The free podcast, hosted by Cathy Wurzer, features visionaries from across the field of medicine

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic is launching "Tomorrow's Cure," a new podcast that will highlight medical innovations transforming healthcare and feature the visionaries who make them possible.

"Tomorrow's Cure" is brought to listeners in collaboration with PRX, a Pulitzer and Peabody Award-winning public media organization and one of the world's top podcast distributors.

Key Details:

Release date: "Tomorrow's Cure" debuts on June 26.

Frequency: New episodes will be released weekly on Wednesdays.

Seasons: The first season comprises eight episodes, with seasons two and three set to resume in early 2025.

How to listen: The podcast is free on all significant on-demand audio platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. Episodes will also feature a video component, which can be viewed on Mayo Clinic's YouTube channel.

"This is an exciting new initiative for Mayo Clinic," says Molly Biwer, chair of Brand Strategy, Mayo Clinic. "'Tomorrow's Cure' will explore the cutting-edge research, technology and breakthroughs that are revolutionizing the future of medicine. We are excited to showcase the physicians, clinicians, researchers and thought leaders driving these transformative advancements."

"Mayo Clinic is the trusted resource on what impacts us all: our health," says Jason Saldanha, chief operating officer at PRX. "We're proud to collaborate with the team to help bring listeners everywhere their expertise, innovation and commitment to opening the possibilities of medicine."

The show is hosted by Cathy Wurzer, a renowned broadcaster, journalist and author known for her work on Minnesota Public Radio's Morning Edition and Twin Cities PBS. Wurzer will conduct in-depth interviews with experts from Mayo Clinic and industry leaders. The episodes will emphasize the importance of collaboration in driving innovation and inspiring possibilities. Through her engaging storytelling, Cathy will distill complex topics into meaningful lessons and takeaways.

"Tomorrow's Cure" will cover various topics such as 3D printing models, artificial intelligence, mixed reality and personalized medicine. Guests will include Jonathan Morris, M.D., radiologist, Mayo Clinic; Beth Ripley, M.D., Ph.D., deputy chief, Office of Healthcare Innovation and Learning, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Konstantinos Lazaridis, M.D., gastroenterologist and Carlson and Nelson Endowed Executive Director, Center for Individualized Medicine, Mayo Clinic; Gary Miller, Ph.D., vice dean of Research Strategy and Innovation, director of the Exposomics Laboratory and Core, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health; and more.

To learn more and to see the complete list of episode topics and featured experts, visit tomorrowscure.com.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

About PRX
Celebrating more than 20 years as a nonprofit public media company, PRX works in partnership with leading independent creators, organizations, and stations to bring meaningful audio storytelling into millions of listeners' lives. PRX is one of the world's top podcast publishers, public radio distributors, and audio producers, serving as an engine of innovation for public media and podcasting to help shape a vibrant future for creative and journalistic audio. Shows across PRX's portfolio of broadcast productions, podcast partners, and its Radiotopia podcast network have received recognition from the Peabody Awards, the Tribeca Festival, the International Documentary Association, and more, including in 2022 when Futuro Media and PRX won a Pulitzer Prize. Visit PRX.org for more.

Media contact:

• Kelley Luckstein, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

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PlatforMed, the annual conference on platform transformation in healthcare, underscored the importance of a collaborative approach to healthcare innovation to create a world where everyone, everywhere has access to the best possible care.

More than 250 global leaders in technology and healthcare gathered June 4-5 in Phoenix for PlatforMed 2024. Healthcare leaders, industry experts, policymakers, investors, and startups shared new insights and discussed the future of healthcare.

The event opened with a welcome address from John Halamka, M.D., president of Mayo Clinic Platform, followed by a keynote from Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., president and CEO of Mayo Clinic.

"Platforms represent our greatest opportunity to bring real, lasting, and transformative change to our global healthcare system," Dr. Farrugia said. "Through a platform approach to healthcare, we are seeing real, scalable solutions for long-standing and emerging problems."

Headline speakers included Lana Feng, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Huma.ai, who shared insights on the revolutionary potential of artificial intelligence in healthcare. Jennifer Goldsack, CEO and founder of Digital Medicine Society, spoke about the promise and power at the intersection of artificial intelligence and healthcare to serve patient needs.

Maneesh Goyal, chief operating officer of Mayo Clinic Platform, focused on how platform-based collaboration is creating a world where the best possible care will be available to everyone, everywhere. Headliner Victoria Lee, M.D., president and CEO of Fraser Health, explored how platforms are helping to transform "sickness care" into "wellness care."

During the Mayo Clinic Platform_Accelerate Showcase, digital health startups shared practical applications of AI-based technologies developed through the accelerator program, including solutions that support care teams by using millions of de-identified patient records to predict life-threatening complications such as sepsis and preeclampsia.

Key takeaways

The conference focused on opportunities and challenges surrounding platform transformation. Topics discussed include the need for industry collaboration, AI safety and security, and the importance of human connection. Speakers also emphasized how digital tools and AI support staff. 

Several themes echoed across the conference sessions:

• Healthcare's most pressing challenges require platform thinking and industry-wide collaboration.
  Fundamental challenges in healthcare include too much disease, increasing demand, and uneven quality across communities and countries. The industry needs easier ways to collaborate to create more cures, provide even more support to staff and make quality care more accessible.
  
  
• Healthcare needs change — and platform thinking.
  The World Health Organization estimates that there will be a shortfall of 10 million health workers by 2030. Platform thinking and emerging technologies will support the work that only healthcare workers can do, ensuring that, as demand increases, the quality of care can stay consistent. Healthcare must change, and platforms present the best opportunity to support that change.
  
  
• Trust is essential for transformation.
  Healthcare professionals will only adopt AI-based solutions they can trust. AI solutions need to be mitigated for bias and validated by experts. Validation frameworks, like the ones developed by Mayo Clinic Platform_Validate, provide the evidence to establish the trustworthiness of solutions that can help teams enhance operational efficiency and improve patient care.
  
  
• Mayo Clinic Platform is the model and conduit for global healthcare transformation.
  A platform model of healthcare can and will be one of Mayo Clinic's most transformative and far-reaching contributions to the future of healthcare. Industry partnerships and platform thinking will support staff and bring high-quality, personalized medicine to people everywhere — at Mayo Clinic and beyond.

The conference concluded with closing remarks from Dr. Halamka, who emphasized the importance of human connection and collaboration and encouraged the audience to reflect on the possibilities for the future of care.

"If we can start collectively delivering the care journeys and care-path planning that our patients need and want, reducing the burden on our caregivers and empowering the next generation that is not going to have enough resources, then we are finally going to change the practice of medicine," he said. "The only way to do it is with platform thinking — and the only way to do it is together."

Next year global leaders across the healthcare ecosystem will convene once again for PlatforMed 2025, advancing platforms for a better and fairer model of healthcare for all.

The post 4 takeaways from PlatforMed 2024 to advance collaboration, transformation in healthcare with platform thinking appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Mayo Clinic will hold its 2024 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit, "Generative Multimodal AI — Potentials and Challenges," on July 8–9 in Rochester and virtually. The event will bring together AI experts and the healthcare community to discuss advances in large multimodal models and their use in healthcare.

"The role of artificial intelligence is evolving rapidly in areas from preventing and diagnosing diseases to developing new cures," says Cui Tao, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Artificial Intelligence and Informatics. "The summit is an exciting opportunity to explore the possibilities while navigating the challenges of developing and using transformative technology in healthcare." Dr. Tao is the Nancy Peretsman and Robert Scully Chair of AI and Informatics.

The event will be hosted by the Department of Artificial Intelligence and Analytics, in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic AI community.

Event details

The AI Summit will offer opportunities to hear from experts in AI, share knowledge and network through lightning talks, panel discussions and a poster session.

The keynote speakers will be:

• John Halamka, M.D., president, Mayo Clinic Platform
  "The Next Milestones for Predictive and Generative AI in Healthcare"
• Thomas Fuchs, DrSc, dean of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health, Mount Sinai
  "Beyond 1 Million Slides: How the Era of Foundation Models is Supercharging Precision Medicine"
• Anant Madabhushi, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering, Emory University
  "Walking the Talk: Validating AI for Precision Medicine with Clinical Trials"
• Shauna Overgaard, Ph.D., co-director of AI Validation and Stewardship, Mayo Clinic
  "Implementing Quality Management Systems to Close the AI Translation Gap and Facilitate Safe, Ethical and Effective Health AI Solutions"
• Hoifung Poon, general manager at Health Futures, Microsoft Research
  "The Emergence of Multimodal Generative AI in Biomedicine"

Hamid Tizhoosh, Ph.D., Artificial Intelligence and Informatics, will chair the event.

View the complete agenda.

Register to attend, submit an abstract

Registration for both Mayo Clinic and external participants is $350 for in-person or virtual attendance, with a discounted rate of $250 for students.

Register today to attend.

You can submit your work in an AI-related area for consideration to present at the summit. The conference will cover an array of topics — AI models and algorithms in general, generative AI, discovery science, bias, multimodality and more.

Three presentation formats are available:

• Lightning talk (10 minutes)
• Poster presentation
• Workshop/tutorial

Learn more and submit an abstract proposal on the conference website. Proposals will be accepted through June 9 (extended deadline).

Learn more

For more details, visit the AI Summit website.

The post Participate in Mayo Clinic’s upcoming AI Summit appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Clinical trials can be a beacon of hope for many patients and can fuel the discovery of new advancements in healthcare. They represent the power of collaboration between volunteer participants and research teams who carefully collect data.

One clinical trials team at Mayo Clinic is working to test a screening tool for colorectal cancer, a leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S.

Early detection of colorectal cancer may hold the key to saving lives.

In the Voyage study, the team is gathering real-world data on Cologuard, a noninvasive stool DNA screening test for colorectal cancer, and now has 150,000 participants enrolled. The participants will be tracked over a seven-year period.

The team conducting this study includes data librarians, statisticians and clinical research coordinators, who ensure the research is thorough and conducted responsibly. The team has worked in lockstep throughout the trial, now in its fifth year.

"The purpose of this study is to gather real-world evidence on Cologuard's impact on long-term outcomes in a large, diverse population, and so the overarching goal is to examine the colorectal cancer-related incidence and mortality in a cohort of people who had an order for the test kit," says clinical research coordinator Allison Berry.

"It is a prospective survey-based study, so we're looking at people going forward in time," she adds.

The participants enrolled in the study answered a baseline questionnaire about demographics and their health history. From there, Berry says, the team is building a data repository that documents any changes in their health or personal information over time.

Labor of love

The team notes that this study is a labor of love.

"People send us notes all the time; one person said they are doing this because their mother passed away, and they do not want anyone to go through this pain," says Berry. "I think just seeing the care, attention and investment that participants have makes our job rewarding."

The team notes that the work being conducted today within the study has implications for now and well into the future when it comes to those considering preventive measures such as early screening for colorectal cancer. They hope the data points they are collecting will provide lifesaving information and result in positive outcomes for patients.

"We're not just collecting data and keeping it," says clinical research coordinator Angie Kostreba. "We're concentrating on following up and continuing to validate what the participants have reported by checking in with their healthcare providers."

Senior program coordinator Jessica O’Neill emphasized that the effort put into the details of the clinical trial makes all the difference.

"When people hear about survey studies, they don't realize how much work goes into it," says O'Neill. "The research coordinators have fielded over 24,000 phone calls, 6,000 voicemails, 10,000 emails, 500,000 incoming documents and one million mailed outgoing documents."

The clinical research coordinators are critical to the work, their colleagues say. 

"The clinical research coordinators have played a hugely important role in the success of the Voyage study,” says Janet Olson, Ph.D., the study's principal investigator. "As advocates for the study and the participants, the study coordinator team has been well prepared to ensure that all tasks were done with quality and integrity and that participants received timely responses to their inquiries about the study."

Members say that flexibility and cohesive team dynamics also are key to ensuring the study's success.

"We would not be here without everyone who helped get us to this point," says clinical research coordinator Jen Fondakowski. "We've been lucky to have such a phenomenal team for many years."

Mayo Clinic has a financial interest in the technology referenced in this news article. Mayo Clinic will use any revenue it receives to support its not-for-profit mission in patient care, education and research.

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Decades of data can now be used to pinpoint diseases earlier and transform healthcare.

ROCHESTER, Minn. and ST. LOUIS — Mayo Clinic and Mercy are making a significant advancement in their global, first-of-its-kind 10-year collaboration agreement signed in the summer of 2022. As founding members of Mayo Clinic Platform_Connect, the two organizations will now be working together to analyze de-identified patient data as they search for new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent disease, providing better outcomes and lower costs of care.

Mayo Clinic Platform_Connect is a distributed data network that provides secure access to de-identified clinical data. Previously, Mercy and Mayo Clinic could use Connect to analyze data from their own organizations, but as of today, each organization can safely and securely analyze de-identified patient data from either health system. This significantly larger data set allows researchers and innovators to better identify risk factors, predict illnesses and provide earlier treatment with the potential to positively impact millions of patients' lives. 

"Mayo Clinic Platform is enabling innovation to change how care is provided. At its core, Platform relies on our distributed data network to make available data that has depth, breadth and spread, and which can help create new ways to diagnose, treat and care for patients no matter where in the world they might live. Today represents a significant milestone, demonstrating the power of collaboration in transforming healthcare," said John Halamka, M.D., president of Mayo Clinic Platform.

Mayo Clinic Platform recently announced the addition of three healthcare organizations to its global collaboration: Seoul National University Hospital in South Korea, Singapore's SingHealth and UC Davis Health in California. This expansion brings the total number of Mayo Clinic Platform_Connect members to eight, including founding members Mayo Clinic and Mercy, Brazil's Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Israel's Sheba Medical Center and Canada's University Health Network, who joined in 2023. The alliance now spans seven countries across three continents, representing diversity in genetics, demographics and lifestyles to provide a massive repository of analyzable data.

"This is a major step toward moving healthcare from being reactive to proactively addressing the biggest concerns of patients and the communities we serve," said Joe Kelly, executive vice president, chief transformation officer for Mercy. "This unprecedented data set allows us to harness the power of artificial intelligence to develop algorithms and validate treatment plans effectively for complex patient populations. These algorithms, integrated directly into everyday clinical workflows, can help us predict the likelihood of chronic diseases and help to better proactively assist patients earlier in their care, improving outcomes and reducing costs for both patients and health systems."

Each organization will be able to look for trends, indicators, risk factors and more while retaining control over its de-identified outcomes through Mayo Clinic Platform's Data Behind Glass^[1] approach. Mayo Clinic and Mercy will develop products, algorithms and tools for their health systems that can be made available to other health systems for use in the same transformative way, potentially impacting the practice of medicine across the globe.

"After more than a year in development, we now have a platform that permits insights from Mercy's own data and that of Mayo Clinic. This data will improve patients' lives by helping us find diseases earlier and supporting more personalized care," said Byron Yount, chief data and AI officer for Mercy. "This will significantly deepen partnerships, broaden the scope of discovery, quicken the speed of innovation and ultimately improve care for patients everywhere. We are already learning with our new health care collaborators and reimagining how we approach health care challenges and opportunities. The way we produce the world’s most impactful solutions is evolving, and Mayo Clinic Platform is going to enable it."

^[1] Trademark Pending

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About Mayo Clinic Platform
Founded on Mayo Clinic's dedication to patient-centered care, Mayo Clinic Platform enables new knowledge, new solutions and new technologies through collaborations with health technology innovators to create a healthier world.

About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

About Mercy
Mercy, one of the 20 largest U.S. health systems and named the top large system in the U.S. for excellent patient experience by NRC Health, serves millions annually with nationally recognized care and one of the nation’s largest and highest performing Accountable Care Organizations in quality and cost. Mercy is a highly integrated, multi-state healthcare system including more than 50 acute care and specialty (heart, children’s, orthopedic and rehab) hospitals, convenient and urgent care locations, imaging centers and pharmacies. Mercy has over 900 physician practice locations and outpatient facilities, more than 4,500 physicians and advanced practitioners and 50,000 co-workers serving patients and families across Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has clinics, outpatient services and outreach ministries in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. In fiscal year 2023 alone, Mercy provided more than half a billion dollars of free care and other community benefits, including traditional charity care and unreimbursed Medicaid.

Media contacts:

• Terri Malloy, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu
• Nancy Dixon, Mercy Media Relations, nancy.dixon@mercy.net

The post Mayo Clinic and Mercy reach first major milestone in data collaboration appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Editor's note: April is Esophageal Cancer Awareness Month.

Esophageal cancer accounts for only about 1% of new cancer cases in the U.S., far lower than rates in other parts of the world. However, survival rates are low because it is often found at a later stage when symptoms such as difficulty swallowing, worsening heartburn, coughing and hoarseness have begun.

Having precancerous changes in the cells of the esophagus, a condition called Barrett's esophagus is a risk factor for esophageal cancer. Barrett's esophagus is caused by gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), which occurs when stomach acid repeatedly flows back into the esophagus, irritating the lining of the esophagus.

Risk factors for Barrett's esophagus include:

• Having a family history of Barrett's esophagus or esophageal cancer.
• Being male.
• Being white.
• Being older than 50.
• Having chronic heartburn and acid reflux.
• Being a smoker or former smoker.
• Being overweight.

Esophageal cancer specialists recommend screening for Barrett's esophagus in people who have multiple risk factors. Screening involves a procedure called an endoscopy. During an endoscopy, a healthcare professional passes a lighted tube with a camera at the end (endoscope) down your throat to check for signs of changing esophagus tissue.

Despite these recommendations, screening rates for Barrett's esophagus are low. Prasad Iyer, M.D., a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and researcher, is working to change that.

"We now have access to new, minimally invasive tools for Barrett's esophagus screening," he says. "However, there is a critical need to develop more accurate Barrett's esophagus and esophageal cancer risk assessment tools that can be easily used with electronic health record data."

Such tools would help healthcare professionals identify people most likely to benefit from screening.

To address this need, Dr. Iyer and a team of researchers developed and tested a tool that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to predict the risk of Barrett's esophagus and esophageal cancer based on data from a large database of de-identified electronic health records. The results of their study were published in Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology in 2023.

How the study was conducted

Dr. Iyer and his research team used an AI model developed based on de-identified electronic health records of 6 million Mayo Clinic patients to create a risk prediction tool that can determine Barrett's esophagus and esophageal cancer risk at least a year before diagnosis.

The risk prediction tool can be integrated with an electronic health record and, when appropriate, prompt a healthcare professional to consider screening a patient for Barrett's esophagus.

Based on clinical, endoscopy, laboratory and pathology notes in the electronic health records, the researchers identified 8,476 people with Barrett's esophagus, 1,539 people with esophageal cancer and 252,276 people in the control group. They then used these groups to develop predictive models for the risk prediction tool.

The study results

The results of the study demonstrated that the tool's predictive models had a high level of accuracy:

• The tool predicted Barrett's esophagus with 76% sensitivity (proportion of samples correctly identified as negative), 76% specificity (proportion of samples correctly identified as positive), and an area under the receiver-operating curve (AUROC) of 0.84. AUROC is a metric used to measure the quality of predictions produced by an AI model. It ranges from 0 to 1, with 1 being the highest quality.
• The tool predicted esophageal cancer with 84% sensitivity, 70% specificity and an AUROC of 0.84.
• The tool also identified known risk factors for Barrett's esophagus and esophageal cancer, as well as new risk factors to consider, including coronary artery disease, triglyceride levels and electrolyte levels.

"Our work has demonstrated that it's possible to create a more accurate risk assessment tool for Barrett's esophagus and esophageal cancer using AI and electronic health record data.

Prasad Iyer, M.D.

"This tool could be integrated into the electronic health record and combined with a minimally invasive (nonendoscopic) screening tool and used by healthcare professionals in primary care," he says.

Dr. Iyer notes that more research is needed to clarify when healthcare professionals should recommend screening, as well as to clarify other details. "Testing this risk prediction tool in patients and assessing the tool's performance are important next steps," he says.

This story originally was published on the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer blog.

Related posts:

• Consumer Health: What’s the difference between heartburn and GERD?
• Sharing Mayo Clinic: Finding a less invasive treatment for esophageal cancer

The post AI may help predict risk of Barrett’s esophagus and esophageal cancer appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

On March 15, in an auditorium packed with colleagues, students and supporters, 13 innovators gathered on the University of Minnesota campus for the 2024 Walleye Tank Spring Opener.

With adrenaline-fueled pitches, the contestants took the stage, aiming to capture the attention of a panel of judges and secure funding for their innovations. From a care coordination platform to a self-inflating vest for protection from falls, a diverse array of products left the audience both inspired and intrigued. Who would reel in the ultimate catch?

The Walleye Tank is Minnesota's premier life-science pitch competition. Held twice every year, it provides a platform for entrepreneurs at all stages of invention to gain support and connections to propel their projects forward. The event is co-organized by Mayo Clinic's Office of Entrepreneurship and the University of Minnesota's Venture Center.

Dr. Nathan Wiedenman, director of Mayo's Office of Entrepreneurship, delivered remarks, as did leaders of biotech organizations and the university's Carlson School of Management.

"I have the privilege of leading a fantastic team at Mayo through the Office of Entrepreneurship and the Office of Translation to Practice," said Dr. Wiedenman. "We are constantly seeing new technologies, and we help marry these new ideas and innovations with the resources they need to move forward. We love being part of events like this where exactly that is happening — not just in the form of checks, but in the connections that are being made." 

Dr. Maarten Rotman, education program manager for the Mayo Clinic Office of Entrepreneurship, was instrumental in planning the event alongside University of Minnesota staff and preparing contestants to deliver their pitches. Dr. Ron Thacker, entrepreneurial education program coordinator for the Office of Entrepreneurship, and Maria Ploessl, University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, served as co-masters of ceremonies.

Watch the 2024 Walleye Tank Spring Opener:

Pitching for the top prize

At the Walleye Tank competition, each team has 120 seconds to pitch its project, followed by four minutes of questions from the "walleyes" — a panel of judges who decide which projects are the worthiest of investment. Among these experts in life science and business, representing Mayo Clinic was Dr. Kien T. Nguyen from the Department of Business Development.

How do you anticipate getting to market? How do you differentiate yourself from the competition? Who are your customers, and how will you reach them?

Each competitor fielded tough questions, navigating the waters as they tried to hook the judges' interest. Participants competed in two categories: Junior Anglers — entrepreneurs in the early stages of business development; and Mid-Level Reelers — incorporated companies in the early stages of fundraising.

Following the pitches, the auditorium buzzed with activity as attendees and participants mingled while the judges deliberated to select the top projects in the competition.

Meet the winning projects

The winners of the 2024 Walleye Tank Spring Opener were announced and honored with iconic Walleye Tank trophies and oversized checks. Here are the winning companies:

Junior Anglers:

Winner: $4,000 award

• Empower Independence Co: Simply Shower
  Simply Shower provides a magnetic system with gripped sleeves and a wall board to enhance accessibility, self-care, energy conservation, independence and safety for people with reduced mobility.

Runners-up: $1,000 award

• Vertex Medical Solutions: Vertex 360 Platform
  Vertex is a digital health startup developing a trauma-informed, social care coordination platform to address health-related social needs of vulnerable patient populations.
• Emergense
  The Emergense diagnostics test integrates a vast array of variables and data points to predict prostate cancer recurrence and aggressiveness.

Mid-Level Reelers

Winner: $10,000 award

• Objective Biotechnology
  Objective Biotechnology is commercializing research laboratory equipment, such as an automated microinjector, developed at the University of Minnesota.

Runner-up: $4,000 award

• Davenport SAF-T Systems: SAF-T VEST
  The SAF-T VEST, a smart technology designed for older adults, will detect a fall in real time and inflate airbags, protecting fracture-prone areas of the body.

An honorary award was presented to Dr. Rena Hale, Office of Entrepreneurship, for her outstanding contributions to the Walleye Tank. Dr. Hale served as a Walleye Tank co-organizer from 2020 to 2023 and played a pivotal role in building and growing the event.

The post Healthcare innovators vie for top prize at Walleye Tank appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Mayo Clinic researchers will jump four hurdles to apply chimeric antigen receptor-T cell therapy (CAR-T cell therapy) to solid tumors in thyroid cancer. This regenerative immunotherapy has shown promising results in blood cancers, and new research is focused on using this treatment on more types of malignancies.

"CAR-T cell therapy is unlike other therapeutics," says Saad Kenderian, M.B., Ch.B., a hematologist and cancer researcher. "Other therapies may slow down cancer. CAR-T cell therapy has shown great promise in stopping B-cell lymphomas and leukemias. Some of my patients have gone into complete remission that has lasted for years after just one treatment."

CAR-T cell therapy harnesses the power of the body's immune system to kill tumors. T cells are taken from a patient, then genetically modified and returned to the body to act as guardians against cancer.

In a team science approach, Dr. Kenderian and John Copland III, Ph.D., are collaborating as principal investigators on research to develop CAR-T technology for solid tumors in thyroid cancer. However, to do so they must address four challenges.

1. There are no clear targets in solid tumors

CAR-T cells are engineered to target specific proteins and antigens that are on the surface of cancer cells. Antigens are substances that activate the body's immune system. CARs are genetically programmed to trigger an immune response and destroy cancer cells.

"However, there are few clear targets on solid tumors like we have in liquid tumors," says Dr. Kenderian. "For CAR-T cell therapy to be successful, the first thing that we need to do is identify a protein to target that is unique to cancer cells that is not also expressed on normal tissue."

The teams of Dr. Kenderian and Dr. Copland believe they have identified such a target in the thyroid stimulating hormone receptor (TSHR) which is uniquely found on thyroid cancer cells in the thyroid gland. They are engineering THSR targeting into CAR-T cell therapy for thyroid cancer. This is known as TSHR CAR-T.

2. One treatment type doesn't fit all solid tumors

Solid cancers are comprised of many cell subsets. As a result, a tumor may have genetic mutations in some cells that aren't present in others. This is known as tumor heterogeneity, and it makes it difficult to treat these cancers with a single therapy.

"To overcome the tumor heterogeneity, we are using a strategy to combine TSHR CAR-T cell therapy with small molecules to block cancer cells from growing and metastasizing," says Dr. Copland. "We are studying whether loading CAR-T cells with this synthetic receptor in combination will trigger a cancer fighting response."

3. Solid tumors may be resistant to CAR-T cell therapy

Unlike blood cancers, solid tumors exist in a microenvironment that suppresses the immune system. In addition, dense clusters of malignant cells may create a barrier that blocks the CARs from bringing their cancer fighting mechanisms into cells.

"One strategy for overcoming this challenge is to target cells that are contributing to tumor aggressiveness," says Dr. Copland. "Another is to develop technology known as dual CARs that recognize two different targets. We are studying whether that will overcome tumor resistance."

4. Treating solid tumors may cause side effects

CAR-T cell therapy could mistakenly attack nearby healthy tissue, triggering what's known as "off-target effects." The result might be adverse side effects that are hard for the patient to tolerate. TSHR is a unique target that is expressed only on thyroid cancer cells and not on normal tissues, which minimizes the risk.

On-site biomanufacturing is a bridge to clinical trials

Dr. Kenderian and Dr. Copland are refining the TSHR CAR-T cell technology in the lab and in preclinical models. Biomanufacturing at Mayo Clinic will provide a bridge to accelerate this technology from the lab to early-stage clinical trials.

The process development team within Mayo Clinic's Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics now is conducting test runs and establishing standard operating procedures in preparation for biomanufacturing this technology at Mayo Clinic.

"On-site biomanufacturing is critical to preserving the integrity of the cells during manufacturing," says Dr. Kenderian. "This is a very complex technology with many components that would make it difficult, if not impossible, to ship to an outside manufacturer."

Dr. Kenderian and Dr. Copland are driven by a passion to provide new therapies for patients who have few or no therapeutic options. Their goal is to advance CAR-T cell therapy for thyroid cancer to a first-in-human clinical trial by early 2025.

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Related stories:
CAR-T cell therapy restores hope for leukemia patient
CAR-T cell researchers at Mayo Clinic optimistic about future of treating blood cancers

The post Unleashing CAR-T cell therapy to destroy solid tumors in thyroid cancer appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Mayo Clinic researchers used a new approach to chemotherapy to more than double the typical survival rate for patients with stomach cancer and peritoneal metastasis, which is cancer that has spread to the lining of the abdominal cavity, according to a study published in the Annals of Surgical Oncology.

Stomach cancer, which is also called gastric cancer, is caused by an uncontrolled growth of cells that starts in the stomach. Most stomach cancers are found when the disease has spread beyond the stomach and a cure is less likely.

"We're seeing an increase in stomach cancer in younger people, and it tends to be more advanced," says Travis Grotz, M.D., surgical oncologist. “Unfortunately, when stomach cancer spreads to the peritoneum, systemic therapy is the primary treatment, resulting in only one year to live on average. Our research team was determined to improve outcomes for these patients so they can have more time with their family and friends."

In the study, the patients received cytoreductive surgery to remove all visible cancer tumors in the stomach and abdominal cavity, followed by hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC). During HIPEC, the abdominal cavity is bathed with hot chemotherapy drugs, in this case cisplatin and paclitaxel, for 90 minutes to kill any remaining microscopic cancer cells. Heating the chemotherapy drugs and administering them directly into the abdominal cavity allows for both a higher dosage and greater penetration of the chemotherapy, resulting in more cancer cells being destroyed than conventional treatment, say the researchers.

"The median survival for most stage 4 gastric cancer patients is around 13 months," says Dr. Grotz, who is lead author of the study. "By using this new combination of chemotherapy drugs during hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy, more than half (55%) of our patients are still alive three years after surgery."

The patients studied were ages 46-62 with stage 4 gastric cancer with peritoneal metastasis. They received an average of seven cycles of chemotherapy prior to undergoing cytoreductive surgery combined with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy. After the procedure, the patients stayed in the hospital for around six days, with most patients having no complications. Of the patients who had complications, most were lower grade and didn't prolong their hospital stay.

Researchers followed the patients clinically with imaging and tumor markers every three to four months for the first two years and every six months thereafter. The one, two and three-year overall survival rates were 96%, 78% and 55%, respectively.

The research team is looking to improve those outcomes even further by performing similar procedures robotically to require smaller abdominal incisions. The goal is to decrease the length of hospital stays and complication rates and quicken recovery so patients can get back to enjoying their lives. Eventually, Dr. Grotz hopes to do the procedure even sooner after diagnosis to prevent the spread of stomach cancer to the peritoneum.

"People with gastric cancer are usually told they have no hope and no options. When I was a medical student, I was motivated to wholly understand the cancer, how to treat it to really make a meaningful impact and cure some of these patients or prolong their survival or help alleviate their symptoms," says Dr. Grotz. "Although we still have a long way to go, we've made some big strides and will continue to make progress to provide hope and healing for our patients."

Review the study for a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding.

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In this Mayo Clinic Minute, Dr. Aaron Potretzke, a Mayo Clinic urologist, explains how advances in diagnostics and treatment have made kidney cancer more treatable than ever before.

Watch: The Mayo Clinic Minute

Journalists: Broadcast-quality video (0:59) is in the downloads at the end of this post. Please courtesy: "Mayo Clinic News Network." Read the script.

Most kidney cancer is discovered at an early stage when the cancer is small and confined to the kidney.

"Many patients are diagnosed coincidentally by imaging of the abdomen with a small renal mass, and they have a lot of options," says Dr. Potretzke.

The surgical approach to kidney cancer has shifted over the years to preserving as much of the healthy kidney as possible. Mayo Clinic has adopted some of the most advanced techniques, such as use of robotics.

"There is a focus, when it's safe and feasible, to removing just the tumor and leaving as much of the normal kidney behind as possible. Doing so is associated with increased long-term kidney function," says Dr. Potretzke.

Another option is to perform an ablation.

"They (radiologists) can stick a series of needles into the tumor and freeze it, or microwave it to death, and destroy the tumor while maintaining the normal, healthy kidney. And there is a fair bit of evidence that, in the correct patient, each one of those strategies can be really successful," says Dr. Potretzke.

Because many kidney tumors found early are relatively low risk, a third option is to keep a close eye on it, which is called active surveillance.

"Not everyone is a suitable candidate, but for patients with smaller renal masses, the risks of treatment may actually outweigh the potential benefits," adds Dr. Potretzke.

The post Mayo Clinic Minute: Advances in treating kidney cancer appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.