NEWS CO-LOCATION OF CONTRACEPTIVE SERVICES WITH OPIOID TREATMENT PROGRAMS STUDY
CANCER CENTER RESEARCH LEADS TO FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND MESOTHELIOMA TRIAL Bringing a scientific discovery to a clinical trial is challenging. According to Randall Holcombe, M.D., M.B.A., director of the University of Vermont Cancer Center, chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology, and Juckett Chair in Cancer Research. “It takes about 20 years from discovery to clinical trials, and even then, only about one percent of potential new agents achieve FDA approval.” To be in that one percent, you need solid science and formidable funding. As a Ph.D. student at the University of Vermont, Brian Cunniff, Ph.D.’14, (above) now assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, identified a new therapeutic approach for malignant mesothelioma (MM) in partnership with his advisor, Nicholas Heintz, Ph.D., professor
Research
of pathology and laboratory medicine emeritus, and graduate alum Kheng (Newick) Bekdache, Ph.D. The approach, published in PLOS ONE in 2015, targeted a universal vulnerability in cancer cells that could be exploited therapeutically. Soon after, the pharmaceutical company RS Oncology contacted Dr. Heintz, looking to fund a cure for MM using his, Dr. Cunniff’s, and Dr. Bekdache’s research as the vehicle. Dr. Cunniff returned to UVM after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard to continue the work. Over the last four-and-a-half years, he and his research team, in collaboration with Wake Forest School of Medicine and RS Oncology, have shown the treatment approach’s anti-cancer activity and are developing and testing a formulation suitable for delivery to humans.
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“This study will provide valuable information to investigators involved in the treatment of individuals with cancer.” – Gregory Holmes, M.D., chair of neurological sciences, commenting on the $7 million NCI grant to associate professor of neurological sciences and UVM Cancer Center member Noah Kolb, M.D. (shown left) to develop a new intervention for chemo-induced neuropathy, one that can be as easily implemented in rural areas as large urban centers.
Increases in maternal Research opioid use have led to an almost doubling in the number of babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) in the U.S. in the past 10 years. This statistic led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and American Academy of Pediatrics to call for stepped-up efforts to reduce opioid use during pregnancy, such as ensuring access to contraception to prevent unintended pregnancies among women who use opioids. More than 75 percent of women with OUD report having had an unintended pregnancy, but they are less likely to use effective contraception compared to women who do not use drugs. Results from a multi-year trial led by Professor of Psychiatry Sarah Heil, Ph.D., found that a two-part intervention featuring co-located contraceptive services in opioid treatment programs and financial incentives could offer an effective solution. The results of this National Institutes of Health-funded study appeared this summer in JAMA Psychiatry. “Women with OUD have the same right to decide whether and when to have children as other women, but their persistently high rate of unintended pregnancy suggests that the way contraceptive services are provided does not work for most of them,” said Heil. “For women with OUD who do not want to become pregnant, the two interventions we tested provide contraceptive services that better meet their needs and do so in a cost-beneficial way.”
UVM L ARNER COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
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