The 2009 V Wine Celebration again presented the very popular Saturday morning Cancer Forum which was attended by over 150 participants eager to learn more about the latest breakthroughs in cancer research.  The V Foundation is fortunate to have a Scientific Advisory Board, populated by some of the absolute best scientists, doctors and PhDs in the cancer research field, whose tasks include studying, evaluating and selecting research projects to receive funding by The V Foundation. To learn more, please visit The V Foundation.

Below is an overview of the presentations.  You can view the entire Cancer Forum and all the speakers on the Wine Celebration’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/winecelebration.

View Presentations from our 2009 Cancer Forum

The Cancer Forum was introduced by Dr. Robert G. Bast, Jr., Head of the Division of Medicine at the University of Texas, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and head of the V Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Bast observed that as the V Foundation looks forward to 2020, it is focusing on the progress and promise of cancer research. In the past 16 years, The V Foundation has raised more than $90 million, and according to Dr. Bast - “We have spent it wisely. Talented young researchers have been given the opportunity to  prove their theories through the V Scholar Grants. More than 35 Translational Research Grants have focused on bridging laboratory science and patient care.”

Progress in the laboratory is steadily increasing, but the real challenge for the next decade is to increase the transition from the laboratory into the clinical management of cancer.

The opportunity for the next decade is to create effective individualized treatments instead of one treatment for the same illness. Dr. Bast stressed that personalized therapies have improved the fight against cancer. The goal of personalized treatments is to provide the right treatment to the right person at the right time, since patients with the same diagnosis are not always alike; different patients may have different responses to the prescribed drug. Therefore, it’s vital to recommend the prescription that works specifically for each patient. In the field of Biology, the mapping of different cancers is coming into focus and biologists are continuing to fill in their gaps of knowledge.

Dr. Neil Shah, Assistant Professor, Division of Hematology/Oncology, University of California, Berkeley is a PhD and an MD who spoke about targeted therapy or “Smart Therapy” using a class of drugs from his translational research that can bridge the gap between the laboratory science and patient care.

Dr. Shah discussed his research in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), where new testing is helping doctors determine exactly which drugs will work on specific patients, thus increasing survival in patients.

Dr. David E. Schuller, M.D. & Executive Director of The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute at Ohio State University described new advances in robotic surgeries for treating large solid tumor masses. He pointed generally to the success that has been achieved in head and neck cancers, and specifically the results in prostate cancer, where robotic surgery has proven to be much more effective than traditional prostatectomy treatments. Because robotic surgeries are so minimally invasive, and the machinery so much more precise, this new technology is improving patient time to recovery, quality of life, and patient survival rates.

Dr. Jim Ford, Associate Professor of Medicine and Genetics at Stanford University. Dr. Ford discussed the exciting progress that has been made in the last ten years since he was awarded his first V Foundation Grant for work in PARP inhibitor drugs, which recognize cell damage and work to repair cells or kill individual cancer cells. Dr. Ford has focused his translational research on breast and ovarian cancer and specifically on repairing mutated genes - mutated either via inheritance, chemotherapy or other causes. Dr. Ford has already made great progress against breast and ovarian cancer. In the last four years he has taken his successful experimentation with laboratory mice and translated it into clinical applications for people suffering from breast and ovarian cancers, where the PARP inhibitor drugs have proven successful.

The final speaker, Dr. Jerome Ritz, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, described the advances in immune therapies and the progress being made in vaccines against various types of cancer. “Our immune system protects us from external pathogens, bacteria, funguses and viruses, as well as internal ‘transformations’ of our cells due to viruses and carcinogens that cause cancer. The cells in the immune system are all attempting to work together to keep us safe.” According to Dr. Ritz, “We now have vaccines which generate antibodies that prevent cancer.” One of the vaccines which is showing great potential is Provenge, which has proven to be responsive in fighting prostate cancer.

Scientists and doctors have a plan for the future to rid the world of cancer. The goal is to use all of the cancer fighting therapies, in combination, to create a personal therapy to respond to the unique cancers that exist.