?
That is the question. SCREENING GUIDELINES ADAPT TO CHANGING CANCER LANDSCAPE BY TAYLOR ABARCA
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WWW.COLORADOCANCERCENTER.ORG
Nearly a decade ago, a lightbulb went on in Christopher Lieu’s head. At the time, Dr. Lieu was in the beginning of his fellowship and the lightbulb was his recognition of a disturbing trend: More and more young people were being diagnosed with colon cancer. “I remember talking with other fellows and doctors who were also seeing more young patients,” says Lieu, who is now CU Cancer Center’s deputy associate director for clinical research. “We all started to question whether or not this trend was bigger than our clinic.” As it turns out, the pattern was bigger than one clinic. In fact, since the early 2000’s Colorado has seen a 2–to–3 percent increase per year in people under the age of 50 being diagnosed with colon cancer, on par with the national average. “If these rates continue, by 2030 in the 20-to-35-year-old age group, the rate of colorectal cancer is expected to double,” says Lieu. No one knows why. And colon cancer is not the only cancer that is on the rise in younger people. Just this year the New England Journal of Medicine released a study showing that while men used to be most commonly diagnosed with lung cancer, young women have now outpaced young men. These shifting trends in who gets cancer are more than factoids. Lung cancer and colon cancer are the numbers one and two causes of cancer related death, respectively, in the United States. The other problem: Typically, screenings for these cancers do not start until people are middle aged or older. So, if more and more younger people, or different demographics of people, are being diagnosed with these cancers, do the old screening guidelines still hold up?
Finding the needle in the hay stack Most of the time when a younger person comes to the doctor complaining of stomach pain, they are diagnosed with indigestion, a food allergy, or something from a laundry list of other gastrointestinal problems. And most of the time that diagnosis is correct. However, there are cases in which the stomach pain is something much more serious. “I was told the pain was caused by constipation, gas, or other typical gastrointestinal problems,” says Stephen Estrada, a CU Cancer Center patient currently on an immunotherapy trial for advanced colon cancer. “When I was finally diagnosed I was 28 years old. I was considered too young to have colon cancer.” Stephen and his medical team discovered that he carries a genetic mutation in a gene called MLHI, indicating a condition known as Lynch Syndrome. Lynch Syndrome makes people much more likely to develop colon cancer as well as a handful of other types of cancer.
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C/O C H RIST INE H OWARD
But how do you pick out patients like Stephen from the thousands of other young people whose symptoms truly are caused by indigestion? One answer is colonoscopy. Imagine that colonoscopy screening could find one cancer every 10 screenings. You would probably say that screening is worthwhile! But what if colonoscopy found one cancer every 1,000 screenings, or 10,000 screenings, or 100,000 screenings? At what point do the stress, discomfort, inconvenience, and cost of screening outweigh the benefit?
people with average risk start screening at 45. “Moving the start of screening up to age 45 for the average risk population is a considerable change,” says Andrea (Andi) Dwyer, director of the Colorado Cancer Screening Program at the CU Cancer Center and program director at the Colorado School of Public Health. Dwyer was an author on the paper and CU’s Dennis Ahnen, MD, was one of the study’s senior authors. “Colorectal cancer screening is just one example of a changing cancer paradigm,” says Dwyer. “Physicians and researchers should be aware of and recognize trends in their patients. Adjusting screening guidelines based on these trends may help save lives.”
LIEU SAYS. “THAT BEING SAID, DOCTORS SHOULD NOT NECESSARILY WRITE OFF CANCER BECAUSE OF A PATIENT’S AGE. AWARENESS IS KEY.”
The reality of screening D R. C HRI S LI EU
That is the challenge of screening. And, unfortunately, answers to these questions are far from clear is most cases. What is clear is that as more younger people get colon cancer, younger people should be screened. “Colon cancer is still rare in young people, there is no question about that,” Lieu says. “That being said, doctors should not necessarily write off cancer because of a patient’s age. Awareness is key.”
The changing cancer screening landscape Five years ago, the American Cancer Society (ACS) recommended that colon cancer screening start for averagerisk adults at age 50. Then in spring 2018, CU Cancer Center researchers and colleagues around the country published a study that added new numbers of young colon cancer patients into the mathematical model used to guide screening recommendations. What it showed is that, sure enough, screening would do the most good if it started earlier. As of May 30th, 2018, the ACS revised its guidelines to reflect the changing cancer landscape, recommending that
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WWW.COLORADOCANCERCENTER.ORG
The ACS lowered the screening for colon cancer by five years. Why don’t we lower the age of screening for all cancers? As a matter of fact, why don’t we start screening in our 20s? What’s the harm in knowing? Actually, the answer is much harm. “If we started screening everyone at such a young age it could cause a lot of unnecessary trauma and stress for patients,” says Lieu. “The amount of anxiety caused by screening, the time away from work to prep and actually do the procedures, and the risk of over diagnosing, and in turn, over treatment, are just a few of the stressors that need to be considered. Some tests, for example colonoscopy, also have risks of bleeding bowel perforation that can also cause harm.” Not only would earlier screening for cancer be distressing for people, it would be unproductive. “It’s all about comparing benefit with burden. If screening started at age 20, you’d have maximum benefit but also a huge burden. We would find very few cases of cancer per colonoscopy,” explains Dwyer. “On the other hand, if screening started at age 60, you’d have minimal burden but also minimal benefit – we would be missing some cancers and finding others too late. The goal of screening guidelines is to find that sweet spot where there is the most benefit with the least burden.”
So, while it does not make sense to start screening everyone for cancer at a young age, it is important that those who fall in the recommended guidelines do actually get screened. In the end, accurate screening guidelines are only useful if people follow them. “In the case of colorectal cancer, if everyone followed screening recommendations based on risk, we could cut mortality by at least a half, with some estimates suggesting mortality would be cut even more,” says Dwyer. “Screening is the best chance to catch a cancer early and prevent it from advancing.”
Increasing cancer screening in Color ado Catching cancer early through screening saves lives. Yet many Coloradoans choose not to be screened or do not have access to proper screening. That’s where the Colorado Cancer Screening Program (CCSP) comes in. “So far, the CCSP has prevented more than 500 colon cancers,” says Dwyer. “We are hoping to navigate an additional 7,000 Coloradoans to preventive screenings as well as identify those who are at a higher risk due to hereditary conditions. The increased screening will have an enormous impact on preventing cancer diagnoses, suffering, and deaths in our state.” Previously the CCSP focused on colorectal cancer but is now working to expand access to and use of lung cancer screening, genetic screening, familial screening, and to better align with breast cancer and cervical cancer programs. The initiative is designed to help patients navigate the screening process and understand the results, making cancer prevention and early diagnosis a priority. In the meantime, screening guidelines continue to evolve to meet the changing landscape of cancer and the new technologies available to find and treat it. “As technology improves and screening tests become easier, more cost-effective, and accurate, it may be plausible to start cancer screening earlier,” says Lieu. “It will be sooner than we think. For example, blood tests that screen for various types of cancer are being investigated right now.” Cancer screening isn’t and shouldn’t be for everyone. But when the benefit outweighs the burden, screening saves lives. With new understanding of cancer and new screening technologies, Colorado is leading the way to save even more lives through cancer prevention, early diagnosis, and early treatment of many types of cancer.
C3: SPRING 2018
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Dog Bites Man, SAVES LIFE PLAYFUL CHOMP HELPS CATCH BRAIN CANCER AT A TREATABLE STAGE BY ERIKA MATICH
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WWW.COLORADOCANCERCENTER.ORG
Tim Reagan saved Brady’s life, adopting the high-energy rescue dog from a shelter. Within a year, Brady returned the favor. “We were walking on the Friday after Thanksgiving in 2016 and in a rambunctious, playful way he jumped up and bit my arm and it felt really strange,” says Reagan, who retired from a stressful, fast-paced career as director of operations for a professional society so that he could adopt a dog. “My left side was not quite numb but it was desensitized and it was right down the middle of my body.” He figured it was a pinched nerve and made an appointment the next Monday with his primary care doctor to see what they could do about it. Instead of referring him to a chiropractor like he expected, “She said we need to get you in for an MRI,” Reagan says. “She saved my life.” The MRI showed Reagan had glioblastoma, the most aggressive type of brain cancer. Since the diagnosis and subsequent death of Sen. John McCain, glioblastoma has gotten a lot of attention in the media. McCain passed away nine years to the day after Sen. Edward Kennedy, who also had glioblastoma. The cause of glioblastoma is not clear in most cases. It is also unclear why it occurs more commonly in men. What is clear is that glioblastoma is resistant to conventional therapies and people usually live 12 to 15 months after diagnosis. For Reagan, the diagnosis brought a flood of memories and emotions -- his father had died of the disease just 18 days after his own diagnosis. But Reagan’s case was different. His father had had symptoms for a year and a half that his doctors blamed on other conditions, like diabetes or a stroke. And brand-new treatments had just started to offer new hope. “The first doctor told me, over the phone, I had four months to live. The second doctor told me I had a year to live,” says Reagan. “I went to UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) and Dr. Ormond said I think we can do better than that.” Ryan Ormond, MD, is Reagan’s neurosurgeon and director of the brain tumor program at UCH. Ormond was heartened to see the tumor was discovered before it involved large areas of the brain. “Tim had several additional advantages,” says Ormond. “He was doing well with good functional status, the tumor was in a part of the brain where it could be surgically removed, and he had some favorable tumor genetic markers that could make him more responsive to chemotherapy.”
For Reagan, treatment meant a require surgery. He also made a couple commitments and the appointments multidisciplinary approach including trips to the emergency room when his with his health care providers, he also radiation and chemotherapy, as well first surgical site filled up with fluid, makes time to attend the UCH brain as surgery. That means his medical causing him to become disoriented. tumor support group, a healing art oncologist, surgical oncologist, and Douglas Ney, MD, Reagan’s therapy class called Sites and Insights, radiation oncologist collaborated oncologist specializes in brain and outdoor experiences lead by an to choose and deliver the best cancer. He’s encouraged by Reagan organization called Live by Living. He treatments, while working together to despite the challenges. “Fortunately, says cancer is a club no one wants manage side effects such as fatigue glioblastoma patients are living longer to be in, but he finds comfort in the and loss of balance. than they used to,” Ney says. Still, he shared experiences of other survivors. “The side effects of my treatment wants to do more. “The outcomes are He also finds comfort in working to weren’t so severe that I was inhibited,” still not good enough.” make sure all cancer survivors get the says Reagan. “It was a challenge, Reagan has some thoughts on services they need, regardless of their but I rented an RV and drove across why he is a brain cancer survivor ability to pay. the country to visit my family in New nearly two years following his “I have seen how support groups England and stopped in Minnesota diagnosis. He recommends getting help me,” says Reagan. “And people along the way. In retrospect, I may (and staying) in shape before with cancer don’t have deep pockets. have been a bit ambitious. Rest and something like this happens. Journaling and other healing therapies relaxation are critical for recovery.” “And people with cancer don’t have deep Reagan knows that getting glioblastoma pockets. Journaling and other healing ther apies was an unlucky break and outdoor experiences can enhance our lives. but he also knows he I want to help cancer survivors get access to is lucky to have found services they don’t have to pay for.” the team of providers delivering his care. “Every one of my caregivers seems “I can guarantee you this,” says and outdoor experiences can enhance to genuinely care about my survival Reagan. “If I had still been working, I our lives. I want to help cancer and that makes this journey less of a would not have gone to the doctor, I survivors get access to services they struggle,” he says. would have been 50 pounds heavier don’t have to pay for.” “Specialists at UCH see more of this and I may not still be alive and doing as And then there is Brady, the dog kind of tumor than other physicians well as I am.” Reagan adopted before brain cancer in our area,” says Ormond. “That He also credits regular appointments was a part of his life. During treatments experience, including learning what with Emily Cox-Martin, PhD, a licensed for his first tumor, Reagan says it was fuels an individual tumor, means clinical psychologist in the CU School hard to get up each day and take focusing on the therapies most likely of Medicine Department of Medical the dog for a walk. But despite the to be effective. We also can surgically Oncology. Reagan says he will not difficulty, Reagan says that getting up remove more of the tumor without allow himself to wake up and go to bed and out was exactly what he needed – causing significant neurological deficits, thinking about this disease day in and and he doesn’t underestimate the other leading to longer lives with a better day out. healing properties and pure joy quality of life.” “Cancer is probably going to beat of man’s best friend. When Reagan was diagnosed, he me; it’s not theoretical,” says Reagan. “He’s a good listener,” says Reagan. set a survival goal of January 2019. “But my therapist asked me a very “I walk him four to five miles a day While he appears to be on track to practical question – are those thoughts which keeps me in some kind of reach that goal, there have been some helpful? If not, I try to get past the shape. He’s reliable, he’s my caregiver, setbacks. Reagan recently learned he thoughts that don’t serve me well.” and he makes me laugh, which is has another, smaller tumor that will In the midst of all Reagan’s personal great medicine.”
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D O N O R
S T O R Y
C O M M U N I T Y
N E W S
Hope For A Cure YOUNG MOTHER AND LUNG CANCER SURVIVOR RAISES FUNDS FOR RESEARCH
Dinner in White highlights importance of compar ative oncology
COURTESY OF LINKSFORLUNGS.COM
Since 2010, CU Cancer Center’s annual Dinner
C /O T H E DANIE LS FAMILY
At 32 years old and 33 weeks pregnant, Emily Daniels lived the kind of life that many of us strive to achieve. With a baby boy on the way, a loving husband, a healthy and happy 3-year-old daughter,
in White gala has “popped up” annually in a secret location near the Denver Metro area. This summer, two simultaneous events in Denver and Fort Collins raised awareness for research taking place at the
family and friends close by, a good job, and an
CSU Flint Animal Cancer Center, one of CU Cancer
active social life, there was much to be grateful
Center’s consortium members, where discoveries
for. By all accounts, her day-to-day was perfectly
from the compassionate care of companion animals
normal and just the right amount of hectic.
are leading to new treatments for human patients.
Last February, as Emily was about to depart pains. “It just felt tight and hard to take a deep breath,” she said.
diagnosis was lung cancer – a shock for Emily, who never smoked. A new scan revealed that the cancer was also in her bones and lymph nodes. “There’s nothing we could point to. Nothing we can say is the reason,” said Emily, who delivered her baby boy, Brady, at 35 weeks. In search of answers, Emily made her way to one of the world’s most renowned lung cancer oncologists, Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, at the University of Colorado Cancer Center. Dr. Camidge is Joyce Zeff Chair in Lung Cancer Research and director of thoracic oncology at the CU School of
C/O THE DANI ELS FAM ILY
Medicine. He oversees the Lung Cancer Colorado
D A N I EL S FA M I LY P H O TO – THE DANI ELS FAMI LY latest research and novel treatments may hold for
her treatment at CU Cancer Center finished, she is
Addario Lectureship, and a “luminary in the quest
improving lives, including her own.
cancer-free and leads an effort in Denver to raise
to eradicate lung cancer.” He also earned a place
WWW.COLORADOCANCERCENTER.ORG
“I believe that we’re going to see a cure in my lifetime,” said Emily. “I believe that I’ll be here to
“I was feeling so much better,” she says. “I
work in lung cancer.
watch my kids reach milestones, and I’ll get to
wanted to pay it forward and help the people who
babysit their kids someday.”
may get this disease after me.”
Despite the difficult news, Emily and her husband, Brian, would not let a cancer diagnosis
Emily encourages others to join her journey by giving to the Lung Cancer Colorado Fund,
Alliance sponsored Undy RunWalks across the
a couple weeks to look at each other and say, ‘You
supporting the combined research efforts of
country to raise money for colorectal cancer
know, we’re not going to sit here and feel sorry for
the CU Cancer Center and UCHealth University
research. “I don’t like to run, but I like to dress up,”
ourselves and keep asking why,’” said Brian.
of Colorado Hospital. The Daniels’ also held a
she says. So instead of running, she partnered with
fundraiser and golf tournament called Links for
Michael Sapienza, CEO of the Colorectal Cancer
“I want to make a difference.” Today, the Daniels
Lungs in September, the first of what they plan
Alliance to bring a chapter of the organization’s
are doing just that, by raising awareness for lung
to become an annual event. The fundraiser helps
Blue Hope Bash to Colorado.
cancer and raising money to support vital research
advance lung cancer research aimed at ridding the
that is transforming the way the disease is treated.
world of this deadly disease. While a cure remains elusive, Emily’s tumors are
CSU’s Flint Animal Cancer Center director, Rod Page, DVM, spoke at the Denver location. The Denver audience at the Hangar in Stanley Marketplace heard from Brad and Heidi Robinson about a CSU clinical trial that saved the life of their beloved golden retriever, Duke. At the Block One Event Space in Fort Collins, Tina and Scott Wisler told the story of their retired K9 tracking dog, PD, who was diagnosed with hemangiosarcoma in May 2018 and treated at CSU. Next, human osteosarcoma patient, Travis Vagher, talked about how a procedure developed to treat dogs helped to save his leg during cancer treatment. Capping off the presentation, the crowd sang happy birthday
Kronenberger knew the Colorectal Cancer
keep them from living happy, fulfilled lives. “It took
“I wanted to something meaningful,” said Emily.
of the CU School of Medicine’s Department of Surgery. While Schulick spoke at the Fort Collins event,
money for colorectal cancer research.
on the 2017 list of Highly Cited Researchers for his
to two-time cancer survivor Sugar, an energetic yellow lab that attended the event with her dad, Ryan Sparks. In celebration of Sugar’s tenth birthday Ryan announced a gift to the One Cure Initiative, which advances translational cancer research at CSU Flint Animal Cancer Center through comparative oncology clinical trials. Catering and drinks were provided by Juli y Juan’s Kitchen, Horse & Dragon Brewing Company, and The Infinite Monkey Theorem. Sponsors included Sebastian’s Love, Four Seasons Vet Specialists, Colorado Business Bank, UCHealth, OtterCares Foundation, Denver Life Magazine, A Frosted Affair, and the Bakemeyer Family.
Kronenberger, along with her husband Rusty Hogan and co-chairs Emily and Andrew Gregory, pulled together a committee to organize the
Cancer League of Color ado Gifts Nearly $1 Million for CU Cancer Center Research
are made every day. In fact, the FDA approved
shrinking, and there is hope for the future. Rather
event, including Kathleen Clark, Stephen Estrada,
Emily’s treatment only six months before she was
than viewing her lung cancer as a terminal illness,
Kathy Johnson, Don Hunt, Tara and Eric Lehnertz,
diagnosed. Emily’s lung cancer has a genetic
Emily sees it as a chronic disease to be managed.
Nancy Peterson, Jen Rottler, Chelsea Smith
projects at CU Cancer Center in 2018, totaling $750,000 in research
mutation known as ALK, which made her eligible
She is grateful to have more time – time she will
and Karen Wehling.
funding. CLC also funds dozens of support programs for cancer patients,
for the cutting-edge, targeted treatment that has
spend snuggling her new baby and celebrating
The inaugural Blue Hope Bash Denver raised
been changing the way we think about the disease.
his first birthday; time she will spend taking her
close to $130,000, 80 percent of which will stay
addition, CLC has committed an additional $150,000 this fiscal year to fund
Lung cancer patients are now living longer, and
daughter to Disneyland and watching her start
in Colorado. Nearly $60,000 will be used for
investigator-initiated clinical trials at the CU Cancer Center.
with minimal side effects, thanks to these newly
kindergarten; and time she will spend supporting
colorectal cancer research at CU Cancer Center.
available drugs.
those fighting lung cancer alongside her.
Kronenberger and company are already planning
REECE
To support Lung Cancer Colorado:
next year’s Blue Hope Bash Denver, which will take
Cancer Center has resulted in meaningful discoveries. We are proud to have funded nearly $3 Million in
giving.cu.edu/fund/lung-cancer-colorado
place March 8, 2019 at Mile High Station.
cancer research at the CU Cancer Center in the last three years.”
Emily is on a targeted therapy of six pills a day,
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everyone to know,” says Richard Schulick, MD, MBA, FACS, director of CU Cancer Center and chair
friends were blindsided. More than two years after
Fund and in 2012 was recognized as the Bonnie J.
Research is ongoing, and new advancements
D ANI ELS CHI LDREN – PA IG E A N D B R A D Y D A N IE L S
area, Fort Collins and the state of Colorado have this incredible resource at their disposal and we want
CU C a n ce r C e n t e r
the physician discovered a mass on her lung. The
to cancer research. People in the Denver metro
colon cancer at age 48, she and her family and
to head to the nearest emergency department, clot. At the hospital, she received a CT scan and
companion animals help each other when it comes
When Kim Kronenberger was diagnosed with
She called her doctor, who quickly advised her concerned that the chest pain signaled a blood
“We highlighted how humans and our
Colorectal Cancer survivors get to work to r aise research money
for a business trip, she began experiencing chest
and remains hopeful about the promise that the
Cancer League of Colorado (CLC) funded nearly two dozen research
their family members, and caregivers across the state of Colorado. In
“It seems as though everyone has been touched by cancer,” says Gary Reece, president of the Cancer League. “Our partnership with the CU
C3: SPRING 2018
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UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO
FA L L 2 0 1 8 www.coloradocancercenter.org
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C3: Collaborating to Conquer Cancer Published twice a year by University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus for friends, members and the community of the University of Colorado Cancer Center. (No research money has been used for this publication.) Editor: Garth Sundem | 303-724-6441 | garth.sundem@ucdenver.edu Contributing Writers: Taylor Abarca, Erika Matich Photos: Trevr Merchant The CU Cancer Center Consortium Members UNIVERSITIES
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UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital Children’s Hospital Colorado Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center Visit us on the web: www.coloradocancercenter.org The CU Cancer Center is dedicated to equal opportunity and access in all aspects of employment and patient care.
T H E
M E S S A G E
It is my Passion to Eradicate Cancer When I was in college, my father was diagnosed with
leading the fight against rare cancers like sarcomas and
and died from metastatic colorectal cancer. Later my mother
mucosal melanomas; we are learning to prevent cancer
was successfully treated for breast cancer. No one hates
through education as well as medication, and to detect cancer
cancer more than I do. Now, after years of study, training, and
at earlier, more treatable stages; we are increasing access to
practice, my passion has become my expertise. And I am
cancer care across communities and geographies in the Rocky
honored to continue the legacy started by Paul Bunn, MD, and
Mountain region; and, as you can read in these pages, we are
forwarded by Dan Theodorescu, MD, PhD, as the Director of
uniquely equipped to drill down below the surface of blood
the University of Colorado Cancer Center.
cancers to get at their root cause: Cancer stem cells.
Our mission includes research, education, and clinical care toward the goal of eradicating cancer. That’s why we’re here. That’s why I’m here.
These innovations take place in our laboratories, hospitals, and in our incredible shared resources that make advanced technologies available not only to CU Cancer Center
And I absolutely believe our goal is possible. Not
FROM THE DIRECTOR RICHARD SCHULICK, MD, MBA DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO CANCER CENTER CHAIR OF SURGERY, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
only do I believe that it is possible to eradicate cancer, but I don’t want
investigators, but to
“Not only do I believe that it is possible to eradicate cancer, but I don’t want it to take 100 years.”
it to take 100 years. We
community at large. But they are imagined by the minds that draw from the past to look into the
have the tools right here on the Anschutz Campus and at our
future – by the people who are truly the heart and the soul of
member institutions around the state, including CU Boulder
our center.
and Colorado State University, to make the discoveries today, tomorrow, or the day after, that lead to real, actionable cures. Sure, these tools include the technologies needed to drill
It’s easy to imagine a scientist working long hours alone in a lab or a doctor sitting down to talk one-on-one with a patient. Here at CU Cancer Center, these scenes of individual effort
down into the inner workings of cancer cells. But I believe that
absolutely occur. But every experiment and every interaction is
even more important than these machines is the knowledge,
powered by collaboration and consultation that draws on the
passion, and creativity of the people using these tools to ask
expertise of 430 CU Cancer Center members around the state,
and answer innovative questions.
who themselves bring training and knowledge from across the
At CU Cancer Center, we are developing new ways to teach the immune system to fight cancer; we are developing
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the Colorado research
country and around the world. We are buildings and technology and equipment. But more
entirely new classes of drugs to attack genetic targets that
so, we are people. Together, the people of CU Cancer Center
have previously been considered “undruggable”; we are
are working toward the goal of eradicating cancer.
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