Once again MSK has been named to Glassdoor’s list of best companies to work for in 2016 (and also on the list for the best vacation leave!). Coming in at #22, employees gave MSK a rating of 4.3.  “Very intelligent, friendly and team-oriented group of people,” one employee writes. “I love working for MSK. There is a great sense of pride and responsibility to our patients and ensuring things get done right.”

Chair of MSK’s Cancer Research Center, Dr. Scott Lowe, and Chief of Molecular Diagnostics, Dr. Marc Ladanyi, collaborated with scientists from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and identified p53 “loss of function” mutations that actually promote cancer, rather than inhibit it, by relocating to the mitochrondria. These truncated proteins are most often found in patients with hard to cure cancers, the ones that resist treatment and reappear after surgery.

Nitin H Shirole, Debjani Pal, Edward R Kastenhuber, Serif Senturk, Joseph Boroda, Paola Pisterzi, Madison Miller, Gustavo Munoz, Marko Anderluh, Marc Ladanyi, Scott W Lowe, Raffaella Sordella. TP53 exon-6 truncating mutations produce separation of function isoforms with pro-tumorigenic functions. eLife, 2016; 5 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.17929 Continue reading →

Ann Culkin, an RN on Thoracic Oncology Service, discussed how personalized medicine can combat the worries and fears that patients experience when they turn to the Internet and “Dr Google” to answer their questions. Personalized medicine can give patients insight into their individual diagnosis, including symptoms and side effects of treatment.

Karen Koehler was diagnosed with leukemia, and after failed chemotherapy and three years of progressive disease, in 2014 she signed up for an experimental clinical trial under Dr. Jae Park. This trial was one of the first investigating the then new innovation of using CAR T cell immunotherapy, taking the patients own immune system to fight the cancer. Much to the surprise of Dr. Park, after an intense response to the infusion, the bone marrow biopsy found no more cancer cells. While Karen’s response to the CAR T cells was beyond the norm, she is one of 28 patients whose data is leading to new treatments and potential cures for certain types of leukemia.

A new promising treatment option for patients with IDH2-mutated myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) was presented by Dr. Eytan Stein this month at the 2016 ASH Annual Meeting. The study found that treatment with enasidenib led to better response rates for patients with IDH2 mutations, including those with prior HMA treatment failure. 9% of patients were found to have complete remission and another 9% had partial remission. The drug company Agios is planning to submit approval for a phase I/II trial using enasidenib in relapsed/refractory AML.

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Age should not be a deterrent when treating lung cancer patients. According to a recent study in JCO by thoracic surgeon, Dr. Prasad Adusumilli, older patients with stage 1 non-small cell lung cancer did quite well post-surgery, and after five years 9 out of 10 patients were alive and cancer free. Morton Pollner, one of Dr. Adusumilli’s patients was 76 when he was diagnosed with lung cancer. That was 7 years ago, and today Mr. Pollner is 82, cancer free, and enjoying life. “Whatever I get from here on, it’s like gravy,” he says.