Welcome

Dear Friends:

Mark Saturday, Oct. 15, on your calendars! We will be looking for you to join us that day at the inaugural Winship Win the Fight 5K Run/Walk.

Welcome to the latest edition of Winship Magazine. You will find a number of exciting narratives in this issue about the progress we are making against cancer in just the past few months. Winship laboratory and clinical investigators are leading the way in some key areas of cancer research that we believe will translate to improved patient outcomes. Please read about the accomplishments of Sagar Lonial, MD, Lawrence Boise, PhD, and their team in understanding the fundamental basis of multiple myeloma, a malignancy for which treatment options were once very limited. Now, thanks to pioneering research and new drug development to which Sagar and Larry have substantially contributed, patients have options – and more hope. This team has established Winship Cancer Institute as one of the top cancer centers for the treatment for multiple myeloma and related conditions.

Executive Director

Winship Cancer Institute

Walter J. Curran, Jr., MD

Deputy Director

Fadlo R. Khuri, MD

Executive Administrator

Diane G. Cassels, MS

Director of Nursing

Deena Gilland, RN MSN

Director of Communications

Vincent J. Dollard, APR

Editor Virginia L. Anderson

Art Director Peta Westmaas

Graphic Designer Linda Dobson

Photographer Jack Kearse

Production Manager

Carol Pinto

Emory Winship is published twice yearly by the Winship Cancer Institute

Communications office for patients, families, staff, and friends. If you have story ideas or feedback, please contact virginia.l.anderson@emory.edu.

Website: cancer.emory.edu

You’ll also read about Winship’s commitment to support promising research of outstanding young researchers, such as Sumin Kang, PhD, and Mylin Torres, MD, with pilot grants. The extraordinary generosity of the Wilbur and Hilda Glenn Family Foundation will allow us to fund more pilot projects, such as these awards to Sumin and Mylin by the Kennedy Foundation, in our breast cancer program. In both of these cases, these pilot grant awards led to major grant awards from outside agencies. The Glenn Family Foundation gift will allow us to accelerate the work of our breast cancer program in ways that support Winship as an emerging national leader in breast cancer research and treatment.

Please mark Saturday, Oct. 15, on your calendars, because we will be looking for you to join us that day at the inaugural Winship Win the Fight 5K Run/Walk. The Winship 5K will start right on the Emory track, and registration is already ahead of schedule! This event will bring non-runners and runners alike together as a community in our shared fight against cancer. I personally can’t think of a better way to raise money for cancer research and to gather like-minded people together than with an autumn run/walk. I look forward to personally seeing you there at this Peachtree Road Race qualifier event. Most of all, I want to thank each one of you for your continued support of Winship Cancer Institute and our efforts to win the fight.

Sincerely,

Names in the news

Fadlo R. Khuri, MD, becomes Editor-in-Chief of Cancer | World renowned surgeon William C. Wood, MD, to share his talents in Africa.

Discovery

Reprogramming Ewing sarcoma | Low-dose CT scans decrease lung cancer mortality | C-Reactive protein sheds light on kidney cancer outcomes, and more...

Hope Shifting the treatment paradigm

Winship researchers are pressing hard on new lung cancer treatments, bringing hope to patients of the nation’s biggest cancer killer.

Compassion Smoothing the way

Nurse navigators lighten the load, coordinate care and explain important medical information.

Translation A time of hope

Treatment options once were limited for patients with multiple myeloma. Winship researchers have helped change that.

Imagination Poised for takeoff

Pilot projects are soaring at Winship, propelled by new gifts –and brilliant research.

Courage Going the extra miles

Bone marrow transplant survivor Bob Falkenberg raises money and awareness by pedaling 1,700 miles.

Caring

Run a race, win the fight | Patient Assistance Fund | Help from T.J.’s Friends | Thank you, Friends of Winship!

Walter

Fadlo R. Khuri receives another honor – and important role

Following a year-long international search, Winship Cancer Institute’s Deputy Director has been named Editor-in-Chief of Cancer, a peerreviewed journal of the American Cancer Society(ACS). Fadlo R. Khuri, MD, professor and chair of hematology and medical oncology at Emory University and Roberto C. Goizueta Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research, began his term on Sept. 1, succeeding Dr. Raphael E. Pollock. Khuri will retain his multiple responsibilities at Winship.

“Fadlo’s selection as editor-in-chief is a tremendous honor that puts him at the helm of one of the most prestigious cancer journals in the world,” says Winship Executive Director Walter J. Curran, Jr. “His energy, expertise, and integrity will influence the national and international cancer research conversation. He is a world-class researcher and clinician, and we – not just Winship but Georgia – are very fortunate to have someone of his stature in the fight against cancer.”

“The Search Committee reviewed many exceptional candidates and is very pleased to have been able to select Dr. Khuri,” says Otis W. Brawley, MD, chief medical officer of the ACS “As an accomplished molecular oncologist who has conducted seminal research on oncolytic viral therapy and has led major chemoprevention efforts against lung and head and neck cancer, Dr. Khuri brings an expertise that will benefit our journal and the entire oncology community.”

Khuri, who has served as the editor for the journal’s lung cancer section since 2005, is equally thrilled.

“It is a great privilege for me to serve as editor-in-chief of Cancer, succeeding my long-time friend and colleague, Dr. Raphael Pollock, who has done an outstanding job,” says Khuri. “I received my first peer-reviewed grant from the American Cancer Society and published my first senior authored paper in Cancer. Given my long-standing relationship with both this exceptional journal and the ACS this is a particularly meaningful honor for me and for Emory University. Cancer is one of the oncology community’s oldest and most prestigious journals. We will work hard to enhance its already stellar and hard-earned reputation by publishing only the very best work in the field.”

Khuri serves as a grant reviewer for the ACS National Cancer Institute (NCI), the American Association for Cancer Research, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He serves the NCI as a permanent member of its Thoracic Malignancies Steering Committee and its Clinical Oncology Study Section and serves on the Council for Extramural Funding of the America Cancer Society. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and has received numerous awards, including the Nagi Sahyoun Award from the Middle East Medical Assembly and the Waun Ki Hong Award from MD Anderson Cancer Center for his work on targeting signaling pathways in lung and aerodigestive cancers.

The Fadlo File

Fadlo Khuri is such a presence at Winship Cancer Institute that he has been called its “essential man.” While many know that he is a graduate of Yale University (1985) and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (1989) and came to Winship via Boston City Hospital, New England Medical Center and MD Anderson, many of us may not know that he likes Italian food and Led Zeppelin. Read on for some other things you might not know about Dr. Khuri:

Birth date: Sept.13, 1963.

Birthplace: Boston

Family: Wife Lamya and two daughters and a son. What is your favorite type of music?

Bob Dylan or Led Zeppelin

What was the last concert you attended?

Robert Plant on Feb. 5, 2011, with daughter Layla, for her 17th Birthday

As a child, what did you want be when you grew up?

Astronaut, English league soccer player or the Godfather!

If you could trade places with anyone at Winship for a day, who would it be?

No one, really. My colleagues are all great, but I am very fortunate to have a fantastic wife, family, and job. Well, maybe Haian Fu — to understand what it is like for a day or so to be a true genius!