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Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 10 AM?Pine Trails Park ~ Located at 10555 Trails End, Parkland, FL 33076

May 2009
This has been a good year for Ewing sarcoma research.

1. Denise Casey is the current incumbent of the Margaux Grossman Fellowship. She has completed a project looking at a novel therapy for patients with relapsed Ewing sarcoma. We treated 24 young patients with relapsed Ewing sarcoma with a novel combination of irinotecan and temozolomide. We demonstrated a very high rate of response and some patients have remained well for prolonged periods following a relapse. Denise presented this information at the national meeting of the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology in San Diego in April and it has bee accepted for publication in the Journal “Pediatric Blood and Cancer”.
2. We are all excited about the use of a monoclonal antibody against the insulin like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R). We have seen responses in patients with Ewing sarcoma whose tumors have recurred after chemotherapy. In collaboration with Roche Pharmaceuticals and the SARC (Sarcoma Alliance for Research through Collaboration) we are about to open an international trial combining this antibody with chemotherapy for patients with relapsed Ewing sarcoma. We hope to demonstrate that the antibody improves outcome. The ultimate goal would be to include the antibody in treatment for newly diagnosed patients with Ewing sarcoma to improve the outcome for all patients.
3. We have begun a study of tumor stem cells in Ewing sarcoma. We have learned that not all the cells in a tumor are equally dangerous. A sub set of the cells in the tumor are t he cells with the greatest potential to make more cells and to spread to other sites in the body. These cells have differ from the far more common cells that make up the vast bulk of cells in a tumor. We have some clues about ways to find these cells. We are looking in the blood of patients with Ewing sarcoma to see if we can find these cells in the blood. Patients with more cells in the blood would be more likely to develop metastasis. We could monitor patients after completion of treatment by looking in their blood for these cells which are responsible for relapse. Most of all, we can learn if the therapies that destroy the vast bulk of tumor cells are not in fact the optimal treatment for these more primitive cells that ultimately determine whether we can or cannot cure patients.

All in all, a good year, made possible by the generous support of Margaux’s Miracle Foundation. We are enormously grateful for your support.

Paul A Meyers, MD
Professor of Pediatrics
Weill Cornell Medical College
Vice Chair, Department of Pediatrcis
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
1275 York Ave
New York, NY 10065