Hollings Annual Report 2023 FINAL - Flipbook - Page 16
clinical
trial
highlights
CANCER TYPE: Head & neck
TRIAL TYPE: Smoking cessation
WHY: To reduce delays in care
WHY: To offer guidelines when quitting
LED BY: Evan Graboyes, M.D.
LED BY: Matthew Carpenter, Ph.D., & Tracy Smith, Ph.D.
Graboyes is leading a multi-center trial of an enhanced
patient navigation program to reduce delays in head and
neck cancer patients starting radiation therapy after surgery.
Nationally, about half of these patients don’t begin radiation
therapy on time, leading to worse outcomes.
Carpenter and Smith explain that initial failure is common
when trying to quit smoking. They’ll conduct a randomized
trial to test whether people are more likely to succeed in
quitting if they stick with the medication that they’re first
prescribed or if they change medication after a relapse.
CANCER TYPE: Sarcoma
CANCER TYPE: Prostate
WHY: To make treatment more accessible
WHY: To reduce side effects
LED BY: Jennifer Harper, M.D.
LED BY: Harriet Eldredge-Hindy, M.D. (above)
Harper developed a trial to test the feasibility of a
shorter course of preoperative radiotherapy to ease the
logistical burden of accessing treatment. The trial uses
hypofractionated therapy: individual doses are higher but
the overall dosage is lower due to fewer sessions.
Eldredge-Hindy designed this trial to find an optimal dose
of radiation when combining stereotactic ablative body
radiotherapy (SABR) with organ-sparing techniques. SABR
is a newer method of radiation therapy and physicians have
not yet come to consensus on the optimal dose.
CANCER TYPE: Lymphoma
CANCER TYPE: Cervical
WHY: To prevent cancer recurrence
WHY: To increase screening rates
LED BY: Brian Hess, M.D.
LED BY: Ashish Deshmukh, Ph.D.
Hess is leading a national trial to prevent relapse in patients
with partial remission or stable disease after CAR-T cell
therapy by using drugs currently prescribed only after a
relapse. When CAR-T cell therapy doesn’t completely
eliminate cancer, about 2/3 of patients will face a relapse.
Deshmukh is partnering with researchers at the University
of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center to test
methods to increase cervical cancer screening rates on the
island. Cervical cancer deaths are increasing in Puerto Rico
even as they decline in the mainland U.S.
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Hollings 2023 Annual Report
