This week Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. Ray DuBois about some of the cancer research currently underway at Hollings Cancer Center. Dr. DuBois is the Director of Hollings Cancer Center at MUSC.
TRANSCRIPT:
Conner: I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio with Health Focus here at the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Cancer research can lead to advancements in prevention, early detection, improved treatment outcomes, and better quality of life for cancer survivors. Doctor Ray DuBois is here to provide an update about important areas of cancer research currently underway in South Carolina. Doctor DuBois is the Director of Hollings Cancer Center at MUSC. Doctor DuBois, tell us about some of the highlights of cancer research underway at Hollings Cancer Center.
Dr. DuBois: We are really excited about some of our programs that we're working on now. One in particular is our cellular immunotherapy program. And for this treatment, we isolate immune cells from our patients who have cancer. These are called T cells. And in the laboratory we boost the ability of these cells to kill cancer cells. We then grow up billions of these cells and then return them to the patient, and then determine how the cancer cells react in this study. We have treated over ten lymphoma patients with this form of therapy quite effectively, and most of these patients are now in remission. We're also working on a lung cancer research program, where we're using gene therapy to modify the cancer cells directly and make them undergo cell death following the gene therapy. And then we have a very exciting trial underway, looking at new combinations of drugs, plus immunotherapy to more effectively treat certain types of head and neck cancer that are typically very resistant to treatment.
Conner: Tell us about any national research collaborations going on that involve MUSC.
Dr. DuBois: Many of our investigators collaborate with people all over the country and worldwide, but I'm just going to review a couple of things. We recently launched a program with Virginia Commonwealth University. It's the first of its kind leadership training program for young researchers. We have a very well-developed curriculum. First cohort has six faculty members from each institution. And in the future, we hope to expand this to a number of individuals enrolled and offer it to all centers nationwide. We're also part of a Southeastern Consortium for Lung Cancer Screening. We're working with the Massey Cancer Center in Virginia and the UNC Chapel Hill Lineberger Cancer Center in North Carolina. We're trying to improve lung cancer screening for underserved people in all three states, using an advocacy group, collaborations, awareness campaigns and research to improve outcomes.
Conner: What's happening with cancer research funding at Hollings Cancer Center?
Dr. DuBois: We're anxiously awaiting more information on the final budget that Congress will approve, to try to understand how that will impact our research, indirect costs and overall research funding levels. Just to say, a significant budget cut would really have adverse outcomes for cancer research, not only here in South Carolina, but all across the nation.
Conner: MUSC recently announced plans to build a new comprehensive cancer hospital in Charleston. Tell us about this new hospital.
Dr. DuBois: We're very excited about the new cancer hospital project. This will be built and opened within the next five years. It will combine all of our cancer services into one building and both inpatient and outpatients will be in that building. We will be able to move all the clinical activities from the current building, and then renovate those areas to have more research space, and it’ll really increase our overall research capacity.
Conner: Doctor DuBois, thanks for this cancer research update.
Dr. DuBois: Thank you, Bobbi.
Conner: From the radio studio for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, I'm Bobbi Conner for South Carolina Public Radio.
Health Focus transcripts are intended to accurately represent the original audio version of the program; however, some discrepancies or inaccuracies may exist. The audio format serves as the official record of Health Focus programming.
