Throughout the past decade, new discoveries about
cancer cell growth have enhanced our ability to
prevent, diagnose, treat, and manage the disease.
Recent breakthroughs, such as immunotherapy,
have put scientists at the threshold of radically transforming
care and potentially discovering a cure.
The Penn Vet Cancer Center is bringing together
basic cancer research, clinical trials, and patient care, now
dispersed across the School, into one centralized location
at Ryan Hospital. In this revolutionized, synergistic
environment and state-of-the-art facility, researchers and
clinicians will be able to bring research breakthroughs from
laboratories directly to patients faster than ever before.
Last fall, the inaugural Cancer Center Symposium
launched with Dr. Cheryl London’s talk “Of mice,
dogs and men: Transforming cancer outcomes through
comparative oncology” at Penn Vet’s Hill Pavilion. London
is a Research Professor at both the Cummings School of
Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University and the Molecular
Oncology Research Institute at Tufts Medical Center. She
is also an Associate Faculty Professor at the Ohio State
University College of Veterinary Medicine (OSU CVM),
where she serves as director of the Clinical Trials Office at
the OSU CVM and director of Translational Therapeutics
at the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences at
OSU’s College of Medicine.
Speakers at the symposium also included Penn’s Dr.
Robert Vonderheide, Director of the Abramson Cancer
Center, and Dr. Kristy Weber, Director of the Sarcoma
Program at Abramson Cancer Center. Other speakers
included Dr. Steven Dow, Director of the Laboratory for
Immune and Regenerative Medicine at Colorado State
University; Dr. Andrew Ewald, Associate Professor in the
Department of Cell Biology at Johns Hopkins School of
Medicine; Dr. Amy Leblanc, Director of the Comparative
Oncology Program at the National Cancer Institute, (NIH);
Dr. Jaime Modiano, Perlman Professor of Oncology and
Comparative Medicine at the University of Minnesota
College of Veterinary Medicine; Dr. Elaine Ostrander,
Head of the Comparative Genetics Section at the National
Human Genome Research Institute; and Dr. Rodney Page,
Director of the Flint Animal Cancer Center at Colorado
State University.
The event was part of the University of Pennsylvania’s
ongoing efforts in support of the One Health Initiative,
dedicated to improving the lives of all species through the
integration of human medicine, veterinary medicine, and
environmental science.
Dr. Ellen Puré (bottom left) surrounded by Cancer Symposium speakers, clockwise: Drs. Andrew Ewald, Rodney Page, Amy Leblanc, Jaime Modiano, and Robert Vonderheide.