<head><style>body{font-size:10pt;font-family:arial,sans-serif;background-color:#ffffff;color:black;}p{margin:0px;}</style></head><body><font color="#000000"><font size="2"><font face="arial,sans-serif"><font size="4"><b>Cambridge Forum</b></font><br> 3 Church Street ● Cambridge, MA 02138<br>617-495-2727<br>email: director@cambridgeforum.org<br>www.cambridgeforum.org<br><br><b><i>Release </i> October 16, 2013<br></b><br><font size="3"><b>CANCER IN AMERICA: From Lab to Life</b></font><br><br>On W<b>ednesday, October 23, 2013 at 7:00 p.m</b>. Cambridge Forum hosts a panel of noted cancer researchers and practicing physicians discussing “Cancer in America: From Lab to Life.” Receiving a cancer diagnosis is one of the most frightening moments a patient can imagine. “What will my life be like now? What treatments are available? Is the cure going to be worse than the disease?” So many questions and frustratingly few answers. <br><br>Physicians often share this sense of frustration. The pathway for promising treatments from the researcher’s lab to clinical implementation with human patients is long, slow, and filled with obstacles. At this Cambridge Forum panel discussion <b> Dr. Vincent Tuohy</b> of the Cleveland Clinic and <b>Dr. Beatriz Pogo </b>of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine discuss the torturous path that their ground-breaking ideas about cancer in America have followed. <b> Dr. Kathleen Ruddy</b> and <b>Dr. Sasha Helper</b> address the impact that the hurdles and delays in the long process have on both treating physicians and their patients. What are the steps in developing and winning approval for new cancer treatments? What are the biases in the current system? Why does the American medical system focus on treatment rather than prevention of cancer? How can this predisposition be altered? <br><br><b>Dr. Vincent Tuohy</b> is the Mort and Iris November Distinguished Chair in Innovative Breast Cancer Research in the Department of Immunology at the Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute. With a longstanding interest in autoimmune diseases, his lab has recently pioneered the concept of ‘immunoprevention’ of breast cancer by providing proof-of-principle that safe and effective protection against the development of breast cancer may be induced by vaccination against certain kinds of breast cancer. He has recently received funding to begin human clinical trials of his vaccine strategy designed to prevent the more aggressive and lethal forms of breast cancer.<br><br><b>Dr. Beatriz Pogo</b> is Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology and Professor of Microbiology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Her research in viral oncology found that 38% of human breast cancer specimens contained evidence of a virus that is 95-98% identical to a virus found in mammary tumors in mice. She named the tumor virus human mammary tumor virus (HMTV). Pogo has extracted HMTV from human breast cancer specimens, infected normal human breast cells with it, and observed new tumor viruses budding from these cells. The newly infected cells were transformed (i.e., underwent malignant changes) as a result of infection with the HMTV recovered from human breast cancer specimens. Pogo has also recovered complete HMTV particles from fluids taken from women with metastatic breast cancer. Dr. Pogo's research shows evidence of mammary tumor virus in 36% of all women with breast cancer that she tested. <br><br><b>Dr. Kathleen Ruddy</b> is a breast cancer surgeon. In 1995 she founded the Breast Service at Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville, New Jersey and served as its and Medical Director. In 2000 she enlarged the scope of her work at Clara Maass Medical Center by creating her own private practice at the hospital. While caring for patients, Dr. Ruddy’s interest shifted to preventing rather than just treating breast cancer. And so, in April 2008, she created the Breast Health & Healing Foundation whose mission is to discover the causes of breast cancer and to use that knowledge to prevent the disease. Dr. Ruddy continues to care for patients in her own private practice, while serving as Executive Director of her foundation. Her latest book, available as an ebook is <i>You Only See the Stars at Night</i>.<br> <br><b>Dr. Sasha Helpe</b>r is a practicing physician in the Boston area.<br><br>Cambridge Forum is recorded and edited for public radio broadcast. Edited podcasts are available at www.cambridgeforum.org. Select forums can also be viewed in their entirety on YouTube.<br><br>#####<br></font></font></font></body><pre>
Cambridge Forum
3 Church Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617-495-2727
email: mailto:director@cambridgeforum.org
website: http://www.cambridgeforum.org
The Adventure of Ideas. The Power of Dialogue.
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