Nancy Cox receives American Society of Human Genetics Leadership Award
Nancy Cox PhD director of the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute is the recipient of the 2023 ASHG Leadership Award from the American Society of Human Genetics.
Severe Aplastic Anemia (SAA) is a rare condition in which the body stops producing enough new
blood cells. SAA can be cured with immune suppressive therapy or a bone marrow transplant.
Regular treatment for patients with aplastic anemia who have a matched sibling (brother or
sister), or family donor is a bone marrow transplant. Patients without a matched family donor
normally are treated with immune suppressive therapy (IST). Match unrelated donor (URD) bone
marrow transplant (BMT) is used as a secondary treatment in patients who did not get better
with IST, had their disease come back, or a new worse disease replaced it (like leukemia).
This trial will compare time from randomization to failure of treatment or death from any
cause of IST versus URD BMT when used as initial therapy to treat SAA.
The trial will also assess whether health-related quality of life and early markers of
fertility differ between those randomized to URD BMT or IST, as well as assess the presence
of marrow failure-related genes and presence of gene mutations associated with MDS or
leukemia and the change in gene signatures after treatment in both study arms.
This study treatment does not include any investigational drugs. The medicines and procedures
in this study are standard for treatment of SAA.
This clinical trial is studying how well magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in combination with 18F-fluoromisonidazole (18F-FMISO) positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) scans works in assessing a decrease in the amount of oxygen (hypoxia) in tumor cells and in guiding adaptive radiation treatment in patients with head and neck cancer or cancer that has spread to the brain from where it first started (brain metastasis). Both head and neck cancer and brain metastases can be treated with radiation. Previous research studies have shown that the amount of oxygen that goes towards cancer cells prior to their radiation treatments predicts how the cancer cells will respond to radiation treatment. MRI is a type of imaging technique that uses radio waves and large magnets to produce detailed images of areas inside the body. 18F-FMISO is a radioactive substance that binds to hypoxic tumor cells and emits radiation, allowing the tumor cells to be visualized using PET/CT, which is an imaging technique that combines PET and CT in a single machine. It is used to make detailed, computerized images of inside the body. By combining MRI with 18F-FMISO PET/CT, researchers may be able to develop an MRI sequence that can be used to evaluate hypoxia in tumor cells and predict response to treatment in patients with head and neck cancer or brain metastases.
This phase I trial tests the safety and effectiveness of indium In 111 panitumumab (111In-panitumumab) for identifying the first lymph nodes to which cancer has spread from the primary tumor (sentinel lymph nodes) in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) undergoing surgery. The most important factor for survival for many cancer types is the presence of cancer that has spread to the lymph nodes (metastasis). Lymph node metastases in patients with head and neck cancer reduce the 5-year survival by half. Sometimes, the disease is too small to be found on clinical and imaging exams before surgery. 111In-panitumumab is in a class of medications called radioimmunoconjugates. It is composed of a radioactive substance (indium In 111) linked to a monoclonal antibody (panitumumab). Panitumumab binds to EGFR receptors, a receptor that is over-expressed on the surface of many tumor cells and plays a role in tumor cell growth. Once 111In-panitumumab binds to tumor cells, it is able to be seen using an imaging technique called single photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT). SPECT/CT can be used to make detailed pictures of the inside of the body and to visualize areas where the radioactive drug has been taken up by the cells. Using 111In-panitumumab with SPECT/CT imaging may improve identification of sentinel lymph nodes in patients with head and neck squamous cell cancer undergoing surgery.
