MIAMI, Florida—After 16 years conducting breast cancer research at UCLA, Mark Pegram, MD, has joined the faculty at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine where he will collaborate with a stellar research team tackling new challenges in the field of breast cancer.
In an interview with Oncology NEWS International, Dr. Pegram said he looks forward to working with Joyce Slingerland, MD, PhD, director of the Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute, part of the University's Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Stefan Gluck, MD, PhD, clinical director of the Braman Institute, among many others.
"Another attraction was that Dr. Marc Lippman had become the new chair of the Department of Medicine [formerly chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Michigan]. With his long-standing career in breast cancer research, I knew he would give breast cancer research some priority," said Dr. Pegram whose titles at Miami include professor of medicine, associate director of experimental therapeutics, and director of translational research for the Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute.
The Braman Institute's interest in clinical trials was particularly attractive to Dr. Pegram, who was involved in the earliest efforts to define the HER2 pathway, conducted preclinical work on trastuzumab(Drug information on trastuzumab) (Herceptin), and served as an investigator in phase I, II, and III trials of trastuzumab. He says he will continue his work on the HER2 pathway, but is particularly drawn to other emerging pathways in breast cancer.
"At the University of Miami, we have large tumor banks, the translational research component, and the ability to validate new targets," he said.
He noted that the University is building a new 30,000-square-foot breast cancer center that will have a phase I clinical trials unit. "We have a very large catchment area in terms of patient volume for clinical trials," he said. The University of Miami is the only large academic medical center in south Florida and is a magnet for the area's oncology patients.
Dr. Pegram's first close look at breast cancer research at Miami came when he was appointed by Joseph Rosenblatt, MD, chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology, to serve on an external advisory panel to evaluate the University's breast cancer program.
