HOT Annual Report 2007

Introduction 
Members of the Hematology, Oncology, and Transplant (HOT) Division provide care to patients with hematologic and oncologic disorders, conduct translational research and clinical trials, and train medical students, house officers, fellows, and other health care professionals.  Philip McGlave, M.D. has directed the HOT Division since 1997. Over 50 full-time faculty are based at the four HOT Division training sites, including the University of Minnesota Medical Center (UMMC), Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC), Regions Hospital and the VA Medical Center (VAMC).  Cheri Ptacek, Director of Operations, manages the administrative functions of the division.

Service 
The HOT Division is heavily involved in patient care.  Faculty of the HOT Division provide specialized care for patients with a variety of hematologic malignancies, solid tumors, non-malignant hematologic diseases and disorders of hemostasis and thrombosis.  At the UMMC site, HOT Division faculty supervise over 50 patients/day on two busy inpatient oncology/hematology services (Dr. Mark Reding, Medical Director) and a separate BMT service (Dr. Jeff Miller, Medical Director).  Faculty also supervise approximately 25,000 visits annually to our outpatient oncology/hematology clinic (Dr. Ed Greeno, Medical Director) and BMT clinic (Dr. Daniel Weisdorf, Medical Director).  The clinics routinely receive high marks from patients and their families in UMPhysicians surveys.  Over the last several years all inpatient and outpatient services have incorporated nurse practitioners and physician assistants (NP/PA’s) into patient care teams which also contain medical students, internal medicine house officers and hematology/oncology fellows.

Education
The Fellowship Training Program in Hematology, Oncology, and Transplantation is directed by Linda Burns, M.D. and currently includes 18 fellows in years one through four of subspecialty training. The program is partially supported by a T32 Training Grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Robert Hebbel, M.D. is the principal investigator of this long-standing, competitive NIH Award. Fellowship training is conducted at UMMC, HCMC, Regions Hospital and. Institutional representatives on the HOT Division Fellowship Commit­tee include Doug Rausch, M.D. (HCMC), Jeff Jaffe, M.D. (Regions Hospital), Robert Perri, M.D. (VAMC), as well as faculty from the university campus.

HOT Division faculty members participate in training of medical students through the Clinical Medicine I-III courses, as well as a variety of medical school elec­tives including Fundamentals of Oncology and Medical Oncology Consultation (led by Bruce Peterson, M.D.) and the very successful Blood Pathophysiology Course (led by Greg Vercellotti, M.D.). Faculty also lead clinical training efforts of medical students and house officers in the inpatient and outpatient setting. Special courses for Hematology, Oncology, and Transplantation fellows on the University campus include Grand Rounds and Journal Club (led by Arne Slungaard, M.D.) and the Garibaldi Research Conference (led by Robert Kratzke, M.D.). The HOT Division also conducts a three-week summer workshop for fellows in fundamentals of laboratory and clinical research (led by Kalpna Gupta, Ph.D.).

Research
The HOT Division is heavily engaged in funded laboratory and clinical research. Research is supported by the NIH and other national organizations, by pharmaceutical companies, by nonprofit philanthropic organizations such as the Masonic Cancer Center Fund, Inc., the Komen Foundation, the Children’s Cancer Research Fund, and by a variety of generous individual donations.

University-based faculty serve as principal investigators on over 30 national grants with total annual direct funding of over $12.5 million and a large number of industry-sponsored projects with total annual funding of over $4 million. VAMC faculty conduct additional research projects generating over $1 million in annual funding.

Research interests include breast cancer biology (K. Gupta, Lange, Potter, Sachdev, Yee); thoracic oncology (Kratzke, Kumar); stem cell biology (Jahagirdar, Kaufman, Kikyo, Luikart, McGlave, Verfaillie); immunotherapy (Iizuka, Miller, Cooley); vascular biology (Geng, K. Gupta, Hebbel, Vercellotti); hemostasis and thrombosis (Datta, Geng, Johnson, Morton, Reding, Slungaard); tumor suppressor genes (Kratzke); gene transfer (Faris Farassati); clinical hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (Arora, Brunstein, Burns, Kaufman, McClune, McGlave, Tomblyn, Weisdorf); hematologic malignancies (Anderson, P. Gupta, Howe, Morton, Peterson); innovative cancer therapy (Dudek, Greeno, Sahin, Skubitz); cell sorting (Perri); infections inmmunocompromised patients (Morrison); ethical conduct of clinical trials (Hammerschmidt); medical education (Schorer); and molecular epidemiology of cancer (Yu). Faculty serve as principal investigators on four NIH programmatic grants on topics of sickle cell anemia (Hebbel); natural killer cell biology (Miller); stem cell biology (Verfaillie); and hematopoietic stem cell biology (McGlave). Several faculty have leadership roles in national research consortia studying oncology therapy (Peterson) and hematopoietic cell transplantation (Weisdorf).

Over the last several years, HOT Division faculty have established and led several interdepartmental research programs including the Stem Cell Institute (Verfaillie); the Vascular Biology program (Hebbel); the Breast Cancer Biology program (Yee); and the Adult Blood and Marrow Transplantation program (Weisdorf).  Several HOT Division faculty (McGlave, Miller, Yee, Yu) also hold leadership positions in the University of Minnesota Cancer Center, and additional faculty with clinical or research interests in cancer-related areas are members of the Cancer Center.

The Masonic Clinic
The Masonic Clinic for cancer and blood disorders has been established in renovated space on the first floor of the Masonic Hospital Building. This UMPhysicians-owned clinic houses interdisciplinary care teams and clinical research teams. The clinic has experienced rapid growth in both number of patients seen and infusions administered. Ed Greeno, M.D. is the Medical Director of the Masonic Cancer Clinic.

Vascular Biology Program Laboratories
Renovation has recently been completed on a new laboratory for the developing Vascular Biology program led by Robert Hebbel, M.D. The Vascular Biology program occupies 900 square feet, comprising all current laboratory space on the 14th floor of the Phillips-Wangensteen Building. This space houses Vascular Biology program investigators, including Drs. Datta, Dudek, Geng, K. Gupta, Hebbel, Slungaard, Reding, and several scientists from other divisions.

Faculty Transition
Over the last year, several faculty have joined the HOT Division.  Sarah Cooley, M.D. is pursuing a career in immunotherapy and hematopoietic cell transplantation.  Yvonne Datta, M.D. is an experienced hematologist and oncologist with a special interest in platelet disorders and other aspects of hemostasis and thrombosis.  Priya Kumar, M.D. has a primary career interest in the development of novel therapy for thoracic malignancies and other solid tumors.  Brian McClune, D.O. is a clinical trialist in the area of hematopoietic cell transplantation.  David Potter, M.D. was recently recruited from Indiana University to continue laboratory-based translational studies in breast cancer biology and therapy.  Deepali Sachdev, Ph.D is also interested in breast cancer biology.    Active faculty recruitments are underway in solid tumor oncology, vascular biology, stem cell biology, hemostasis and thrombosis, and therapy of hematopoietic malignancies.