Cancer Featured Stories

Gynecologic Oncologist John E. Savage, M.D., Joins UAMS

LITTLE ROCK — Fellowship-trained gynecologic oncologist John E. Savage, M.D., has joined the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). He sees patients in the second floor clinics at the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.

Savage earned his medical degree at the University of Iowa. After completing his internship at Los Angeles County University of Southern California Medical Center, Savage returned to the University of Iowa for his residency and fellowship training.

Savage previously served on the faculty of the University of Iowa and the University of Minnesota Medical School, as well as holding the position of director of gynecologic oncology at both St. Paul Ramsey Medical Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. He worked in private practice for more than 20 years.

Savage is certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG) and the ABOG Division of Gynecologic Oncology. He is a charter member of the International Gynecologic Cancer Society; a fellow in the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and American College of Surgeons; and a member of the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists, Central Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and Gynecologic Oncology Group.

June O’Keefe Named UAMS Cancer Institute Volunteer of the Year

Nov. 29, 2016 | For more than nine years, June O’Keefe has quietly made a difference in the lives of Arkansas’ cancer patients.

Her efforts were recognized Nov. 17 when she was named Volunteer of the Year by the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Auxiliary.

“June is always upbeat, outgoing and has a wonderful smile. Her fellow volunteers love working with her, and the patients look forward to seeing her regularly. She truly is a pleasure to work with and brightens our days,” said Janie Lowe, director of the Cancer Institute Department of Volunteer Services and Auxiliary, which presents the annual award.

O’Keefe has logged more than 3,000 volunteer hours in her nine years of service. She assists weekly in the waiting rooms, leads the Sit and Knit group, and participates in the Care Caps group.

Sit and Knit meets at 1:30 p.m. each Wednesday in the Patient Support Pavilion to knit and crochet hats for UAMS patients who have lost their hair due to cancer treatment. Care Caps meets at 9 a.m. on the fourth Monday of each month at the Family Home, located across the street from UAMS, to sew hats for cancer patients at UAMS and across the country.

The Family Home is a nonprofit facility that provides affordable housing for patients at the UAMS Cancer Institute and parents of infants in the UAMS Medical Center neonatal intensive care unit. It also houses the Cancer Institute’s Cancer Support Center. For information about participating in either group, contact the Cancer Institute Department of Volunteer Services and Auxiliary at (501) 686-8286.

The Cancer Institute Auxiliary has about 500 members, more than half of whom volunteer on a regular basis in the waiting areas and gift shop or help with special events throughout the year.

Funds raised by the auxiliary are distributed as grants benefiting cancer patients at the Cancer Institute and in northwest Arkansas. Kimberly Pickett is auxiliary president.

Annual Donation to UAMS Breast Cancer Program Brings Ashley County Cares Total to $358,000

LITTLE ROCK — Members of the grassroots group Ashley County Cares visited the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) on Nov. 16 to present a donation of $35,000 for breast cancer research and outreach.

Since 2005, Ashley County Cares has worked in its community to raise $358,000 for breast cancer programs at UAMS. Representatives of the group traveled to the UAMS Cancer Institute to present their most recent donation — $35,000 to be used for breast cancer research and statewide outreach and education efforts.

Ashley County Cares President Donna Shields presented the check to UAMS Cancer Institute Director Peter Emanuel, M.D.

“Ashley County Cares is a remarkable group that has truly made an impact on breast cancer research and awareness in Arkansas. We are honored to accept their donation and to support their work on behalf of the women in our state,” said Emanuel, who also serves as a professor in the UAMS College of Medicine.

Joining them were Issam Makhoul, M.D., professor and director of the Division of Medical Oncology; Ronda Henry-Tillman, M.D., professor in the Department of Surgery; and V. Suzanne Klimberg, M.D., professor and director of the Division of Breast and Surgical Oncology, all in the UAMS College of Medicine.

“We have all been touched by breast cancer and know how important it is to keep fighting for a cure,” Shields said. “We are happy to support UAMS’ research and outreach efforts across the state, as well as honor our own breast cancer survivors in Ashley County.”

Accompanying Shields were her fellow Ashley County Cares members Bernice Nelms and Kay Hartshorn.

The group’s donation was raised through their annual events, including two T-shirt sales, a dinner and auction, and the Armadillo Festival 5K run/1K walk.

Learn more about Ashley County Cares here.

UAMS’ van Rhee Receives Award for Castleman Disease

Donation from Gwatney Buick GMC Benefits UAMS MammoVan

Nov. 15, 2016 | A month-long promotion at a North Little Rock car dealership is helping provide mammograms for women across Arkansas.

During October, a portion of proceeds from sales at Gwatney Buick GMC were designated for the, a mobile mammography unit that offers screening mammography to women throughout Arkansas. The donation was presented Nov. 14 by Penny Burkhalter, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Foundation board member and Gwatney advertising spokesperson, to Sharp Malak, M.D., director of the Mobile Mammography Program in the UAMS College of Medicine’s Department of Radiology.

Malak, who holds a master’s degree in public health, also is assistant professor of radiology and epidemiology and director of the Breast Imaging Research Program at UAMS.

“We are so grateful for this donation in support of the MammoVan. When women have access to mammograms, cancers are caught earlier and treatments are more successful,” Malak said.

Burkhalter, who is a breast cancer survivor, joined the UAMS Cancer Institute Foundation Board of Directors in 2015.

“Everyone at Gwatney Buick GMC is supportive of this promotion and thrilled that we can help make a positive impact on the health of women in Arkansas,” Burkhalter said. This the third year for the dealership to donate a portion of its proceeds to benefit breast cancer programs at the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.

The MammoVan is outfitted with the most advanced digital mammography equipment and is staffed by a certified mammography technologist and a technical assistant.

Patients receive their test results within two to three weeks. Results also are sent to each patient’s primary care physician. If the mammogram shows a potential abnormality, the patient is referred for follow-up to the appropriate services.

Blog Gives Multiple Myeloma Patient Way to Share

Oct. 27, 2016 | Sean Murray of Kimberling City, Missouri, was working a stressful job in November 2008.

His project list was long and deadlines were coming due. So, yes, he noticed the pain in the upper middle part of his back. But the 49-year-old figured it was a pinched nerve or a pulled muscle and decided it was just another annoyance he’d have to deal with.

Ten days after the pain started, it became too big to ignore. At this point, Murray had been sleeping in a recliner because it hurt to lay down. He dragged himself to his primary care physician who ordered x-rays and referred him to an orthopaedic surgeon.

“I had a feeling I was in good hands. The surgeon had the same name as an actor who plays Superman. He was, in my mind, Dr. Superman,” Murray said.

Results from an MRI and CT scan led the surgeon to suspect Murray had an advanced case of multiple myeloma.

Murray was asleep when the doctor called that evening. Karen, his wife, answered the phone.

“He told her he was going to refer me to one of the best places in the world that treats multiple myeloma. She automatically started to think of well-known hospitals like MD Anderson or the Mayo Clinic,” Murray said.

He says his wife’s first reaction to the doctor was “Are you kidding?” when he recommended a facility in Little Rock.

“There isn’t another institute like it in the world,” said Gareth Morgan, M.D, Ph.D., professor and director of the UAMS Myeloma Center. “We have lots of patients, half of which come from outside of Arkansas. We were the first people who could make the claim that we can cure myeloma.”

Morgan says the survival rates are twice as good at UAMS as they are in other myeloma treatment centers. Over a ten-year period, 50 to 60 percent of UAMS myeloma patients are alive and well, compared to 20 to 30 percent in other comparable facilities.

Morgan attributes it to the use of a combination of different classes of drugs: one that enhances the immune system, one that targets the proteosome and antibody therapy. Morgan describes the antibodies as silver bullets that target only cancer cells, leaving healthy parts alone and limiting side effects.

“It’s an interesting example of how taking science and genetics into the clinic has allowed us to first understand the disease, then target treatment to the genetics of the disease and improve survival,” Morgan said. “Focusing on that is what we believe gives us success.”

For his treatment, Murray moved to Little Rock for ten months. It was a challenging time, he said. His wife was with him whenever possible. She was an elementary school music teacher, in graduate school at night, and was taking care of their two daughters, Katie and Elizabeth, who were 11 and 5 at the time. He was happy to have a close network of family and friends from all over the country helped him when his wife was with the children in Missouri.

When Murray went home and began his three-year chemotherapy maintenance period, he started a blog to keep his friends and loved ones updated without having to repeat his story several times. He called it Myeloma Youreloma.

“It began as a place where people could check in to see how I was doing and what my thoughts were,” Murray said.

His blog caught the attention of editors at The Myeloma Beacon. Since then, Murray had the opportunity to write a patient perspective on their website. He’s written more than 75 entries. Murray says his goal is to encourage other myeloma patients to not give up hope.

“This disease is willing to take everything away from you if you let it,” Murray said. “It’s as if the sun stops shining and you lose passion for things you once cared about. It’s an all-consuming disease, if you allow it to be.”

Murray says during his darkest times, his wife and two children are his motivators to beat his illness. He and Karen adopted their daughters from China. Katie had been left alone on the steps of a Buddhist temple. Liz had been left in a factory courtyard before they were taken to orphanages.

“One thing that keeps me going when I want to give up is the sad thought of leaving my daughters. I don’t want them to be abandoned again. I tell myself, ‘I may not be able to do this for Sean Murray. But I would do anything for Kate and Liz’s dad and Karen’s husband.’ Thanks to UAMS, I am still here with my family.”

Pebbles Fagan, Ph.D., Joins UAMS as Director of Center for the Study of Tobacco

LITTLE ROCK — Pebbles Fagan, Ph.D., M.P.H., has been named director of the Center for the Study of Tobacco at the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).

Fagan also will serve as a professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education in the College of Public Health.

The mission of the center is to engage multiple disciplines in conducting collaborative and innovative research designed to inform public health policies and enhance interventions to reduce tobacco use. She will hire additional faculty and staff to conduct research and train and mentor students.

Fagan has more than 20 years of experience in conducting research into tobacco prevention and control and cancer prevention and control. She has an extensive background in research that aims to reduce health disparities.

She has a doctorate in health education from Texas A&M University; a Master of Public Health in health education/communication from Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine; and a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric and communications and Afro-American studies from the University of Virginia.

For the past five years, Fagan conducted research as an associate professor in the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the University of Hawai’i Cancer Center, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa in Honolulu. She also served for 10 years as a health scientist at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland; and a postdoctoral fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

Fagan said the need for tobacco research is high because more than 400,000 people in the United States die each year from tobacco-related deaths.

“Cigarette smoking is still a big problem. In addition, the use of flavored tobacco products, like little cigars and electronic cigarettes, is increasing among our youth and young adults,” Fagan said. “We are at the dawn of a new era of policy-informing research that can protect our public from the harms of tobacco.”

She said the center will engage students and faculty and bridge academic, community and government collaborations in an effort to reduce the toll of tobacco use and exposure on vulnerable groups.

Fagan has published more than 60 peer-reviewed papers, has a track record of leading and collaborating on National Institutes of Health and foundation-funded grants, and is the project director/principle investigator on part of a grant funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Food and Drug Administration. Fagan provides leadership to a team of researchers who conduct studies that use mixed-methods to understand electronic cigarette use and the unorthodox use of electronic cigarettes.

“My work on the NIH grant will help to jump-start the Center for the Study of Tobacco and help to bridge collaborations across institutions,” she said.

“Dr. Fagan has been remarkably productive in securing grants, publishing, establishing a network with other tobacco experts nationally, and developing a range of research experience from basic to more applied research,” said Jim Raczynski, Ph.D., professor and founding dean of the College of Public Health. “She will investigate important tobacco-related questions for Arkansas that can be translated into effective public health practice to reduce tobacco use and related adverse outcomes.”

Patient Searches Nation, Finds Best Cancer Care at UAMS

Oct. 20, 2016 | When Don Marshall, 58, was diagnosed with prostate cancer, he wanted to make sure he received the best possible care. He was considering traveling to California for treatment until he realized there was a state-of-the-art facility in his own backyard.

One year ago, Marshall went to a routine physical examination for an insurance company. The health care professional noticed his PSA (prostate specific antigen) test showed a higher than normal number, which is an indicator of possible prostate cancer.

“They had to do further tests. They eventually took a biopsy and found out that I was positive for prostate cancer.”

Marshall says he did what most people today would do: searched the web for articles and information to learn more about prostate cancer. He talked to several doctors about the treatment options he found available.

“I found out that proton therapy seemed to be the best out there and according to my research a facility in California was the place to go for the best treatment,” Marshall said.

Proton therapy treatment involves using a focused ray to destroy cancerous tissues while causing less damage to healthy surrounding tissues.

Marshall soon discovered that his insurance would not cover the cost of his treatment in California.

“I was going to find a way to pay and go anyway,” he said. “Because this is about my health.”

It wasn’t until he was on the phone with a health care professional at a Louisiana facility when he found out about a very similar treatment known as TomoTherapy. TomoTherapy combines intensity modified radiation therapy with the accuracy of computed tomography (CT) scanning. The radiation beams are targeted precisely to the tumor on any given day and produce less harmful side effects than conventional radiation treatments.

Marshall said he had not heard about TomoTherapy until then and began reading about it.

“I immediately called UAMS and set up an appointment. I met with Dr. Peacock. I really liked him. He reassured me that you couldn’t go wrong with this type of radiation therapy.”

Loverd Peacock, M.D., is a radiation oncology professor in the UAMS College of Medicine. Board certified in internal medicine and radiology, Peacock is also a charter member of the Board of Directors for the Mid-South Division of the Arkansas Cancer Society.

Marshall came to the Radiation Oncology Center at UAMS every morning for 45 days. He says he couldn’t be happier with his results.

“The visits took about 15 minutes. It was painless.”

Marshall’s PSA test is normal and the cancer is gone. He says he feels better now and definitely recommends screening.

“A lot of people are afraid of what they are going to find. I’m the opposite; if there’s something wrong I want to find out what it is as soon as possible. The disease is there whether you want to know about it or not. You may as well catch it early when it’s easier to treat.”

UAMS’ Peter Emanuel, M.D., Appointed to Association of American Cancer Institutes Board

LITTLE ROCK — Peter Emanuel, M.D., director of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), has been appointed to the board of directors of the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI).

Emanuel will serve a two-year term after being appointed to fill a vacated seat on the board.

Emanuel’s translational research interests have focused for more than 25 years on myeloproliferative neoplasms, and his laboratory is an international leader in investigating juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia. He has served as director of the UAMS Cancer Institute since 2007.

AACI comprises 94 premier academic and freestanding cancer research centers in the United States. It is dedicated to reducing the burden of cancer by enhancing the impact of the nation’s leading academic cancer centers.

Breast Cancer Survivor Inspired to Help Others

Oct. 14, 2016 | Lana Dunn’s 21-year military career has given her the skills to face just about any challenge. Little did she know, those skills would be put to the ultimate test three years ago after finding a lump in her breast.

“I was drying off after a shower and accidentally felt it,” she said. Tests revealed a nine-centimeter tumor buried deep near her chest wall. At the time, Dunn, an Arkansas native, was in Virginia for military training. She returned home for a bilateral mastectomy, chemotherapy and 27 rounds of radiation.

For about a year, Dunn remained hopeful the treatment had successfully eliminated the cancer. “I was only 37 years old and had two young children. If I was going to fight for anyone, I was going to fight for them,” she said.

Unfortunately, Dunn’s fight was only beginning. About one year later, tests showed tumors in her lungs and liver. Because her breast cancer was metastatic – meaning it had spread to other parts of her body — Dunn’s doctor recommended she get a second opinion. That’s when she turned to the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.

“I was ready to pack my bags and go out of state for treatment. Then a friend recommended UAMS. When I found out they offer the same clinical trials and therapies as larger cancer centers, I knew I had made the right decision,” she said.

Under the care of hematologist/oncologist Laura Hutchins, M.D., Dunn discovered her newly diagnosed tumors were a different subset of breast cancer than before and now required two chemotherapy regimens instead of one.

“Dr. Hutchins suspected we were dealing with different types of cancer even before it was confirmed,” Dunn said. She was placed on two chemotherapy treatments, one in pill form and one intravenous. It wasn’t long before the strain of the aggressive treatments took a toll on Dunn’s heart.

Her new medical oncologist, Angela Pennisi, M.D., Ph.D., decided to put part of Dunn’s treatment on hold, giving her heart time to rest and regain strength. Pennisi assumed the care of Hutchins’ patients when she retired from clinical practice in August. Although Hutchins no longer sees patients, she continues to serve as medical director of the UAMS cancer service line and professor in the UAMS College of Medicine Divisions of Hematology and Medical Oncology.

“Every time I have to stop part of my treatment, I run the risk of the cancer cells attacking somewhere else in my body. But it’s important to give my heart time to heal,” she said, adding that her transition to Pennisi’s care has been smooth and reassuring. Pennisi is an assistant professor in the UAMS College of Medicine Division of Medical Oncology.

While she’s concentrating on her own healing, Dunn also is using her time to fight for others undergoing cancer treatment through her nonprofit organization called The Journey Project.

“Because I’m in the Army, my family is blessed to have made it through this experience without suffering financial hardship,” she said. Other people she met along the way are not so fortunate, with some even quitting their jobs to undergo treatment.

To lighten the load for her fellow patients, Dunn started making and distributing what she calls Journey Bags filled with useful items for people in cancer treatment. The bags are tailor made for the season and include items such as lotion, a daily planner, socks, head scarves, puzzle books, lip balm, cosmetics and a blanket custom embroidered by Dunn.

In the past year, Dunn has handed out more than 100 Journey Bags to UAMS patients and more at other locations in Arkansas. “These may be small items, but to someone undergoing cancer treatment, it means a lot,” she said.

Dunn also tucks notes of encouragement in each bag, both from her and others who support her mission. “I believe that when you bless others, you are blessed in return,” she said, adding that she hopes to start distributing Journey Bags to women in other parts of Arkansas in the future.

“I know how scary and overwhelming this can be. Metastatic breast cancer doesn’t have a cure. I will be in some of form of chemo for the rest of my life. That’s why it’s important to find something to fight for. For me, that’s my family and helping others. That’s what gives me the motivation to keep going,” she said.