SELF EXAM:

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Occupation: Physician-Scientist; Oncologist

Alternative career choice: Science Reporter

What do rock stars and scienctists have in common: Both are creative, visual people who like to do their own thing.

I tend to approach life: With Optimism

Biggest misconceptions about me or my work: The drugs we create are cures.

Worst part-time job ever: Delivering the yellow pages door to door.

Longest med school study session: Anatomy

Best moment in medicine/research: Informing the first leukemia patient taking an experimental drug that she'd gone into complete remission.

ABOUT MY RESEARCH:

Disease Area: Leukemia, prostate cancer

Research Area: Cancer genomics, drug development and overcoming drug resistance

Science Impact/Accomplishments or Goal: I played a key role in developing gleevec, a drug that blocks the gene that causes chronic myeloid leukemia and puts patients into remission without the side effects of chemotherapy. Although it is not a cure, gleevec prolongs the life of these patients by many years. In patients where gleevec stops working, we discovered why and developed a second drug called dasatinib that puts patients back into remission. We then pursued a similar strategy in prostate cancer and discovered a drug called MDV3100 that blocks the growth of tumors in men with metastatic prostate cancer. MDV3100 is now in the last stage of clinical trials.

Research Description: My laboratory studies genes that cause prostate cancer, with the goal of using that information to improve how we diagnose and treat this disease. We start by examining the prostate cancers of patients treated at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for alterations in their genomes. This gives us important clues about which genes are causing the tumor cells to grow. We then study these mutant genes in mice to understand how they work and test drugs that can block their effects. These results help us pick which drugs to test in clinical trials of new drugs as well as design diagnostic tests that predict which patients are most likely to benefit from the new treatments.

Videos courtesy of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
Please visit the MSKCC YouTube Channel