Rustum, Youcef M
Professor
University of Iowa
USA
Biography
POSITION TITLE: Research Professor, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA; Emeritus Professor of Oncology, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY EDUCATION/TRAINING (Begin with baccalaureate or other initial professional education, such as nursing, include postdoctoral training and residency training if applicable. Add/delete rows as necessary.)
Research Interest
The aim and focus of my research for many years has been to develop more effective and selective therapies for cancer patients based on data generated in preclinical models, and translated from bench to bed side and vice versa. In the 1990s, my laboratory, in collaboration with clinical colleagues at RPCI, developed the weekly schedule of 5-fluorouracil in combination with leucovorin as standard therapy for the treatment of colorectal cancer. In recent years, this laboratory was the first to demonstrate that therapeutic doses and schedule of methylselenocysteine, and seleno-L-methionine are potent inhibitors of hypoxia-induced and constitutively expressed HIF-1α and HIF-2α and associated specific types of miRNAs and VEGF expressed in tumor cells. Pronounced and sustained inhibition of these specific biomarkers was associated with therapeutic synergy with anticancer drugs. On the basis of data generated, a Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials of seleno-L- methionine in sequential combination with axitinib are under clinical evaluation in patients with advanced clear cell renal cell carcinoma.