Stephen J. Forman, M.D., Co-leader
Ravi Bhatia, M.D., Co-leader
The long-term goal of the Hematologic Malignancies (HM) Program is to improve outcomes for patients with leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and multiple myeloma. HM integrates basic, translational and clinical research related to the pathogenesis and treatment of hematologic malignancies through close collaborations between basic and clinical researchers. The major areas of focus are to (a) expand opportunities and optimize outcomes for potentially curative treatment with autologous and allogeneic transplantation, (b) increase understanding of malignant stem cells in hematologic malignancies to improve cures and c) develop new, nontransplant experimental therapies for hematologic malignancies.
Recently, HM has expanded research in nontransplant therapeutics and leukemia biology. The success of monoclonal antibodies such as Rituxan (rituximab) and Campath (alemtuzumab) in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia and novel small molecules such as Gleevec (imatinib) in chronic myelogenous leukemia has made this area fertile ground for study.
Clinical and research programs have been established for specific disease entities, including acute and chronic leukemia, Hodgkin’s and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. With clinical and basic scientists working together, this creates an expanded repertoire of studies focused on individual diseases, which complements our transplant modality-driven investigations. The HM Program then shares results of these studies with researchers and clinicians in other Cancer Center Programs.
Program Goals
- Develop novel autologous and allogeneic transplant regimens to improve safety and efficacy of treatment, and expand their use to underserved populations including patients with HIV and older people with hematologic malignancy.
- Study mechanisms regulating normal and malignant hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), and develop therapies based on manipulating normal HSCs and interventions targeting malignant stem cells.
- Develop novel non-transplant therapeutic studies of epigenetic mechanisms, molecular targets of gene expression, RNAi and immune-based treatments.
HM Members' Research
Members of the HM Program design and lead phase I/II clinical trials using novel therapies for hematologic malignancies. The expertise represented by this group includes cytogenetics and molecular diagnostics, pathology, hematopoietic cell transplantation and graft-versus-host disease, gene- and cell-based therapies, stem cell research and biostatistics. Members of this program collaborate closely with other research programs, including Developmental Cancer Therapeutics and Cancer Immunotherapeutics, for development of small molecule- and immunological-based cancer therapeutics.
