The National Stem Cell Foundation funded a 12-person clinical trial conducted by Dr. Michelle Fanale at the MD Anderson Cancer Center to test a multi-drug therapy option for patients with resistant lymphoma.
Four patients in the trial with resistant T-cell lymphoma had remarkable outcomes – one participant became cancer free and all three of the other participants with resistant T-cell lymphoma responded to treatment.
Biography:
Dr. Fanale graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in Molecular Biology/Biochemistry and Psychology, then further studied at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark, NJ before entering residency at the Mayo Clinic and then pursuing a Medical Oncology and Hematology Fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
She has clinical and research interests in Hodgkin, T-cell, Burkitt lymphomas, and other c-MYC positive lymphomas, and HIV-associated lymphomas. Within these lymphoma subtypes she seeks to develop new therapies which can first be evaluated in relapsed/refractory disease and then integrated into earlier lines of therapy both in combination with each other and with chemotherapy.
She also wishes to define best management strategies for the rarer disease presentations, including advanced stage and relapsed nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma, T-cell lymphoma, and relapsed Burkitt and double-hit lymphomas.
Through clinical trials she wants to integrate translational research studies that will add to our understanding of mechanisms of lymphoma cell growth regulation, and provide insights that will lead to improved methods of prognostication and combinations of therapies that target crucial pathways needed for lymphoma cell survival and proliferation.