winship
FALL 2011
A time
of hope 12
Treatments once were
limited for multiple
myeloma. Winship
researchers have
helped change that.
New trials for lung cancer 7
Nurse navigators show the way 9
Pilot projects soar 18
winship
Welcome
FALL 2011
Dear Friends:
Mark Saturday, Oct. 15, on
your calendars! We will be
looking for you to join us
that day at the inaugural
Winship Win the Fight 5K
Run/Walk.
Executive Director
Winship Cancer Institute
Walter J. Curran, Jr., MD
Deputy Director
Fadlo R. Khuri, MD
Executive Administrator
Diane G. Cassels, MS
Director of Nursing
Deena Gilland, RN, MSN
Director of Communications
Vincent J. Dollard, APR
Editor
Virginia L. Anderson
Art Director
Peta Westmaas
Graphic Designer
Welcome to the latest edition of Winship Magazine. You will
find a number of exciting narratives in this issue about the
progress we are making against cancer in just the past few
months. Winship laboratory and clinical investigators are
leading the way in some key areas of cancer research that we
believe will translate to improved patient outcomes. Please read
about the accomplishments of Sagar Lonial, MD, Lawrence
Boise, PhD, and their team in understanding the fundamental
basis of multiple myeloma, a malignancy for which treatment
options were once very limited. Now, thanks to pioneering research and new drug
development to which Sagar and Larry have substantially contributed, patients have options
– and more hope. This team has established Winship Cancer Institute as one of the top
cancer centers for the treatment for multiple myeloma and related conditions.
You’ll also read about Winship’s commitment to support promising research of
outstanding young researchers, such as Sumin Kang, PhD, and Mylin Torres, MD, with pilot
grants. The extraordinary generosity of the Wilbur and Hilda Glenn Family Foundation
will allow us to fund more pilot projects, such as these awards to Sumin and Mylin by the
Kennedy Foundation, in our breast cancer program. In both of these cases, these pilot grant
awards led to major grant awards from outside agencies. The Glenn Family Foundation
gift will allow us to accelerate the work of our breast cancer program in ways that support
Winship as an emerging national leader in breast cancer research and treatment.
Please mark Saturday, Oct. 15, on your calendars, because we will be looking for you
to join us that day at the inaugural Winship Win the Fight 5K Run/Walk. The Winship
5K will start right on the Emory track, and registration is already ahead of schedule! This
event will bring non-runners and runners alike together as a community in our shared fight
against cancer. I personally can’t think of a better way to raise money for cancer research
and to gather like-minded people together than with an autumn run/walk. I look forward to
personally seeing you there at this Peachtree Road Race qualifier event. Most of all, I want
to thank each one of you for your continued support of Winship Cancer Institute and our
efforts to win the fight.
Linda Dobson
Photographer
Jack Kearse
Sincerely,
IN THIS ISSUE
2 Names in the news
Fadlo R. Khuri, MD, becomes Editor-in-Chief of Cancer |
World renowned surgeon William C. Wood, MD, to share his
talents in Africa.
4 Discovery
7
Reprogramming Ewing sarcoma | Low-dose CT scans
decrease lung cancer mortality | C-Reactive protein sheds
light on kidney cancer outcomes, and more...
7 Hope Shifting the treatment paradigm
Winship researchers are pressing hard on new lung cancer
treatments, bringing hope to patients of the nation’s biggest
cancer killer.
9 Compassion Smoothing the way
Nurse navigators lighten the load, coordinate care and
explain important medical information.
12 Translation A time of hope
9
“Each time there is a relapse, it’s a new disease
with its own personality: aggressive, intent on
its own survival... I wouldn’t have survived all
these years without his efforts.”
– Rudolph Byrd on Sagar Lonial.
12
Treatment options once were limited for patients with multiple
myeloma. Winship researchers have helped change that.
16 Imagination Poised for takeoff
Pilot projects are soaring at Winship, propelled by new gifts –
and brilliant research.
18 Courage Going the extra miles
Bone marrow transplant survivor Bob Falkenberg raises
money and awareness by pedaling 1,700 miles.
20 Caring
Run a race, win the fight | Patient Assistance Fund | Help
from T.J.’s Friends | Thank you, Friends of Winship!
Production Manager
Carol Pinto
Emory | Winship is published twice
yearly by the Winship Cancer Institute
Communications office for patients,
families, staff, and friends. If you have
story ideas or feedback, please contact
virginia.l.anderson@emory.edu.
Website: cancer.emory.edu
Walter J. Curran Jr., MD
Executive Director, Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University
Winship Magazine is published by the School of Medicine, a component of the Woodruff
Health Sciences Center of Emory University, emoryhealthsciences.org. Articles may be
reprinted in full or in part if source is acknowledged. Persons not on the mailing list can order
a one-year subscription by sending a check for $20 (made out to Emory University) to the
editor. © Fall 2011.
Names in the news
Names in the news
Fadlo R. Khuri receives another honor – and important role
Following a year-long
international search,
Winship Cancer
Institute’s Deputy
Director has been
named Editor-in-Chief
of Cancer, a peerreviewed journal of
the American Cancer
Society(ACS). Fadlo R.
Khuri, MD, professor
and chair of hematology
and medical oncology at
Emory University and
Roberto C. Goizueta
Distinguished Chair in
Cancer Research, began
his term on Sept. 1,
succeeding Dr. Raphael E. Pollock. Khuri will retain his multiple
responsibilities at Winship.
“Fadlo’s selection as editor-in-chief is a tremendous honor
that puts him at the helm of one of the most prestigious cancer
journals in the world,” says Winship Executive Director Walter J.
Curran, Jr. “His energy, expertise, and integrity will influence the
national and international cancer research conversation. He is a
world-class researcher and clinician, and we – not just Winship
but Georgia – are very fortunate to have someone of his stature
in the fight against cancer.”
“The Search Committee reviewed many exceptional
candidates and is very pleased to have been able to select Dr.
Khuri,” says Otis W. Brawley, MD, chief medical officer of
the ACS. “As an accomplished molecular oncologist who has
conducted seminal research on oncolytic viral therapy and has
led major chemoprevention efforts against lung and head and
neck cancer, Dr. Khuri brings an expertise that will benefit our
journal and the entire oncology community.”
Khuri, who has served as the editor for the journal’s lung
cancer section since 2005, is equally thrilled.
“It is a great privilege for me to serve as editor-in-chief of
Cancer, succeeding my long-time friend and colleague, Dr.
Raphael Pollock, who has done an outstanding job,” says Khuri.
“I received my first peer-reviewed grant from the American
Cancer Society and published my first senior authored paper
in Cancer. Given my long-standing relationship with both this
exceptional journal and the ACS, this is a particularly meaningful
honor for me and for Emory University. Cancer is one of the
oncology community’s oldest and most prestigious journals. We
will work hard to enhance its already stellar and hard-earned
reputation by publishing only the very best work in the field.”
2 | Winship Magazine | cancer.emory.edu
Khuri serves as a grant reviewer for the ACS, National Cancer
Institute (NCI), the American Association for Cancer Research,
and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He serves the NCI
as a permanent member of its Thoracic Malignancies Steering
Committee and its Clinical Oncology Study Section and serves
on the Council for Extramural Funding of the America Cancer
Society. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles
and has received numerous awards, including the Nagi Sahyoun
Award from the Middle East Medical Assembly and the Waun Ki
Hong Award from MD Anderson Cancer Center for his work on
targeting signaling pathways in lung and aerodigestive cancers.
Would that he stay forever...
World-renowned breast cancer surgeon William C. Wood MD bade farewell
The Fadlo File
Fadlo Khuri is such a presence at Winship Cancer
Institute that he has been called its “essential man.”
While many know that he is a graduate of Yale
University (1985) and Columbia University College
of Physicians and Surgeons (1989) and came to
Winship via Boston City Hospital, New England
Medical Center and MD Anderson, many of us
may not know that he likes Italian food and Led
Zeppelin. Read on for some other things you
might not know about Dr. Khuri:
Birth date: Sept.13, 1963.
Birthplace: Boston
Family: Wife Lamya and two daughters and a son.
What is your favorite type of music?
Bob Dylan or Led Zeppelin
What was the last concert you attended?
Robert Plant on Feb. 5, 2011, with daughter Layla,
for her 17th Birthday
As a child, what did you want be when you grew up?
Astronaut, English league soccer player or the
Godfather!
If you could trade places with anyone at Winship for
a day, who would it be?
No one, really. My colleagues are all great, but I am
very fortunate to have a fantastic wife, family, and
job. Well, maybe Haian Fu — to understand what it
is like for a day or so to be a true genius!
Breast Surgical Oncology Fellows Sharla Gayle Patterson, (far left) Paige Teller (second left), and
Jared Linebarger, second from right, share a moment with Wood, Sheryl Gabram, Director, SSO Breast
Surgical Oncology Fellowship and Monica Rizzo, Associate Director, SSO Breast Surgical Oncology
Fellowship at Emory.
Among smiles, hugs and and words of
good wishes, many tears fell on Friday,
Aug. 19, as patients of world-renowned
breast cancer surgeon William C. Wood,
MD, bade farewell to the man whom
many credit with saving their lives.
“He is so, so wonderful,” says Annie
Miller, of Atlanta. She was one of
hundreds of former patients who came
to say goodbye to Wood, who retired
officially Sept. 1, at a breakfast reception
at the Whitehead Room at Emory
University Hospital.
Patient after patient had stories to tell
about the man they describe as humble,
compassionate and reassuring. “That
first day, I was so nervous, and he was so
encouraging,” says Gloria Sykes, also
of Atlanta.
While patients appreciate Wood’s
gentle, encouraging manner, scientists
and physicians praise his contributions to
cancer therapy and his influence on the
design and analysis of national clinical
trials. Wood, a 1966 graduate of Harvard
Medical School, was chair of surgery in
the Emory University School of Medicine
for 19 years. He stepped down from that
post in 2010 and focused his attention
on innovations in cancer therapy and
clinical care. During his time at Emory
and Winship Cancer Institute, where
he served for a time as interim director,
Wood was awarded the American Society
of Clinical Oncology Statesman Award in
2007. In 2000, at the San Antonio Breast
Cancer Symposium, he was presented
the “Celebrating Survival Award,” which
went to the principal investigators “of the
10 most influential clinical trials in breast
cancer in the last century.”
“His medical expertise can be looked
at from two levels: his patients and his
colleagues,” says Grant Carlson, MD, a
Winship breast cancer surgeon. “He is an
outstanding clinician who is a paragon of
empathy, always listening to his patients.
Every one of them adored him. On the
second level, he taught his colleagues
how to think critically and not to accept
dogma blindly. He was instrumental in
coordinating many of the clinical trials in
breast cancer because of his leadership
and clarity of thought. “
Wood, who was honored by
Winship on Aug. 20 with a day-long
breast cancer symposium, is hardly
going quietly into retirement. He is a
professor of surgery at Emory’s medical
school and professor also in the Hubert
Department of Global Health in the
Rollins School of Public Health. Of
special meaning to Wood will be his
work to train doctors in Africa to
treat cancer. Wood will leave in late
September to visit several sites where
residents are trained and to see how
he can best contribute to their medical
training and education.
“I am leaving with a sense of great
gratitude, and I’m happy to wear an
Emory hat (in his work in Africa),” says
Wood. “I look forward to it with real joy.”
Annie Miller of Atlanta says she set her alarm
clock early on Aug. 19 to make sure she
would not be late for a reception at Emory
University Hospital to honor Dr. Wood.
FALL 2011 |
3
Discovery
Discovery
Old marker may give new insight into outcomes in kidney cancer
director of urology clinical research
including tumor size, stage of disease
Erwin Van Meir, PhD, and research
the molecular signature of Ewing
at Winship Cancer Institute,
and CRP levels. They found that CRP level
associate Shaoman Yin, PhD, started
tumors and is only found in the
clinicians should consider taking
“remained a robust predictive tool” —
a fishing expedition with a tiny bit of
tumor cells. That translocation is,
pre-operative levels of C-Reactive
even when the analysis was controlled for
bait – a small chemical molecule – and
as Van Meir describes it, “a nasty
protein (CRP) into account when
other lifestyle factors.
ended up reeling in a big finding – that
fusion.” But as it turns out, the
treating patients with localized
A protein that was once the molecule
Unexpected catch nets a possible gain in Ewing sarcoma
About 30 percent of patients with
the molecule binds with an oncoprotein
molecule the two went fishing with
renal cell carcinoma. CRP is a
localized RCC eventually develop
at the root of Ewing sarcoma, a childhood
reprograms the oncoprotein.
marker for inflammation, which is
metastatic disease, despite having
cancer that has been particularly
considered by many to be a cause
potentially curative surgery. Thus, the study
challenging to treat.
of diabetes, some cancers, arthritis
is significant because it may help clinicians
and other serious illnesses.
know better how to treat those patients
share something in common, explains
Yin receiving a $100,000 grant
whose CRP levels are elevated.
Van Meir, director of Winship’s Cancer
from the Samuel Waxman Cancer
The Ewing sarcoma family of tumors
“The tumor cells don’t like it,”
Van Meir says. “They start dying.”
This work resulted in Van Meir and
of the moment for its ability to predict
The study, which looked at 257 patients
heart disease is now showing promise
with localized RCC who underwent surgery
Cell Biology scientific program and
Research Foundation to study the
in predicting survival of patients with
to remove a kidney, sought to determine
the management of cancer,” says Master.
professor of neurosurgery, hematology
reprogramming of Ewing sarcoma
what effect, if any, lifestyle factors have
“Knowing how a patient may do after
just how the molecule reprograms
renal cell carcinoma, or kidney cancer.
and medical oncology. That is the unique
with the molecule that targets the EWS-
on the prognostic value of CRP levels
surgery provides insight into knowing how
the tumor cells and whether it can
translocation of chromosomes 11 and 22,
FLI1 oncoprotein. “We are very grateful
in patients with localized disease. The
to treat them before surgery. We hope this
antagonize Ewing tumor growth in
edition of Molecular Diagnosis & Therapy,
which fuses two unrelated genes into a
to the foundation,” says Van Meir. “These
researchers looked at several variables,
study advances that knowledge.”
mouse models. “If all this ends up being
senior author Viraj Master, MD, PhD and
new chimeric gene. This abnormal gene
are critical seed funds.”
successful, we hope it will be destined for
According to an article in the July 14
“Prognostic tools are very important in
encodes oncoprotein EWS/FLI1, which is
Lung cancer screening available for heavy smokers aged 55 to 74
A study conducted at 33 centers nationwide showed that low-dose CT scanning of heavy smokers
The next step will be to understand
a clinical trial,” says Van Meir.
Short-term hormone therapy in combination with radiation therapy
increases survival rates for men with early-stage prostate cancer
resulted in a 20 percent decrease in mortality from lung cancer. Between August, 2002 and April, 2004,
the National Lung Screening Trial enrolled more than 53,000 people at high risk of developing lung cancer.
They were randomly assigned to receive either low-dose CT scanning or a chest X-ray as a means to detect
lung cancer. Data were collected on the participants through 2009. Deaths from lung cancer were reduced
by 20 percent in the group who underwent the low-dose CT scans. The results were published this
summer in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“I think all of us who were working on it were very pleased,” says Kay Vydareny, MD,
professor emerita of thoracic radiology, who was the principal investigator at the Emory
University School of Medicine site. “It seemed to have such strong conclusions for
the narrow age range we were studying.” That age range was 55 to 74.
Emory Healthcare began offering low-dose CT scans in August to screen
current and former heavy smokers aged 55 to 74. Vydareny explains
that there is likely to be a high rate of false positives – that is, scans may
suggest a lesion or mass that likely will turn out to be benign. Those
who wish to be scanned should be braced for that possibility, she says,
because false positives can cause anxiety and often necessitate
further testing.
If you or someone you know is interested in having a low-dose CT
scan, and you are between 55 and 74 and have been a heavy smoker,
call 404-686-LUNG, or visit: www.emoryhealthcare.org/lungCT.
4 | Winship Magazine | cancer.emory.edu
The largest randomized trial
treatment methods for prostate
of its kind has demonstrated
cancer, a disease which is estimated to
that short-term hormone
affect about 240,890 American men
therapy (androgen deprivation
in 2011.
therapy, or ADT), when given
The authors of the study have
in combination with radiation
also indicated that the increased
therapy for men in early-stage
radiation dosages combined with
prostate cancer increases survival
modern treatment technology, which
rate when compared with that
have demonstrated high success
of those who receive the same
rates, could potentially provide
radiation therapy alone. The
benefits equal to or greater than the
study was conducted by the
addition of short-term ADT. “RTOG
Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) and published in the
launched a trial in 2009 to examine the role of short-term ADT
New England Journal of Medicine July 14. The study followed
combined with modern radiotherapy techniques for men with
the health status of almost 2,000 men at low and intermediate
intermediate-risk prostate cancer,” says Walter J. Curran, Jr.,
risk of prostate cancer progression for a nine-year span at 212
executive director of Winship Cancer Institute and RTOG Group
centers in the United States and Canada.
Chair. “The results of the RTOG 0815 trial will build on the
The study’s findings may have a significant effect on
important knowledge gained from the landmark study findings.”
FALL 2011 |
5
Hope
Discovery
Vaccine shows benefit for melanoma in Phase III trial
Winship Cancer Institute melanoma specialist David
Lawson, MD, helped bring to light encouraging news
No vaccine is yet available to treat melanoma, Lawson explains,
and it could be years before one is available. But the study was
about advanced melanoma,
significant because it marked the first
typically one of the
vaccine study in melanoma to show
most difficult cancers to
clinical benefit in a randomized Phase III
treat. Lawson, professor
trial. While vaccines have been studied
of hematology and medical
as a way to help the body fight cancer,
oncology, was a co-author of
none has been approved by the FDA for
a study published in June 2
use in advanced disease.
in the New England Journal
Patients in the trial were randomized
of Medicine showing that a
to receive high-dose IL-2 or IL-2 plus a
therapeutic melanoma vaccine
vaccine, a peptide known as gp100.
improves responses and
Those receiving the vaccine and IL-2
progression-free survival rates
had a response rate of 16 percent,
when combined with Interleukin-2, an immunotherapy drug.
“It makes the point that you can add vaccine to Interleukin-2
and possibly improve response rates,” says Lawson.
while those receiving only IL-2 had a response rate of 6 percent.
Progression-free survival for the vaccine group was 2.2 months,
compared with 1.6 months for the IL-2 group.
Double-team could block escape route for triple-negative breast cancers
drugs such as tamoxifen or Herceptin.
“Right now, there aren’t effective
treatments for triple-negative breast
cancer besides chemotherapy,” says Ruth
escape route.
disproportionally affect African American
oncogene addiction,” she says. The
women at a young age.
idea is that mTOR inhibitors such
as rapamycin can make cells more
lapatinib combined with rapamycin can
dependent on a growth factor pathway
stop growth in cell lines and in animal
like EGFR, an approach that was
models, this approach is being tested
previously successful with Herceptin-
in a clinical trial at Winship designed by
resistant breast cancers.
recently in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.
Although the molecule EGFR
The clinical study is designed for
patients with triple-negative breast
cancer who have already been through
stop the growth of a hard-to-treat
(epithelial growth factor receptor) is
first-line chemotherapy. O’Regan says
form of breast cancer. “Triple-negative”
hyper-activated in many breast cancers,
the study includes biopsies, as part of an
breast cancers get their name because
so far EGFR inhibitors such as lapatinib
effort to understand what mutations and
they lack three biological markers that
have not been effective by themselves
genetic signatures distinguish patients
make other breast cancers vulnerable to
in the clinic. O’Regan says that adding a
who have a better chance of responding.
6 | Winship Magazine | cancer.emory.edu
the treatment
paradigm
Winship lung cancer
researchers are
aggressively pursuing
the nation’s number
one cancer killer,
pushing the program
to the front – and
hoping to push the
disease aside.
The rationale for the combination
grows out of a concept called “enhanced
O’Regan. The lab studies were published
whether a combination of drugs can
may be able to block the cancer cells’
O’Regan, MD. These aggressive tumors
After researchers showed that
Winship researchers are testing
second class of drugs, mTOR inhibitors,
Shifting
S
mall cell lung cancer has long been one of
the most difficult cancers to treat, in part
because it is usually diagnosed in an advanced
stage and in part because it is so aggressive,
outdistancing the therapies used to treat it and
spreading to other organs almost vengefully.
The disease typically responds to chemotherapy with or
without radiation in a majority of the patients but often returns
much more aggressively, frequently after a short remission.
“It is a tragic disappointment when the cancer returns,”
says Taofeek Owonikoko, MD, PhD, “The options for retreatment are often limited, and the chances of a durable
response are not great.”
Owonikoko is one of many Winship Cancer Institute lung
cancer researchers helping to shift the national treatment
paradigm for lung cancer, the nation’s number one cancer
killer. He just opened a Phase II clinical trial in which he
will be testing the effectiveness of arsenic trioxide, a drug
typically used to treat leukemia, for patients who fail standard
treatment for small cell lung cancer. His trial, for which he
hopes to accrue 35 patients, also has another important goal
– to gather tissue samples from patients to better understand
the biology of this form of lung cancer.
Winship is supporting Owonikoko’s trial, and he also has
received a Winship pilot grant from the support received from
the Kennedy Foundation.
Arsenic trioxide is typically used to treat a type of
leukemia called acute promyelocytic leukemia, or APL,
Owonikoko explains, and not lung cancer. Owonikoko says
he has come to believe that small cell lung cancer behaves
somewhat like hematologic malignancies such as leukemia
in that it responds well initially to treatment only to become
resistant to further treatment.
FALL 2011 |
7
Hope
However, evidence from lab work showing the potential
benefit of arsenic trioxide for small cell lung cancer provided
the strongest impetus to
study arsenic trioxide
in small cell lung cancer
patients, Owonikoko says.
As for procuring tissue
samples, Owonikoko says
it is imperative to collect
more tissue samples from
lung cancer patients.
“There is often
insufficient tissue from
small cell lung cancer
patients for testing in the
lab,” explains Owonikoko.
Given what researchers
know about other cancers,
Owonikoko and other lung
cancer researchers believe
that small cell lung cancers
Suresh Ramalingam,
may not be a single type of
above, and Taofeek
disease at the genetic level,
even though most all are
Owonikoko, right, are
caused by cigarette smoke
leading trials to advance
and are currently treated
treatment of lung cancer.
the same way. Obtaining
Ramalingam recently has
tissue samples from patients
for extensive testing will
been named chair of the
provide an opportunity
thoracic malignancies
for the researchers to see
committee of the Eastern
whether there are subtle
Cooperative Oncology
or significant differences
in small cell lung cancer
Group, one of the largest
genomics from patient to
clinical cancer research
patient and whether these
groups in the country.
differences may explain
how and why patients
might respond to different
therapies.
“Once we get the biopsy, we would take the tumor specimen
to the lab and grow it in laboratory animals and thereby
establish a sort of small cell tumor bank that we can always go
back to for detailed testing,” Owonikoko says. The goal would
be to obtain tissue from about 20 patients. “That would be very,
very useful,” he says.
The clinical study drug will be provided free to patients,
and the treatment duration will be a year if the patient
is benefiting from treatment. Because the trial will allow
Owonikoko and team to study not only the effect of arsenic
trioxide on patients but also create a great opportunity to
study the tumor tissue, Owonikoko says the study is “getting
the absolute bang for the buck.”
8 | Winship Magazine | cancer.emory.edu
In another effort to define a new treatment paradigm,
Winship’s Suresh Ramalingam, MD, director of the division of
medical oncology,
is chairing a Phase
III trial of the
Eastern Cooperative
Oncology Group
(ECOG) that is
studying the optimal
maintenance
strategy for patients
with advanced
non-small cell lung
cancer (NSCLC) who
received bevacizumab
as part of their
first-line therapy.
This is important
because most
patients diagnosed
with NSCLC have
advanced disease,
and maintenance
therapy has emerged
as an option for
those patients who
benefited from firstline combination
chemotherapy. This
trial will enroll about
1,300 patients with
advanced stage nonsquamous non-small
cell lung cancer.
They will receive four
cycles of carboplatin,
paclitaxel and
bevacizumab. Those
with a response or
stable disease will
be randomized to treatment with bevacizumab, pemetrexed, or a
combination of the two agents.
“This study illustrates the important role played by Winship
researchers in defining new standards of care for the treatment of
lung cancer,” says Ramalingam. “Our lung cancer program has a
major focus on developing individualized treatment options, and
we are helping to change the treatment paradigm for lung cancer.”
“These trials are meant to further advance the treatment
of lung cancer, and we at Winship are dedicated to being at
the forefront,” says Ramalingam. “Though there have been
improvements in treating lung cancer, we’re a long way from
a cure for most patients. These trials are meant to move us in
that direction.”
Richard Crowers (left) with nurse navigator Bonnie Josaphs (right)
Smoothing and
soothing the way
Nurse navigators coordinate care, translate complicated
medical language and provide compassionate support.
Richard Crowers, a World War II veteran, a retired
engineering consultant, a sports car enthusiast and an
accomplished euphonium player, is so poised and polished
that it’s hard to imagine that anything could stymie the
87-year-old human dynamo.
Not even a diagnosis of colorectal cancer — 20 years after
being treated for prostate cancer — has slowed him down.
“I’m still greatly addicted to 80,” Crowers says of his love of
driving fast.
And yet, Crowers readily admits that having a nurse
navigator during his cancer treatment has been a godsend.
“It takes away from the dread that you might have if you’re
battling cancer,” Crowers says of the nurse navigator program
at Winship Cancer Institute. “All of a sudden, there is someone
to make method out of madness.”
Engineers, of course, typically love method, but it’s hard to
have much of it with the madness of a cancer diagnosis.
Winship nurse navigators — registered nurses assigned
specifically to newly diagnosed cancer patients to help
coordinate medical care and provide psychosocial support —
are angels and heroes to many. And, they are an example of
how Winship is constantly striving to improve patient care.
FALL 2011 |
9
Compassion
“I am just so pleased with the idea of
Winship establishing these positions. The
system is good, and Bonnie is excellent,”
Crowers says of nurse navigator Bonnie
Josaphs, RN, BSN.
Others apparently are equally
pleased. In a survey of nurse navigator
patient satisfaction conducted in March
through April, two-thirds of patients said
that Winship’s nurse navigator services
influenced their decision to be treated at
Winship Cancer Institute.
Winship’s first nurse navigator
started in May, 2010. Heather Pinkerton,
RN, BSN, OCN, was assigned specifically
to navigate breast cancer patients, who
make up the single largest population
at Winship, through their treatment.
Winship leadership recognized that
although new technology and advanced
treatment options improve patient
outcomes, they also make understanding
and evaluating treatment options more
confusing for patients. For example, new
scanning technology gives a physician
a much better picture of a patient’s
particular case. But getting those scans
and reports together in one place can be
challenging. Nurse navigators make sure
all scans, all lab reports and treatment
notes are together. They then coordinate
with other departments to schedule
consultations, tests and procedures
necessary for the patient’s first visit,
explains Mary Potter, NP, who supervises
the nurse navigators program.
“It’s the navigator coordinating all of
that,” Potter explains.
The navigators often give patients their
telephone numbers so that patients can
call them any time with a question, things
that may range from “what’s the difference
between a radiation oncologist and a
medical oncologist?” to “what are my
chances?” to “how do I deal with this?”
Based on the great response of patients,
Winship added more nurse navigators
recently for lung cancer, gastrointestinal
cancer and hematology cancers.
Pinkerton has navigated more than
185 patients since May, 2010, including
one from Ivory Coast whom she
helped guide through the astounding
10 | Winship Magazine | cancer.emory.edu
challenge of getting out of war-torn
Ivory Coast, through Paris to pick up her
tissue samples and then to Atlanta for
treatment.
“We communicated through email,
and I had everything arranged for her
when she arrived,” Pinkerton explains.
Once patient Jeannette Danho Kakou
arrived in Atlanta, Pinkerton’s work was
not done. Pinkerton also smoothed out
details – small but important – that were
“I am just so pleased
with the idea of
Winship establishing
these positions. The
system is good, and
Bonnie is excellent.”
-Richard Crowers on nurse
navigator Bonnie Josaphs
crucial to Danho Kakou’s treatment. For
example, while Pinkerton and Winship
insurance specialists had pre-certified
Danho Kakou’s insurance information,
there was still a glitch. The insurance
company had the wrong birthdate;
birthdates are recorded differently in
different countries. So the insurance
company was unable to identify her.
Pinkerton ironed out the wrinkles,
and Danho Kakou was able to begin
treatment on time.
That incident speaks to the complex
issues that arise when a person is
diagnosed with cancer and how Winship
aims to meet those needs as expertly,
personally and compassionately as
possible. Certainly patients have medical
questions about their diagnosis, but they
also have real-life issues.
“The patients just love the fact
they can call me about anything,” says
lung cancer nurse navigator Nancy
McCormick, RN, BSN.
“The idea is to really help facilitate
services in a timely manner, trying to get
them on a treatment plan as quickly as
possible,” says Bonnie Josaphs, Crowers’
nurse navigator. “At the beginning, when
they first get their diagnosis, part of the
problem is in just not knowing what
to expect.”
Another big problem can be not
knowing what the doctor is saying.
The specialized language of cancer is
bewildering for newly diagnosed patients.
“Sometimes, someone will say ‘can
you just go over that with me one more
time?’” says Josaphs.
And she does, until she is sure that
the patient understands his or her
treatment plan.
Heather Pinkerton says that a
key piece of the success of Winship’s
nurse navigator program – and what
distinguishes it from other navigator
programs – is that the nurse navigator is
an integral part of the treatment team.
“You’re getting real expertise when
you get a navigator,” Pinkerton says. “I
can present the patients’ concern to the
provider and be the intermediary. It lets
me be a patient advocate.”
Pinkerton stays in touch with
many of her former patients, whom
she has been happy to turn over to the
survivorship team at the end of their
treatment. Many have given her gifts,
which she treasures. Danho Kakou
gave her an angel, saying that Heather
reminded her of one.
Being the tough World War II vet
that he is, Richard Crowers stops short
of using the word “angel” to describe
Bonnie Josaphs.
But he does have a word that he
thinks fits her just fine.
“Perfect,” Crowers says. “She’s just
perfect.”
w
Compassion
inship Magazine communicated with Jeannette Danho Kakou via
email about her experiences at Winship Cancer Institute and the nurse
navigator program. Following are Danho Kakou’s thoughts and feelings in her
own words about her experience.
WM: How did you come to be treated at
asked me to send to her all required
WM: What are your feelings about
Winship Cancer Institute?
documents. Her assistance and guidance
Winship Cancer Institute? Are you happy
Danho Kakou: I was diagnosed for breast
were also helpful during my stay in
you were treated here?
the USA through all the process of
Danho Kakou: I sincerely think that
cancer in Paris after a check-up in October,
2010. I got the results when I was on
mission in Johannesburg. My colleagues
and my cousin instantly recommended me
to look for treatment in Winship Cancer
Institute in Atlanta to increase my chance
of healing.
WM: How did Heather Pinkerton
help you?
treatment at Emory. I also benefited from
counseling, knowledge and information
sharing in management of breast cancer.
WM: Do you think the nurse navigator
program is important?
Emory Winship Cancer is an excellent
place for cancer treatment. People
who are serving over there are so
compassionate and very professional.
I was impressed by the fact that
Winship Cancer Institute could provide
Danho Kakou: For my part, I feel very
comprehensive services in addressing
blessed. Meeting Heather Pinkerton on my
breast cancer. The Institute ensures that
way for healing is somewhat a blessing,
each patient was treated with dignity in
Danho Kakou: My cousin who is living in
as I was so far from USA and with no idea
a holistic manner.
Atlanta contacted the Winship Cancer
on how I could find my way to a best
Institute. He was fortunately directed
treatment. Moreover, the nurse navigator
Cancer Institute. I met so many great and
to Heather Pinkerton, who made all
program is critical to ensure the linkages
exceptional persons, and I would like to
arrangements for my appointments
between the different units in Emory.
thank each of them for their expertise,
within the Emory Hospital in linkage
Without a nurse navigator, one could feel
professionalism and kindness. God Bless
with my insurance company. She also
very lost, especially when it is a foreigner.
Emory Winship Cancer Institute.
Indeed I was happy to be at Winship
Jeannette Danho Kakou
(right) with her nurse
navigator Heather
Pinkerton (left).
FALL 2011 |
11
Translation
A time of hope
Treatments once were limited for multiple
myeloma. Winship has helped change that.
R
udolph Byrd has built a career teaching students about
literature, race and the civil rights movement. For the
past decade, he’s been teaching in a different way: informing
researchers about cancer – in his own body. Through his participation
in several clinical trials at Winship Cancer Institute, he’s helped doctors
such as Sagar Lonial, MD, identify drugs that now have become part of
a standard regimen for people battling multiple myeloma.
Survival rates for multiple myeloma, a blood
cell cancer, have traditionally been grim. Effects of
multiple myeloma’s malignant growth can include
bone breakdown, kidney failure and anemia. Twenty
years ago, most patients died within two or three years
after diagnosis.
In the past decade, several new drugs have been
developed and approved for use in multiple myeloma,
including bortezomib, thalidomide and its cousin
lenalidomide. Lonial has been integrally involved in
many of the studies that led to the approval of these new
drugs, and he currently is leading a nationwide trial on
the use of lenalidomide to treat smoldering myeloma, or
myeloma that is asymptomatic at diagnosis.
Together with traditional chemotherapy and stem
cell transplantation, new therapies have doubled
average survival times. The greatest benefit is seen in
patients younger than 60, though these new drugs are
helping all ages now, Lonial says.
Byrd’s experience illustrates these trends. He was
diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2000 while on
sabbatical in Boston. Then 47, he decided to return
home for treatment. His internist advised him to
contact Lonial, then a new faculty member at Winship.
Lonial says a mentor in Boston, Ken Anderson, MD, had
urged him to begin testing a promising drug against
multiple myeloma.
“I’ve been honored to be an adviser and watch
Sagar Lonial develop a world-class multiple myeloma
program at Winship,” says Anderson, who heads DanaFarber Cancer Institute’s multiple myeloma program.
“He recognized from the earliest days that bortezomib,
By Quinn Eastman | Illustrations by Brian Stauffer
12 | Winship Magazine | cancer.emory.edu
FALL 2011 |
13
Translation
Translation
Rudolph Byrd, diagnosed with multiple myeloma
11 years ago, embarked on his eighth clinical trial
in the summer of 2011.
Sagar Lonial, left, says that having Lawrence Boise, right,
at Winship “has been a turbo boost for our program. He’s a
phenomenal scientist.”
for example, had the potential to be qualitatively different than
conventional treatments and was instrumental in the clinical
trials leading to its approval.”
Byrd, a professor of African American studies and
founding director of the James Weldon Johnson Institute at
Emory, underwent what would be the first of three stem cell
transplants the following spring. Under Lonial’s care, Byrd was
one of the first people in Georgia with multiple myeloma to
receive bortezomib
(Velcade), then an
experimental drug.
In the summer
of 2011, he was
embarking on his
eighth clinical trial.
Participating
in clinical trials
made sense to Byrd
as a historian and
researcher. His core
beliefs instructed
him: “If you can choose to be helpful to others, you make
that choice.”
In turn, Lonial has helped him, he says. “Each time there is
a relapse, it’s a new disease with its own personality: aggressive,
intent on its own survival,” Byrd says. “All this means he
[Lonial] has had to be extremely creative. I wouldn’t have
survived all these years without his efforts.”
“Every successful drug in myeloma, he’s gotten them
before they were approved,” Lonial says. “It also really shows
the importance of clinical trials in providing a foundation for
scientific advances.”
Although Byrd received bortezomib and lenalidomide as
well as other drugs after his stem cell transplant, they are now
standard as initial treatment for most patients.
This transformation of the field means that patients
like Kate Groover, embarking on a course of treatment for
multiple myeloma in the summer of 2011, will receive a panel
of effective therapies
without having a stem
cell transplant scheduled,
perhaps for years.
During the time
Lonial was conducting
clinical trials in Atlanta
and studying the effects
of bortezomib, another
young researcher in
Miami was investigating
how cells make decisions
to live and die in response
to stress and had begun to focus on multiple myeloma.
Lawrence Boise, PhD, joined Winship in 2009 so he
could work side by side with clinicians like Lonial to better
understand multiple myeloma with the hope of developing
more effective therapeutic strategies.
“Larry’s arrival has been a turbo boost for our program,”
Lonial says. “He’s a phenomenal scientist who’s tuned in to the
problems we face in multiple myeloma.”
Much of researchers’ understanding of how bortezomib
“Each time there is a relapse, it’s a new
disease with its own personality: aggressive,
intent on its own survival... I wouldn’t have
survived all these years without his efforts.”
– Rudolph Byrd on Sagar Lonial.
14 | Winship Magazine | cancer.emory.edu
works against multiple myeloma did not come
to light until after the drug’s approval, says
Boise, professor of hematology and medical
oncology and Georgia Cancer Coalition
Distinguished Scholar.
It turns out that multiple myeloma cells’
vulnerability to bortezomib may have a link
to the healthy cells the cancerous cells arise
from: plasma cells. Plasma cells are part of the
immune system and live in the bone marrow.
Their job is to produce antibodies, proteins
that fight invaders like bacteria or viruses.
“If you look at both plasma cells and
multiple myeloma cells, they are chock full of
the machinery cells use to pump out proteins,”
Boise says.
He and his co-workers have shown that
multiple myeloma cells are more sensitive
to drugs that perturb their ability to
clean up the waste byproducts of all that
protein production. This may explain the
effectiveness of bortezomib, which inhibits
proteasomes, cellular machines that act as
garbage disposals.
Part of Boise’s lab’s research is oriented
toward exploiting this vulnerability, by finding
ways to heighten the stress on myeloma cells.
If proteasomes, one way for cancer cells to
clean up, are shut down, they might escape by
directing waste down a second path. Drugs
have been identified that could specifically
interfere with this second path, called
aggresomes.
Based on these insights, Lonial and
another colleague, Jonathan Kaufman,
MD, assistant professor of hematology and
oncology, have designed a clinical study,
in which an add-on drug to the standard
regimen, vorinostat, might further interfere
with cancer cells’ trash cleanup. Lonial and
R. Donald Harvey, PharmD and director of
Winship’s phase I clinical trials program, are
testing a new drug against multiple myeloma,
ACY-1215, with the same rationale.
“Our objective isn’t to improve response
rates, because response rates to the standard
treatment panel are already quite high,”
Lonial says. Rather, his aim is to purge
myeloma cells so effectively from the body
that sensitive laboratory assays can’t detect
them for months or years – what he gingerly
calls “closer to a cure.”
A drug with a second life
Lenalidomide is a chemical relative of thalidomide, which has its
own peculiar history.
I
t was first marketed as a sedative in the 1950s, often to pregnant
women with morning sickness. The revelation of thalidomide’s awful effects on limb development in unborn children eventually helped
drive expansion of the regulatory powers of the FDA in the 1960s.
As a helpful drug, thalidomide was reborn a decade ago, when it
was first tested on leprosy. How thalidomide works in the context of
multiple myeloma is complex – it appears to both block blood vessel
growth and encourage the immune system to fight the cancer. Lenalidomide was designed to soften the side effects, which can include
neuropathy and blood clots.
Sagar Lonial is leading a nationwide clinical trial, coordinated
by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, on the use of lenalidomide with “smoldering” multiple myeloma. Multiple myeloma that
is asymptomatic at diagnosis is called smoldering. For example,
Rudolph Byrd’s cancer was initially discovered as a result of a blood
test, and remained asymptomatic for some time.
The study compares treatment with lenalidomide versus a “watch
and wait” approach. Lonial says the study is designed to address the
questions: is giving patients lenalidomide early using up valuable
ammunition; and can it prevent long-term damage and improve
quality of life?
FALL 2011 |
15
Imagination
Imagination
Poised for tak
eoff
Pilot projects at W
i n sh
showing great re
wa r d
i p, al r
eady
s , g et
a l if t
Wall Street investors would envy Sumin Kang, PhD.
The young researcher has taken $30,000 and parlayed it into $820,000 – within a year.
But more important to Kang, head and neck cancer patients may one day benefit from
what may look like financial wizardry but is really more about a passion for a protein called
RSK2. Kang’s painstaking research into how RSK2 programs head and neck cancer cell
invasion and results in metastasis has resulted in grant awards totaling more than threequarters of a million dollars. And it all stemmed from a $30,000 Robbins Scholar pilot grant
awarded to her in 2010 by Winship.
The real benefit of Kang’s ground-breaking
work is not so much about financial reward as it
is advancing knowledge about how to best treat
patients with head and neck cancer. That said, her
grant support shows the success of recent pilot
projects of brilliant, young Winship researchers
with extraordinary vision and passion. Not only
have pilot projects become more and more a
Winship priority, but they are beginning to pay
off exponentially – not only in additional grant
awards but also in findings that show great
promise in improving patient outcomes.
Kang, who became an assistant professor at
Winship two years ago, received her Robbins pilot
grant from Winship Cancer Institute only last year.
Her research not only resulted in nine
publications and presentations but also resulted
in a $720,000 grant from the American Cancer
Society (ACS) and a $100,000 award from the
Georgia Cancer Coalition. While she and her lab
team gathered critical preliminary data the first
year, she isn’t close to finished.
“We want to further study how this protein
works,” Kang explains. “It’s about finding all
16 | Winship Magazine | cancer.emory.edu
the downstream targets and signaling.” The
goal of understanding that, of course, is about
therapeutic strategies to keep head and neck
cancers from metastasizing.
The four-year ACS grant will allow Kang
to move in that direction, allowing her to fully
establish her research program, taking her from
a senior post-doctoral fellow to an independent
investigator studying pathways of a protein that
plays a key role in a major cancer killer.
Kang’s success is emblematic of Winship’s
intensifying emphasis on ever more aggressive,
novel research that begins with pilot projects.
These projects, often under the direction of
senior-level faculty mentors, allow younger
faculty an opportunity to blossom and to conduct
research that shows great promise to improve
patient outcomes.
“These pilot projects are really at the heart
of what we do every day,” says Walter J. Curran
Jr., executive director of Winship Cancer
Institute. “These grants allow us to push forward
aggressively in several different directions.”
The Robbins Scholars program, funded
Dr. Mylin Torres
Dr. Sumin Kang
through the generosity of Sarah and Jim
Kennedy and named in memory of their
friend Jim Robbins, has launched many
Winship pilot projects.
Winship recently received a boost for
its ability to fund pilot projects thanks also
to the generosity of the Wilbur and Hilda
Glenn Family Foundation. The Glenn
Family Foundation’s extraordinary gift
of $5 million is specifically earmarked for
breast cancer research, and a portion of
the gift will allow Winship to fund several
breast cancer pilot projects over the next
few years.
“The generosity of the Glenns will
allow us to galvanize the breast cancer
program here in a way we haven’t been
able to do before,” says Curran, noting that
the breast cancer program will be named
the Glenn Family Breast Program. “This
is a tremendous boost that will accelerate
discovery in Winship’s breast cancer
research programs.”
Already, breast cancer patients stand to
benefit from a pilot project underway by
Mylin Torres, MD, assistant professor in the
department of radiation oncology.
She was named a Robbins Scholar last
year. In July, she learned that she has been
awarded an NIH grant for $370,838 for
two years. Torres is studying why women
treated for breast cancer often develop
persistent, debilitating fatigue.
This is especially important, Torres says,
as the number of breast cancer survivors
is growing, with about three million breast
cancer survivors in the U.S.
“Right now,
there’s no treatment
for this type of fatigue,
and no one knows when
and if it will end,” she says.
So, working with her faculty mentor,
Torres began to explore if radiation
to the breast can cause a generalized
inflammatory response that in turn causes
fatigue and depression.
An especially novel aspect of her study
is that study participants will have an
ultrasound measurement of the breast skin
to objectively quantify the thickness of
the tissue – a measure of inflammation –
before, during and after radiation.
“I don’t think there’s anywhere else
in the country that has this capability,”
Torres says, crediting Tian Liu, PhD,
associate professor in radiation oncology
and a specialist in ultrasound who is
assisting in the study. “The ultrasound
really allows you to objectively quantify
what’s going on, instead of saying ‘this
breast looks red. I’m going to grade this
side effect as a grade 1 toxicity.’”
As with the work of all Winship
researchers awarded pilot grants, the goal is
to improve patient outcomes.
“What if a medication could be
administered that doesn’t interfere with a
cure but minimizes the side effects?” Torres
wonders. “You hear of this debilitating
fatigue, where women feel like they can’t
wake up in the morning, and depression.”
Torres says she could never have
received the NIH grant without the Robbins
Scholar pilot grant, thus underscoring the
importance of receiving that first grant to
gain the larger national award.
“It’s very difficult to receive an NIH
grant without the laboratory work behind
it,” Torres says. “You want to have the
scientific rationale to show them, and
reviewers want biological reasons why
things succeed or not. They want to know
the molecular effect behind what you see.”
An added benefit is that she has
been mentored, she says, by “one of
the world’s experts on symptoms from
cancer treatment.” That would be Andrew
Miller, MD, professor of psychiatry and
hematology and medical oncology, and coleader of Winship’s Cancer Prevention and
Control Program.
Kang also credits her mentor, Jing Chen,
PhD, assistant professor in the department
of hematology and oncology, himself a
pioneer in the study of cancer metabolism
and an internationally renowned expert in
cancer metabolism. Chen also serves as the
leader of the basic research component of
the Winship leukemia program.
‘This kind of pilot grant helped me very
much,” Kang says. “It says, ‘I can do it.’”
FALL 2011 |
17
Courage
Courage
Leukemia survivor bikes 1,700 miles
to raise money for Winship; doctor
and nurses share the journey.
Going the extra miles
E
very once in a while, circumstances conspire to give courage and compassion a special vehicle – and recently, that
vehicle was a bicycle. Actually, several of them.
It started a couple of years ago when Alpharetta resident Bob Falkenberg was diagnosed with
acute lymphoblastic leukemia and underwent a bone marrow transplant at Winship. It ended
this year on June 30 in Key West, Fla., when Falkenberg, his daughter Katie and best friend Carl
Kooyoomjian finished a month-long bike odyssey of nearly 1,700 miles. Bob wanted to undertake
the ride to raise money
for Winship and heighten
awareness about the need
“I feel so lucky to be alive,
for bone marrow donors.
and I know I have Dr.
Falkenberg’s Lifeblood Ride
Langston, the others who
raised more than $18,000
helped treat me at Winship,
for Winship and also
and my bone marrow stem
immeasurable awareness.
cell donor to thank.”
The trio left Beverly Farms,
Massachusetts on June 2 and
—Bob Falkenberg, far right
traveled down the east coast,
through the car-clogged streets
of Manhattan, through humid air filled with chicken feathers in rural Virginia and over roads littered
with dead alligators in Florida.
“It was interesting to see how the road kill changed along the way,” says Katie, Bob’s daughter.
Toward the end of their route, they were met by more pleasant things. Several members of
Falkenberg’s treatment team drove close to 500 miles to meet up with the trio in Palm Coast, Fla.
and then biked more than 100 miles with them to show their support for ­Bob’s efforts. They had
18 | Winship Magazine | cancer.emory.edu
been members of Bob’s bone marrow
transplant team only 18 months earlier.
Amelia Langston, MD, associate
professor of hematology and
oncology and medical director of
the Emory Bone Marrow and Stem
Cell Transplant Center, and nurses
Jessica Thomas, Rachel Veldman and
Christina Gragnaniello drove to Palm
Coast, Fla., to meet Bob, Katie and Carl
on June 24. With bicycles strapped
on the back of Langston’s car, the four
left Winship that Friday after clinic.
At about 6:30 that evening, the team
walked into the Palm Coast Fairfield
Inn, pushing their bikes into the lobby.
It was hard to tell who was happier
– the Winship treatment team or Bob,
Katie and Carl, who had had such a
rainy, sandy day on A1A in northern
Florida that Bob had put his bike into
the shower at the motel to clean it.
“I think it’s fantastic,” says Bob
when asked what he thought about
his doctor and nurses making such an
effort to support him. “I remember
when I told Dr. Langston what I was
planning on doing to seek permission,
and the first thing she said, was ‘Cool.
I’d like to join you.’”
And so she did. When the nurses on
the treatment team heard about it, they
were on board, too. Jessica, a two-time
cancer survivor, rode with Langston
on June 25 and 26 while Rachel and
Christina drove down A1A, through
Daytona Beach, New Smyrna and on to
Titusville, Fla..
Langston, Thomas and other
members of the bone marrow
treatment team have participated in
fundraisers, walks and runs for other
patients, and they are honored to do so,
they explained.
“He’s doing a lot more,” says
Christina. “We just came down here
to support.”
Langston said that Bob’s good health
and his extraordinary effort to give back
are inspirational to everyone associated
with Winship.
“I think part of what it is, is whether
you’re a patient here or staff member, we
see a lot of bad things. People get very,
very sick. When someone comes out of
this, it’s very uplifting.”
And what about Bob? How is he?
Nearly two years post bone marrow
transplant, Bob’s blood counts are great,
and he feels better than he felt before
a blood pressure spike sent him to the
emergency room when his leukemia
was diagnosed.
“I feel so lucky to be alive, and I
know I have Dr. Langston, the others
who helped treat me at Winship, and
my bone marrow stem cell donor to
thank,” says Bob.
Winship Way
The
Do you have a story of heroism or kindness about a patient, doctor, nurse or staffer
at Winship that you’d like to
share? Tell us about it for The
Winship Way. Send your story to: virginia.l.anderson@
emory.edu, or call at 404778-5452.
FALL 2011 |
19
Caring
Caring
Help win the fight! Run in the Winship Win the Fight 5K!
Runners and walkers, take your mark on Oct. 15 for Atlanta’s
newest 5K. Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University will
hold its inaugural “Winship Win the Fight 5K” on Saturday
Oct.15, 2011, to bring the community together in the fight
against cancer.
The run/walk will begin and end at Emory University’s McDonough Field complex on Asbury Circle on the west side of the
Emory campus. Registration is $25. Participants can organize teams
or raise funds in a variety of ways and direct their fundraising efforts toward the Winship cancer research program of their choice.
Register early at winshipcancer.emory.edu/winthefight5k
“Every dollar makes a difference,” says Walter J. Curran, Jr.,
executive director of the Winship Cancer Institute. “We very much
appreciate the trust our patients and their family members put into
Winship, and community support makes a tremendous difference
in our cutting-edge research against this disease.”
The Winship Win the Fight 5K is USTF-certified, making it a
Peachtree Road Race qualifier. It is the only metro area 5K to be
held in historic Druid Hills, one of Atlanta’s most beautiful neighborhoods. Runners and walkers will be able to enjoy the treecanopied streets of the neighborhood, which should be dressed in
autumn regalia for the event.
“We are looking forward to bringing our community together
for cancer and cancer research awareness and to introducing a terrific new route for Atlanta families who enjoy running and walking,” Curran says.
Late-comers can register the morning of the race at 6:30 a.m.
until 7:30 a.m. Start time is 8:00 a.m. Ample parking is available at
no charge in the Peavine Parking Deck on campus.
“This is a fight that matters now more than ever,” Curran says of
the efforts to find cures for cancer. “Scientific research moves closer
toward answers to some of cancer’s most difficult questions, but the
toll of this disease remains tragically high. Cancer touches every
American in some way. I want people to know what Winship is
doing to minimize cancer’s lethal toll, and we can all run to support
our life-saving research programs. ”
Registration and more information are available online at
winshipcancer.emory.edu/winthefight5k.
Winship getting a lot of help from T.J.’s friends
and raised $50,000 doing so for T.J.’s Friends, a charity that
raises money for cancer and AIDS research. The group is a
spinoff of the T.J. Martell Foundation, begun in 1975. That
group was started by music industry executive Tony Martell
after he lost his 19-year-old son, T.J., to leukemia. The T.J.
Martell Foundation has since raised $250 million for cancer
and AIDS research.
Winship welcomed a visit in June from the Perry sisters
and Sarah Caplinger on behalf of T.J.’s Friends. The group
delivered a $50,000 check to aid leukemia research, help
fund the Winship Summer Scholars Research Program,
directed by Mary Jo Lechowicz, MD, and support Students
for Science, run by Adam Marcus, PhD, to interest students
Pictured L-R: Adam Marcus, Sarah Caplinger, Grace Ann Perry, Sarah Beth Perry, of all ages in science.
“We don’t receive gifts like this every day, and certainly
Sagar Lonial and Lawrence Boise.
not from young people,” says Winship Executive Director
An extraordinary group of teens recently made fundraising
Walter J. Curran, Jr. “We are overwhelmed by their
fun – and gave the proceeds to Winship. Led by sisters Sarah
compassion, hard work and generosity. We are very grateful
Beth, 14, and Grace Ann Perry, 13, teenagers from schools
for this gift, which will help our research programs focused on
around the metro area baked, cooked, sold ornaments –
malignancies that especially affect young people.”
Thank you, Friends of Winship!
If there’s something cool going on, you can bet that the Friends of Winship
are involved. And so it was on a recent steamy August afternoon when
the Friends served cookies and cold lemonade to patients and staff on
Patient Assistance Fund helps those with financial need
Receiving a cancer diagnosis not only leads to the question of “How will I beat this
disease?”, but also “How do I afford it?” Jim Hankins, social services director of
Winship Cancer Institute, aimed to answer the latter concern when he established the
Winship Patient Assistance Fund in 2002.
The funds come from a variety of sources, with donations often varying in size,
says Hankins. Many donations are made by family and friends in memory of patients,
he says.
The fund also receives support from fundraising endeavors, both from patients
as well as from the Winship community. “Everyone’s coming together to make this
happen,” says Hankins.
Because of the sluggish economy, more patients are facing financial challenges
than they are when times are good, Hankins says, so donations are especially
appreciated – and needed.
This support has added up; so far this year, the fund has raised close to $40,000.
Donations are accepted in form of cash or check made out to the Winship
Patient Assistance Fund. Contact Mark Hughes at (404) 778-1288 for any
further questions about donating.
20 | Winship Magazine | cancer.emory.edu
the first floor and on the plaza level at Winship Cancer Institute. The
Friends of Winship hold many functions to raise spirits, as they did at
the lemonade social, and to raise money for Winship Cancer Institute.
If you would like to become involved, call 404-778-1769, or visit
winshipcancer.emory.edu/friends.
FALL 2011 |
21
1365-C Clifton Road N.E.
Atlanta, GA 30322
www.cancer.emory.edu
1-888-WINSHIP
Have a plan.
EdyE Bradford fell in love with
the people at Emory’s Winship Cancer
Institute during her treatment for colon
cancer in 2006. The surgeon gave her hugs.
The nurses made her laugh. Her care team
fought so fervently to restore her health,
she called them “the three musketeers.”
Winship Cancer Institute is known for its
expertise, and Bradford is now cancer-free.
Deeply moved by the experience, she has
left her estate to Winship to fund cancer
research. “In my small way, I am providing
a means to knowledge,” she says, “and
that is my real gift.”
Learn how you can support Winship in
your estate plans. Call 404.727.8875
or visit www.emory.edu/giftplanning.
Plan to invest in healing.