1:00pm-2:00pm: Presentation and Q&A
2:00pm-2:30pm: Light Refreshments
Talk title: Precision Imaging Guides Cancer Therapy
Historically, many of the gains in medicine have been achieved by uniformly applying medical insights to large groups of patients. A combination of increasing biological understanding of the heterogeneity of disease processes and the concurrent expansion of available selective therapeutic interventions has provided the opportunity to improve group outcomes by optimizing treatment on an individual basis. In many cases, molecular imaging is ideally suited to serve as a biomarker to guide therapy selection and dosing, and to provide an early assessment of efficacy. This presentation highlights by example several areas in which imaging helps determine target engagement, dynamic cellular response to treatment, and the effectiveness of immune modulation in oncologic treatment.
Cancer Early Detection Seminar
“Best Practices in Hip Imaging”
Michael Shen, PhD
Professor of Medicine, Genetics and Development, Urology and Systems Biology
Columbia University Medical Center
ABSTRACT
TBD
_____________________________________________
Hosted by
Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, MD, PhD<https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/sanjiv-gambhir>
Sponsored by
The Canary Center and the Stanford Cancer Institute
Stanford University
If you would like to be included on the email distribution list for weekly reminders, contact Ashley Williams (ashleylw.at.stanford.edu)
RSVP and more info at: https://www.onlineregistrationcenter.com/register/222/page1.asp?m=298&c=41
CEDSS: “Strategies to Identify Aggressive Breast Cancer Biology in Black and Latina Women”
Victoria Seewaldt, MD
Ruth Ziegler Professor and Chair, Department of Population Sciences
Associate Director for Population Sciences Research, Comprehensive Cancer Center
City of Hope
Beckman Center, Munzer Auditorium (B060)
11:00am – 12:00pm Seminar & Discussion
12:00pm – 12:15pm Reception & Light Refreshments
RSVP here: https://www.onlineregistrationcenter.com/VictoriaSeewaldt
ABSTRACT
Over 90% of breast cancer is cured; yet there remain highly aggressive breast cancers that develop rapidly and are extremely difficult to treat, much less prevent. Examples are triple-negative breast cancer in Black/African American women and luminal B breast cancers in Black/African Americans and Latinas. Breast cancers that rapidly develop between breast imaging are called “interval cancers”. Here we aim to investigate biologically aggressive precancerous breast lesions and their matched invasive breast cancers in women of diverse race and ethnicity. Our team has the unique ability to perform single cell in situ transcriptional profiling in combination with dynamic and spatial genomics/proteomics; this allows us to identify multi-dimensional spatial and temporal relationships that drive the transition from biologically aggressive pre-cancer to interval breast cancer.
ABOUT
Victoria Seewaldt, M.D., is an accomplished clinician and researcher who’s devoted to improving the lives of her patients and the community at large. She has led community outreach education efforts on cancer prevention through personal wellbeing and directed research aimed at finding biomarkers that can be used for early cancer detection, particularly triple-negative breast cancers that are especially resistant to treatment.
At City of Hope, Dr. Seewaldt will direct efforts to provide breast cancer education, free breast cancer screening and treatment, mentorship of young minority scholars, and a forum for community partnered trials. Clinically, Dr. Seewaldt aims to empower women at high breast cancer risk to be full partners in developing wellness strategies to promote personal health.
Dr. Seewaldt received her medical degree from the University of California, Davis, and completed her residency and clinical fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle. She then pursued a medical oncology fellowship with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and then became an assistant professor at Ohio State University. Afterwards, she transferred to Duke University, where she held various clinical, academic and leadership roles in its School of Medicine and Comprehensive Cancer Center — most recently as a professor, co-leader of the breast and ovarian cancer program and head of the cancer breast prevention program — before joining City of Hope.
MIPS Seminar: “Tiny Bubbles, Big Impact: Exploring applications of nanobubbles in ultrasound molecular imaging and therapy”
Agata A. Exner, Ph.D.
Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering
Department of Radiology
Case Western Reserve
Location: Beckman Center, B230
2:00pm – 3:00pm Seminar & Discussion
ABSTRACT
Sub-micron shell stabilized gas bubbles (aka nanobubbles (NB) or ultrafine bubbles) have gained momentum as a robust contrast agent for molecular imaging and therapy using ultrasound. The small size, extended stability and high concentration of nanobubbles make them an ideal tool for new applications of contrast enhanced ultrasound and ultra-
sound-mediated therapy, especially in oncology-related problems. Compared to microbub-bles, nanobubbles can provide superior tumor delineation, identify biomarkers on the vascu-lature and on tumors cells and facilitate drug and gene delivery into tumor tissue. The pat-terns of tissue enhancement under nonlinear ultrasound imaging of nanobubbles are distinct from conventional microbubbles especially in tissues exhibiting vascular hyperper-meability. Specifically, NB kinetics, quantified via time intensity curve analysis, typically show a marked delay in the washout rate and significantly increased area under the curve compared to larger bubbles. This effect is further enhanced by molecular targeting to cellular biomarkers, such as the prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) or the receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase, PTPmu. The unique contrast enhancement dynamics of nanobubbles are likely to be a result of direct bubble extravasation and prolonged retention of intact bubbles in target tissue. Thus, understanding the underlying mechanisms behind the unique nanobubble behavior can be the driver of significant future innovations in contrast enhanced ultrasound imaging applications. This presentation will discuss the fundamental challenges with nanobubble formulation and characterization and will showcase how the unique fea-tures of nanobubbles can be leveraged to improve disease detection and treatment using ultrasound.
MIPS Seminar
2:00-2:45 PM | Prof. Pawel Moskal
“Positronium Imaging with the J-PET Scanner”
Head of the Department of Experimental Particle Physics and Applications
Marian Smoluchowski Institute of Physics
Jagiellonian University, 30-348 Krakow, Poland
2:45-3:30 PM | Prof. Ewa Stepien
“Preclinical studies of positronium and extracellular vesicles biomarkers”
Head of the Department of Medical Physics
Marian Smoluchowski Institute of Physics
Jagiellonian University, 30-348 Krakow, Poland
ABSTRACT
As modern medicine develops towards personalized treatment of patients, there is a need for highly specific and sensitive tests to diagnose disease. Our research aims at improvement of specificity of positron emission tomography (PET) in assessment of cancer by use of positronium as a theranostic agent. During PET scanning about 40% of positron annihilations occur through the creation of positronium. “Positronium,” which may be formed in human tissues in the intramolecular spaces, is an exotic atom composed of an electron from tissue and the positron emitted by the radioinuclide. Positronium decay in the patient body is sensitive to the nanostructure and metabolism of human tissues. This phenomenon is not used in present PET diagnostics, yet it is in principle possible to exploit such environment modified properties of positronium as diagnostic biomarkers for cancer assessment. Our first in-vitro studies have shown differences of the positronium mean lifetime and production probability in healthy and cancerous tissues, indicating that they may be used as indicators for in-vivo cancer classification. For the application in medical diagnostics, the properties of positronium atoms need to be determined in a spatially resolved manner. For that purpose we have developed a method of positronium lifetime imaging in which the lifetime and position of positronium atoms are determined on an event-by-event basis. This method requires application of β+ decaying isotope that also emits a prompt gamma ray. We will argue that with total-body PET scanners, the sensitivity of positronium lifetime imaging, which requires coincident registration of the back-to-back annihilation photons and the prompt gamma, is comparable to the sensitivities for metabolic imaging with standard PET scanners.
Our research involves also development of diagnostic methods based on the extracellular vesicles (EVs), which are micro and nano-sized, closed membrane fragments. They are produced by native cells to facilitate the transfer of different signaling factors, structural proteins, nucleic acids or lipids even to distant cells. They are present in all body fluids and they are specific to their parental cells.
Our presentation will be divided into two parts. In the first, the method of positronium imaging and the pilot positronium images obtained with the J-PET detector (the first PET system built based on plastic scintillators) will be reported. This part of the presentation will include also description and perspectives of development of the J-PET technology in view of total-body PET imaging. The second part will concern preliminary results of the preclinical studies of positronium properties in cancerous and healthy tissues sampled from patients as well as in the frozen and living healthy and cancer skin cells in-vitro. The second part will include also description of the novel method for the diagnosis of diabetes and melanoma based on EVs used as biomarkers and drug delivery systems.
References:
P. Moskal, …. E. Ł. Stępień et al., Phys. Med. Biol. 64 (2019) 055017
- Moskal, B. Jasinska, E. Ł. Stępień, S. Bass, Nature Reviews Physics 1 (2019) 527
- Roman M… .E. Ł. Stępień, Nanomedicine 17 (2019) 137
- Ł. Stępień et al., Theranostics 8 (2018) 3874
Hosted by: Craig Levin, Ph.D.
Sponsored by the Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford and the Department of Radiology
Please note this seminar is now cancelled and will be rescheduled for a later date.
MIPS Seminar: Investigating and Imaging key molecular switches associated with Acquirement of Platinum-Taxol resistance in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer
Pritha Ray, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator & Scientific Officer F
Imaging Cell Signaling & Therapeutics Lab
ACTREC, Tata Memorial Center
Navi Mumbai, India
Please note this seminar is now cancelled and will be rescheduled for a future date. Please contact Ashley Williams (ashleylw@stanford.edu) with any questions or concerns. Thank you for your understanding!
CEDSS: “The First Cell and the Human Cost of going after Cancer’s last”
Chan Soon-Shiong Professor of Medicine
Director, Myelodysplastic Syndrome Center
Columbia University Medical Center
CEDSS: “Multicancer detection of early-stage cancers with simultaneous tissue localization using a plasma cfDNA-based targeted methylation assay”
Eric Fung, M.D., Ph.D.
Senior Medical Director
GRAIL, Inc.
Please see zoom details below:
Meeting URL: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/230531527
Dial: +1 650 724 9799 (US, Canada, Caribbean Toll) or +1 833 302 1536 (US, Canada, Caribbean Toll Free)
Meeting ID: 230 531 527
ABOUT
Dr. Eric Fung is Vice President, Clinical Development at GRAIL, where he leads several clinical development programs in support of the development of a blood-based multi-cancer detection test. Dr. Fung has previously held clinical development and R&D leadership roles at Affymetrix, Vermillion, Ciphergen, and Roche Molecular Diagnostics. Dr. Fung has led clinical trials leading to FDA clearance of multiple IVD products. Dr. Fung received his MD, PhD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Hosted by: Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, M.D., Ph.D.
Sponsored by the Canary Center & the Department of Radiology
Stanford University – School of Medicine
Cancer Research UK, OHSU Knight Cancer Institute and the Canary Center at Stanford, present the Early Detection of Cancer Conference series. The annual Conference brings together experts in early detection from multiple disciplines to share ground breaking research and progress in the field.
The Conference is part of a long-term commitment to invest in early detection research, to understand the biology behind early stage cancers, find new detection and screening methods, and enhance uptake and accuracy of screening.
The 2020 conference will take place October 6-8 virtually.
Cancer Research UK, OHSU Knight Cancer Institute and the Canary Center at Stanford, have been closely monitoring developments relating to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and reviewing guidance from government bodies. After careful consideration, we have made the decision to convert the Early Detection of Cancer Conference 2020 to a virtual conference, instead of the scheduled in-person conference on October 6-8 in London, UK.
For more information visit the website: http://earlydetectionresearch.com/