Hematologist/oncologist awarded grant from the North Central Cancer Treatment Group
DULUTH, Minn. -- An Essentia Health hematologist/oncologist will test a new combination of chemotherapy drugs to treat the type of brain cancer that claimed the life of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Under a three-year grant, Dr. Bret Friday also plans to develop clinical trials to test promising new drug combinations to treat colon cancer.
Dr. Friday was awarded the first Junior Faculty Academic Community Partnership Grant from the North Central Cancer Treatment Group (NCCTG). The program provides funding to clinicians in their first two or three years of practice in order to help them establish clinical research careers.
The grant allows Dr. Friday to continue his research with patients who have recurrent gliobastoma, a kind of brain cancer. If the drug combination is promising, he will develop protocols to incorporate them into a patient's initial chemotherapy.
Senator Kennedy died Aug. 25, 2009, 15 months after being diagnosed with gliobastoma. He was 77.
"The goal of the NCCTG Junior Faculty Academic Community Partnership is to improve cancer patient outcomes by strengthening the capacity and continuity of community-based cancer clinical research," said Jan Buckner, MD, group chair of the NCCTG and an oncologist at Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minn. "That goal will be achieved through a systematic program of recruitment, training, mentorship, and support for select junior-level physician oncologists who will, in turn, become research leaders within their local community practices."
Dr. Friday's three-year award is funded with a grant from Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He will also be mentored in his research by Eva Galanis, MD, an oncologist with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
"Clinical trials are often the best treatment for cancer patients," Dr. Friday said. "Since a large number of cancer patients enrolled in clinical trials are primarily taken care of by community oncologists, it makes sense to have community oncologists knowledgeable and trained in clinical research. I hope to develop new protocols that will specifically offer new and exciting treatment approaches to my patients."
Dr. Friday began working in medical research as an undergraduate biology student at Boston University. He went on to earn a PhD in molecular therapeutics and toxicology as well as a medical degree from Emory University in Atlanta. He served his Internal Medicine residency and two fellowships at Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in Rochester, Minn. His fellowships were in the Clinical Investigator Training Program and Medical Oncology. He joined SMDC, now part of Essentia Health, in 2008.
The NCCTG is a national clinical research group sponsored by the National Cancer Institute dedicated to bringing clinical trials with promising new cancer therapies to communities where patients live.
Cardiologist named Duluth Clinic Foundation Researcher of the Year
DULUTH, Minn. -- The Duluth Clinic Foundation has named Al Deibele, MD, as its 2010 Researcher of the Year.
Dr. Deibele, an Essentia Health cardiologist, was recognized for his research treating some heart patients with an anticoagulant. He received a grant of $5,000 to be used for future educational and research activities.
The 2009 award went to Irina V. Haller, PhD, for her research on Vitamin D deficiency in Northern Minnesota and Northern Wisconsin, particularly among American Indian populations. Haller is a senior research scientist with the Essentia Institute of Rural Health.
Deibele was lead author of Feb. 4, 2010 article in prestigious medical journal "Circulation." The article suggests that a new way of treating some heart patients with an anticoagulant is worth further study.
Dr. Deibele and Clinical Researcher Cathy Neva, RN, were two of the article's six authors. The others were from the University of Tennessee, Duke University Medical Center and Harvard University. They wrote about their study of 43 randomized patients at SMDC Health System, which is now part of Essentia Health. The patients underwent primary treatment to open coronary arteries, blocked by plaque and clots, with a balloon and stent -- a tiny mesh tube. Half the group received the standard dose of the blood thinner Integrilin (eptifibatide) through a vein in the arm. The same amount of the drug was administered to the other patients in blood vessels of the heart
The study found the latter approach did a better job of improving the appearance of the clots without the side effects of bleeding problems that patients often have when receiving Integrilin in the arm. The more effective treatment was associated with better blood flow to the heart muscle.
"It was a small group of patients," Dr. Deibele said. "It warrants more study."
