10 2016
ANNUAL REPORT
RESEARCH WORK RESEARCHER SPOTLIGHT
Dr. Robert B. Cameron, MD FACS, is one of the leading experts in North America on the treatment of pleural mesothelioma. He has been treating mesothelioma patients for over 20 years and is an early innovator of the lung-sparing pleurectomy with decortication (P/D) surgical procedure for mesothelioma. He has authored or co-authored over 40 papers on oncology, thoracic surgery and other topics. Dr. Cameron attended medical school at UCLA, where he obtained his medical degree. He completed three years of training as a clinical associate in surgical oncology at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, a five-year residency in general surgery at UCLA, and a two-year fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at Cornell-New York Hospital and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
The Pacific Mesothelioma Center (PMC) at the Pacific Heart, Lung & Blood Institute’s (PHLBI) aims to be the most innovative research and treatment organization in the world for patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). It does so by supporting a first-of-its-kind, nonprofit, in-house research laboratory, whose goal is to provide laboratory-to-bedside research that improves the lives and longevity of those diagnosed with mesothelioma, and treats MPM as a chronic, treatable and manageable disease. The exploration of innovative ideas is the foundation of the PMC’s unique research program. An overarching tenet of PHLBI’s research agenda is that all projects should be rational and additive; that is, all treatment approaches must be researched, be carefully thought out, be based on available data, provide improved quality of life, be continuously critiqued and re-evaluated, and be built upon known information and treatment successes, however small.
CURRENT RESEARCH In 2016, PHLBI developed a prototype cancer immunotherapy composed of genetically engineered human mesenchymal stem cells producing interleukin-12, a potent cytokine that enhanced human T cells in studies conducted at the PMC lab. A provisional patent application was filed in June 2016 to explore intellectual property opportunities covering the work. The full patent application will be finalized and submitted to the US Patent and Trademark Office Legal Administration (US and international applications simultaneously) in June 2017.
