The Rockefeller University » Newswire

The Rockefeller University » Newswire

Just saw this on the newsletter that I subscribe to from the Life Raft Group-the organization that helps people with GIST and funds scientists and doctors for research. I was just telling a friend last night that even though I am NED (no evidence of disease)-there's a very strong possibility that those little nasty cells will overcome Gleevec-the drug I take-and begin to multiply. With this new discovery-scientists have pin pointed the protein in the GIST cancer cell that is the culprit-which means now they can develop a new drug that will target and eradicate that protein if Gleevec fails.
I have to say-this is what I've been praying for because I was never satisfied with the idea that it was only the KIT protein-I knew there had to be another one. Thank you Rockefeller University!
It is by far-the BEST Christmas present ever!


Posted: December 22, 2010

Scientists identify protein that drives survival of gastrointestinal tumors

For patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors, or GISTs, the blockbuster
cancer drug Gleevec has been a reason to hope. Since the drug’s
introduction, survival rates have climbed dramatically and recurrence has
fallen by two-thirds. But there’s a downside: over time, many patients
develop resistance to the drug. Now, scientists at Rockefeller University
and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have identified a molecule that
acts as a survival factor for gastrointestinal tumors, a finding that may
lead to next-generation therapies that can pick up where Gleevec leaves off.

Gleevec was initially approved for fighting chronic myelogenous leukemia and
it targets the BCR-ABL fusion protein that causes that rare blood disease.
But Gleevec also inhibits the activated KIT receptor tyrosine kinase.
Scientists have known that mutations in the gene that codes for KIT are
responsible for development of GISTs, as well as other cancers such as
melanomas, which makes Gleevec a potent treatment for GISTs.

Ping Chi, a postdoctoral fellow in C. David Allis’ Laboratory of Chromatin
Biology and Epigenetics at Rockefeller and a clinical fellow at MSKCC, and
in collaboration with Yu Chen in Charles Sawyers’ group at MSKCC, searched
for GIST-specific genes to obtain better insight on the molecular events in
GIST development. She focused on a group of cells in the gastrointestinal
tract called interstitial cells of Cajal, or ICCs. GISTs arise from two
specific populations of ICCs, myenteric and intramuscular; it’s been known
that KIT is highly expressed in these two types of ICCs, and these cells
have been implicated as the cells that spur GIST formation.

By analyzing patient tumor samples stored at MSKCC, Chi and colleagues found
that a protein called ETV1 is expressed in all GISTs at significantly
greater levels than in any other type of tumor. Using RNA interference, in
which small RNAs are deployed to prevent gene expression, Chi and her
colleagues blocked ETV1 in GIST cell lines. The result was a decrease in
cell division and an increase in cell death, findings that indicated that
GISTs require ETV1 for growth and survival.

“We’ve shown that ETV1 is just as important as KIT in the development of
gastrointestinal stromal tumors,” says Chi. The findings have far-reaching
implications, she says.

“About five percent of GISTs are KIT negative by immunohistochemistry,” Chi
says. “Because all GISTs express ETV1, we now have a very good biomarker for
diagnosing GIST.”

Chi and her colleagues were also interested in determining if ETV1 is
required for normal growth of ICCs. They looked at the gastrointestinal
tracts of genetically modified mice lacking the gene for ETV1 and observed
significant loss of only myenteric and intramuscular ICCs, providing
evidence of ETV1’s role as a survival factor for the ICC-GISTs lineage.

The discovery by Chi and her colleagues also means that scientists now have
a new therapeutic target. In addition to the risk of developing resistance
to Gleevec, the drug must be given continuously because interrupting Gleevec
treatment can cause GISTs to rapidly regrow.

“Now that we know ETV1’s importance in GIST formation, we need to determine
how the ETV1-driven oncogenic transcriptome is regulated,” Chi says. “This
opens possibilities for stopping GIST development when targeting of KIT
fails.”

“This work represents a remarkable collaborative effort from both sides of
York Avenue wherein our combined strengths in signaling, mouse modeling,
transcriptional regulation and chromatin biology came together to tackle
complex mechanisms of cancer pathogenesis,” says Allis, who is Joy and Jack
Fishman Professor. “In addition to the gain-of-function KIT mutation, our
results clearly show that cellular context, likely determined by
transcription factor networks and chromatin landscape, also plays critical
roles in oncogenesis.”

Two chances to hear D-Mo this week

D-Mo had her choice of several magnificent pianos for her upcoming gig with bassist Mark Dresser. To find out which one she chose, be one of 60 people who will get to hear Diane and Mark play in a intimate setting Friday evening at 8 at Klavierhaus (211 W. 58th St., in Manhattan's piano district).

The concert is produced by recording engineer Patrick Lo Re who envisioned and designed this space so that audiences may truly experience "Sound and Silence." D-Mo and Dresser "are the first artists to perform on this new series - and we're both very excited and very honored!"

Expect to hear them play material from their soon-to-be-released CD, Duetto (CIMP).

Diane also accompanies soprano Natascha Radke Henke for An Evening with Mozart, on Nov. 6, at the Allwood Community Church in Clifton, NJ. The music begins at 8. Among the material will be some of Mozart's Art Songs, and "Exsultate, Jubilate."

“I was intrigued by his use of different languages in these art songs, how it affected the character of the music. So I selected a couple of French, German and Italian songs, and for good measure we throw in some Latin,” Natascha says. She speaks several different languages herself.

In taking language as a starting point for her recital, Natascha feels validated by Mozart himself, who was something of a lingual trailblazer in music, composing the first opera in a language other than Italian, The Magic Flute, in German.

The impact of Gleevec on GIST ...

is one of the topics covered in this article about some fascinating new developments in cancer research.

Parts of this are a tough read. Cancer is not a single disease and there isn't a single treatment that offers hope on all or even most types. But recent research has yielded promising results.

I'm not really well-versed in science, so I was surprised at how fascinating and how clearly presented the research info is here. The writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee, deserves a thumbs up for keeping at least this reader so engaged.

Thank you Dizzy!

Today is Dizzy Gillespie's birthday-who I owe a great deal to-he saved my life.
Dizzy's last oncologist was Dr. Forte of Englewood Hospital. He knew his time was drawing to a close so he asked Dr. Forte to create the Dizzy Gillespie Foundation at the hospital-a foundation that would help jazz musicians who had no health insurance receive free medical care.

Back in Jan '09-when I was really sick and paying for tests-that thankfully my wonderful GP in Montclair-Dr. Grobstien was cutting deals for me left and right-we got to the point of knowing that I needed a biopsy. I contacted the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music (where I teach) and asked them if there was any health insurance available for me. There was-but it wouldn't kick in fast enough-meaning-immediately-it would take about a month. But they went to work on it for me immediately.

Meanwhile-because of the New School's collective bargaining agreement with the Local AFM 802-I decided to pay a visit to Todd Weeks-the liason between 802 and the school-to see if there was any help there. The clock was ticking-my weight was dropping fast-and I needed a biopsy pronto.
Todd was amazing-he listened-we looked at various options-nothing was going to work for me-but then he said-hey-come and talk to our V.P. Bill Dennison.
Thankfully Bill was in that day-and after I told him my story thus far-he immediately called the Jazz Foundation and told them they needed to help me.

As a side note-I had run a fundraiser for the Jazz Foundation several years before-for Lynn Kalbacher's retirement party from Hot House magazine-and also did another one for them with the big band.

The Jazz Foundation is in the same building as 802-so I went up to their floor-told my story again to Alicia-who was really wonderful. The funny part of this was-she wanted to know who I played music with etc.-which kind of caught me off guard. I spotted some issues of Hot House on her table-so I picked them up and pointed at the ad for Trumpets-talking about the big band and our anniversary-and then to the Jazz Women column (thank you Elzy!) and my name was listed there too. Alicia responded with-okay-you're cool then. Phew-didn't know I would have to pass that test.

She called me a week later-as I was watching Barack Obama being sworn in as president-and told me to call Dr. Forte at Englewood Hospital.
I immediately called and made an appointment-which I think was with in a few days (my memory starts to get a little foggy here).

I went to see Dr. Forte-this time I was prepared-I brought cd's ;-) Turns out that was a good call because he also asked me about my career-and then told me about the Dizzy Gillespie Foundation.
I would be able to get the biopsy through the Dizzy Gillespie Foundation and the Jazz Foundation-which we scheduled for the Friday following the big band's 12th anniversary-that was the last week of January 2009.

When I arrived at the registration department at Englewood-they looked at my paperwork and then looked at me and said-oh how wonderful-you're a jazz musician-we love jazz musicians here!
That was the first time I ever heard that from a hospital!



A few weeks later the results were in-I was in stage 4 GIST cancer-and Dr. Forte called Dr Ibrahim to ask him to do the surgery-which he and his partner Dr Strain did a week and a half later.

By then the health insurance from the New School had kicked in and I was able to go to the hospital knowing that I was covered for everything.


The Dizzy Gillespie Foundation is comprised of 50 + doctors-who Dr. Forte has gathered-who have pledged to help jazz musicians who don't have health insurance. Dr. Forte has also created a space in the lobby of Englewood Hospital with a grand piano-and hires musicians to play there everyday.
There's an artist's rendering of Dizzy hanging on the wall in that music corner-along with a photo of the wonderful bassist Earl May who played there for many years before he passed away in Jan of 2008.

Another side note here..I had the great fortune of playing with Earl in 2006 in a trio backing Howard Johnson and the unveiling of the new tuba the 4/4 BBb-Tuba series 2011 Heritage Howard Johnson Gravity model. And a few weeks after Earl died-I received a call from a prospective piano student's mother-who then came to my house with her son. Earl's name came up in conversation-they had met him in the past year-but they didn't know he had recently passed away. The young man looked at me and said-"but Earl was going to teach me jazz on the bass". My heart just broke into pieces and I told him I would do my best to teach him jazz on the piano. He became my student and we worked on a lot of Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk music.


It's truly amazing how everything comes around and around and I am so fortunate to have had so many people helping me and my son during that time of crisis.

So once again-I thank all of you-because without all of you-I know I wouldn't be where I am now. And I especially thank Dizzy for looking towards the future for all jazz musicians-and for making it possible for me to continue to live my life and keep the music going!

http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/10/21/happy-birthday-dizzy-gillespie-google-doodle-celebrates-jazz-legend/

A Love Supreme jazz vespers 9/26

When it comes to music, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme is beyond category. You can hear it this Sunday, Sept. 26th at 5 PM when Diane Moser and friends play jazz vespers at the Allwood Community Church, 100 Chelsea Road, Clifton, NJ. In addition to Diane, musicians include Tom Colao on alto sax, and Rudy Walker and Daniel Foose on drums.

World Peace-what Sept 11th now means to me

I've just returned home from the church where I am the organist-Allwood Community Church-I went there to practice the organ for tomorrow and I forgot that they were keeping the sanctuary open for anyone who wanted to come in for prayer and reflection.
Two of our board members were there-and we talked a little bit about what today means for all of us.

I have to say that for the first time ever-I actually felt that-yeah-maybe it's possible for World Peace.
I know that sounds like a tall order-but here's how I started thinking about it....we need to break that tall order down into little pieces. Here's the analogy I came up with (probably because I'm involved with this right now in my studio)....organizing tasks into smaller groups-like trying to organize one corner of a room-and not be overwhelmed by the entire room.

What if we sat down and looked at every area in our lives-and broke it down into smaller tasks-for example-the environment. Can we visualize what a sustaining environment really means-clean rivers-lakes-oceans-healthy forests-healthy critters etc.. What would it take to do that? I can visualize that.

How about poverty? What would it take to eradicate poverty? Can we visualize all the ways that we can help those who have no where to sleep, very little food and clothing? I can visualize that.

I have always maintained that world peace is not a possibility-but today-I thought about it differently. Today I thought about everyone who died on Sept 11th, 2001-and then everyone who has died in a war-and then everyone who has died a violent death....just thinking about all of those people, from the beginning of time, I thought we can't give up on the idea of world peace-we just have to break it down into more manageable segments.

Hatred-yeah-that's a toughie-but I do believe that we can find a way to help people to give up their hatred, their bigotries, their racists views and so forth. How do we do that-I'm not quite sure-but I know that it's one person at a time-it takes being committed to that idea-that small gestures can open the doors of the heart.

I had a friend who died in the collapse of the towers and I had friends who narrowly escaped-so I will be thinking about them today-along with other friends who have died violently.
But I will mostly be thinking of ideas that will contribute peace to our world, because my friends gave up so much.

thanks Ed!

Ed LaDuca sent me a wonderful video of a demonstration on Tibetan singing bowls-from a presentation that he attended-I believe as a part of the Slow-Cooked Food movement-very inspiring!
I'm putting some ideas together for a concert-it won't happen for several months-but stay tuned-it's perculatin' ;-)