P&S Journal: Winter 1995, Vol.15, No.1
The Renaissance Reshaping Cancer at CPMC
Cancer Center Clinical and Epidemiological Highlights

• New approaches to cancer therapy-biochemical modulation, inducers of differentiation, synergistic combinations with interferon, drug resistance, inhibitors of protein kinases, gene therapy, and taxol as a radiation sensitizer
• Interdisciplinary studies on brain tumors, interferon therapy, and laboratory models
• Development of non-invasive linear accelerator-based stereotactic radiosurgery method for the treatment of small, deep-seated brain tumors and recurrent malignant gliomas
• Development of pulsed radiotherapy
• Clinical trials of new therapeutic approaches for bladder and prostate cancer
• Establishment of an autologous bone marrow transplantation program for adults and children and a bone marrow transplantation program for gene therapy
• Expansion of cancer patient care facilities and clinical research in Milstein Hospital and in the Allen Pavilion
• An innovative nursing oncology program
• An interdisciplinary research program on human colon cancer causation and prevention and studies on risk factors, biomarkers, and molecular mechanisms
• Evidence that alterations in protein kinase C play a role in human colon cancer and that human intestinal bacteria produce diacylglycerol, an activator of this enzyme
• A study of cancer risks in residents surrounding Three Mile Island
• A new approach to molecular epidemiology, understanding the causation of specific cancers, which combines methods in epidemiology and molecular biology
• Discovery that certain workers with occupational exposures or residents in areas of high air pollution have high levels of carcinogens bound to their DNA
• Implementation of large scale screening and awareness programs for cancers of the colon, rectum, breast, skin, prostate, and lung
• Initiation of studies on cancer risks and prevention in underserved minority populations in Northern Manhattan