Click on the logo to learn more
About the Program Expansion and Recent Projects:
- Under the direction of Dr. Arlene Forastiere, the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center is offering patients an opportunity to test their tumor for a specific genetic change. By testing the tumor for the CHFR gene, which is found in many head and neck cancers, our clinicians can determine a patient’s treatment based on that result.
- While developing drugs to treat and target specific mutations for an individual is vital, it is not a quick process from a drug development standpoint. Dr. Christine Chung has been circumventing this problem and identifying drugs which have been already approved by the FDA for other indications. For example, a medication for diabetes (metformin) is recently shown to prevent cancer, and a medication that fights malaria (artemisinin) is shown to kill cancer cells. By working with approved medications, we can cut at least 3-4 years of the drug developmental period, decrease costs, and implement immediate use for our patients.
- As the Director of the Head and Neck Tissue Repository, Dr. Christine Chung oversees a campus-wide system of collecting patient tumor samples for research. The goal of this program is to generate patient tumor-derived xenografts and test various drugs in early developmental stages. We aim to generate a library of matching mutations and drug sensitivity data in at least 50 tumors which includes 5 of the most promising targeted agents for head and neck cancers. This will allow us to better predict response to treatments, and will save patients from losing precious time trying ineffective treatments and acquiring unnecessary toxicities.
- After completing his fellowship at Emory University School of Medicine, Dr. Hyu Kang joined the Head and Neck Cancer Program at Johns Hopkins in 2013 as Instructor of Oncology. Dr. Kang is a physician-scientist who is focusing his research on novel therapeutics in head and neck cancer, as well as anti-body drug conjugates. His goal is to provide better ways to understand and manage these cancers.
- A current protocol at Johns Hopkins is evaluating treatment using a lower dose of radiation along with chemotherapy in order to decrease side effects but maintain the excellent cure rate that we are now achieving for HPV caused tongue cancers.
Megan E. LeDonne
Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center
750 East Pratt Street, Suite 1700
Baltimore, MD 21202
W: 410-361-6391
mledonn1@jhmi.edu