Healthcare experts and engineers gathered Nov. 14 for the Ozark Biomedical Initiative’s Future of Cancer Summit. During the summit, researchers from Phelps Health, the Delbert Day Cancer Institute, Missouri S&T and the Siteman Cancer Center of Washington University in St. Louis discussed the current landscape of cancer treatments and shared potential areas of innovation.
“We are excited to have collaborated with Siteman Cancer Center this year to host the Future of Cancer Summit. As one of the largest U.S. cancer centers, Siteman brings deep clinical and research expertise to the table that encourages an exchange of ideas that may lead to new cancer research opportunities and, ultimately, improved cancer care in our region,” said Dr. Casey Burton, Phelps Health’s Director of Medical Research. “This week’s event demonstrated that investigators at Phelps Health, Missouri S&T and Siteman share many research interests and have diverse and complementary skill sets that are essential to solving our complex cancer care and prevention challenges.”
The summit’s keynote address was delivered by Dr. John Diperso, Deputy Director of the Siteman Cancer Center. Diperso detailed the opportunities of CRISPR gene editing technology and how it is being researched for possible cancer treatments. As an example, Dr. Diperso highlighted how CRISPR is currently being researched as a potential treatment for leukemia at Washington University.
“Dr. DiPersio’s keynote presentation on the breakthrough gene-editing technique called CRISPR highlighted its potential application for improving cancer treatment and how rapidly that technology has moved into clinical trials for cancer and other diseases,” Dr. Burton said. “A number of Washington University researchers at Siteman Cancer Center have expertise using CRISPR in research studies, and we are hopeful that our collaborative platform will facilitate research using CRISPR and other emerging treatments within our community. This research may lead to new clinical trials and eventually, if such treatments are validated in clinical trials, the next generation of cancer treatments becoming available at our Delbert Day Cancer Institute.”
On the local front, Director Dr. Chris Spencer of the Delbert Day Cancer Institute reported during the summit that a new lung cancer screening program is going to be rolled out beginning in January 2021.
“To impress upon you how important this is to our community, 70% of the lung cancers diagnosed in our catchment area are Stage 3 and Stage 4 lung cancers, with 41% of those lung cancers being Stage 4 and only 15% of lung cancers diagnosed in our community are Stage 1 lung cancers right now,” Spencer said during the summit. “The goal with the lung cancer screening program is to hopefully flip these numbers to look more like the breast cancer numbers where we can have 70% to 80% diagnosed at Stage 1 or Stage 2, with a much lower percentage diagnosed with Stage 3 or Stage 4.”
During his address to help open the summit, Missouri S&T Chancellor Mo Dehghani said the university may devote an endowed professor to supporting the work of the Ozark Biomedical Initiative.
“It’s absolutely great to see that our researchers and medical researchers have found this most fertile environment at the intersection of life sciences, medicine, physical sciences and engineering that we offer at Missouri S&T,” Dehghani said. Later, he continued, “I have spent many years at highfalutin universities where they both have an engineering school as well as a medical school. I am delighted to say that even though Missouri S&T doesn't have a medical school per se, we have found a way to partner with Phelps Health and Washington University in creative ways to help advance research in this great national challenge.”
Phelps Health CEO Ed Clayton agreed that collaborations like the Ozark Biomedical Initiative are key to making a positive impact.
“This initiative is critically important to the mission of our organization; making sure that we have the tools, the capabilities and the knowledge to make sure that we're taking care of our community as well as we possibly can,” Clayton said. “It's a unique opportunity. Not a lot of regional hospitals like Phelps Health have the opportunity to have the kind of learning institution we have across the street in Missouri S&T, and we're so thankful for the opportunity for our clinicians and S&T’s great researchers to collaborate to help improve the care that we're able to provide to our patients. I want to thank also our friends from the Siteman Cancer Center that are joining us today. We're a very proud member of the Siteman Cancer Network.”
