Author Archives: Dina

Prescribing Data-Driven Music Therapy for Cancer Symptom Relief and More MSK in the News…

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Dina

• A May 26 VentureBeat post highlighted a new research collaboration between MSK’s Integrative Medicine Department  and Pandora’s Music Genome Project’s Nolan Gasser that is described as ”data-driven music therapy”.

• MSK medical oncologist, Dr. Andrew Epstein, was featured in a May 18 WSJ article that reported on approaches to training doctors in the difficult art of delivering bad news to their patients.

• Margaret Riordan, a senior at NYC’s Poly Prep County Day School, was saluted in a May 26th article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle for founding her school’s “Kids Walk for Kids with Cancer” team that has “raised an impressive $20,000 over the past three years” to support pediatric cancer research at MSK. Continue reading →

MSK Riders Leading the NYC Bike-to-Work Challenge and More MSK in the News…

Posted on May 13, 2015 by Dina

• According to a May 10 Metro News article, MSK employees have embraced Transportation Alternatives’ Bike to Work Challenge, “racking up 1470 miles across the city” in the first ten days. And it is not too late to join – the challenge ends on May 22.
• On another healthy note, MSK counts itself among one of the workplaces that is a member of the Farmigo community, as was mentioned in a recent Forbes interview with the startup. Farmigo is a company that delivers healthy, farm-fresh food to consumers where they work.
• On May 6, five MSK nurses and one patient care technician were honored with Rudin Awards for their outstanding service: Natalie Bell, Jaime McNally, Ethel Oliphant, Erica Fischer-Cartlidge, Rhonda D’Agostino, and Kimberly Chow.
• MSK research collaborations with other cancer centers also made the news this week:
  1. The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center joined a clinical trial led by MSK that will use gene therapy techniques to harness the power of pediatric patients’ own immune system to fight their leukemia.
  2. MSK’s Dr. Omar Abdel-Wahab collaborated with scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Yale University on research that revealed that a gene mutation that alters RNA splicing is likely responsible for myelodysplastic syndrome, a condition which can be a precursor to acute myeloid leukemia.
  3. Project Data Sphere, a cancer clinical trial research data sharing/integrating/analyzing technology initiative that MSK has been contributing to, turned 1 year-old on May 11.

Benefits of Molecular Imaging and More MSK in the News

Posted on April 29, 2015 by Dina

• MSK radiologist, Dr. Nancy Lee and Director of MRI, Dr. Oguz Akin, were featured in an April 27 Washington Post article that explained how molecular imaging is a powerful new tool that helps make both the diagnosis and treatment of cancer more targeted.

• In an April 26 WSJ article, MSK President and CEO Dr. Craig Thompson, explained how despite cancer not yet having been “cured”, recent advances in cancer research and our ever-expanding knowledge of cancer is something to be excited and hopeful about.

• An April 23 NJBiz article announced plans for MSK to develop an outpatient cancer center in Montvale, New Jersey. This will be MSK’s third outpatient center in NJ and is scheduled to open in April 2017.

• MSK’s Computational Biology Program Chair, Dr. Chris Sander, was featured in an April 23 article summarizing the keynote address he gave in Boston at the Bio-IT World Conference & Expo. Highlighted was the work he does predicting combinations of targeted therapies to avoid the development of a cancer’s resistance to a single drug. Also mentioned was the cBioPortal visualization & analysis tool developed by his team.