Caring for Carcinoid Foundation - Research Symposium

We believe in taking a collaborative, team-oriented approach to discovering a cure for carcinoid. Therefore, our Research Symposium brings together leaders from the scientific community, the pharmaceutical industry, and the government.

Our Research Symposium is a closed-door, invitation-only event so that participants can discuss their unpublished work and participate in highly interactive, candid discussions.

Finally, the Caring for Carcinoid Foundation believes in sharing ideas and knowledge, so we publish the results of each Research Symposium.

2008 CFCF Research Symposium:

Date: September 3-5, 2008
Location: Harvard Medical Center, Boston, MA
Scientific organizers: Arnold J. Levine, PhD & Evan Vosburgh, MD
Sponsoring organizations: Caring for Carcinoid Foundation and Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation

Click here for Agenda and Participants

Results

Our 2008 CFCF Research Symposium validated our Research Action Plan and confirmed the most immediate research priorities:

• Launch a Carcinoid/NET Biobank

• Perform a Large-Scale Genomic Study of Carcinoid

2006 CFCF Research Symposium

Date: December 2, 2006
Location: Boston, MA

Results

Our 2006 CFCF Research Symposium validated our Research Road Map as the best path to discover a cure for carcinoid.

Our 2006 CFCF Research Symposium also identified 3 research priorities to guide our Research Action Plan:

Increase Basic Knowledge

This research priority is to understand how carcinoid arises, how carcinoid grows, and how carcinoid metastasizes. This basic knowledge is critical so that we can "turn off" the molecular mechanisms underlying carcinoid.
Increasing our basic knowledge will require performing highly sophisticated research that includes:
- Identifying the cell of origin for carcinoid
- Mapping how this cell of origin turns into carcinoid
- Unlocking the drivers of carcinoid growth and metastasis
- Figuring out why carcinoid follows a relatively indolent course
- Leveraging these natural "brakes" in new carcinoid therapies
- Creating both genomic and proteomic profiles of carcinoid
- Isolating the multiple disease sub-types of carcinoid

Accelerate Targeted Therapies

This research priority is to accelerate the development of new targeted therapies for carcinoid. Today, carcinoid patients have few therapy options because new drugs are developed for large-population cancers such as lung and breast. As a rare cancer, carcinoid is typically "last in line."
Accelerating targeted therapies will require a highly innovative, collaborative approach to drug development that includes:
- Validating molecular pathways involved in carcinoid
- Screening libraries of compounds against promising targets
- Creating a clinical trial consortium across multiple sites
- Identifying "responder" and "non-responder" sub-populations
- Publicly disclosing clinical trial results as quickly as possible

Discover Biomarkers

This research priority is to predict when carcinoid will occur, prognosticate its course, and measure its endpoints. Currently, we lack such predictive, prognostic, and endpoint biomarkers. As a result, diagnosis comes too late, treatments are not individualized, and outcomes are not accurately measured.
Discovering biomarkers will require large-scale, systematic collection and analysis of patient data that includes:
- Fresh-frozen tumor samples
- Paraffin-block tumor samples
- Blood samples
- Urine samples
- Demographic profiles
- Treatment histories
- Longitudinal responses
- Clinical outcomes

Participants

Leaders from the scientific community, the pharmaceutical industry, and the government participated in our 2006 CFCF Research Symposium:

Dr. Daniel Chung
- Clinical Director of Gastrointestinal Cancer Genetics Program, Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Vikram Deshpande
- Assistant in Pathology, Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Lee Ellis
- Professor of Cancer Biology and Professor of Surgery, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Dr. Stephen Friend
- Executive Vice President and Head of Oncology, Merck
Dr. Joseph Ippolito
- M.D./Ph.D. candidate, Washington University in St. Louis
Dr. Seung Kim
- Associate Professor in Developmental Biology, Stanford University
Dr. Matthew Kulke
- Gastrointestinal Cancer Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dr. Andrew Leiter
- Professor of Medicine, Tufts-NEMC
Dr. Robert Mayer
- Director of Center for Gastrointestinal Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dr. David McFadden
- Massachusetts General Hospital / Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dr. Matthew Meyerson
- Director of Center for Cancer Genome Discovery, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Associate Member, Broad Institute
Dr. Marsha Moses
- Associate Professor, Children's Hospital Boston
Dr. Tan Nguyen
- FDA Office of Orphan Products Development
Dr. Anil Rustgi
- Chief of Gastroenterology Division and Director of Digestive & Liver Center, University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Ramesh Shivdasani
- Gastrointestinal Cancer Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dr. Evan Vosburgh
- Vice President of Research and Administration, The Verto Institute
Dr. Bruce Zetter
- Charles Nowiszewski Professor of Cancer Biology, Children's Hospital Boston