Arizona - June 2015 Archives

PHOENIX — Mayo Clinic, as a three-site organization, remains the largest provider of solid organ transplants in the U.S. and continues to be identified as having patient and graft survival outcomes that rank among the best in the nation. According to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR), a national database of transplant statistics, Mayo Clinic’s transplant programs in Arizona, Florida and Rochester, Minn., score statistically better than expected in terms of patient and graft survivals at the reported time points of one month, one year and three years. Graft survival means that the transplanted organ is still functioning. The lung transplant program at Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus was one of two lung transplant programs in the U.S. with statistically better-than-expected outcomes for one-year patient and graft survival. Florida’s liver transplant program, with  three-year patient and graft survival rates that also are statistically better than expected, is one of only four programs meeting this criteria at that time point. MEDIA CONTACT: Lynn Closway, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, newsbureau@mayo.edu / 507-284-5005.

Arizonans will receive benefit from recently FDA-approved precision medicine clinical trial to fight a deadly form of melanoma PHOENIX, Ariz. — Mayo Clinic and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) are helping launch a national clinical trial that will apply the latest in precision medicine to treat advanced melanoma skin cancer. The study leverages advances in genomics, informatics, and health information technology, yielding more precise medical treatments for patients with this devastating disease. Mayo Clinic is the only clinical site in Arizona to offer this new treatment, sponsored by Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C) and the Melanoma Research Alliance. These clinical trials are the culmination of nearly four years of research under an SU2C Melanoma Dream Team grant. Metastatic melanoma is a type of cancer that has spread from the skin to other parts of the body, most frequently the lungs, muscles, brain, and liver. Metastatic melanoma is responsible for more than 9,000 deaths a year in the United States, so there remains an urgent need for new treatment options. For interviews with Dr. Aleksandar Sekulic and Dr. Alan Bryce or a patient with metastatic melanoma, contact Julie Janovsky-Mason, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs at (480) 301-6173; Janovsky-Mason.Julie@mayo.edu. For interviews with Dr. Trent, please contact: Steve Yozwiak, TGen Senior Science Writer at 602-343-8704; syozwiak@tgen.org

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcJPXISDxkM SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — An international research team led by Mayo Clinic oncologists has found a new way to identify and possibly stop the progression of many late-stage cancers, including bladder, blood, bone, brain, lung and kidney. The precision medicine study appears online in Oncogene and focuses on kidney cancer and its metastases. Recent studies of the same epigenomic fingerprint in other cancers suggest a common pathway that could help improve the diagnosis and treatment of advanced disease across a wide variety of cancer types. “If you think of late-stage cancer as a runaway car, most of our drugs take a shot at a tire here and there, but sometimes they miss and often they can’t stop it entirely,” says Thai Ho, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic oncologist and lead author of the study. “We believe we have identified a mechanism that seizes the cancer’s biological engine and could potentially stop it in its tracks.” The new approach zeroes in on an epigenomic fingerprint in metastatic disease, in which the body often misinterprets a healthy genetic blueprint, producing toxic cells that run afoul of the body’s normal functions. MEDIA CONTACT: Sam Smith, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, 507-284-5005, newsbureau@mayo.edu.