| ||
| Vol. 21, No. 17 |
| September 15, 1999 |
|
Former Patient Returns to M. D. Anderson to Work
At 15, Kurt was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer that is most common in adolescents. He was initially treated at The Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. When Kurt developed lung metastases, a common side effect of osteosarcoma, for the second time, he and his family didn't know what to do. Around the same time, Gretchen, Kurt's older sister, was working in Allentown, Penn., where she saw an article on Dr. Eugenie Kleinerman's experimental treatment for osteosarcoma which was being tested at M. D. Anderson. She quickly called her parents to tell them about it. "I have always considered it a miracle," says Joanne Weiss, Kurt's mother. "My son's protocol had failed, and we didn't know what we were going to do." The Weiss' quickly contacted their son's oncologist who was skeptical, but after speaking with Dr. Kleinerman, he told the Weiss' to get their plane tickets. After arriving at M. D. Anderson in June 1990, Kurt was approved to begin the P-88-05 phase II protocol of liposomal MTP-PE. He was number 18 on the protocol list. MTP-PE is a treatment that stimulates the body's immune system to attack chemoresistent lung metastases that often kill osteosarcoma patients. Macrophages and monocytes, which are present in the tissue and blood respectively, are activated by muramyl tripeptide (MTP-PE) to aggressively seek out and kill foreign objects such as cancer cells. Dr. Kleinerman, a professor of cancer biology and pediatrics at M. D. Anderson, and her research team created this treatment. For the first month, Kurt received biweekly doses of MTP-PE, each taking two to three hours to administer and left him feeling like he had a bad flu. After the first month, he and his mother returned to Pittsburgh to complete the remaining five months of treatment. The doses were eventually lowered to once a week and the side effects faded as he became used to the medicine. Almost 10 years later, Kurt returned to M. D. Anderson a healthy young man who just completed his first year at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. Dr. Kleinerman told him about the student program directed by Dr. Michael J. Ahearn, director of the office of academic programs. "She asked what I was doing this summer and suggested that I apply for a spot in the summer program," says Kurt. His request to be placed in Dr. Kleinerman's lab was granted. He began June 21 and stayed through Aug. 20. "We are so excited. Many of the people in the lab have been with me for a long time, and they were here when Kurt was first treated, so to see him cured and come back is like a dream," says Dr. Kleinerman. Kurt assisted with the next generation of liposomal immunotherapy in which gene therapy is given directly to the lungs via an inhalant. The therapy is currently being tested on mice. His responsibilities included injecting mice, dispensing gene therapy to infected mice, sacrificing mice and examining their lungs to see if the inhalant was effective. Kurt then submitted his research data in journal article format at the end of the summer. Kurt was thrilled to be working with Dr. Kleinerman in her lab. The two have remained close over the years, especially after Kurt became interested in oncology research while at The University of Notre Dame. "To be able to return and work with the people who are directly responsible for saving my life is wonderful," says Kurt. Kurt resided at the Ronald McDonald House, where he worked nights and weekends as a night manager in addition to his duties at the lab. Dr. Yaal Silberberg, a former member of the academic programs office, created the program in 1979 for freshman medical school students to give them the opportunity to gain firsthand biomedical research experience in the basic or clinical sciences. - From The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
©2006 Texas Medical Center E-Mail: tmc-info@tmc.edu URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/09_15_99/page_05.html |
